Watertown

As a means of solidifying a site in the central Pacific, the US negotiated an amendment to the Treaty of Reciprocity in 1887.  King Kalākaua in his speech before the opening session of the 1887 Hawaiian Legislature stated (November 3, 1887:)

"I take great pleasure in informing you that the Treaty of Reciprocity with the United States of America has been definitely extended for seven years upon the same terms as those in the original treaty, with the addition of a clause granting to national vessels of the United States the exclusive privilege of entering Pearl River Harbor and establishing there a coaling and repair station.”

From 1901 to 1908, the Navy devoted its time to improving the facilities of the 85 acres that constituted the naval reservation in Honolulu. Under the Appropriation Act of March 3, 1901, this tract of land was improved with the erection of additional sheds and housing. The station grew slowly, and not always at an even pace.  (navy-mil)

On May 13, 1908, the US Congress affirmed Pearl Harbor's strategic importance by appropriating funds and authorized and directed the Secretary of the Navy “to establish a naval station at Pearl Harbor, Hawaiʻi, on the site heretofore acquired for that purpose”.  (Congressional Record)

Until the transfer of the Naval Station to Pearl Harbor, the naval reservation in Honolulu remained nothing more than a rather elaborate coaling station. The major interests were the shipping and weighing of coal and the checking of invoices.  (navy-mil)

Immediate improvements included dredging the entry channel; constructing the necessary infrastructure and other naval facilities; and building a drydock.

Congress further noted that Secretary “may, in his discretion, enter into contracts for any portion of the work, including material therefor, within the respective limits of cost herein stipulated, subject to appropriations to be made therefor by Congress, or may direct the construction of said works or any portion thereof under the supervision of a civil engineer of the Navy.”  (Congressional Record)

“A small army of men, looking for work at Pearl Harbor, besieged the Naval Station this morning.  … Men, who have been turned away from time to time with the promise that they might find something, when the necessary papers arrived, this morning thronged to the place to get the precious slips. … The men are to be put to work as soon as Washington has been heard from and building at Pearl Harbor begins.”  (Evening Bulletin, August 6, 1908)

On December 5, 1908, the newly-formed “Hawaiian Dredging Company of Honolulu was found to have made, the lowest figure of the six bidden ($3,560,000,) which included two Honolulu concerns and four mainland companies.”  (Evening Bulletin, December 1, 1908)

Hawaiian Dredging apparently initially intended a partner, “The contract for the dredging of the Pearl Harbor channel... will be handled in a combination with the San Francisco Bridge Company”. (Hawaiian Star, December 18, 1908)  However, shortly thereafter, it was noted that Hawaiian Dredging “is now controlled and owned entirely by the Dillingham interests”.  (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, December 22, 1908)

“The contract was signed December 24, 1908, and actual dredging operations began March 1, 1909.”  (Congressional Record)  The period from 1908 to 1919 was one of steady and continuous growth of the Naval Station, Pearl Harbor.  (navy-mil)

That leads us to this piece’s title and the focus of this summary – Watertown.

With all the work underway at Pearl Harbor, Hawaiian Dredging created a camp, more like a small city, to house and provide for the workers and their families.

It was called ‘Watertown,’ because of the frequent leaks in its water main, which was installed so hastily that much of it lay above ground.  (McElroy)  (It was alternatively known as “Dredger’s Row” or “Drydock Row.” (Waller))

It was situated “on the Waikīkī or Honolulu shore of the channel ... just below Bishop Point, and mauka of Queen Emma Point (Fort Kamehameha.)”  (Pacific Commercial Advertiser; Papacostas)

Watertown was a 2,000-acre settlement containing numerous large structures, roads, rail lines, port facilities and an ethnically diverse population of laborers responsible for the dredging of Pearl Harbor. In the early 1930s the population of Watertown numbered 1,000 laborers and their families, including 300 school-aged children. (McElroy)

The residents were made up of Japanese, Russians, Chinese, Portuguese and a score of Americans who were the employees of the dry-dock, machinists, launch hands, laborers and native Hawaiian fishermen.  (Fletcher)

In addition, off-duty inspectors overseeing the dredging operations lived at Watertown in quarters provided by Hawaiian Dredging and ate their meals at a restaurant conducted by Chinese. (While on duty they slept and ate on the dredges which were located from one-half to two miles from shore in the channel.)  (Fletcher)

The town included a schoolhouse and adjacent Catholic Church, a theater, post office, at least one hotel and a number of stores and offices.

In addition to housing its resident population, Watertown was noted as a recreation hub for the entire region, complete with gambling, drink and prostitution.  (McElroy)

By the early-1930s, Watertown was falling into disrepair and businesses were declining. Demolition began in 1935 and had disappeared by December 11, 1936, when Hickam Air Force Base airfields replaced the town (however, the former Watertown school buildings were initially used by the construction crew associated with the Hickam construction.)  (Waller)

The image shows dredging at Pearl Harbor.  (honoluluadvertiser)    In addition, I have included more related images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

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Ala Wai Canal

A son of Mā’ilikūkahi (who ruled about the time Columbus crossed the Atlantic) was Kalona-nui, who in turn had a son called Kalamakua. Kalamakua is said to have been responsible for developing large taro gardens in what was once a vast area of wet-taro cultivation on Oʻahu: the Waikiki-Kapahulu-Mōʻiliʻili-Mānoa area.

The early Hawaiian settlers gradually transformed the marsh above Waikīkī Beach into hundreds of taro fields, fish ponds and gardens.  For centuries, springs, taro lo‘i, rice paddies, fruit and vegetable patches, duck ponds and fishing areas were a valuable means of subsistence for native Hawaiians and others.

Formerly the home of Hawaiian royalty, including King Kamehameha, Waikīkī, meaning “spouting waters,” once covered a much broader area than it does today.

The ahupuaʻa, or ancient land division, of Waikīkī actually covered the area extending from Kou (the old name for Honolulu) to Maunalua (now referred to as Hawai’i Kai).

Waikīkī’s marshland, the boundaries of which changed seasonally, once covered about 2,000-acres (about four times the size of Waikīkī today) before the marshes were drained.

During the first decade of the 20th-century, the US War Department acquired more than 70-acres in the Kālia portion of Waikīkī for the establishment of a military reservation called Fort DeRussy.

They drained and filled the area, so they could build on it.  Thus, the Army began the transformation of Waikīkī from wetlands to solid ground.

In the early-1900s, Lucius Pinkham, then President of the Territorial Board of Health and later Governor, developed the idea of constructing a drainage canal to drain the wetlands, which he considered "unsanitary."  This called for the construction of a canal to reclaim the marshland.

The Waikīkī Reclamation District was identified as the approximate 800-acres from King and McCully Streets to Kapahulu Street, near Campbell Avenue down to Kapiʻolani Park and Kalākaua Avenue on the makai side (1921-1928.)  The dredge material not only filled in the makai Waikīkī wetlands, it was also used to fill in the McKinley High School site.

During the 1920s, the Waikīkī landscape would be transformed when the construction of the Ala Wai Drainage Canal, begun in 1921 and completed in 1928, resulted in the draining and filling in of the remaining ponds and irrigated fields of Waikīkī.

The initial planning called for the extension of the Ala Wai Canal past its present terminus and excavate along Makee Island in Kapiʻolani Park, connecting the Canal with the ocean on the Lēʻahi side of the project.  However, funds ran short and this extension was contemplated “at some later date, when funds are made available”; however, that never occurred.

By 1924, the dredging of the Ala Wai Canal and filling of the wetlands stopped the flows of the Pi‘inaio, ‘Āpuakēhau and Kuekaunahi streams running from the Makiki, Mānoa, and Pālolo valleys to and through Waikīkī.

Walter F. Dillingham's Hawaiian Dredging Company dredged the canal and sold the material he had dredged to create the canal to build up the newly created land.  The canal is still routinely dredged, most recently in 2003.

During the course of the Ala Wai Canal’s initial construction, the banana patches and ponds between the canal and the mauka side of Kalākaua Avenue were filled and the present grid of streets was laid out.  These newly created land tracts spurred a rush to development.

