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May 24, 2020 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Lomi Lomi Salmon

For some, a lūʻau is not a lūʻau without lomi lomi salmon (salmon cubes, diced tomatoes and onion.)

But Hawaiʻi’s waters don’t teem with salmon; so, how did this become a lūʻau staple get into the compartment of our lūʻau plates?

The answer may be found in the export records of the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC,) whose regional headquarters was in the Pacific Northwest in the mid-1800s.

Back near the turn of the last century, the most valuable commercial fisheries in the world, excepting only the oyster and herring fisheries, were those supported by salmon. (Cobb)

Of these the most important, by far, were the salmon fisheries of the Pacific coast of North America (California, Oregon, Washington and Alaska, including also British Columbia.)

Salmon was a mainstay of life of the Northwest Coast Indians. Fresh or preserved salmon, in turn, became a staple food for HBC posts west of the Rocky Mountains.

With the HBC opening of their offices in Honolulu in 1829, the company’s focus turned to marketing two of its home-region’s primary resources, salmon and timber.

By 1830, the HBC was preserving salmon on the Columbia River and at Fort Langley on the Fraser River as well, mainly to feed Company personnel, but with some 200 to 300 barrels of Columbia River salmon exported that year, presumably all to Hawai’i.

Preserved salmon found a ready market on O’ahu, particularly among native Hawaiians.

Just when that notable dish, lomi lomi salmon, first made its appearance is unknown, but if it was in fashion by the 1830s, the HBC can take credit for being the main provider of its principal ingredient.

During the 1830s, HBC sold several hundred barrels of salmon a year in Honolulu. The 1840s saw a major increase in sales; in 1846, 1,530 barrels were shipped to Hawaiʻi and HBC tried to increase salmon exports to 2,000 barrels annually.

The peak year was in 1849, with 2,610 barrels exported to Honolulu.

The Company itself did not fish for salmon, but instead entered into a symbiotic relationship with the Northwest Indians, whereby the latter with their long expertise were the fishermen.

Company records do not give a precise description of the method of salmon preservation, although it is clear they were pickled, the earliest commercial method used on the Pacific Coast. Writing in 1910, Cobb described the method as follows:

“In dressing salmon for pickling the heads are removed, the fish split along the belly, the cut ending with a downward curve at the tail.”

“The viscera and two thirds of the backbone are removed, and the blood gurry, and black stomach membrane scraped away. The fish are then scrubbed and washed in cold water.“

“They are next placed in pickling butts with about 15 pounds of salt for every 100 pounds of fish. The fish remain here for about one week, when they are removed, rubbed clean with a scrub brush and repacked in market barrels, one sack of salt being used for every three barrels of 200 pounds each.”

Of the five species of North Pacific salmon, sockeye salmon was preferred for export, in conformity with Hawaiian tastes. Native Hawaiians also expressed a preference for Fraser River, rather than Columbia River salmon.

The Company exchanged trade goods for their salmon.
Sugar, molasses, coffee and salt were Island products regularly sent to provision the HBC posts. Hawaiian salt was used in preserving the salmon destined for Hawaiian consumption.

The source of the salt shipped by HBC to the Northwest Coast could have come from the Moanalua salt lake on Oʻahu, whose salt was considered the best for salting provisions and as a table salt in Honolulu.

The Honolulu office of HBC during the 1850s began to feel increasing competition of salmon imports from the Russian American Company at Sitka and of American imports from Puget Sound.

The 1853 smallpox epidemic that decimated the Hawaiian population caused a great falling off of salmon sales.

The Hudson’s Bay Company decided to close its Honolulu operations in 1859, and eventually closed a couple years later.

However, the islands’ love of lomi lomi salmon continues today.

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Lomi_lomi_salmon

Filed Under: Economy, General, Hawaiian Traditions Tagged With: Hawaii, Honolulu, Hudson's Bay Company, Northwest

May 23, 2020 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Love always for Hawaiʻi

“For more than 100 years, love of the land and its natural beauty has been the poetry Hawaiian composers have used to speak of love. Hawaiian songs also speak to people’s passion for their homeland and their beliefs.” (Hawaiian Music Hall of Fame, 1998)

The Hawaiian Music Hall of Fame further noted, Hawaiʻi Aloha is “widely regarded as Hawaiʻi’s second anthem”. (Hawaiian Music Museum)

“It is performed at important government and social functions to bring people together in unity, and at the closing of Hawaiʻi Legislative sessions. Today, people automatically stand when this song is played extolling the virtues of ‘beloved Hawaiʻi.’”

