Pantheon Block

It was a time before the automobile; folks rode horseback or were carried in horse or mule drawn carriage, trolley or omnibus (the automobile didn’t make it to the Islands until 1890.)

“James Dodd has leased the premises known as the Bartlett House, at the corner of Hotel and Fort streets, he called it the Pantheon Hotel. The premises have been renovated, repaired, painted and papered throughout, making them look almost as good as new.”  (Hawaiian Gazette, October 30, 1878)

“Mr. Dodd has had experience in the hotel business, and from his urbanity of manner and good business habits we doubt not but the new place will be well kept. He intends to have, in connection with the hotel, a finely arranged livery stable with a full complement of carriages and saddle horse for the accommodation of the public.”  (Hawaiian Gazette, October 30, 1878)

The May 23, 1883 issue of the Daily Bulletin noted, “James Dodd's Pantheon Saloon is nearly finished building. It is very handsomely designed.”

He also had the Long Branch sea bathing baths in Waikīkī and ran an omnibus (bus) line from downtown to Waikiki.

“The Pantheon Saloon has a large commodius room attached to the bar where its patrons can sit at ease and pass their leisure tune reading the latest papers.”  (Hawaiian Star, February 13, 1895)

Then, the "Black Death" (Bubonic Plague) struck Honolulu.

Its presence caused pause in the opening months of 1900 and was on everybody’s mind, with good reason; the same disease had decimated a third of the world's population during the fourteenth century.  It started to spread in Honolulu.

"The other center of infection is block 19, north and east of block 20 at the Pantheon livery stables and saloon. From this place 3 cases in all have been traced, 2 Chinese and 1 white American."  (Public Health Reports, February 8, 1900)

As more people fell victim to the Black Death, on January 20, 1900, the Board of Health conducted “sanitary” fires to prevent further spread of the disease.

The Pantheon premises were condemned and burned.

With five fire engines strategically placed, the controlled incineration of the Pantheon stables and saloon took place in the morning of February 7, 1900. Other places connected with the four victims were also disposed of.  (Papacostas)

“The structure mainly consists of a series of heavy timbers for the walls upon which has been laid a corrugated iron roof.  … the premises in rear of the stables disclosed the same ramshackly series of lean-tos and sheds as were generally found all through the Chinatown district”.  (Hawaiian Gazette, February 6, 1900)

Another fire, started between Kaumakapili Church and Nuʻuanu Avenue, blazed out of control, due to the change in wind.  The fire burned uncontrollably for 17 days, ravaging most of Chinatown.  People trying to flee were beat back by citizens and guards into the quarantine district.

The extent of the fire and the estimates of the area ranged from 38-65 acres.  The fire caused the destruction of all premises bounded by Kukui Street, River Street, Queen Street (presently Ala Moana Boulevard) and Nuʻuanu Avenue.

Dodd died January 21, 1900 – but the Pantheon returned.

“Like the Phoenix the Pantheon arose from its ashes. Although it is not on the same spot it is so near it that one looking for the favorite drinking place cannot go far astray. Ever since the old Pantheon was started many years ago by the late James Dodd it has been noted for the good cheer obtainable there.”

“Now that its old proprietor is no more, the reputation of the place is kept up to its former old standard and there is nothing to be desired in the way of refreshment for the inner man that cannot be obtained there.” (Honolulu Republican, June 16, 1901)

“The Pantheon saloon reopened in the new building at Fort and Hotel streets last night. TA Simpson. FM Kiley and JF O'Connor are in charge there. The house is quite large and looks neat.”  (Hawaiian Star, September 25, 1900)

“The Pantheon is homelike and as an oasis in a desert to the tired and thirsty traveller. It is the place to drop in and take a drop. Never is a want left unsatisfied in the Pantheon. To make your want known is to have the want catered to and in a way that is satisfactory. Courteous treatments the rule and although there are other places there is but one Pantheon, the Pantheon on Hotel street.”

The name of the saloon is over the door. It is on Hotel street.  There the thirsty may be refreshed and the weary rest.  (Honolulu Republican, June 16, 1901)

On July 19, 1909 the Evening Bulletin announced, "Architect HL Kerr has just completed the plans for a two-story building on the Ewa-mauka corner of Hotel and Fort streets, and bids on its construction will shortly be called for. The building will be of concrete and steel construction and will be built so as to allow the erection of more stories if necessary.”

“The structure will be known as the Pantheon building and will be erected by the Pantheon Building Company, of which Mrs JM Dowsett is the principal stockholder.”  (Hawaiian Gazette, July 20, 1909)

In the 1950s, owners decided to modernize the facade. Concentrating on the shop-fronts the owners added shiny Arizona sandstone surrounds and new plate-glass windows.  Failing to transform the building sufficiently to attract shoppers heading to the new Ala Moana and Kahala shopping malls, the owners added paneled treatment for the upper story.   (Papacostas)

Contractor Lucas called it “an ornament to the city” and, in its retrospect for 1911, Thrum’s Hawaiian Annual described it as “the principal structure of the year.”   (Papacostas)  The Pantheon remains today at Hotel Street and the Fort Street Mall.

The image shows the early Pantheon on the right (HSA, 1880s.)  In addition, I have included other related images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

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Chinese in Hawaiʻi

Shortly after the arrival of Captain James Cook and his crews in 1778, the Chinese found their way to Hawaiʻi.  Some suggest Cook’s crew gave information about the “Sandwich Islands” when they stopped in Macao in December 1779, near the end of the third voyage.

In 1788, British Captain John Meares commanded two vessels, the Iphigenia and the Felice, with crews of Europeans and 50-Chinese.  Shortly thereafter, in 1790, the American schooner Eleanora, with Simon Metcalf as master, reached Maui from Macao using a crew of 10-Americans and 45-Chinese.  (Nordyke & Lee)

Crewmen from China were employed as cooks, carpenters and artisans, and Chinese businessmen sailed as passengers to America. Some of these men disembarked in Hawai'i and remained as new settlers.