With construction of the Ala Wai Canal, 625-acres of wetland were drained and filled and runoff was diverted away from Waikīkī beach.  The completion of the Ala Wai Canal not only gave impetus to the development of Waikīkī as Hawai‘i’s primary visitor destination, but also expanded the district’s potential for residential use.

During the period 1913-1927, the demand for housing in Honolulu grew along with the city’s population.  Waikīkī helped satisfy this demand; the large kamaʻāina landholdings virtually disappeared and the area started to be subdivided.

Before reclamation, assessed values for property were at about $500-per acre and the same property was reclaimed at ten cents per square foot, making a total cost of $4,350-per acre.  The selling price after reclamation, $6,500 to $7,000-per acre, showed the financial benefit of the reclamation efforts.

From an economic point of view, without the Ala Wai Canal, Waikīkī may never have developed into the worldwide tourist attraction it is today.

In 1925, the City Planning Commission requested the citizens of Honolulu to submit suitable Hawaiian names for the renaming of the Waikīkī Drainage canal; twelve names were suggested.

The Commission felt that Ala Wai (waterway,) the name suggested by Jennie Wilson was the "most euphonic".  (An engineer with the Planning Commission was quick to note that, "the fact that Mrs. Wilson is the mayor's wife had nothing to do with the choice of the name.")

In November 1965, a storm, classified as a 25-year event, overflowed the Ala Wai Canal banks and flooded Ala Wai Boulevard.

Ala Wai Canal and the historic walls lining the canal are owned by the State of Hawaiʻi. The promenades on the mauka side of the Ala Wai Canal are owned by the State, and by, Executive Ordered to the City and County of Honolulu, the promenades on the makai side are owned by the City. The promenades on both sides of the Ala Wai Canal are maintained by the City Department of Parks and Recreation

The Ala Wai Canal is listed in the National and State registers of historic places.

The image shows the Ala Wai Canal in about 1925.  In addition, I have included more images on the Ala Wai Canal in a folder of like name in the Photos section.

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Hilo Railroad Company – Hawaiian Consolidated Railway

The Treaty of Reciprocity (1875) between the United States and the Kingdom of Hawai‘i eliminated the major trade barrier to Hawai‘i’s closest and major market.  Through the treaty and its amendments, the US obtained Pearl Harbor and Hawai‘i’s sugar planters received duty-free entry into US markets for their sugar.

At the industry's peak in the 1930s, Hawaiʻi’s sugar plantations employed more than 50,000 workers and produced more than 1-million tons of sugar a year; over 254,500-acres were planted in sugar.

Sugar cultivation exploded on the Big Island.  As a means to transport sugar and other goods, railroading was introduced to the Islands in 1879.

On March 28, 1899, Dillingham received a charter to build the original eight miles of the Hilo Railroad that connected the Olaʻa sugar mill to Waiākea, that was soon to become the location of Hilo's deep water port.

Rail line extensions continued.  Extensions were soon built to Pāhoa, where the Pahoa Lumber Company was manufacturing ʻōhia and koa railroad ties for export to the Santa Fe Railroad.

Although not the first railway on the Big Island, the Hilo Railroad was arguably the most ambitious.  The Olaʻa line was completed in 1900, immediately followed by a seventeen mile extension to Kapoho, home of the Puna Sugar Company plantation.

Immediately after that two branch lines were constructed (also to sugar plantations,) and then the railroad was extended north into Hilo itself.

All the sugar grown in East Hawaiʻi, in Puna and on the Hāmākua Coast, was transported by rail to Hilo Harbor, where it was loaded onto ships bound for the continent.

An early account stated that the rail line crossed over 12,000 feet in bridges, 211 water openings under the tracks, and individual steel spans up to 1,006 feet long and 230 feet in height.

Some of the most notable were those over Maulua and Honoliʻi gulches, the Wailuku River and Laupāhoehoe.  Over 3,100 feet of tunnels were constructed, one of which, the Maulua Tunnel, was over half a mile in length.

While the main business of the railroad remained the transport of raw sugar and other products to and from the mills,  it also provided passenger service.

A chiefly tourist line, branching from Olaʻa, was built inland 12.5 miles up the mountain to Glenwood where visitors to the Volcano House near Kilauea Volcano would then transfer to buses. Due to stiff competition from motor vehicles, the Glenwood extension was scaled back to Mountain View in 1932.

Between 1909 and 1913, the Hāmākua Division of the railroad was constructed to service the sugar mills north of Hilo. Unfortunately, the cost of building the Hāmākua extension essentially destroyed the Hilo Railroad, which was sold in 1916 and reorganized as the Hawaiʻi Consolidated Railway.

Targeting tourists to augment local passenger and raw sugar transport, the Hawaiʻi Consolidated Railway ran sightseeing specials under the name "Scenic Express."

Not for the faint of heart, these trips included a stop on the trestles, where passengers disembarked to admire the outstanding scenery.

The Great Depression saw a decrease in business, but business picked up in the 1940s, when thousands of battle-weary troops packed the passenger cars en route to Camp Tarawa, in Waimea, to rest, recuperate and prepare for another campaign.

But the end was near for the Hawaiʻi Consolidated Railway. Early in the morning of April 1, 1946, a massive tsunami struck Hawaiʻi. The railroad line between Hilo and Paʻauilo suffered massive damage; bridges collapsed, trestles tumbled and one engine was literally swept off the tracks.

The expensive option of rebuilding the railway was rejected. Hawaiʻi Consolidated offered the rights-of-way, tracks and remaining bridges, trestles and tunnels to the Territory of Hawaiʻi, but the offer was refused, and finally the company sold the entire works to the Gilmore Steel and Supply Company.

Shortly thereafter, realizing its error, the Territory bought it all back.  Much of the current highway along the coast follows the route of the old railroad; five original railroad trestles have been converted into highway bridges.  (This route averaged better than one bridge per mile over its 40-mile length.)

At the time of the tsunami, plantations were already phasing out rail in favor of trucking cane from the field to the mill. It was inevitable that trucking would also replace rail as the primary means of transporting sugar to the harbor. The tsunami accelerated that transition.

Most sugar from Hāmākua was trucked to Hilo Harbor, although the Hāmākua Sugar Company continued to use its offshore cable landing at Honokaʻa until 1948.

A few remnants of the railway are still visible. Hawaiʻi Consolidated’s yards were in the Waiākea district of Hilo, where the roundhouse still stands today, next to the county swimming pool on Kalanikoa Street.

In Laupāhoehoe, a concrete platform remains where Hula dancers once performed for tourists. And the Laupāhoehoe Train Museum is housed in the former home of Mr. Stanley, the superintendent of maintenance.

Today, the Laupāhoehoe Train Museum and Visitors Center keeps the memory of Hawaiʻi Consolidated Railway alive.  Although the Laupāhoehoe Train Museum is among the state's smallest museums, it attracts an estimated 5,000 visitors a year. The admission fee is $4 for adults, $3 for seniors, and $2 for students. Special rates for tours are also offered.

The museum is open weekdays from 9 am to 4:30 pm and on weekends from 10 am to 2 pm. The address is 36-2377 Māmalahoa Highway, Laupāhoehoe, Hawaiʻi 96764.  (Lots of information here for Laupāhoehoe Train Museum and Ian Birnie.)

The image shows passengers out on the trestle enjoying the view.  In addition, I have added some other related images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

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Ala Moana Center

In ancient times, the area was known as Kālia – an ʻili in the ahupuaʻa of Waikīkī - that runs from the present Halekūlani Hotel to Piʻikoi Street (generally, makai of Kalākaua Avenue.)  Pi‘inaio Stream was the dominant feature of this eastern area of Waikīkī.

The ten fishponds at Kālia were loko puʻuone (isolated shore fishponds formed by a barrier sand berm) with salt-water lens intrusion and fresh water entering from upland ʻauwai (canals.)

