Foundation seeks to restore Maui landmark

The Lahaina Restoration Foundation has started a "Buy a Brick" campaign to raise $300,000 to restore the historic Pioneer Mill smokestack, install a plaque and landscape the site. The Pioneer Mill Co. closed its sugar plantation in 1999, but residents want to preserve sweet memories of the plantation community, where thousands of people once lived and worked in West Maui.

The nonprofit group is selling engraved bricks of various sizes that will be laid to create a circular walkway around the mill's aging 200-foot-tall smokestack along Lahainaluna Road  -- an island landmark -- which it wants to preserve. Bricks are priced from $100 to $750 and can be engraved with the donor's name, name of a loved one or a company name or logo.

For safety reasons the top 15-foot section of the smokestack has been removed temporarily.

Pioneer Mill Co. was founded in 1860 and employed thousands of immigrant workers seeking a better life. To buy a brick, donors can contact the Lahaina Restoration Foundation at (808) 661-3262 or click here for more information.