Whitney Seismograph Vault No. 29

Built in 1912. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.

From the record

One of 107 National Register listings published here for Hawaii County · listed in 1974 · category: Building · built in 1912.

Sources: the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 building as contributing to the listing.
Address. SW of Hilo on HI 11 in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, Hilo, 96785
When was it listed? July 1974
Category. building
Census division. Kau
When was it built? 1912
National Register reference number. 74000292 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Fires near this property

65 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 65 fires within 5 miles of Whitney Seismograph Vault No. 29 between 1992 and 2020, burning about 1,020 acres in total. 2 started naturally. 2 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Recreation and ceremony	41
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	8
Equipment and vehicle use	5
Smoking	3
Debris and open burning	2
Arson/incendiarism	2
Natural	2
Fireworks	1
Power generation/transmission/distribution	1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
3 September 1996	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Hawaii Volcanoes National Park	MENESES
23 September 2001	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Hawaii Volcanoes National Park	STUMP
9 August 1999	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Hawaii Volcanoes National Park	MAWAE
31 August 2017	Equipment and vehicle use	2.8 acres	Hawaii Volcanoes National Park	GRAVEL PIT
28 August 1998	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Hawaii Volcanoes National Park	SOLAR
2 August 1992	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Hawaii Volcanoes National Park	BABOO2E
17 August 2008	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	County of Hawai'i	not named
1 August 2020	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.8 acres	Hawaii Volcanoes National Park	NAMAKANI PAIO