Kālia was once renowned for the fragrant limu līpoa, as well as several other varieties of seaweed such as manauea, wāwaeʻiole, ʻeleʻele, kala and some kohu.

At the turn of the 20th century, portions of this marshy wetland were determined to be “deleterious to the public health in consequence of being low, and at times covered or partly covered by water, or of being situated between high and low water mark, or of being improperly drained, or incapable by reasonable expenditure of effectual drainage”.

A portion of this was owned by the Kamehameha Schools Bishop Estate who reportedly sold 50-acres of this “unproductive” “swamp land” for $25,000 to Walter F Dillingham in 1912.   At the time this was real money and people questioned his decision.

However, shortly thereafter, Dillingham used the site to dispose of excess coral and other fill that was generated from land reclamation projects from Kewalo to Waikīkī (including the dredging of the Ala Wai Canal.)

In 1948, Lowell Dillingham, Walter’s son, announced plans for a new shopping complex on the coral-covered parcel.  Nearly 10-years later, construction on Hawaiʻi’s first regional shopping center commenced.  (Lowell is also credited the formation of Dillingham Corporation, a merger of the Oahu Railway & Land Company and the Hawaiian Dredging and Construction Company, in 1961.)

Dillingham’s Don Graham was the force behind the design and development of the center.  It proved a success after its opening, and relocated retail away from downtown Honolulu.

On August 13, 1959, over a thousand people gathered near the Sears’ end for the grand opening of Ala Moana Center.  They say the first purchase in the center was made by Ben Dillingham and his wife, a tube of Colgate toothpaste at Sears

At the time of its opening, Ala Moana Center had 680,000-square feet of leasable area, with 87 stores on two levels and 4,000 parking spaces; and was considered the largest shopping mall in the world.  Original stores included anchors Sears and Shirokiya, plus locally-owned The Slipper House.

The center doubled in size in 1966 to 1,351,000-square feet of leasable area, with 155 stores and 7,800 parking spaces. New stores included anchor tenants JC Penney and Liberty House.

1987 saw the 2-year phase three renovation, relocation of certain tenants and creation of the Makai Market food court (the largest food court in Hawai‘i and one of the largest food courts in the nation.)

Other phases of expansion and renovation occurred over the years so that today, with 2.1-million square feet of retail space, Ala Moana Center has over 290 stores, including 70 dining options, nearly 10,000 parking spaces and is the world’s largest open-air mall – with shopping for the basics to the elite brand name.

Today, Ala Moana Center is one of the top grossing, highest occupancy rate and sales per square foot malls in the US and welcomes 40- to 60-million shopping visits per year.

Changes are again underway at Ala Moana, with redevelopment of the former Sears site to accommodate Bloomingdales and other shops - this will add another 340,000-SF of retail space and another 1,000-parking stalls.

Some of Ala Moana's original tenants are still in the shopping center: US Post Office, Territorial Savings Bank, Longs Drugs, Reyn's, Watamull's, Shirokiya and Foodland.

Oh, about Dillingham’s questioned $25,000 land buy back in 1912 … the City and County of Honolulu 2013 assessed value (for just the land) is $355,455,200.

(Dillingham Corporation was sold to a private investment group in 1983 for $347-million; in 2003, with base facilities relocated to California, Dillingham Corporation filed for bankruptcy.)

The image shows the vacant coral-filled site of the future Ala Moana Center.  In addition, I have added other images to a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

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Kālia

In traditional times, Pi‘inaio Stream was the dominant feature of the eastern area of Waikīkī.

It entered the ocean as a wide, ribboned kahawai (wide delta,) bringing fresh waters from the mountain valleys and creating an area of abundance. The early-Hawaiians found this plentiful land and marine resources as an excellent place to settle (the early settlers arrived around 600 AD.).

The Stream played a vital role in the geography, and cultural usage, of the ‘ili of Kālia. The meaning of Pi‘inaio is uncertain but it could be an allusion to going inland (pi‘i), to the location of a naio (a sandalwood-like tree - as may have commonly grown in the vicinity.)  (Cultural Surveys)

Waikīkī was famous for its fishponds with one listing citing 45 ponds.  The ten fishponds at Kālia were loko puʻuone (isolated shore fishponds formed by a barrier sand berm) with salt-water lens intrusion and fresh water entering from upland ʻauwai (irrigation canals.)

The shallow relatively-protected reefs of Waikīkī and the availability of the riparian resources of the Pi‘inaio estuary made the back dune ponds easily adaptable into fish ponds.

The inland ponds may have formed along the coast where existing depressions in the sand were chosen to make the loko puʻuone, and brush was cleared out. During traditional times, the ponds were used to farm fish, usually for the Hawaiian Ali‘i (royalty). The ʻamaʻama (mullet) and the awa (milkfish) were the two types of fish traditionally raised in the ponds.

Kālia was once renowned for the fragrant limu līpoa, as well as several other varieties of seaweed such as manauea, wāwaeʻiole, ʻeleʻele, kala and some kohu.

Limu kala was harvested to make lei for offerings.  The lei limu kala was and is still offered at the kūʻula [stone god used to attract fish] by fishermen or anyone who wishes to be favored by or is grateful to the sea.

John Papa ʻĪʻī relates an account from the early-1800s of a catch at a Kālia fishpond: “so large that a great heap of fish lay spoiling upon the bank of the pond.” (The waste was disapproved of.) This abundance of fishponds may have required significant maintenance and would have provided a potentially huge source of food for distribution at chiefly discretion.

The name of the area “Kālia” translated as “waited for” has a sense of “waiting”, “loitering” or “hesitating.” While the nuance is uncertain, one could imagine that the mouth of the Pi‘inaio Stream would be a logical place for travelers to pause.

An ʻōlelo noʻeau (Hawaiian proverb/saying) speaks of the pleasant portion of the coast of Kālia in Waikīkī:  Ke kai wawalo leo leʻa o Kālia, The pleasing, echoing sea of Kālia.  (Pukui)

Kālia is also mentioned in a story about a woman who left her husband and children on Kīpahulu, Maui, to go away with a man of O‘ahu. Her husband missed her and went to see a kahuna (priest) who was skilled in hana aloha (prayer to evoke love) sorcery.

The kahuna told the man to find a container with a lid and then speak into it of his love for his wife. The kahuna then uttered an incantation into the container, closed it, and threw it into the sea. The wife was fishing one morning at Kālia, O‘ahu, and saw the container. She opened the lid, and was possessed by a great longing to return to her husband. She walked until she found a canoe to take her home (Pukui): Ka makani kāʻili aloha o Kīpahulu; The love-snatching wind of Kīpahulu (Cultural Surveys)

In Fragments of Hawaiian History John Papa ʻĪʻī described “Honolulu trails of about 1810,” including the trail from Honolulu to Waikiki. He said that: Kawaiahaʻo which led to lower Waikiki went along Kaʻananiau, into the coconut grove at Pawaʻa, the coconut grove of Kuakuaka, then down to Piʻinaio; along the upper side of Kahanaumaikai‘s coconut grove, along the border of Kaihikapu pond, into Kawehewehe; then through the center of Helumoa of Puaʻaliʻiliʻi, down to the mouth of the Āpuakēhau Stream.

Based on ʻĪʻī‘s description, the trail from Honolulu to Waikiki in 1810 coursed through the makai side of the present Fort DeRussy grounds in the vicinity of Kālia Road. It is likely that this trail was a long-established traditional route through Waikiki.

Toward the beginning of the 1900s, downtown Honolulu was the destination for Hawaiian visitors, who numbered only about 3,000. While Honolulu had numerous hotels, there were few places to stay in Waikiki.

In 1891, at Kālia, the ‘Old Waikiki’ opened as a bathhouse, one of the first places in Waikiki to offer rooms for overnight guests. It was later redeveloped in 1928 as the Niumalu Hotel; the site eventually became the Hilton Hawaiian Village.

In 1911, the Army acquired 70-acres for the construction of Fort DeRussy and started filling in the fishponds which covered most of the Fort - pumping fill from the ocean continuously for nearly a year in order to build up an area on which permanent structures could be built.