The growth of the Sandalwood trade with the Chinese market (where mainland merchants brought cotton, cloth and other goods for trade with the Hawaiians for their sandalwood – who would then trade the sandalwood in China) opened the eyes and doors to Hawaiʻi.

The Chinese referred to Hawaiʻi as “Tan Heung Shan” – “The Sandalwood Mountains.” The sandalwood trade lasted for nearly half a century – 1792 to 1843.  (Nordyke & Lee)

The Chinese pioneered another Hawaiʻi industry – sugar.

Although ancient Hawaiians brought sugar with them to the Islands centuries before (it was a canoe crop,) in 1802, Wong Tze-Chun brought a sugar mill and boilers to Hawaiʻi and is credited with the first production of sugar.  Later, Ahung and Atai built a sugar mill on Maui.

Sugar gradually replaced sandalwood and whaling in the mid-19th century and became the principal industry in the islands.

However, a shortage of laborers to work in the growing (in size and number) sugar plantations became a challenge.  The only answer was imported labor.

Starting in the 1850s, when the Hawaiian Legislature passed "An Act for the Governance of Masters and Servants," a section of which provided the legal basis for contract-labor system, labor shortages were eased by bringing in contract workers from Asia, Europe and North America.

The first to arrive were the Chinese (1852.)

“When they (Chinese contract laborers) reached Honolulu, they were kept in the quarantine station for about two weeks. They were made to clean themselves in a tank and have their clothes fumigated.  Planters looked them over and picked them for work in much the same way a horse was looked at before he was bought.”  (Young - Nordyke & Lee)

“These Chinese were taken to the plantations. There they lived in grass houses or unpainted wooden buildings with dirt floors. Sometimes as many as forty men were put into one room. They slept on wooden boards about two feet wide and about three feet from the floor.  … (T)hey cut the sugarcane and hauled it on their backs to ox drawn carts which took the cane to the mill to be made into sugar”  (Young - Nordyke & Lee)

The sugar industry grew, so did the Chinese population in Hawaiʻi.  Between 1852 and 1884, the population of Chinese in Hawai'i increased from 364 to 18,254, to become almost a quarter of the population of the Kingdom (almost 30% of them were living in Honolulu.)  (Young - Nordyke & Lee)

Concerned that the Chinese had secured too strong a representation in the labor market, the government passed laws reducing Chinese immigration.  Further government regulations introduced between 1886 to 1892 virtually ended Chinese contract labor immigration.

The Chinese pioneered another Hawaiʻi industry – rice; with the collapse of the taro industry in 1861-1862 (as the Hawaiian population declined, the demand for taro also declined,) rice was raised in former taro loʻi.

During the 1860s and 1870s, the production of rice increased substantially. It was consumed domestically by the burgeoning numbers of Chinese brought to the Islands as agricultural laborers.

In 1862, the first rice mill in the Hawaiian Islands was constructed in Honolulu (prior to that it was sent unhulled and uncleaned to be milled in San Francisco.)  By 1887 over 13 million pounds of rice were exported.

In 1899, Hawaiʻi’s rice production had expanded so that it placed third in production of rice behind Louisiana and South Carolina.

In 1886, calamity struck the Honolulu Chinatown when a fire raged out of control and destroyed over eight blocks and the homes of 7,000 Chinese and 350 Native Hawaiians and most of Chinatown. Later, in 1900, fires were deliberately set in an effort to wipe out the bubonic plague which was spreading through Chinatown.

Most Chinese plantation workers did not renew their five-year contracts, opting instead to return home or to work on smaller private farms or for other Chinese as clerks, as domestics in haole households, or they started their own businesses.

Chinatown reached its peak in the 1930s. In the days before air travel, visitors arrived here by cruise ship. Just a block up the street was the pier where they disembarked -- and they often headed straight for the shops and restaurants of Chinatown, which mainlanders considered an exotic treat.

Because of excellent employment opportunities in Hawai'i, as well as the high value placed by Chinese on education (even though most immigrants had little formal schooling), Chinese parents encouraged their sons to get as much education as possible.  (Glick)

This strong emphasis on education has resulted in a highly favorable position for Chinese men and women in Hawai'i. Nearly three-fourths of them are employed in higher-lever jobs - skilled. clerical and sales, proprietary and managerial, and professional. As a result, the Chinese enjoy the highest median of income of all ethnic groups in Hawai'i.  (Glick)

The image shows Chinese contract laborers on a sugar plantation in 19th-century Hawaiʻi; in addition, I have added related images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

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What Had Long Been Feared

“What has long been feared by some, and considered a certain event by others, has happened. The Chinese quarter of Honolulu has been devastated by a fire, that, gaining headway in the dense aggregation of wooden buildings, was quickly beyond control and sweeping in all directions.” (Daily Bulletin – April 19, 1886)

It started on April 18, 1886.  A few minutes before 1 o'clock the fire started in a Chinese cook house on the corner of Hotel street and Smith's lane. It started accidentally by the owner of the premises in lighting his fire for cooking.

“Although not a breath of wind stirred ... quicker than can be told the fire was leaping from roof to roof, gliding along verandahs, entwining itself about pillars and posts, festooning doors and windows . ... In the calm the smoke rose in a vast volume . . . . Both [Smith and Hotel] were soon lanes of fire.”  (Daily Bulletin – April 19, 1886)

After a seven-hour ordeal-about half of it in darkness-the walls of the last building to collapse fell in. It was exactly 11:20 and the place was the makai side of the King Street bridge leading across to the Palama district.

As the embers cooled, tempers flared.

Hawaiians of Chinatown, especially around the ʻEwa side of Maunakea Street, where they had been the greatest losers, were bitter.  They blamed it all on the Chinese.

By midnight a mob of perhaps 3,000 crowded around the King Street bridge and back to the Chinese theater. As Hawaiians itched for a fight, things could get nasty – fortunately, cooler heads prevailed and while skirmishes occurred, a full-on riot was avoided.

