Theodore Heuck

Theodore C. Heuck (1830–1877) was an architect, a merchant, and a painter. He designed The Queen's Medical Center (dedicated to Queen Emma), the Royal Mausoleum of Hawaii in 1865, and ʻIolani Barracks in 1871.

He was born in Hamburg, Germany and grew up as an only child. Traveling from Australia, Heuck arrived in Hawaii January 20, 1850 and advertised as the first professional architect. Finding no business, he became a partner with Herman Von Halt in a retail store, "General Commission Merchants". He became a citizen of the Kingdom of Hawaii and married Mahiki on March 22, 1852.

Trained as an architect, carpenter, and engineer Theodore C. Heuck was first noticed by King Kamehameha IV while walking around Heuck's retail store. The king saw Heuck's work and immediately wanted him to start building architecture in Honolulu. Heuck agreed and decided that he and his partner Herman Von Halt should split up. Their retail store was shut down and Von Halt went on to being a merchant while Heuck started building for the king.

Theodore C. Heuck signed a contract stating that any building he constructed would be free of flaws. Failure to meet the terms of this contract would be death. Instead the other men had received their pay when all they did was check to see if Theodore was doing his job. Of course Theodore was furious with this but did not stress the matter, for fear that he would be killed for not being appreciative to the gift he already had. Before starting, Heuck was given a contract on May 26 which stated that he would be responsible for any flaws that may occur when finished with any piece of architecture.

By order of King Kamehameha IV, the Queens Hospital, now known as The Queen's Medical Center, was created in 1860 and was dedicated to Queen Emma and the people of Hawaii. This building was Heuck's first major project. In order to start building this creation, King Kamehameha IV had to first get approval from the legislature. So in 1854 he announced to the legislature the objective to create a hospital for the people of Hawaii. At that time, the Hawaiian race was seriously threatened by different types of disease brought to the islands by foreign visitors. Queen Emma supported the dream of a hospital, and the two campaigned tirelessly to make it a reality. They personally went door-to-door making the necessary funding. The royal couple exceeded their goal in just over a month, raising $13,530. In turn, the Legislature provided $6,000. On November 1, 1860 Heuck's contract ended. The trustees thanked Heuck for his hard work and promised that his name would be placed on the building, but he did not receive any money.

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