Then, as part of the government’s Waikīkī Land Reclamation project, the Waikīkī landscape was further transformed with the construction of the Ala Wai Drainage Canal – begun in 1921 and completed in 1928 – resulted in the draining and filling in of the ponds and irrigated fields of Waikīkī.

Dredging for the project was performed by Hawaiian Dredging Company, owned by Walter F. Dillingham, who then sold the dredged sediments to Waikīkī developers. The dredge produced fill for the reclamation of over 600-acres of land in the Waikīkī vicinity.

The ʻili of Kālia runs from the ʻEwa end of today’s Ala Moana Center (near Piʻikoi Street) to the vicinity of the Halekūlani Hotel (makai of Kalākaua Avenue.)  (Lots of information here from Cultural Surveys.)

The image shows the ʻili of Kālia over a Google Earth image.  In addition, I have added other related images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

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Ala Moana Beach Park and ʻĀina Moana (Magic Island)

In 1899, the coastal road from Honolulu Harbor to Waikīkī, formerly called the “Beach Road,” was renamed “Ala Moana.”

At the beginning of the twentieth-century, this stretch of coast makai of Ala Moana Boulevard was the site of the Honolulu garbage dump, which burned almost continually.  The residue from burned rubbish was used to reclaim neighboring wetlands (which later were more commonly referred to as “swamp lands.”)

In the 1920s, Kewalo Basin was constructed and by the 1930s was the main berthing area for the sampan fleet and also the site of the tuna cannery, fish auction, shipyard, ice plant, fuel dock and other shore-side facilities.

In 1928, a channel was dredged through the coral reef to connect the Ala Wai Boat Harbor and the Kewalo Basin, so boats could travel between the two.  Part of the dredge material helped to reclaim swampland that was filled in with dredged coral.

When the area became a very popular swimming beach, the channel was closed to boat traffic.

The City and County of Honolulu started cleaning up the Ala Moana area in 1931. They used funds provided by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal Project to create a city park in the Ala Moana area.

Back in the early twentieth century, most playgrounds consisted of large areas of pavement used to get children off of the street and had no aesthetic value.

In 1933, Harry Sims Bent was chosen as the park architect for the City and County of Honolulu.  Bent’s design went beyond the modern level and into the realm of art deco, allowing for play, as well as contact with nature.  His works at Ala Moana include the canal bridge, entrance portals, sports pavilion, banyan courtyard and the lawn bowling green.

President Roosevelt participated in the dedication of the new 76-acre "Moana Park" in 1934 (it was later renamed Ala Moana Park in 1947.)  During his visit to the islands, Roosevelt also planted a kukui tree on the grounds of the ʻIolani Palace.

Ala Moana Park was developed on a swamp and the Honolulu garbage dump.

In the mid-1950s, reef rubble was dredged to fill in the old navigation channel (between Kewalo and the Ala Wai); it was topped with sand brought from Keawaʻula Beach (Yokohama Beach) in Waianae.

At the same time, a new swimming channel was dredged parallel to the new beach, extending 400-feet offshore; in addition, the west end of the fronting channel was closed by a landfill project that was part of the Kewalo Basin State Park project.  A large fringing reef remained off-shore protecting the beach area.

Reportedly, in 1955, Henry Kaiser was the first to propose building two artificial islands and six hotels over the fringing reef.  His proposal included inlets for boats, walkways and bridges. He called it Magic Island and offered to pay the $50-million cost.  (Sigall, Star-Advertiser)

In 1958, a 20-page booklet was sent to Congress to encourage them to turn back Ala Moana Reef to the Territory of Hawaiʻi for the construction of a "Magic Island."  Local businessmen and firms paid half the cost and the Territory paid half through the Economic Planning & Coordination Authority)   (Dillingham interests were among contributors, Henry J. Kaiser interests were not.)   (Honolulu Record, February 13, 1958)

The booklet puts forth the argument that "Tourist development is our most important immediate potential for economic expansion," and displays pictures of the crowded Waikiki area to show the lack of room for expansion.  Then it directs the reader's attention to land that can be reclaimed from the sea by utilizing reefs, especially the 300-acre area of Ala Moana Reef.  (Honolulu Record, February 13, 1958)

It was supposed to be part of a new high scale beachfront resort complex with a half-dozen hotels that would have included two islands built on the fringing reef, offshore of the Ala Moana Park.

The Interest of the Dillingham’s in developing off-shore areas is obvious, since Hawaiian Dredging is the only local company large enough to undertake such sizable dredging operations. The Dillingham interest in the current "Magic Island" project is more obvious because of the immediate increase in value it would bring to Dillingham land mauka of Ala Moana Boulevard.  (Honolulu Record, February 13, 1958)

The Dillinghams figure to do the dredging and construction of Magic Island, itself, of course, and it must be recalled that the original Dillingham idea was to use Ala Moana Park for hotels and apartments and build the reef island for a park.  (Honolulu Record, May 15, 1958)

But now that Magic Island is being proposed as a hotel and apartment site, it doesn't mean for a moment the first plan has necessarily been abandoned. There is good reason to fear Ala Moana Park may be wiped out entirely so far as the people of Oahu are concerned if they don't keep alert and guard" against every effort to encroach upon it.  (Honolulu Record, May 15, 1958)

Substantial changes were made from the more extensive original plan for the Ala Moana reef; rather than multiple islands for several resort hotels built on the reef flat off of the Ala Moana Park, in 1964 a 30-acre peninsula, with “inner” and “outer” beaches for protected swimming, was constructed adjoining the Ala Wai Small Boat Harbor and Ala Wai Canal outlet.

The project stopped after the development of “Magic Island,” leaving the State with a man-made peninsula, which they converted into a public park.

In 1972 the State officially renamed Magic Island to ‘Āina Moana (“land [from the] sea”) to recognize that the park is made from dredged coral fill. The peninsula was turned over the city in a land exchange and is formally known as the ‘Āina Moana Section of Ala Moana Beach Park, but many local residents still call it Magic Island.

Between 1955 and 1976 the beach eroded, and in 1976, more sand was brought in from Mokuleʻia on the north coast of Oʻahu.

The image shows one of the Ala Moana Beach Parks bridges.  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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Ke Awa Lau O Puʻuloa

During ancient times, various land divisions were used to divide and identify areas of control.  Islands were divided into moku; moku were divided into ahupuaʻa.  A common feature in each ahupuaʻa was water, typically in the form of a stream or spring.

The Island of O’ahu had six Moku: Kona, Koʻolaupoko, Koʻolauloa Waialua, Waiʻanae and ʻEwa.

ʻEwa was comprised of twelve ahupuaʻa.  Some stories, when first recorded in the 19th- Century, refer to ʻEwa as the first area populated on Oʻahu by the immigrant Polynesians.

Puʻuloa or Ke Awa Lau O Puʻuloa (the many harbored-sea of Puʻuloa) is situated here.

All water sources in each of the twelve ahupuaʻa of ʻEwa met in Puʻuloa.  This was the only moku in all the islands where all waters from its ahupuaʻa did this.

Puʻuloa and Ke Awa Lau O Puʻuloa are just a couple of its traditional names.  It was also known as Awawalei (“garland (lei) of harbors,”) Awalau (“leaf-shaped lagoon”) and Huhui na ʻōpua i Awalau (The clouds met at Awalau.)

Today, we generally call this place Pearl Harbor.

The name Pearl Harbor is one of the few English place names in Hawaiʻi that is a close translation of another of its traditional Hawaiian names, Wai Momi (“Pearl Water.”)

Some of the traditional themes associated with this area include connections with Kahiki (Tahiti,) the traditional homeland of Hawaiians.

Legend tells that Kanekuaʻana (a moʻo, or water lizard) came from Kahiki and brought with her the pipi, or pearl oyster.  The harbor was teeming with pearl-producing oysters until the late-1800s.  (The general belief is that runoff sedimentation eventually smothered the oyster habitat.)

