The mission here began in 1820. The stone church was built between 1836 and 1842, designed by the missionary Rev. Hiram Bingham in a New England style. Hawaiian divers cut about 14,000 slabs of coral rock from an offshore reef, each weighing about a thousand pounds.
The name comes from ka wai a Haʻo, "the water of Haʻo," after a spring and pool of a high chiefess on the site. Kamehameha III, IV and V and Kalākaua took their oaths of office to their constitutions here.
When Queen Liliʻuokalani died in 1917 she lay in state in the church for a week. Today the gallery holds portraits of 20 Hawaiian royals, and part of each service is still in Hawaiian.