Bishop Museum is renovating the last Hale Pili

I saw this this in the paper this past weekend, but I kept expecting someone else to post it before I did. From the Honolulu Advertiser:

Frear Trust pitches in for Bishop Museum upgrades

Advertiser Staff
The Mary D. and Walter F. Frear Eleemosynary Trust has donated $500,000 for Bishop Museum renovations, including restoration of the only surviving example of a Hawaiian House.

The donation will go toward the Hawaiian Hall overhaul at the Bishop Museum, with part of it earmarked for restoration of the Hale Pili. The grass house is the last-standing example of early Native Hawaiian architecture. The pre-1800 structure from Kaua'i's Miloli'i Valley was shipped to O'ahu for display in 1902.

The Hawaiian Hall has been closed since July for a $20 million renovation and reinstallation project. The museum is now trying to raise another $7 million so it can reopen in December 2008.

Oops, I forgot to point out that the Hale Pili is a "Little Grass Shack," famed in song and story. The Museum has disassembled the Hale, to more closely study the methods and materials used in it's construction, and replace much of the Pili grass & Uki Uki leaf lashings, as well as several of the wooden supports that have deteriorated too much in the 200+ years since the Hale was first raised on Kaua‘i.

Link to press release.