The LDS Church was established in the islands in 1850 following the Edict of Toleration
promulgated by Kamehameha III, giving the underground Hawai‘i Catholic Church the right
to worship while at the same time allowing other faith traditions to begin establishing themselves.Brigham Young University of Hawai‘i was founded in September 1955 as Church
College of Hawai‘i to accommodate the burgeoning LDS population in the Territory of Hawai‘i. The college was reorganized in
1959 to become a four-year college. LDS elders established the Polynesian Cultural Center
in November 1963 as a means of preserving the Pacific cultures that the Latter-day Saints
had encountered in their missionary work. The center also provided jobs for
students of the college. In 1974, Church College of Hawai‘i was elevated to the rank
of university by the Hawai‘i State
Legislature and renamed.