The pipi was called the "iʻa hamau leo" or "fish with a silenced voice." It was not the pipi that was silent but the people who gathered them (if they spoke, wind would ripple the water and the oysters would vanish.)

There are several versions of the chief Kahaʻi leaving from Kalaeloa (Barber's Point) for a trip to Kahiki; on his return to the Hawaiian Islands, he brought back the first breadfruit and planted it at Puʻuloa.

Traditional accounts indicate several of the fishponds in the Puʻuloa area were believed to have been constructed by Kāne and Kanaloa.  Directing the menehune, they made the pond Kapākule (aka Pākule,) which they stocked with all manner of fish.

Puʻuloa Salt Works (property of JI Dowsett) “are at the west side of the entrance to Pearl River, and the windmill is a prominent object in the landscape as we enter. It is also one of the guides in steeling vessels inward.  On the eastern side and opposite to the Puʻuloa buildings, is the fishery, where are a number of buildings inhabited by Chinamen.”  (Daily Bulletin, January 6, 1889)

Puʻuloa was originally an extensive, shallow embayment.  Keaunui, the head of the powerful and celebrated ʻEwa chiefs, is attributed for having cut a navigable channel near the Puʻuloa saltworks, by which the great estuary, known as "Pearl River," was for the first time rendered accessible to navigation.

Puʻuloa was regarded as the home of the shark goddess Kaʻahupahau and her brother Kahiʻuka in Hawaiian legends.  They were said to live in a cave at the entrance to Puʻuloa and guarded the waters against man-eating sharks.

“There is ample evidence that the lonely scenes, upon which we now gaze with wondering curiosity, were once thickly peopled; and at that period the gospel had not reached Pearl River.  Among the objects of their heathen worship was the shark, whoso numbers at Pearl River in those days were very abundant.”  (Daily Bulletin, January 6, 1889)

Moku‘ume‘ume (meaning “island of strife”) is a small island located in Pearl Harbor on the Island of Oʻahu.  It is entirely surrounded by water deep enough to accommodate deep draft ocean-going vessels.  We now call it Ford Island.

The first known foreigner to enter the channel of the Pearl Harbor area, Captain George Vancouver, started to explore the area, but stopped when he realized that the entrance was not deep enough for large ships to pass through.

“If the water upon the bar should be deepened, which I doubt not can be effected, it would afford the best and most capacious harbor in the Pacific.” (Commodore Charles Wilkes, 1840)

In the nineteenth century, the peninsula between Middle Loch and East Loch (part of the Mānana ahupuaʻa) had numerous fishponds, some rice fields, pasture land at the tip, and oyster beds offshore.

As a means of solidifying a site in the central Pacific, the US negotiated an amendment to the Treaty of Reciprocity in 1887.  King Kalākaua in his speech before the opening session of the 1887 Hawaiian Legislature stated (November 3, 1887:)
"I take great pleasure in informing you that the Treaty of Reciprocity with the United States of America has been definitely extended for seven years upon the same terms as those in the original treaty, with the addition of a clause granting to national vessels of the United States the exclusive privilege of entering Pearl River Harbor and establishing there a coaling and repair station. This has been done after mature deliberation and the interchange between my Government and that of the United States of an interpretation of the said clause whereby it is agreed and understood that it does not cede any territory or part with or impair any right of sovereignty or jurisdiction on the part of the Hawaiian Kingdom and that such privilege is coterminous with the treaty.”

“I regard this as one of the most important events of my reign, and I sincerely believe that it will re-establish the commercial progress and prosperity which began with the Reciprocity Treaty."  (Kalākaua)

In 1890 some of the Mānana lands became the first planned subdivision outside of urban Honolulu (Pearl City, named in a contest and developed by Benjamin F Dillingham as a way to increase passenger traffic on his Oahu Railway and Land Company (OR&L) trains.)

The image shows an 1873 map of Puʻuloa (Pearl Harbor.)  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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Prisoners, Pullmans and Prostitutes

Very few people lived there, but that shouldn't suggest the place was without activity.

By the time of first contact with Europeans, the downtown area of Honolulu, known then as Kou, was comprised of shoreward fishponds and taro lo‘i fed by streams extending into the Nu‘uanu and Pauoa valleys.

On the opposite side (ʻEwa) of Nu‘uanu stream was a fishpond, identified as “Kawa” or the “King’s fish pond.” Iwilei at that time was a small, narrow peninsula, less populated than the Honolulu-side of Nuʻuanu stream.

Offshore from Iwilei was a small island on the coral reef on the west site of the bay. On the island was a small hut referred to as “Ka-moku-‘akulikuli” or “Kaha-ka-‘au-lana” (the early names for it were “Quarantine Island,” then “Sand Island” – it was a lot smaller, then, too.)

The first wharf at Honolulu Harbor was just north of Nuʻuanu Street. It was constructed from an old hulk sunk at the spot in 1825. This was replaced and expanded in 1837.

On the shoreline (at about what is now the intersection of Queen and Nimitz) Fort Kekuanohu was constructed.  Its original purpose was to protect Honolulu by keeping enemy or otherwise undesirable ships out.  Later, it was used as a prison.

In 1852, the legislature adopted a resolution directing the minister of the interior to remove the Fort and to use the material obtained thereby "in the construction of prisons, and the filling up of the reef."

The Fort, being used as a prison, could not be removed until a new prison was built; construction for the new prison began in 1855, but not entirely completed until more than two years later.  The Fort was then removed in 1857. (Kuykendall)

The Prison was on a marshy no-man’s land almost completely cut off from the main island by two immense fishponds.  The causeway road (initially called "Prison Road,” later “Iwilei Street”) split Kawa Pond into Kawa and Kūwili fishponds.

Sometimes called the  "Oʻahu Prison," "King's Prison," "Kawa Prison" or, simply, "The Reef," it was a coral block fortress built upon coral fill at the end of a coral built road over the coral reefs and mudflats of Iwilei.

In 1886, Mark Twain visited the prison and wrote:  "... we presently arrived at a massive coral edifice which I took for a fortress at first, but found out directly that it was the government prison. A soldier at the great gate admitted us without further authority than my countenance, and I supposed he thought he was paying me a handsome compliment when he did so; and so did I until I reflected that the place was a penitentiary".

The Prison was later relocated to Kalihi (1916) and renamed O‘ahu Jail; this is now known as O‘ahu Community Correctional Facility.

Another Iwilei activity included a railway station.  In 1889, a group of businessmen led by Benjamin Dillingham founded the O‘ahu Railway and Land Company (OR&L).

OR&L built Honolulu’s first depot between Kūwili fishpond and King Street, west of Iwilei Street. The July 27, 1889 Advertiser noted, "Plans have been approved by which the main depot will be placed 180 feet from King Street in what is now a fishpond dividing Oahu Prison from the royal stables.  A large portion, if not all, of this extensive fishpond will be filled in without delay..."

The railroad carried sugarcane from the plantations to Iwilei – it carried people, too. To accommodate this, the marshes and fishponds were filled in and new wharfs built.  By 1901, the OR&L and other business interests had created about 500 acres of waterfront land. The docks could accommodate over 20 deepwater sailing vessels, unloading coal and loading sugar.

The last of the activities at early Iwilei was the business was sex.  (Before there was Hotel Street (the 1940s gathering place,) there was Iwilei.)  They called it the ‘Iwilei Stockade.’

Inside a high stockade wall were long rows of rooms, each 8x10; there were 225 of them.  Most of the women were from Japan.  From 4 pm to 2 am, the stockade gates were open.  (Gallagher)

These women did not live at Iwilei; they only went there in the evenings, and then returned to their uptown homes at night. Some had homes of their own, others were servants of families; but all went back to town. They were in no sense isolated; Iwilei was not their home; they neither eat nor sleep there. (Special Legislative Committee Report, 1905)

Local law enforcement condoned and controlled the activities, under the guise that it was “a public necessity.”  "The whole of Iwilei makai of the Oʻahu Prison has been used for the purpose of prostitution for some time past.”  (Special Legislative Committee Report, 1905)

“The High Sheriff of the Territory, through his agents, has ordered all of such women (prostitutes) that are found in different parts of the City, and also in some portions of Iwilei, to move to one particular part as follows: on the makai side of Iwilei rice mill, and on the Ewa side of the Iwilei road." (Special Legislative Committee Report, 1905)

The Iwilei brothels (or “boogie houses,” as they were also called back then) were later forced to relocate to Hotel Street and a few adjoining parts of Chinatown.   By 1916, the Iwilei Stockade was shut down.