Hawaiʻi Aloha was written by a Protestant missionary, Lorenzo Lyons. The music is from James McGranahan “I Left It All With Jesus.” (Kam)

Some suggest Lyons wrote the song for Kamehameha IV. However, “Since Kamehameha IV died on November 30, 1863, and the American tune by McGranahan appeared in print in 1879 or 1881, the song could not have been the king’s favorite song.” (Kam)

“In 1998, The Advisory Board honored these traditional songs for their beauty and their messages, which have made them popular, with concert performers and recording artists, as well as the public.”

Hawaiʻi Aloha has three verses, but most typically sing the first verse and repeat portions of the chorus:

E Hawaiʻi e kuʻu one hānau e
Kuʻu home kulaiwi nei
ʻOli nō au i nā pono lani ou
E Hawaiʻi, aloha ē

Hui:
E hauʻoli nā ʻōpio o Hawai`i nei
ʻOli ē! ʻOli ē!
Mai nā aheahe makani e pā mai nei
Mau ke aloha, no Hawaiʻi

Reverend Lorenzo Lyons was fluent in the Hawaiian language and composed many poems and hymns; his best known and beloved work is the hymn “Hawaiʻi Aloha” sung to the tune of “I Left It All With Jesus.”

The most likely date for the composition of the words of “Hawai‘i Aloha,” falls after the publication of Gospel Hymns, No. 4 (Words Only) in 1879, when the music was first available, and before the death of Lyons on October 6, 1886. (Kam)

Here’s the English translation (first verse and chorus):

O Hawaiʻi, o sands of my birth
My native home
I rejoice in the blessings of heaven
O Hawaiʻi, aloha

Chorus:
Happy youth of Hawai`i
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Gentle breezes blow
Love always for Hawaiʻi

Here’s a link to Hawaiʻi Aloha – sung by Ledward Kaʻapana, Dennis Kamakahi & Nathan Aweau – written by a missionary:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWjpR-J0BSc

Israel Kamakawiwoʻole – Hawai’i Aloha
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Q0_wr2IflQ

Collaboration between native Hawaiians and the American Protestant missionaries resulted in, among other things, the introduction of Christianity, the creation of the Hawaiian written language, widespread literacy, the promulgation of the concept of constitutional government, making Western medicine available and the evolution of a new and distinctive musical tradition.

Oli and mele were already a part of the Hawaiian tradition. “As the Hawaiian songs were unwritten, and adapted to chanting rather than metrical music, a line was measured by the breath; their hopuna, answering to our line, was as many words as could be easily cantilated at one breath.” (Bingham)

Some songs were translations of Western songs into Hawaiian; some were original verse and melody. Hawaiʻi Aloha is an example of the music left as a lasting legacy by the missionaries in the Islands.

Missionaries used songs as a part of the celebration, as well as learning process. “At this period, the same style of sermons, prayers, songs, interrogations, and exhortations, which proves effectual in promoting revivals of religion, conversion, or growth in grace among a plain people in the United States was undoubtedly adapted to be useful at the Sandwich Islands.” (Bingham)

“The king (Kamehameha III) being desirous to use his good voice in singing, we sang together at my house, not war songs, but sacred songs of praise to the God of peace.” (Bingham)

Hawaiʻi Aloha was not the only popular song written by the missionaries.

One of the unique verses (sung to an old melody) was Hoʻonani Hole ‐ Hoʻonani I Ka Makua Mau. Missionary Hiram Bingham wrote/translated it to Hawaiian and people sang it to a melody that dates back to the 1600s – today, it is known as the Hawaiian Doxology. (It is his original lyrics, not a translation of “Praise God from whom all blessings flow …”

“In 1872, (Lyons) published Buke Himeni Hawaiʻi containing over 600 hymns, two thirds his own composition. Some years later he prepared the Sabbath School Hymn and Tune Book Lei Aliʻi.””

“The Hawaiians owe entirely to his exertions their introduction to modern enlivening styles of popular sacred music.” (Hawaiian Gazette, October 19, 1886)

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Charles_Kauha-the_background-1890
Charles_Kauha-the_background-1890

Filed Under: General, Missionaries / Churches / Religious Buildings Tagged With: Hawaii, Hawaii Aloha, Lorenzo Lyons, Missionaries

May 22, 2020 by Peter T Young 3 Comments

Evolution of Honolulu Harbor

Coral doesn’t grow in freshwater. So, where a stream enters a coastal area, there is typically no coral growth at that point – and, as the freshwater runs out into the ocean, a coral-less channel is created.

In its natural state, thanks to Nuʻuanu Stream, Honolulu Harbor originally was a deep embayment formed by the outflow of Nuʻuanu Stream creating an opening in the shallow coral reef along the south shore of Oʻahu.

Honolulu Harbor (it was earlier known as Kuloloia) was entered by the first foreigner, Captain William Brown of the English ship Butterworth, in 1794.