Every fire recorded in Hawaii County

Storms near this property

60 of 68 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Hilo, the town this property stands in, in 68 storm reports between 1996 and 2026: 28 heavy rain, 16 flood, 14 flash flood, 3 waterspout. The reports record 1 death. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
September 2015	Flash Flood	Hilo	1 killed	Fire/rescue crews responded to a 5:50 p.m. alarm Monday (Sept 14) to Wailuku River Boiling Pots State Park for a missing swimmer.\|A witness said he was swimming in the upper pond at Boiling Pots with a 62-year-old woman when both began to be pulled downstream by the fast-moving current. Both attempted to swim towards the river bank but the woman didnt make it out.
March 2026	Flash Flood	Hilo	$2,000,000	Heavy rain developed over the eastern and southeastern areas of the Big Island, leading to flooding impacts. Flooding was reported along Bayfront Highway and on Highway 11 south of Hilo. Flooding was also reported in Keeau Industrial Park. A residence in Pahala reportedly experienced flooding.
October 2001	Flash Flood	Hilo	$30,000	no account filed
October 2017	Lightning	Hilo	$15,000	no account filed
December 2013	Thunderstorm Wind	Hilo	$5,000	Fire officials reported a gust of wind damaged a roof on a home on Hoopuni Street in Hilo.
May 2024	Flash Flood	Hilo	-	Waianuenue and Kamehameha Avenues were closed in both directions due to flooding.
November 2017	Flash Flood	Hilo	-	Deep flooding occurred along Bayfront Highway in the Hilo area of the Big Island after an overflow of Alenaio Stream.
December 2017	Flash Flood	Hilo	-	Portions of Kamehameha Avenue and Bayfront Highway in Hilo were closed due to flooding. Some downtown businesses also became flooded with the heavy downpours.
December 2013	Flash Flood	Hilo	-	Kukila Street in Hilo was closed due to flooding.
December 2013	Hail	Hilo	-	A member of the pubic reported 3/4 inch hail in Waiakea Uka.
December 2013	Flash Flood	Hilo	-	Palai Stream overflowed at Kanoelehua Avenue in Hilo.
December 2013	Flash Flood	Hilo	-	Flooding reported at Ainako Avenue near Kaumana Drive in Hilo.
March 2004	Flash Flood	Hilo	-	Heavy showers caused overflowing streams in and around Hilo town on the Big Island of Hawaii. Highway 19--Hawaii Belt Road--was closed for a time near Wainaku because of flooding waters. However, no serious injuries or property damage were reported.
March 2004	Heavy Rain	Hilo	-	Heavy showers produced ponding of roadways, and small stream and drainage ditch flooding in windward sections of the Hilo, Puna, and Kau districts on the Big Island of Hawaii. There were no reports of serious property damage or injuries.
July 1997	Flood	Hilo	-	Rainfall rates of 1 to 2 inches per hour occurred across the Hamakua, Hilo, Puna, and Kau Districts with widespread minor street flooding and stream flooding north of Hilo where some streams were blocked by debris.
July 1997	Flash Flood	Hilo	-	Several houses in the Hilo and Puna Districts had flooded basements or ground floors. About a dozen cars were flooded out near Pauahi Street and Kamehameha Avenue in Hilo. In Puna, North Kulani Road, Hawaiian Acres and Fern Acres subdivisions were flooded. The Hawaiian Belt Road through the Kau District was flooded out in several locations between Naalehu and Pahala.
March 2022	Heavy Rain	Hilo	-	no account filed
March 2021	Heavy Rain	Hilo	-	no account filed
December 2021	Heavy Rain	Hilo	-	no account filed
August 2019	Heavy Rain	Hilo	-	no account filed
October 2019	Heavy Rain	Hilo	-	no account filed
February 2018	Heavy Rain	Hilo	-	no account filed
October 2018	Heavy Rain	Hilo	-	no account filed
August 2016	Heavy Rain	Hilo	-	no account filed
August 2016	Heavy Rain	Hilo	-	no account filed
August 2014	Heavy Rain	Hilo	-	no account filed
March 2014	Heavy Rain	Hilo	-	no account filed
November 2011	Heavy Rain	Hilo	-	no account filed
November 2011	Heavy Rain	Hilo	-	no account filed
December 2010	Heavy Rain	Hilo	-	no account filed
March 2009	Heavy Rain	Hilo	-	no account filed
December 2008	Flash Flood	Hilo	-	no account filed
July 2007	Heavy Rain	Hilo	-	no account filed
August 2006	Heavy Rain	Hilo	-	no account filed
October 2006	Heavy Rain	Hilo	-	no account filed
January 2005	Heavy Rain	Hilo	-	no account filed
February 2005	Heavy Rain	Hilo	-	no account filed
February 2005	Heavy Rain	Hilo	-	no account filed
September 2005	Flash Flood	Hilo	-	no account filed
November 2005	Heavy Rain	Hilo	-	no account filed
August 2004	Heavy Rain	Hilo	-	no account filed
October 2004	Heavy Rain	Hilo	-	no account filed
January 2004	Hail	Hilo	-	no account filed
January 2002	Heavy Rain	Hilo	-	no account filed
March 2002	Heavy Rain	Hilo	-	no account filed
May 2002	Heavy Rain	Hilo	-	no account filed
February 2001	Flood	Hilo	-	no account filed
May 2001	Waterspout	Hilo	-	no account filed
November 2001	Flood	Hilo	-	no account filed
October 2001	Flood	Hilo	-	no account filed
November 2001	Flood	Hilo	-	no account filed
April 2000	Waterspout	Hilo	-	no account filed
August 2000	Wildfire	Hilo	-	no account filed
January 1999	Flash Flood	Hilo	-	no account filed
January 1999	Flood	Hilo	-	no account filed
January 1999	Thunderstorm Wind	Hilo	-	no account filed
January 1999	Flood	Hilo	-	no account filed
April 1999	Flood	Hilo	-	no account filed
January 1999	Flood	Hilo	-	no account filed
April 1999	Flood	Hilo	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Hawaii County

Map coverage status

No historic map-sheet match is published for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary. Browse the county's mapped places while that work is pending.

Listed places nearby

6 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Property	Distance	Listed
Old Volcano House No. 42	under 500 feet	1974
Kilauea Crater	1.5 miles	1974
Mauna Loa Road	1.9 miles	2015
Mauna Loa Road	2.9 miles	2015
Mauna Loa Road	3.3 miles	2015
Hilina Pali Road	3.8 miles	2015

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 74000292 in Record Group 79.
Hawaii County	All 107 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.