It has been suggested that one of the former Iwilei prostitutes became the role model for the key character in the silent film "Sadie Thompson," based on W. Somerset Maugham’s short story "Rain" (as well as other adaptations.)

As time went on, more of the fringing reefs were filled, which made way for expanded commercial use.  By the 1920s, small and large businesses moved in – and, now, gone are the Prisoners, Pullmans and Prostitutes from Iwilei.

The image shows the Iwilei area from an 1887 over Google Earth; Oʻahu Prison and the Kawa and Kūwili Fishponds are noted.  In addition, I have added other related images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

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Kawaihāpai

Kawaihāpai Ahupua'a is nestled between Keālia and Mokuleʻia ahupuaʻa in the Waialua District on the island of Oʻahu. West of Keālia is Kaʻena Ahupuaʻa.

The oral traditions explain the origin of the name as:  “A drought once came there in ancient times and drove out everyone except two aged priests. Instead of going with the others, they remained to plead with their gods for relief. One day they saw a cloud approaching from the ocean. It passed over the house to the cliff behind. They heard a splash and when they ran to look, they found water.”

“Because it was brought there by a cloud in answer to their prayers, the place was named Kawaihāpai (the carried water) and the water supply was named Kawaikumuʻole (water without source).”  (Alameida, HJH)

Kawaihāpai was known for its large loʻi (irrigated terraces) and sweet potato fields as well as excellent fishing grounds. The loʻi extended into Keālia, where small terraces at the foot of the pali (cliff) grew varieties of taro.

In addition to shore or reef fishing, ponds were built for the breeding and nurturing of fish. Handy pointed out that, "these enterprises varied from small individual efforts to large-scale cooperative undertakings directed by ruling chiefs, and varied also according to locality and natural advantages."  (Alameida, HJH)

Kamakau wrote that the loko iʻa of various sizes beautified the land, and that "a land with many fishponds was called a 'fat' land" (ʻāina momona.)  The well-known loko iʻa of Waialua were Lokoea and ʻUkoʻa in the ahupuaʻa of Kawailoa. While Kamehameha I was living on Oʻahu, he worked in the fishponds on the island, including ʻUkoʻa in Waialua.

After the death of Kinaʻu, daughter of Kamehameha I, all of her lands in Waialua were inherited by her infant daughter Victoria Kamaʻmalu.  Although only nine years old at the time of the Māhele, Kamāmalu was the third largest land holder in the kingdom.

However, she gave up all of her lands between the ahupua'a of Kamananui and Kaʻena to the government to satisfy the one third commutation requirement set by the Land Commission.

Kauikeaouli (Kamehameha III) then designated these lands at the western end of Waialua district as government lands, distinct from those he reserved for himself; this included Kawaihāpai, Kamananui, Mokuleʻia, Keālia and Kaʻena.  (As such, people, residents and foreigners, were able to purchase the land in fee simple.)

Those who bought government lands were issued documents called grants or often referred to as Royal Patent Grants signed by Kamehameha III. These differed from the awards issued by the Land Commission.

By the late-1800s, some of the heirs of the original Kawaihāpai landowners were selling land.  By the mid-1920s, the Dillinghams owned land from Mokuleʻia to Kaʻena.

Army use of land just south of the Oahu Railroad & Land Company (OR&L) railway in Mokuleʻia began in 1922 with the establishment of Camp Kawaihāpai as a communications station.  In the 1920s and 1930s, the site was also used as a deployment site for mobile coast artillery, which was transported by railroad.

The US government acquired about 105-acres from Walter F. Dillingham, whose father, Benjamin F. Dillingham, had built Oʻahu Railway & Land Co.

The military was looking for a site for an airfield.  The area was originally called Kawaihāpai Military Reservation in 1927.  By December 7, 1941, a fighter airstrip had been established on additional leased land and Mokuleʻia Airstrip had been established.

P-40 aircraft were deployed at North Shore airstrips at Kahuku, Haleiwa and Mokuleʻia when the Pearl Harbor attack took place.  At the outbreak of World War II, the area was re-designated Mokuleʻia Airfield and was expanded to accommodate bombers.

Mokuleʻia Airfield was improved to a 9,000-foot by 75-foot paved runway, a crosswind runway and many aircraft revetments from 1942-1945.  By the end of World War II, Mokuleʻia Airfield could handle B-29 bombers.

In 1946, the U.S. Army acquired the additional 583 acres of leased land by condemnation.  In late 1946, the US Army Air Force became the US Air Force by order of President Truman, so Mokuleʻia Airfield became an Air Force installation.

In 1948, the airfield was inactivated and the area was renamed Dillingham Air Force Base in memory of Captain Henry Gaylord Dillingham, a B-29 pilot who was killed in action in Kawasaki, Japan, July 25, 1945.

Captain Dillingham was the son of Walter F. Dillingham who was a noted pilot on Oʻahu in the 1930s.  Henry was also the grandson of Benjamin F. Dillingham (who founded the OR&L, which evolved into Hawaiian Dredging Company and the Dillingham Corporation.)

In the 1970s the state had examined the airfield's potential as a reliever airport.  The Defense Authorization Act of 1990 provided that the 67 acres of ceded land of old Camp Kawaihapai be transferred to the state after an agreement on future joint-use of the airfield was reached.

The 2001 Legislature passed Act 276 (effective in 2005) that changed the official name of the airfield located at Kawaihāpai, formerly known as Dillingham Airfield, to Kawaihāpai Airfield (although some still refer to it today as Dillingham.)

It serves as a public and military use airport, operated by the Hawaiʻi Department of Transportation. The airport is primarily used for gliding and sky diving operations. Military operations consist largely of night operations for night vision device training.

The image shows Dillingham’s OR&L Train going past Mokuleʻia Field, Oʻahu, ca 1942-1943.  In addition, I have added other images in a folder of like kind in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

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Kapiʻolani Park Fountain

In 1919, in commemoration of the coronation of Emperor Yoshihito (and a sign of good Japanese-Hawaiian relations,) Japanese in Hawaiʻi offered to construct a modified duplicate of the fountain in Hibiya Park Tokyo in Kapiʻolani Park.

The official presentation of the “Phoenix Fountain” was conducted by Consul General Moroi who announced the fountain was a “testimonial of friendship and equality of the Japanese residing in the Hawaiian Islands.”

One Japanese speaker noted, “We are assembled here to mark a spot of everlasting importance in the annals of the history of the Japanese people of Hawaii.”

Unfortunately, such friendship and trust did not prevail over the years, the victim of racial turmoil generated by World War II.

Reportedly, the Honolulu Advertiser noted on the 1st anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor that the “fountain which stood in Kapiʻolani Park for 25-years as a public symbol of Japanese imperialism may at last be removed.”

Following the racial animosity generated by World War II, in 1943, the Phoenix Fountain was destroyed and turned to scrap.  A basic fountain was built.

Later, in the 1960s, the city constructed a fountain in honor of Louise Dillingham, who served many years as a member of the former City Parks Board (reportedly, the Walter and Louise Dillingham Foundation gave the fountain to the city in 1966.)

Her husband Walter Dillingham is known for the huge changes he made to Honolulu's landscape – which included draining Waikīkī’s wetlands, dredging the Ala Wai Canal and filling in Waikīkī’s wetlands.

Today the fountain at Kapiʻolani Park has become a popular resting spot for joggers and a regular backdrop for photos (it has also served in scenes in prior Hawaii Five-O episodes.)

