The history of the Wai‘oli Mission House began in 1834 when Reverend William Alexander of Kentucky and his wife, Mary Ann McKinney Alexander, paddled via a canoe from Waimea to Hanalei to start the Wai‘oli Mission Station. Upon his arrival, the Reverend built a thatch-roof house for him and his wife and spent the next two years constructing a two-story residence later known as the Wai‘oli Mission House. In 1846, teachers Abner and Lucy Wilcox moved to Hanalei with their four sons. The couple taught some of the brightest children from Kaua‘i and Ni‘ihau until their deaths in 1869. After their deaths, the house remained empty until 1921 when it underwent its first restoration. Today, guests are invited to roam the furnished rooms and witness the historical remnants of the earliest Christian missionaries in the state.