Honolulu’s Chinatown, then and now, is the approximate 36-acres on the ʻEwa side of Downtown Honolulu.  It developed into a Chinese dominated place, following the in-migration of Chinese to work on the sugar plantation, starting in 1852.

Between 1852 and 1876, 3,908 Chinese were imported as contract laborers, compared with only 148 Japanese and 223 South Sea Islanders. Around 1882, the Chinese in Hawaii formed nearly 49% of the total plantation working force, and for a time outnumbered Caucasians in the islands.

It had been noted, according to one observer in 1882, for the fact that the great majority of its business establishments "watchmakers’ and jewelers’ shops, shoe-shops, tailor shops, saddle and harness shops, furniture-shops, cabinet shops and bakeries, (were) all run by Chinamen with Chinese workmen."

By 1884, the Chinese population in Honolulu reached 5,000, and the number of Chinese doing plantation work declined.   As a group they became very important in business in Hawaii, and 75% of them were concentrated in Chinatown where they built their clubhouses, herb shops, restaurants, temples and retail stores.

By 1886, there were 20,000 people living in the area between Nuʻuanu Stream, Nuʻuanu Avenue, Beretania Street and Honolulu Harbor.

Most of the structures were one- and two-story wooden shacks crammed with people, animal and pests. Chinatown had a poor water supply system and no sewage disposal.

Although the fire intensified anti-Chinese feeling, this group had long been under attack. During the 1880s, spurred by what was considered an alarming influx, the Hawaiian government had limited - and for a time halted - their coming.

The year before the fire, massive Japanese immigration started. It had been conceived and encouraged not only to man plantation fields, but also to provide a counterbalance to the Chinese.

The 1886 blaze destroyed eight blocks of Chinatown. While the government soon after established ordinances to widen the narrow streets and limit building construction to stone or brick, nothing was enforced. More ramshackle buildings went up, laying the groundwork for future disaster and disease.

The 1886 fire started at the corner of Hotel and Smith Streets.

They rebuilt.

In 1900, fire struck again.  However, in 1900, the Board of Health intentionally set “sanitary” fires to prevent further spread of the bubonic plague.  Those got out of control.

The 1900 fire caused the destruction of all premises bounded by Kukui Street, River Street, Queen Street (presently Ala Moana Boulevard) and Nuʻuanu Avenue.

Today, the majority of buildings in Chinatown date from 1901 with very few exceptions which escaped the January 20, 1900 fire.

The image shows the aftermath of the 1866 Chinatown fire.   In addition, I have added other images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

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Kaumakapili Church, Oʻahu

From its first thatched-roof adobe structure erected in 1839 on the corner of Smith and Beretania Streets, to its present day structure built in 1910, the people of Kaumakapili have survived Hawaiʻi's most turbulent times.

Starting in 1837, "the common Hawaiian folk of Honolulu" started petitioning Rev. Hiram Bingham, head of the Hawaiian Mission, to establish a second church or mission in Honolulu (Kawaiahaʻo being the first).

Governor Kekuanaoa "begged to express his manao that it should be in the village" (Honolulu); specifically, in the district of Kaumakapili where 12,000 to 13,000 people lived.  (The Friend)

They requested that the Rev. Lowell Smith be their pastor.  The 1837 annual ʻAha Paeʻaina (the annual meeting and gathering of the churches and ministers) granted their request.

The Reverend Lowell Smith and wife, Abigail Tenny Smith, arrived in Honolulu in 1833, as members of the Sixth Company. (Reverend Smith served as the first minister of Kaumakapili Church until his retirement in 1869.)

Chief Abner Pākī and wife, Konia, granted the lot on the corner of Smith and Beretania Streets for this mission - the area then known as Kaumakapili.  Pākī and Konia were parents of Bernice Pauahi Bishop, founder of the Kamehameha Schools.

On April 1, 1838, the first Sabbath of the month, the Rev. Hiram Bingham assisted Rev. Lowell Smith in organizing the church, "twenty-two persons were received by letter from Kawaiahao church two from Ewa and one from Kauai and forty-nine were received on profession of faith.”  (Smith)  This was the commencement of Kaumakapili Church.

"In early days the church was spoken of as "Smith's Church."  Moreover it was long thought of as the church of the common people, as distinguished from Kawaiahaʻo, known as the Chiefs' Church."  (The Friend)

The first Church building was constructed of adobe with a thatched pili roof and was large enough to accommodate 2,500 people.  On August 29, 1839 the church building was dedicated.

In 1865, as King Kamehameha V was nearing death, he asked High Chiefess Bernice Pauahi to be his successor, but she refused.  According to law, an election was held and Kaumakapili was used as Honolulu's town hall during this and many future political crises.

The adobe building was torn down in 1881 to make way for a new brick edifice.

King Kalākaua took great interest in the church and wanted an imposing church structure with two steeples.  His argument was, "...that as a man has two arms, two eyes, two ears, two legs, therefore, a church ought to have two steeples."

The cornerstone for the new church was laid on September 2, 1881 by Princess Liliʻuokalani (on her birthday.)  Seven years later the new building was completed.

It was an imposing landmark, first of its kind, and visible to arriving vessels and land travelers.  It was dedicated on Sunday, June 10, 1888.

This church played an ironic role during Kalākaua's reign.

The Honolulu citizens held a meeting in this building protesting Kalākaua's capriciousness and appointment of an Italian-American adventurer named Moreno as his Minister of Foreign Affairs and the appointment of a new cabinet, whose "grotesque unfitness" caused the people to be up in arms.  The result was the dismissal of Moreno four days after his appointment.

In January, 1900, disaster struck.  The presence of bubonic plague in the Chinatown area caused the health authorities to take drastic measures by burning sections of Chinatown.  Sparks fell on the wooden steeples and fire engulfed the entire building leaving only the brick walls standing.

Honolulu's landscape was changing, so the old site at Smith and Beretania Streets was sold and a new one bought at the corner of King and the then Simerson (now Pālama) Streets in Pālama.   Services were held in a temporary small wooden chapel on Austin Lane, behind the old Palama Fire Station.

