Palolo Chinese Home-Eldercare Svcs

With a cultural tradition of respect and care for elders, leading Chinese residents of Hawaii led a drive in 1896 to establish the Chinese Hospital as “a home for the aged and infirmed.”However, it quickly became apparent that it was undersized. Funds from the Chinese Hospital were later applied to purchase 15 acres in Palolo Valley on which was located the former Gospel Mission Church.

Organized by the Chinese Men’s Committee of the Associated Charities of Hawaii, a predecessor of the Aloha United Way, Palolo Chinese Home was established in 1920 in response to the increasing number of elderly Chinese men in Honolulu who were single, aged, immigrant plantation workers with no families to care for them. The Palolo Chinese Home was administered by the Associated Charities of Hawaii until 1941 when it was incorporated under its own Board of Directors.

Today Palolo Chinese Home is Hawaii’s second oldest Adult Residential Care Home. It is the oldest originally Asian care home in the United States. With an expanded care license granted in the Year 2000, the Palolo Chinese Home now provides a continuum of care allowing its residents to age in place with assistance in living and intermediate/skilled nursing care. In the 1990’s, The Home outreached to the community with its well-organized day care and overnight respite program. At one point, Palolo Chinese Home served over 16,000 hot meals to members in the community as the largest supplier to Hawaii Meals on Wheels.

In August 2001, recognizing the immediate need for reconstruction of its campus, the Home’s Board of Directors formally committed to embark on a complete rebuilding of Palolo Chinese Home’s campus and programs.

From its inception, The Home was supported with goodwill, supplies and capital funds from the community - the numerous Chinese societies, the Hawaii Planters’ Association, prominent members of Chinese descent in Hawaii and the Ward and Booth families who had been cared for as children by Chinese men who were newly retired and living at Palolo Chinese Home and whom were regularly visited by Lani Booth.

A chronological history of The Home’s construction starts with the Chinese Hospital in downtown Honolulu in 1897. The Palolo Chinese Home’s original cottages were constructed in 1920, 1925, and 1929, followed by Hemenway Hall constructed in 1936, Farm Hall constructed in 1957, Victoria Ward Hall constructed in 1968, Lani Booth Hall constructed in 1972, Harry & Jeanette Weinberg Hall constructed in 2009, and finally, Harry Wong Hall in 2017.

Palolo Chinese Home remains committed to the ideals of its founders and also looks forward to continued planned growth for the campus and its programs in order to provide a continuum of quality services to Hawaii’s elder community while meeting its mission of providing charity, acts of benevolence, respect, care and a home for the elderly in Hawaii, regardless of race, religion, nationality, ethnic origin or gender