It's located across the street from the Elks Club at Poni Moi Street.

The image shows transformative stages of the fountain at Kapiʻolani Park – first as the Phoenix Fountain and then the basic fountain and later the Louise Dillingham Memorial Fountain (images from “Kapiʻolani Park a history.”)

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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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.

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La Pietra

Papaʻenaʻena heiau was situated on the side of Lēʻahi, Diamond Head.  It was referred to by early writers as "Lēʻahi heiau."

Papaʻenaʻena was reportedly built by Maui King Kahekili to commemorate his conquest of Oʻahu.   This heiau was destroyed in about 1856 and its stones were carted off to Waikīkī for use as rock walls and driveways.

During the Mahele this site was given by the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi to the future King Lunalilo.  After the king's death this site was sold to James Campbell, in 1883.  Later, Walter F. Dillingham bought the land from Campbell.

In 1910, Walter Dillingham married Louise Gaylord.  Bucking the current trend of wealthy families living in Mānoa, Mr. Dillingham chose to build his new bride a home on a dry and - at the time - remote area on the slopes of Diamond Head.

With the help of famed Chicago architect, David Adler, they built a home similar to the Villa La Pietra they admired in Tuscany while on their honeymoon.

Three elements compose the central structure.  One is facing the northward toward the Koʻolau range, one westward to the Waianae range, and one southward to the sea.

All three face inward on a flagged courtyard surrounded by a pillared arcade.  In the center of the courtyard is an Italianate fountain, which was used to cool the building when the breeze swept through the structure.

The building is a composite of villa, as noted by Grace Tower Warren, Island Hostess: An Italian Villa in Hawaii, Paradise of the Pacific, Vol. 63:
"Many people have had the idea that La Pietra is a copy of my aunt's villa in Florence of the same name, the one In which Mr. Dillingham and I were married, but such is not the case", said Mrs. Dillingham.

"It is a composite of several of the beautiful villas in Florence to which my aunt, Mrs. Acton, took me, The facade facing the Waianae Mountains and the town is copied from the Villa Cambreia, The facade facing the Koolau Mountains is a replica of the de Medici villa in Florence. Our architect was David Adler, and he beautifully combined and coordinated the designs and ideas we loved..."

Mr. Dillingham and Adler did not work together in person.  At the time Adler was designing another residence in New York.  So Mr. Dillingham sent Mr. Adler detailed measurements and contour maps of the site, and photographs showing the setting in which the villa would stand.

With that, La Pietra – meaning The Gem or The Rock – was born.

The Dillingham home was completed in 1922 and included 5 bedrooms, a swimming pool, a formal dining room, horse stables, servants' quarters, tennis courts, and a game/pool table room.

Architecturally, the home is described as "An extensive two-story "Italian villa" in an imposing terraced setting overlooking Kapiʻolani Park, Waikiki Bay and Honolulu; an example of the "Mediterranean Revival" period which had some popularity in Honolulu, as on the mainland."

For the next 40 years, La Pietra was a social center for Honolulu’s wealthy and famous, with visitors to the estate including Franklin D. Roosevelt and Walt Disney.

Upon Mr. Dillingham's death in 1963, Punahou School gained ownership of La Pietra and used it for faculty housing; the property was eventually sold to the newly formed Hawaii School for Girls in 1969.

With its start at Central Union Church, Hawaii School for Girls then renamed and relocated to La Pietra - Hawaii School for Girls, which consisted of nine founding teachers, 210 girls and Head of School, Joseph Pynchon.

Over the years, various enhancements were made to the campus. A six classroom building named in honor of Mrs. Cooke was dedicated in January 1977. The athletic complex, completed in 1987, was named in honor of Mrs. Anthony in 2008. Bachman Science Center was built in 1997. Most recently, the school renovated its library to create Hawaii’s first all-digital school library.

La Pietra - Hawaii School for Girls is an independent, college preparatory school for girls.  In addition to this image, I had added others of La Pietra 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

Hale‘iwa Hotel

While the Moana is touted as the First lady of Waikīkī, the Hale‘iwa Hotel, at the end of the OR&L train line in North Shore O‘ahu was constructed a year before the Moana.

In 1898, as part of the O‘ahu Railway & Land Company (OR&L) rail system, the Hale‘iwa Hotel ("house of the ‘iwa", or frigate bird) was completed.

The hotel was part of a bigger plan to expand and diversify operations of the OR&L rail line.  OR&L primarily serviced the sugar plantations, adding a hotel at the end of the line opened up opportunities to expand the number of people riding the train.

Passenger travel was an add-on opportunity that not only included train rides; they also operated a bus system.  However, the hauling for the agricultural ventures was the most lucrative.

Typical hotels, like the Moana and later the Alexander Young Hotel in downtown Honolulu, served the traditional function of accommodating visitors; Ben F. Dillingham’s hotel sought that, as well as the diversified use of his train line.

On the continent, railroads were building hotels on their lines as a means to enhance the passenger counts – Hawai‘i, through OR&L, was doing the same.

By the early-1900s, the expanded railway cut across the island, serving several sugar and pineapple plantations, and the popular Hale‘iwa Hotel.  They even included a “Kodak Camera Train” (associated with the Hula Show) for Sunday trips to Hale‘iwa for picture-taking.

When the hotel opened on August 5, 1899, guests were conveyed from the railway terminal over the Anahulu stream to fourteen luxurious suites, each had a bath with hot-and-cold running water.

Thrum’s ‘Hawaiian Annual’ (1900,) noted, “In providing so tempting an inn as an adjunct and special attraction for travel by the Oahu Railway – also of his (Dillinghams’s) creation – the old maxim of ‘what is worth doing is worth doing well’ has been well observed, everything About the hotel is first class…”

The weekend getaway from Honolulu to the Hale‘iwa Hotel became hugely popular with the city affluent who enjoyed a retreat in "the country."

Reportedly, a round-trip, two-day excursion by train from Honolulu to Hale‘iwa, around Ka‘ena Point, cost $10.  It included an overnight stay at the Hotel, a tour through Waialua sugar mill and a ride up to Wahiawa to tour the plantations.

The original manager was Curtis Iaukea, who had been chamberlain to Kalākaua’s royal household and was famed for his knowledge of protocol.

To while away the time there, the hotel recreational activities offered guests golf (reportedly the second course to be constructed in the islands,) tennis, fishing, canoeing and glass-bottom boat rides.

With the opening of the Hale‘iwa Hotel, the business climate expanded and tourism began to play a hand in the area. Many of the early business families and their original business buildings still remain in Hale‘iwa town today.  Some of the town's buildings are protected landmarks.

As noted in ‘The Union Pacific Magazine,’ (1924) “there are few more charming spots in the Hawaiian Islands than this delightful hotel with its bungalow cottages for guests and its beautiful grounds sloping gently back to the bank of a crystal clear river that runs out between lava rocks to the sea”.

By the late-1920s, it was hard to maintain the luxury and level of service at the hotel.  What had been built two decades before to lure passengers to ride the train no longer applied, as more and more people owned cars.

In 1930 the railroad closed the hotel and it became a private ‘Haleiwa Beach Club.’  Later, the Haleiwa Hotel became the ‘Haleiwa Army Officer’s Club.’

During the height of its popularity, the hotel had made the name Hale‘iwa famous, and when its, ultimately, doors closed in 1943; its name remained as the name of the surrounding community – Hale‘iwa.

The last ride on OR&L’s train operations was on December 31, 1947, ending 58-years of steam locomotives hauling all kinds of people, freight and other around O‘ahu.

By 1953, the aged, termite-ridden structure had been torn down.  Hale‘iwa Joe’s restaurant now stands where the Hale‘iwa Hotel once stood.

The image shows the Hale‘iwa Hotel in 1902.  (Some of the information here is from Next Stop Honolulu – The Story of OR&L and North Shore Chamber of Commerce.)  In addition, I have included other images of the Hale‘iwa Hotel in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook page.