Here, for the next 10 years, the church developed its ministry with a strong emphasis on Sunday School ministering; particularly to the girls from the old Reform School that was situated on the site of the present Kaʻiulani Elementary School.

During these years and the years to follow Rev. Poepoe fostered the idea of enlisting young Hawaiian men into the Christian ministry.  This time of Kaumakapili's history enjoyed a very active Sunday School under several outstanding superintendents - among whom were Augustus Smith, only son of Founders Rev. Lowell and Abigail Smith, and one of their daughters, Mrs. Benjamin F. Dillingham.

On May 7, 1910, Master Harold R. Erdman, great grandson of the Rev. Lowell Smith, broke ground for the third church building.  It was dedicated on June 25, 1911, the same day in which the 89th Annual Conference of the Hawaiian Evangelical Association (ʻAha Paeʻaina) was hosted by the church.

On the day of dedication of the original two stained glass windows, the great grandson of Rev. Lowell Smith, Lowell S. Dillingham, was baptized on September 13, 1912.

The Gothic Revival-style church is the most prominent feature of the urban Kalihi-Palama neighborhood. The bell tower steeple stands 96 feet above the surrounding properties. The campus features an expanse of grass lawn at the front of the building bordered by two paved parking lots and is surrounded by a low dressed-basalt wall with piers at the walk and driveway openings.

In the late twenties and early fifties, Kaumakapili was known as the “Queen of the Hawaiian Churches for she had begun missions and sister churches' relationships as her witness to the community.”

The inspiration and information on this post came primarily from kaumakapili-org and The Friend.  The image shows what is believed to be the initial Kaumakapili Church (in about 1841 - The Friend.)  In addition, I have included other related images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

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Historic Curbs and Sidewalks

As early as 1838, sidewalks along Honolulu streets were constructed, usually of wood.  Paved streets were unknown until 1881; in that year, the first, Fort Street, was paved.

The first sidewalk made of brick was laid down in 1857 fronting a shop on Merchant Street; Hawaii’s first concrete sidewalk was poured in front of a store on Queen Street in 1886.

Here are a couple stories about some ‘historic’ curbs and sidewalks in Honolulu. (Remember, State law, §6E-2 says "Historic property" means any building, structure, object, district, area, or site, including heiau and underwater site, which is over fifty years old.)

As a UH graduate, I am very familiar with the area known as “the Quarry” on the UH campus.  We still go down to that area of the campus to watch UH athletics.

From 1889 to 1949, Mōʻiliʻili Quarry provided the stone that was used to build Honolulu’s streets, sidewalks and curbstones, as well as some of its prominent buildings.

Holes were cut into the rock wall, using pneumatic drills. Dynamite was fitted into the holes, and its detonation would bring the entire face of the wall down, then they took the rock to the crushing plant within the Quarry site.

The University wanted the Quarry site for campus expansion and the Hawaiʻi legislature authorized the purchase in 1945

The first major and permanent construction of facilities in the Quarry began in 1956; and in 1957 Klum Gym, Team Lockers-Varsity Building, Locker Building, classrooms and an indoor enclosed boxing room were completed.

As you walk along Honolulu streets, look at the old lava rock curbs; it’s very likely these came from the Mōʻiliʻili Quarry.  These curbs are historic and serve as examples of the distinctive method of street construction in Honolulu during the late-1800s and the early-1900s.

These curb stones are rough-hewn below grade, but squared at their exposed surfaces. The width and height of the exposed surfaces are typically about 6 inches, but the buried depth is several feet. They are of varying lengths, from 2' to over 5'. Some curbs at intersections exhibit a slight curvature to follow the contour of the street corner.

In the mid- to late-19th century, sailing vessels from China or the continent bound for Honolulu to pick up sandalwood or sugar cane would fill their holds with granite as ballast (it added stability to the sailing vessels and weren't needed when loaded with heavy cargo.)

As more and more ships dumped their granite ballast on the docks, someone came up with the idea to use them for sidewalks.  These blocks are scattered throughout Chinatown, and many were used in the construction of a few buildings.

The original stones were several inches thick and were placed side by side with no gap between them - many of these are still around.  However, today, there are reproductions of these sidewalks on Maunakea Street

In the early 1900s, the city of Honolulu was engaged in modernizing its streets and replacing dusty footpaths with broad sidewalks.  The following appeared in the Hawaiian Annual of 1900:
"Official notice had been published requiring property owners to construct concrete sidewalks throughout the city, as far out as Thomas Square, according to specifications.  This public improvement is in progress, to be followed by the re-macadamizing (paving) of many streets."

John Walker (later, the firm Walker-Moody) pursued this business and soon his sidewalks proliferated throughout the city.  Unlike modern sidewalks, his were a very dark gray due to the addition of charcoal, and were given a smooth, almost polished finish, many of them labeled with the name John Walker etched in the curbstones (few remain.)

Back then, the name John Walker was virtually synonymous with sidewalks.  So well known was the name the unemployed men, when asked, "Who are you working for”, often answered, "John Walker”.  In other words, they were pounding the sidewalks looking for work.

Again, historic property is generally defined as something that is over 50-years old.  In addition to criminal penalties, State law may impose Civil Penalties on any person who violates the law with fines up to $10,000 for each separate violation (each day of each violation constitutes a separate violation.)

Rather than remove the stones, when contractors are making repairs to City streets, they are required to reinstall the curbing after the completion of the work.  If reinstallation isn't possible, contractors are required to salvage the stones and hand them over to the city for storage and later reuse on other city road projects.

When I was at DLNR, we were involved with a case where historic curb stones were being used as part of a decorative walkway in a private garden.  (They were ultimately returned.)