They called the harbor “Fair Haven” which may be a rough translation of the Hawaiian name Honolulu (it was also sometimes called Brown’s Harbor.) The name Honolulu (meaning “sheltered bay” – with numerous variations in spelling) soon came into use.

Tradewinds blow from the Northeast; the channel into Honolulu Harbor has a northeasterly alignment. Early ships calling to Honolulu were powered only by sails. The entrance to the harbor was narrow and lined on either side with reefs. Ships don’t sail into the wind. Given all of this, Honolulu Harbor was difficult to enter.

Boats either anchored off-shore, or they were pulled into the harbor (this was done with canoes; or, it meant men and/or oxen pulled them in.)

It might take eight double canoes with 16-20 men each, working in the pre-dawn calm when winds and currents were slow. In 1816 (as stories suggest,) Richards Street alignment was the straight path used by groups of men, and later oxen, to pull ships through the narrow channel into the harbor. (Richards Street was named for a man selling luggage to tourists in his shop on that street.)

A few years after, in 1825, the first pier in the harbor was improvised by sinking a ship’s hull near the present Pier 12 site. As Honolulu developed and grew, lots of changes happened, including along its waterfront. What is now known as Queen Street used to be the water’s edge.

The first efforts to deepen Honolulu Harbor were made in the 1840s. The idea to use the dredged material, composed of sand and crushed coral, to fill in low-lying lands was quickly adopted.

In 1854 the first steam tug was used to pull sail-powered ships into dock against the prevailing tradewinds.

The old prison was built in 1856-57 at Iwilei; it took the place of the old Fort Kekuanohu (that also previously served as a prison.) The new custom-house was completed in 1860. The water-works were much enlarged, and a system of pipes laid down in 1861.

Between 1857 and 1870, the coral block walls of the dismantled Fort edged and filled about 22-acres of reef and tideland, forming the “Esplanade” or “Ainahou,” between Fort and Merchant Streets (where Aloha Tower is now located.) At that time, the harbor was dredged to a depth from 20 to 25-feet took place.

By the 1880s, filling-in of the mud flats, marshes and salt ponds in the Kakaʻako and Kewalo areas had begun. This filling-in was pushed by three separate but overlapping improvement justifications.

The first directive or justification was for the construction of new roads and the improvement of older roads by raising the grade so the improvements would not be washed away by flooding during heavy rains.

Although public health and safety were prominently cited as the main desire (and third justification) to fill in Honolulu, Kewalo, and then Waikīkī lands, the fill ultimately provided more room for residential subdivisions, industrial areas and finally tourist resorts.

In the early part of the twentieth century, Kakaʻako was becoming a prime spot for large industrial complexes, such as iron works, lumber yards, and hauling companies, which needed large spaces for their stables, feed lots and wagon sheds.

An 1887 Hawaiian Government Survey map of Honolulu shows continued urban expansion of the Downtown Honolulu area.

In 1889, the Honolulu Harbor was described as “nothing but a channel kept open by the flow of the Nuʻuanu River;” a sand bar restricted entry of the larger ocean vessels. In 1890-92, a channel 200-feet wide by 30-feet deep was dredged for about 1,000-feet through the sand bar.

Piers were constructed at the base of Richards Street in 1896, at the site of Piers 17 and 18 in 1901 to accommodate sugar loading and at Piers 7 and 12 in 1907.

After annexation in 1898, the harbor was dredged using US federal funds. The dredged material was used to create a small island in the harbor in order to calm the harbor and avoid constructing a breakwater. This island became what is now known as Sand Island.

In 1904, the area around South Street from King to Queen Streets was filled in. The Hawaiʻi Department of Public Works reported that “considerable filling (was) required” for the extension of Queen Street, from South Street to Ward Avenue, which would “greatly relieve the district of Kewalo in the wet season.”

A series of new piers were constructed at the base of Richards Street in 1896, at the site of Piers 17 and 18 in 1901 (to accommodate sugar loading) and then at Piers 7 and 12 in 1907. Further dredging was conducted at the base of Alakea Street in 1906.

With the opening of the Panama Canal in 1914 and anticipated increased trans-Pacific shipping, government and business planned to further enlarge Honolulu Harbor by dredging Kalihi Channel and Kapālama Basin.

However, because of military concerns, the Reserved Channel connecting Honolulu Harbor to Kapālama Basin was dredged instead. This is known as the Kapālama Channel. Honolulu Harbor expanded into the Kapālama Basin and by the early 1930s Piers 34 had been constructed. Pier 35 was constructed in 1931 to provide dedicated facilities for inter-island pineapple shipments.

