VA, MD, DC people, please tell me some good news about the ultimate fate of the Honolulu II decor

When the beloved Honolulu closed almost 2 decades ago, some dedicated regulars purchased most of the restaurant's decor as well as the bar, tables, and seating, and rebuilt the Honolulu in their barn.

In 2019, the property went up for sale, and featured the tiki barn: https://patch.com/virginia/kingstowne/rose-hill-wow-house-historic-find-tiki-barn

On the Tiki Forum, user Dr Coruba relayed that he knew the original couple, and when they sold their property in 2019, they passed Coruba's contact information on to the new owners, so in the event they decided to get rid of the Honolulu stuff, he could help the new owners find new homes for all of the Honolulu material. Per Coruba as of February 2022, the new owners never contacted him

After what looks like a renovation and flip, the property went on the market and sold in January of 2022. The listing is here: https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/4010-Franconia-Rd-Alexandria-VA-22310/51920593_zpid/

Note the listing's description of the barn, and what's gone from the barn in the listing photos.

Somebody please tell me that the Honolulu items were properly offloaded and all that history didn't end up getting trucked to the Lorton landfill.

[ Edited by Iolani on 2022-06-01 06:51:25 ]

i, for one, was present at the auction run by one of the daughters of the Chans at the original location... i bought many of the glass floats, which i possess to this day... shall share photos when i can.

i am intensely curious about the fate of the Tiki Barn contents, so thanks for starting this thread.

Same here, Johnny. I only managed to win some fishing floats, a windchime that hung in "our" booth, a couple of generic mugs, and a menu. As you know, most things on auction ended up at the Honolulu II, and the seemingly "buy and flip" nature of that recent home sale definitely gives me pause. I'm just hoping for the best that everything found good homes.

I like your idea about posting photos. I'll do the same. After I dust them.

awesome!

here is the oldest photo i have from there, from 2004. this is a scan of a 35mm print ;D

Based on the listing photo, they did not keep one scrap of the Honolulu II. It is too bad that the new owners never reached out. Given the area Tiki community, they could have sold a good deal of the room and made some serious $$$$ instead of just junking it all - which is likely what happened. (A recent tiki estate sale in the area netted the seller several thousand dollars)

Bummer. I was hoping you'd chime in somewhere and report that the stuff had been offloaded.

When did the local tiki estate sale take place? Sounds like I missed out. I need to stalk estatesales.org and craigslist more often I guess.