The image shows a John Walker sidewalk paving block (Walker-Moody, taken in 1971.)  In addition, I have added other images related to historic curbs and sidewalks in a folder of like name in the photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

http://www.facebook.com/peter.t.young.hawaii

http://plus.google.com/108947657421184863425

© 2012 Hoʻokuleana LLC

Li Ling Ai

1941 - At the Academy Awards, John Ford accepted the Oscar for his directing of the ‘Grapes of Wrath,’ ‘Pinocchio’ won for best Original Score and ‘When You Wish Upon a Star’ won for best song.

Keep this in mind; it will put some context to the end of this story.  First, let’s look back.

In 1896, western-trained doctors from the Canton School of Medicine, Li Khai Fai and Kong Tai Heong, married and then emigrated to Honolulu from China.

A few short years later, they were one of the first to diagnose the bubonic plague in Honolulu’s Chinatown.  This led to the “state of emergency,” quarantine and subsequent “sanitary fire” of Chinatown in 1900.

Although properly set, the fire soon went out of control and caused the destruction of all premises bounded by Kukui Street, River Street, Queen Street (presently Ala Moana Boulevard) and Nuʻuanu Avenue.  No lives were lost in the fire, but 4,000 people were left homeless, without food and with little of anything else.

Li Khai Fai was vilified by many Chinese for reporting one of the first bubonic plague cases to the authorities, resulting in what author James C Mohr calls “the worst civic disaster in Hawaiian history” next to the 1941 bombing of Pearl Harbor — the accidental burning of the entire Chinatown district and the forced quarantine of all its inhabitants.  (Lung)

But that’s not what this story is about – the rest of this story deals with conflict in the Li’s homeland, China - and, the telling of that story has more Hawaiʻi links.

Li Khai Fai and Kong Tai Heong had several children; a daughter, Li Ling Ai, was born in Honolulu and was a 1926 graduate of Punahou School and later a graduate from the University of Hawaiʻi.

In 1930, she traveled to Pekin and studied Chinese theater.  The second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945) forced her to leave China.

Before 1937, China and Japan fought in small, localized engagements - so-called "incidents". The last of these was the Marco Polo Bridge Incident of 1937, marking the beginning of total war between the two countries.

Initially, the invading Japanese scored major victories in Shanghai, and by the end of 1937 captured the Chinese capital of Nanking. After failing to stop the Japanese in Wuhan, the Chinese central government moved to Chongqing in the Chinese interior.

In 1937, Li Ling Ai and Rey Scott tell the stories of that war through film - ‘Kukan,’ a color documentary of China at war.

Though she defied tradition in many ways, Li Ling Ai identified closely with her father and his efforts to bring reform to China.  After the Japanese invasion of Manchuria, it became her mission to bring China’s plight to the attention of the western world.  Educating Americans about the history and culture of China was an integral part of that mission, and she would employ her dramatic personality and exotic beauty to do so.  (Lung)

When it premiered in New York on June 23, 1941 the US was still maintaining a policy of neutrality in military conflicts abroad. But the film clearly depicted the brutality of the invading Japanese military against the citizens of China, and it became a rallying point for those who wanted to sway public opinion towards US engagement in the Chinese war.  (Lung)

The film about the Chinese resistance to Japanese aggression during the early part of World War II was screened at the White House for President Roosevelt, was widely covered in newspapers across the country and was the subject of editorials in papers like the New York Times and Chicago Daily Times.

“A crudely made but intensely interesting fact film about modern China, the land of unconquerable people … "Kukan" means "heroic action" - or perhaps, more freely, "courage" - and a more appropriate word could not be found to express the spirit of this film.”  (New York Times, June 24, 1941)

“"Kukan" is one of the few pictures ever made about China which conveys an overpowering sense of the vastness and variety of that great nation, of the tenacity of its millions of people and the mass strength which lies in its depths.”  (New York Times, June 24, 1941)

In 1941, Rey Scott was awarded a Special Academy Award for “for his extraordinary achievement in producing Kukan, the film record of China's struggle, including its photography with a 16mm camera under the most difficult and dangerous conditions,” making Kukan the first American feature documentary to win an Academy Award.  Co-producer Li Ling Ai was also listed as the film’s “Technical Advisor.”

However, after the war’s end and the Communist takeover of China, the film faded from view along with the story of its creators. In fact, until recently, Kukan was officially categorized as a “lost” film by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

At the end of 2009, after a year of preliminary research into the life of Li Ling Ai, producer Robin Lung discovered the only known copy of ‘Kukan’ and has been on a mission ever since to find out more about the film and its creators.

Lung’s quest to restore the badly damaged print of Kukan and the story of its makers to their rightful place in history sends her from one end of the country to the other, searching for answers in the past to validate her vision for the future.

In a quickly changing future obsessed 21st Century world, “Finding Kukan” (a film on the film) pauses to look back, examining how history is made vs. how it’s recorded; how it shapes current issues surrounding race, gender, identity and art; and why a healthy future depends on preserving diverse stories from our past.  See more here:
http://www.facebook.com/kukandocumentary

(Robin Lung is raising funds to finish “Finding Kukan” a feature documentary targeted at a national PBS broadcast that chronicles the quest to restore the badly damaged print of “Kukan” and the untold story of its makers.  Deadline to make a contribution is November 17 - please do what you can to help.) Click the link below:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/961821973/finding-kukan-a-documentary-feature-film

Li Ling Ai authored several books, including, “Life is a Long Time: A Chinese Hawaiian Memoir” and “Children of the Sun In Hawaii.”

The image is the cover of a brochure on Li Ling Ai.  In addition, I have added other related images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook page.

http://www.facebook.com/peter.t.young.hawaii

© 2012 Hoʻokuleana LLC

Pālama Settlement

Central Union Church dates back to the days of the Seaman’s Bethel Church in 1828.  It was formally founded in 1887 and it moved into its present location in 1924.

In addition to developing new institutions within the church, the congregation made great strides in the field of missionary work in the city of Honolulu, including the beginning of the present Pālama Settlement.

Pālama, then a sleepy neighborhood of neat little cottages and taro patches, was chosen by philanthropist and Central Union members Mr. and Mrs. PC Jones as the site for a new chapel.

