Lyman Museum & Mission House

The Lyman Museum & Mission House, 276 Haili St., a few blocks up from Hilo Bay, is a good place to delve into the history of Hilo's early missionaries. The museum contains the 1839 Mission House of Calvinist missionaries David and Sarah Lyman, as well as a contemporary museum.

The Mission House, a preserved New England-style homestead, is the oldest wooden frame structure on the Big Island and one of the oldest in the state. It opened as a museum in 1931, and is furnished as though the Lymans still lived there. Next door to the Lyman House is a two-story museum. Most of the ground floor houses the Earth Heritage Gallery, which focuses on the geology and natural history of Hawaii. The Island Heritage Gallery is upstairs. It includes pre-European-contact Hawaiian artifacts as well as exhibits about the different ethnic groups that have impacted Hawaii.

The museum also houses a gallery devoted to early artists of Hawaii, from the 19th and early 20th centuries. It is one of the few galleries in the state that deals only with early Hawaiian artists.

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