My dear Thomas, why do you think the rock quarry was sacred merely because "There are dozens of shrines scattered throughout the quarry."  Thomas, ordinary laborers (not only ali'i or priests) lived in the quarry for lengthy periods so they wouldn't need to walk up and down the mountain every day.  There are middens (garbage piles) all over the place, left behind by the workers who had no hesitation about peeing, pooping, and trashing in the quarry.  Of course each person or family of laborers had a little hut, in which there was a family shrine.  Thomas, have you never gone into the home of an ethnic Japanese Buddhist family in Hawaii?  Have you not noticed their little family shrine, with a statue of Buddha and an incense burner?  Or perhaps a Catholic family with a little statue of Virgin Mary?  Does such a shrine make their entire home a "sacred place"?  Do the thousands of those home shrines make Honolulu a sacred place?  Come on Thomas, use a little common sense.