On the makai side of King street, opposite Liliha Street, the chapel was dedicated on June 1, 1896, and presented to Central Union by the Joneses, on the condition that the church "maintain public preaching there on Sundays, a weekly prayer meeting, sustain a Sabbath school and also an occasional social for the residents of Pālama, the services to be conducted in the English language."

Located west of Nuʻuanu Stream, near Downtown Honolulu, Pālama was home to mostly working-class Hawaiian families.

Walter F. Dillingham, long active in philanthropic endeavors in Honolulu, once observed of Pālama:
“One must picture Honolulu at the end of the century with its mixture of races, their variety of foods, dress, cultures, customs and living habits.  All this gave Honolulu a character and personality not duplicated in any American city. The business section was composed mainly of low framed buildings with corrugated iron roofs near the water front. Streets were unpaved, horse-drawn vehicles, with the ox-cart was a common sight. Taro patches, duck ponds and even sugar cane grew in the section of Palama. It was in such a section that Palama Chapel was built and which grew to be Palama Settlement.” (HJH)

In 1900, as Honolulu health officials attempted to rid the nearby Chinatown area of bubonic plague, fire destroyed a four-block section. Displaced residents took up residence in newly built tenements in Pālama, changing the physical, social and economic make-up of the community.

The chapel's staff located housing for many of the displaced and took care of the injured and children. It also ministered to the needs of immigrants who moved into the Pālama area soon after arriving in the Islands.

Social worker James Arthur Rath, Sr. and his wife, Ragna Helsher Rath, turned Pālama Chapel into Pālama Settlement (in September 1906,) a chartered, independent, non-sectarian organization receiving contributions from the islands’ elite.

“… they called them ‘settlement houses,’ the philosophy being that the head worker, as they called them, settled in the community. Instead of going in to spend the day working and coming out, they settled in, raised their families there and in that way learned, one, what the people needed; two, gained their confidence so that they could help them fulfill their needs; and then, three, went ahead and designed programs for exactly what the people needed. So they were settlers and therefore they called them settlement houses. Which is what the origin of Pālama Settlement was because my father and my mother settled there and all five of us children were born and raised in our home in the settlement.” (Robert H. Rath, Sr)

The Raths established the territory’s first public nursing department, a day-camp for children with tuberculosis, a pure milk depot, a day nursery, a night school, and low-rent housing.

In 1908, an indoor swimming pool was opened, and a year later, a gymnasium and bowling alley were built above it. Later, outdoors, a playground, tennis court, and basketball court were added.

Also that year, a new Parish House was erected on an adjacent property at Richards Street, to be used for Sunday School classes and midweek meetings

After a territory-wide fund-raising effort, in 1925 Pālama Settlement moved to its present location with nine buildings spread over eight acres of land on Vineyard and Pālama streets.

Over the years, a medical clinic, an outpatient clinic and the Strong-Carter Dental Clinic were established along with annual circuses, athletic competitions, social and community-service clubs, boardinghouses for women and a preschool. Classes and events relating to music, arts, vocations, and athletics were also offered.

World War II and the postwar era brought about widespread changes in Hawai‘i’s social, economic, and political environment. These developments, in turn, led to changes in the way social agencies such as Pālama Settlement addressed community needs.

Observers noted that Pālama Settlement was departing from its original settlement house philosophy by offering programs for fees and catering to a broad cross section of people regardless of where they lived.

The 1960s and 1970s were periods of re-evaluation, adjustment, and growth, with the settlement's programs becoming more people-centered rather than activity-centered, stressing human and community needs as opposed to uncoordinated, departmentalized activities, following the large-scale social and economic programs being implemented nationally.

Civil rights and anti-poverty legislation brought large amounts of federal monies to Pālama Settlement for local programs geared to at-risk youth and community development.

Pālama Settlement - a smaller one due to the widening of Vineyard Boulevard and the construction of the H-1 Freeway - continues to exist as a nonprofit, nongovernmental agency dedicated to helping needy families and at-risk youths.

The image shows Pālama Chapel (centralunionchurch-org) circa 1897-1901.  In addition, I have added other Pālama Settlement images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook page.

http://www.facebook.com/peter.t.young.hawaii

© 2012 Hoʻokuleana LLC

Hawaiʻi Theatre

The Hawaii Theatre is celebrating its 90th anniversary.  It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places because of its excellent architectural and interior design, craftsmanship, and detailing.

The theater is a rare example of eclectic architecture that was relatively common to this area of Honolulu prior to World War II.

The theater, historically, had two primary functions. During its early years it was both a live center for the performing arts and a motion picture theater, its dual uses gradually shifted, and in later years it functioned solely as a motion picture theater.

In March, 1920, the Honolulu architectural firm of Emory and Webb was commissioned to do the design plans. On June 9, 1921, a construction contract was awarded to Pacific Engineering Company, another Hawaiian company.

Official opening of the theater was held on September 6, 1922, and was attended by Governor Wallace R. Farrington and members of the Territorial government, and members of social circles.

It is the oldest theater still remaining in Honolulu and the State of Hawaiʻi that was originally planned, built and used as a legitimate theater and concert hall.

Great pride was expressed that "the finest theater in Honolulu...is a home product."

“Honolulu is to be congratulated on what is being done for the entertainment of its residents and visitors. It has now a most attractive and well conducted amusement place in Aloha Park and its new Hawaii Theater is as if one of the best and most attractive from the white light district of New York had been carried bodily across the continent and out into the Pacific to the Paradise of the Pacific.”  (Maui News, October 3, 1922)

The theater was built at a cost of a half million dollars and was ranked with the most modern theaters in America for that period.

It was equipped with air conditioning, indirect lighting, a fire/emergency exit system, wicker chairs in the balcony and a seating capacity for 1,726 persons, and was the largest and the first modern theater in the Territory of Hawaiʻi.

The Hawaii Theatre is situated at the southwest corner of the intersection of South Pauahi and Bethel Streets in Downtown Honolulu and abuts the Chinatown Historical District.

