Manoa (; Hawaiian: Mānoa) is a valley and a residential neighborhood of Honolulu, Hawaiʻi. The neighborhood is approximately three miles (5 km) east and inland from downtown Honolulu and less than a mile (1600 m) from Ala Moana and Waikiki.
Similar to many Honolulu neighborhoods, Mānoa consists of an entire valley, running from Manoa Falls at the mauka (inland-most) end to King Street. The valley receives almost daily rain, even during the dry season, and is thus richly vegetated – though the valley walls are often dry. Seeing rainbows in the valley is a common occurrence, and is the source of the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa sports team names, the Rainbow Warriors (for men's teams) and Rainbow Wahine (for the women, with the beach volleyball team more often using BeachBows).
The neighborhood is composed of private houses built before the 1960s and low-rise condominiums. Mānoa is home to the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, the flagship campus of the University of Hawaiʻi System. The university has several faculty and student residence areas in Mānoa.
Other educational institutions located in Mānoa include Manoa Elementary School, Noelani Elementary School, Punahou School, the Mid-Pacific Institute, Saint Francis School, and a handful of small, private preschools.
The central shopping area of Mānoa is the Mānoa Marketplace which features a farmer's market several days of the week. More recent development has seen housing on steeper parts of the Diamond Head side valley wall.
Mānoa means thick, solid, vast, depth, or thickness in the Hawaiian language.[1] There is another valley named Mānoa on the north shore of Kauaʻi.
Mānoa Stream begins at the base of Mānoa Falls and runs through the valley before joining the Palolo Stream to form the Mānoa-Palolo drainage canal, which flows into the Ala Wai Canal. Floods caused by high rainfall have plagued the residents living along Mānoa Stream. Most recent was on October 30, 2004, when Mānoa Stream overflowed causing millions of dollars in damages to residential homes and University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa buildings.
Mānoa was the site of the first sugarcane and coffee plantations in the Hawaiian Islands. Hawaiian coffee was first introduced along Mānoa Valley in 1813 by Don Francisco de Paula y Marytin as an ornamental plant. In 1825 Chief Boki, the Royal Governor of Oahu, followed up and brought coffee trees back from Brazil on the ship .[2]
Chief Boki also chose Mānoa Valley as the historic birth site of the very first coffee plantation in Hawaii. With the aid of an agriculture expert, John Wilkinson, the coffee trees were able to survive which allowed its descendants to be brought over to Kona and other islands many years later. Hawaiʻi is the only state in the United States that produces coffee commercially. For more history see coffee production in Hawaii.
There are many legends associated with Mānoa. In one legend, Kahalaopuna was born to Kahaukani and Kauakuahine. Kahaukani is the wind of Mānoa and Kauakuahine is the rain of Mānoa. Kakaukani and Kauakuahine were brother and sister, both born to Akaaka (the projecting spur of the Mānoa mountain range) and Nalehuaakaaka (the lehua on the brow of the Mānoa ridge).[3]
Hawaii Department of Education operates public schools in Mānoa, which is also home to the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.
The private Saint Francis School was in Mānoa until its 2019 closure.[4]