Honolulu Museum of Art’s Spalding House on sale for $15M

HONOLULU — The Honolulu Museum of Art put its Spalding House property on the market for $15 million.

Elite Pacific Properties announced the opening of the sale Tuesday.

The museum’s board of trustees decided over the summer to sell the historic property in Honolulu’s Makiki Heights area to maintain focus on its main campus about 2 miles (3 kilometers) away, officials said.

“This is a beloved property with a storied history in Hawaii,” museum Deputy Director Allison Wong said in a statement, calling Spalding House “a piece of art and community history.”

Honolulu Academy of Arts founder Anna Rice Cooke built Spalding House in 1925 as a residential property, naming it Nuumealani, or Heavenly Terrace.

Cooke’s daughter Alice Spalding acquired it in 1934 and in 1968 the property was purchased by the Honolulu Academy of Arts, the previous name of the art museum.

The property became the home of Honolulu Advertiser newspaper publisher and philanthropist Thurston Twigg-Smith and his family until he gifted it as the Contemporary Museum in 1988. The property remained an independent museum until it was gifted back to the arts academy in 2011, officials said.

The property is zoned for residential use and the 5,245 square-foot (583 square-yard) main residence with five gallery rooms is designated as historic property, Elite Pacific Properties said.