The Hawaii Theatre opened as a showplace for vaudeville, silent films, plays, musicals, and Hawaiian entertainments. It slowly evolved into a plush movie palace until it fell on hard times in the 1970s, when Waikīkī became the entertainment destination for locals and tourists alike.

In the 1980s, concerned citizens banded together around the mission to preserve and restore the Hawaii Theatre and formed the Hawaii Theatre Center, a 501(c)3 nonprofit that owns and operates the historic Hawaii Theatre.

The Hawaii Theatre hosts approximately 100,000 patrons annually showcasing the finest in local, national, and international entertainments.

Each year the Hawaii Theatre Educational Programming Project reaches thousands of Hawaii’s children through programming geared specifically for student matinee performances. The Hawaii Theatre Center SHOWTIME! Student matinee series has drawn thousands of students to the historic theatre to experience the wonders of performance.

In 2005 the League of Historic America Theatres named it the "Outstanding Historic Theatre in America"; in 2006 the National Trust for Historic Preservation gave Hawaii Theatre its highest "Honor Award" for national preservation; and in 2006 the Hawaii Better Business Bureau presented its "Torch Award for Business Ethics" to the Hawaii Theatre Center, the first small nonprofit to receive that award.

Hawaii Nine-O celebrates the 90th anniversary of the historic Hawaii Theatre on its anniversary weekend as the Hawaii Theatre Center and The Mountain Apple Company, in conjunction with Aumakua Records and Bran Apeles, present one of this year’s hottest FREE shows of Alternative Rock on September 7, 2012; First Friday at the Hawaii Theatre.

Get there early for an amazing line up of Na Hoku nominated rock artists Sing the Body, The Intire Project and Sabrina, as well as Mike Love, Johnny Helm, Erika Elona, Mano Kane and Kelli Heath-Cruz with special guest appearances from Na Hoku winner for Hip Hop album of the year, Navid Najafi, Shawn Livingston Moseley and Hanale Bishop. Host for the evening is Star 101.9′s Kevin Jones.

This and other images (mostly from HawaiiTheatre-com) are posted in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook page.

http://www.facebook.com/peter.t.young.hawaii

© 2012 Hoʻokuleana LLC

Honolulu “Chinatown” - A Place of Change

We associate and call the approximate 36-acres on the Ewa side of Downtown Honolulu, “Chinatown.”  But it wasn’t always called that; and, the Chinese were not the only group to occupy the place.

In ancient times, the area fronting Honolulu Harbor was said to be called “Kou.”  Back then, the shoreline was along what is now Queen Street (in the 1850s-60s, the reef was filled over to make the Esplanade – where Aloha Tower now stands.)

Honolulu Harbor, also known as Kulolia, was entered by the first foreigner, Captain William Brown of the English ship Butterworth, in 1794.  He named the harbor “Fair Haven.”  The name Honolulu (meaning "sheltered bay" - with numerous variations in spelling) soon came into use.

To the left of Kou was “Kapuʻukolo;” beginning near the mouth of Nuʻuanu Stream, makai of King Street was "where white men and such dwelt.”  Of the approximate sixty white residents on O‘ahu in 1810, nearly all lived in the village, and many were in the service of the king.

Among them were Francisco de Paula Marin, the Spaniard who introduced and cultivated many of the plants commonly associated with the Islands, and Isaac Davis, friend and co-advisor with John Young to Kamehameha.

Marin arrived in the Hawaiian Islands in 1793 or 1794; Kamehameha granted Marin a couple acres of land Ewa of the King’s compound on the Honolulu waterfront (near Nuʻuanu Stream.)

He planted a wide range of fruits and vegetables, vine and orchards - his “New Vineyard” grapevines were located Waikīkī side of Nuʻuanu Stream and makai of Vineyard Street; when a road was cut through its mauka boundary, it became known as Vineyard Street

In 1809, Kamehameha I moved his compound here, to an area referred to as Pākākā fronting the harbor (this is the area, in 1810, where negotiations between King Kaumuali‘i of Kaua‘i and Kamehameha I took place - Kaumuali‘i ceded Kauaʻi and Ni‘ihau to Kamehameha.)

By the late-1830s, some 6,000 people lived in the town proper, with perhaps another 3,000 in the suburbs. Foreigners numbered 350-400 – about 200-250 were Americans, 75-100 English, 30-40 Chinese and the remainder, a thin sprinkling of French, Spanish, Portuguese and other nationalities.

Hawaiians’ houses, estimated to number 600, were chiefly of the traditional "grass shack" type, vulnerable to occasional high winds that scalped, twisted, or even demolished them.  A few foreigners lived in wooden or coral "stone" homes; most, however, inhabited houses built of adobes.

At the end of 1837, the Gazette complained about the mud walls encroaching on streets. Thoroughfares were reduced to skinny, zigzag alleys, and squares to "pig-sty corners" where pedestrians inched sideways.

The newspaper, campaigning for a regular plan, warned that neglecting this matter would make it "... an expensive and difficult task for the future population to rectify the mistakes of their ancestors."  1838 is remembered as the year Honolulu got real roads.

By 1848, the city was regularly laid out with principal streets crossing at right angles, cut up into regular squares – “making it easy to find the way from one part to another without difficulty.” The most of the streets are wide and pleasant (however, the white adobe walls fronting the streets “when the sun is bright the reflection of this light and heat is very unpleasant.”)

While the first Chinese arrived in Hawaiʻi in 1789, it wasn’t until 1852 that the Chinese became the first contract sugar plantation laborers to arrive in the islands.

With the growth of the sugar industry, the need for plantation laborers became imperative, and China was selected as the best source of immediate cheap labor due to proximity and the interest of the Chinese in coming to Hawaii to work.

Between 1852 and 1876, 3,908 Chinese were imported as contract laborers, compared with only 148 Japanese and 223 South Sea Islanders. Around 1882, the Chinese in Hawaii formed nearly 49% of the total plantation working force, and for a time outnumbered Caucasians in the islands.

