Jean P. Haydon Museum

Navy Building 43
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. Historic district Contributing property
Location	Pago Pago Harbor, Fagatogo, American Samoa
Coordinates	14.2778°S 170.6878°W / -14.2778; -170.6878
Area	0.1 acres (0.040 ha)
Built	1917 (1917)
Architectural style	Tropical architecture
Part of	U.S. Naval Station Tutuila Historic District (ID90000854)
NRHP reference No.	72001442
Significant dates
Added to NRHP	March 16, 1972
Designated CP	June 20, 1990

The Jean P. Haydon Museum is a museum in Pago Pago dedicated to the culture and history of the United States territory of American Samoa. It contains a collection of canoes, coconut-shell combs, pigs’ tusk armlets and native pharmacopoeia. It also houses exhibits on natural history, tapa making, traditional tattooing, as well as a collection of war clubs, kava bowls, and historic photographs. Constructed in 1913 as U.S. Naval Station Tutuila Commissary, the building was also home to Tutuila Island’s Post Office from 1950-1971. A portion of the museum is dedicated to the island’s history with the Apollo missions. Apollo 10, 12, 13, 14, and 17 landed in the waters near Tutuila upon their return to Earth. Lunar rocks brought from the moon on Apollo missions are at display at the museum. The museum is also home to an American Samoa flag, which was brought to the moon by Apollo 11 in 1969. The flag and moon rocks were given as a gift to American Samoa by President Richard Nixon following the return of the Apollo missions.

The museum is located on the north side of Route 1 in Fagatogo, American Samoa, roughly opposite the main post office. The building in which it is located, formerly Navy Building 43 of Naval Station Tutuila, is itself historically significant as one of a few surviving buildings constructed by the United States Navy in 1917 with locally-fashioned rusticated concrete blocks. The building served as the naval base's commissary until 1950, when it was turned over to civilian administration and converted to the island's main post office. The post office moved to new facilities, and in 1971 the building was opened as the museum, which is named for the wife of then-governor John M. Haydon. It was dedicated by anthropologist Margaret Mead, who had returned to American Samoa to visit Ta'ū Island, where she wrote Coming of Age in Samoa.

The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.

See also

• National Register of Historic Places listings in American Samoa

External links

• Jean P. Haydon Museum – American Samoa Tourism Bureau