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

Downtown Honolulu In 1950

A picture is worth a thousand words; they (and maps) tell stories.  This map tells lots of stories … and brings back some great memories.

OK, I wasn’t even born when the map was printed.  But a few years later, when I was a kid, there are a lot of familiar places (and associated stories) depicted on this map.

Take some time looking at the ownership and operations up and down the streets.  There have been lots of changes since then – but the memories are still here.

Bishop Street was and continues to be the center of Hawai‘i commerce and banking (in the center of the map, running up/down.)

Do you remember the Big 5?

Did you notice their placement on Bishop Street (and to each other) back then (as well as the battling banks across Bishop Street from each other?)

Five major companies emerged to provide operations, marketing, supplies and other services for the plantations and eventually came to own and manage most of them.  They became known as the Big 5:

•        Amfac (1849) - Hackfeld & Company - a German firm that later became American Factors Ltd (Amfac.)  It was started by a young German selling goods to whalers and grew to manage and control various sugar operations.

•        Alexander & Baldwin (1870) - started by Samuel Thomas Alexander and Henry Perrine Baldwin, sons of missionaries.  It was the only Big 5 that started in sugar.  Their irrigation project sent water 17-miles from Haleakala to 3,000-dry sugar cane acres in central Maui.

•        Theo H. Davis (1845) - a British firm that started as a small isle trading company and expanded into other businesses including sugar, transportation and insurance.

•        Castle & Cooke (1851) - founded by missionaries (Samuel Northrup Castle and Amos Starr Cooke,) which originally sold sewing machines, farm tools and medicine in Hawaii.  It later bought stock in sugar plantations and focused on sugar companies.

•        C. Brewer – (1826) founded by James Hunnewell, an officer on the Thaddeus that brought the original missionaries to Hawai‘i in 1820.  He returned in 1826 to set up a trading company specialized in supplying whaling ships but then moved into sugar and molasses.  The firm’s namesake, Capt. Charles Brewer, became a partner in 1836.

Another Hawai‘i family and company, Dillingham, started in the late-1800s, although not a “Big Five,” deserves some attention – it’s offices were down there, too (next to the Big 5.)  They played a critical role in agricultural operations through leasing land and controlling some operations, but mostly moved the various goods on OR&L.

Back in the ‘50s, Fort Street was “it” for shopping (to the left of Bishop Street, also running mauka/makai – now, it’s mostly a pedestrian mall.)

You can read the names of old Honolulu retail iconic institutions – Liberty House, McInerny, Watamulls and Andrades - along with Kress, Woolworths, National Dollar and Longs Drugs.

I remember the “moving windows” during Christmas season; we’d pile in the station wagon and take a special trip over the Pali to downtown to Christmas shop (the Pali Tunnels and Ala Moana Center weren’t open until 1959.)

We’d walk up and down Fort Street and look at all the animated window displays, then stop in at a restaurant for dinner (one of our favorites was Fisherman’s Wharf at Kewalo Basin.)

‘Iolani Palace is on the site labeled Territorial Executive Grounds (we’re still nine years away from statehood;) mauka of it had different uses – it’s now the State Capitol and Hotel Street walkway.

The YWCA (just to the left of ‘Iolani Palace) is still going strong and nearby was the YMCA, now converted to the Hawai‘i State Art Museum and state offices.

The Alexander Young Hotel, opened in 1903 (on Bishop between Hotel and King,) was later converted hold offices and was demolished in 1981.

You can see some roads have changed or have been consolidated into adjoining properties.  Did you notice, back then, Ala Moana/Nimitz on the map was called Queen Street?

In my early years in real estate (while still a student at UH, I used to do research in the Tax Office and Bureau of Conveyances (lower right of map.)  Fifty-two years later, I directed DLNR which now has the Bureau of Conveyances under its management umbrella.

The map is from UH-Mānoa, Hamilton Library and used with permission for personal, non-commercial and educational purposes.  In addition, I have added some other old Downtown Honolulu 1950s Maps and Images in a folder of like name in the Photos section of my Facebook page.

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

O‘ahu Railway and Land Company (OR&L)

The story of Hawaii’s “Big Five” companies (Alexander & Baldwin, Amfac (American Factors), Castle & Cooke, C. Brewer & Co. and Theo. H Davies & Co.) dominates the state’s economic history.

Their common trait: they were founded in agriculture - sugar and pineapple.

Another Hawai‘i family and company, Dillingham, started business in the late-1800s; although not a “Big Five,” deserves some attention.

It’s beginning, in part, is traced to O‘ahu Railway and Land Company.  They didn’t necessarily produce agriculture, but they played a critical role in agricultural operations.

Benjamin Franklin (Frank) Dillingham formed OR&L (a narrow gauge rail,) whose economic being was founded on the belief that O‘ahu would soon host a major sugar industry.

In 1885, Dillingham embarked on a land development project west of Honolulu and, like his continental counterparts, realized that this venture would not succeed without improved transportation to the area.  He also figured that a railroad needed to carry freight, as well, in order to be profitable.

The drilling of the first artesian well on the Ewa Plain by James Campbell in 1879 presented Dillingham another opportunity.  He obtained 50-year leases beginning in 1887 from Campbell in Ewa.

In 1888, the legislature gave Dillingham an exclusive franchise “for construction and operation on the Island of O‘ahu a steam railroad ... for the carriage of passengers and freight.”

Ultimately OR&L sublet land, partnered on several sugar operations and/or hauled cane from Ewa Plantation Company, Honolulu Sugar Company in ‘Aiea, O‘ahu Sugar in Waipahu, Waianae Sugar Company, Waialua Agriculture Company and Kahuku Plantation Company, as well as pineapples for Dole.

Likewise, OR&L hauled various stages in the pineapple harvesting/production, including the canning components, fresh pineapple to the cannery, ending up hauling the cased products to the docks.

By 1895 the rail line reached Waianae.  It then rounded Kaena Point to Mokuleia, eventually extending to Kahuku.  Another line was constructed through central O‘ahu to Wahiawa.

Passenger travel was an add-on opportunity that not only included train rides, they also operated a bus system.  However, the hauling for the agricultural ventures was the most lucrative.

They even included a “Kodak Camera Train” (associated with the Hula Show) for Sunday trips to Haleiwa for picture-taking.  During the war years, they served the military.

Just like the rail programs on the continent, the railroad owned and operated the Haleiwa Hotel and offered city folks a North Shore destination with beaches, boating, golf, tennis and hunting.

In addition, OR&L (using another of its “land” components,) got into land development.  It developed Hawai‘i’s first planned suburban development and held a contest, through the newspaper, to name this new city.

The winner selected was “Pearl City” (the public also named the main street, Lehua.)

The railway owned 2,200-acres in fee simple in the peninsula.  First they laid-out and constructed the improvements, then invited the public on a free ride to see the new residential community.

The marketing went so well; ultimately, lots were auctioned off to the highest bidder.

Multiple factors affected the ultimate demise of the rail operations: sugar/pineapple production fizzled in the islands; more and more people were getting automobiles for travel; a 1946 tsunami damaged tracks and the war’s end stopped military travel.

The last ride on OR&L’s train operations was on December 31, 1947, ending 58-years of steam locomotives hauling all kinds of people, freight and other around O‘ahu.

The Dillinghams were out of transportation, but were active in development, construction and dredging.

My father served as manager of the land department of OR&L (1952-1961.)  When OR&L and Hawaiian Dredging and Construction Company merged to form the Dillingham Corporation, he was manager and vice president at Dillingham until 1968.  As a kid, I remember going down to the old OR&L facility in Iwilei.

Hawaiian Railway Society is resurrecting railroading; they have a facility in Kalaeloa and run a train out to Kahe Point on Sundays call: (808) 681-5461 for details.

The image shows the OR&L facility in Iwilei.  I have also posted a folder of OR&L images in a folder of like name in the Photos section of my Facebook page.  (Information in this post taken, in part, from “Next Stop Honolulu,” which is a good book on early-Hawai‘i rail.)

http://www.facebook.com/people/Peter-T-Young/1332665638