It had been noted, according to one observer in 1882, for the fact that the great majority of its business establishments "watchmakers’ and jewelers’ shops, shoe-shops, tailor shops, saddle and harness shops, furniture-shops, tinshops, cabinet shops and bakeries, (were) all run by Chinamen with Chinese workmen."

By 1884, the Chinese population in Honolulu reached 5,000, and the number of Chinese doing plantation work declined.   As a group they became very important in business in Hawaii, and 75% of them were concentrated in the 25 acres of downtown called Chinatown where they built their clubhouses, herb shops, restaurants, temples and retail stores.  In 1896, there were 153 Chinese stores in Honolulu, of which 72 were in Chinatown.

In 1886, calamity struck Chinatown when a fire raged out of control and destroyed the homes of 7,000 Chinese and 350 Native Hawaiians, and most of Chinatown. The fire lasted three days and destroyed over eight blocks of Chinatown.

Then, again, in 1900, the area burned when deliberate fires set to wipe out the bubonic plague spread through Chinatown.

The highest proportion of Chinese inhabitants in this area, as recorded by an official census, was 56.3 percent in 1900, just three months after the second devastating Chinatown fire, and this ratio dropped to 53.8 percent in 1920 and still further to 47.0 percent in 1930.

By 1940, Japanese had exceeded the number of Chinese residents, and by 1970, persons of Chinese ancestry made up less than 20 percent of the inhabitants of the area.

Honolulu's Chinatown is one of the oldest Chinatowns in the Western Hemisphere.  Inspiration and information here comes from chinatownhi-com.  The image shows River Street, looking toward Punchbowl (honoluluadvertiser.)  In addition, other maps and images are in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook page.

http://www.facebook.com/peter.t.young.hawaii

© 2012 Hoʻokuleana LLC

Bubonic Plague and The Great Chinatown Fire of 1900

Sand Island was known as Quarantine Island during the nineteenth century when it was used to quarantine ships believed to hold contagious diseases.

The bubonic plague is a bacterial disease that can kill an infected victim within three to seven days.  Symptoms include red spots on the skin that later turn black, bloody vomit and decaying skin.

The first recorded incidence of this disease in Hawai‘i occurred at the close of the nineteenth century with the diagnosis of bubonic plague affecting Yon Chong, a Chinese bookkeeper in the old Chinatown section of Honolulu, who became ill on December 9, 1899.

The Board of Health, after a special meeting on December 12, 1899, announced the presence of the Bubonic Plague in the city, following an autopsy of the first victim.

The "Black Death," or Bubonic Plague, had struck Honolulu.

Its presence caused pause in the opening months of 1900 and was on everybody’s mind, with good reason; the same disease had decimated a third of the world's population during the fourteenth century.

Schools were closed, and Chinatown, with its 7,000 inhabitants, was placed under quarantine.  In hopes of containing plague only within Honolulu, the Board of Health (BOH) closed the port of Honolulu to both incoming and outgoing vessels.

All foreign ships already docked at the wharf were ordered to move the vessels away from the dock and grease all mooring lines and attach funnel (rat-guard) on each mooring line anchored to the shore.

From the onset, three human cases of plague were recorded in the official BOH records.  Later examination of other case records showed that in actuality two earlier cases were misdiagnosed and were therefore unrecorded as plague.

Inasmuch as no further human cases of plague were detected following the initial episode, the BOH (possibly because of economic pressure) lifted the quarantine of Chinatown and Honolulu Harbor on December 19, 1899, a dramatic error in judgment, as was later evidenced.

On December 24, 1899, only five days following the lifted quarantine, the plague epidemic in Honolulu erupted in full force with additional cases occurring at the end of the year.

In a matter of 19 days, a total of 12 cases of plague were diagnosed, leading to 11 fatalities.

On December 30, 1899, the BOH, with recommendations from a special commission, as well as from resolutions from the Medical Society and private citizens, chose fire as the final method of plague.

As more people fell victim to the Black Death, on January 20, 1900, the Board of Health conducted “sanitary” fires to prevent further spread of the disease.

Because of the size of the area, the entire fire department, with all four of its engines, was on the scene.  The fire was ignited at 9 am and all went well for the first hour … until the wind shifted.

One fire, started between Kaumakapili Church and Nu‘uanu Avenue, blazed out of control, due to the change in wind.  The fire burned uncontrollably for 17 days, ravaging most of Chinatown.  People trying to flee were beat back by citizens and guards into the quarantine district.

The extent of the fire and the estimates of the area ranged from 38-65 acres.  The fire caused the destruction of all premises bounded by Kukui Street, River Street, Queen Street (presently Ala Moana Boulevard) and Nu‘uanu Avenue.

No lives were lost in the fire, but 4,000 people were left homeless, without food and with little of anything else.

Following the Chinatown fire of January 20, 1900, cases of plague on O‘ahu began to appear in other previously uninfected areas, and spread as far off as Waialua.

The spread of plague on O‘ahu was traced to the railroad linking Honolulu with the plantation towns of Aiea, Waipahu and Waialua.

The spread of bubonic plague to the neighbor islands from Honolulu was quite rapid following the unfortunate lifting of the quarantine on December 19, 1899 of Honolulu Harbor.

The Honolulu epidemic was not halted until March 31, 1900, during which time a total of 71 cases of plague were diagnosed, leading to 61 deaths.

During this re-emergence of plague, the port of Honolulu was again quarantined, until the official reopening on April 30, 1900.

Because the fire displaced the residential population of Chinatown, as the area was rebuilt, the Chinese only rebuilt their businesses in the neighborhood - not their homes.

The last recorded case of plague on O‘ahu (a rodent case) was recorded from Aiea in 1910 after which time it has never been found again.

(Lots of good info and images for this summary came from:  “A Brief History of Bubonic Plague in Hawai‘i,” DLNR and ChinatownHonolulu-org.)  In addition, I have added a number of other images related to the plague and Chinatown Fire of 1900 in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook page.

http://www.facebook.com/peter.t.young.hawaii