On September 11, 1926, after five years of construction, Aloha Tower was officially dedicated at Pier 9; at the time, the tallest building in Hawaiʻi.

Today, Honolulu Harbor continues to serve as Hawai‘i’s commercial lifeline for goods to/from Hawaiʻi and the rest of the world.

The image shows Honolulu in 1854, in a drawing done by Paul Emmert. It shows Honolulu just before these changes and the expansion of land in the downtown area (you can see people standing on the reef on the right.)

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'Port_of_Honolulu'_by_Louis_Choris-1816
'HONOL~1
Port_of_Honolulu-1816-1817
Honolulu_Fort_(PP-36-5-001)-1837
Interior_of_the_Fort,_Honolulu_Harbor-1830s-1840s
Honolulu Harbor-Ships pulled by canoes-Henry Walker-1843
Battle_of_Honolulu-Dolphin-(Massey)-1826
View_of_Honolulu_Harbor_and_Punchbowl_Crater._(c._1854)
Downtown_Honolulu-sites-uses_noted-(1870_roads_in_red)-Map-1810
'Entrance_to_Honolulu_Harbor'-William_Alexander_Coulter-1882
Fort Armstrong-1910
Honolulu Harbor Map - 2012
Honolulu_from_Punchbowl_1890
Honolulu_Harbor_(taken_from_prison_in_Iwilei)
Honolulu_Harbor_in_1810
Honolulu_Harbor_in_1881
Honolulu_Harbor_Kotzebue-Map-1816
Honolulu_Harbor-Downtown-(DAGS0237)-early-1850s
Honolulu_Harbor-InteriorDept-(Wall-Reg_1119)-1886
Honolulu_Harbor-Tall_Ships-1889
Honolulu_Map-(1810)-over_GoogleEarth
Honolulu_Map-(1843)-over_GoogleEarth
Honolulu_Map-(1847)-over_GoogleEarth
Honolulu_reproduced_from_map_drawn_by_Lt_CR_Malden_of_HBMS_Blonde-1825
Honolulu_waterfront,_c._1890
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Map Detail of Honolulu Harbor-C. R. Malden_Reg640 (1825)

Filed Under: Economy, General, Sailing, Shipping & Shipwrecks Tagged With: Aloha Tower, Downtown Honolulu, Esplanade, Fort Kekuanohu, Hawaii, Honolulu, Honolulu Harbor, Kakaako, Kewalo, Nuuanu, Oahu, Panama Canal

May 21, 2020 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Waialeʻe Industrial School

The legislature, on December 30, 1864, approved “An act authorizing the board of education to establish an industrial and reformatory school for the care and education of helpless and neglected children, as also for the reformation of juvenile offenders”.

“The only object of the said industrial and reformatory schools shall be the detention, management, education, employment, reformation, and maintenance of such children as shall be committed thereto as orphans, vagrants, truants, living an idle or dissolute life, who shall be duly convicted of any crime or misdemeanor”. (Hawaiian Commission, Annexation Report, 1898)

“The first notice of a reform school is contained in the report of M. Kekuanao’a, president of the board of education, in 1866. The legislature in March, 1865, voted an appropriation of $6,000 for an industrial and reform school.” (Report to the Governor, 1903)

The department of public instruction established an industrial and reformatory school at Keoneula, Kapālama, Oʻahu and had authority to establish other industrial schools across the Islands.

In 1899, a proposal was made to establish a new school at Waialeʻe on Oʻahu’s North Shore, but action wasn’t taken until 1901 when the land was deeded over to the department of education. It was built to replace an older school.

On the May 13, 1902, the last of the boys of the reformatory school in Honolulu – 68 in number – were moved down to the new buildings at Waialeʻe, the institution was thereafter known as the Waialeʻe Industrial School.

The Waialeʻe Industrial School was situated on 700-acres of land, about 5-miles from Kahuku and 8-miles from Waialua. It had a coast line of over a mile, and it extended back to the mountain ridge.

School improvements were built about ½-mile from the ocean on low land between a series of bluffs. Taro patches were built above the beach; there was a large pond supplied by “never-failing springs.”

This site enabled the school to carry on agriculture, dairy farming and fishing, besides giving instruction in carpentering, blacksmithing, the manufacture of poi and general school work.

In 1903, four taro patches had been made and planted; a fifth is about ready to plant. A vegetable garden was planted with onions, tomatoes, com, beans, lettuce, radish, beets, and carrots.

There have also been planted 220 banana plants and about 500 trees for windbreaks and firewood. The trees planted are eucalyptus, gravillea robusta, ironwood, kamani, poinciana, tamarind, alligator pear and mango.

A terrace was built, extending 30 feet around the main building, and planted with grass. A considerable area has been cleared of lantana and stones.

For the dining hall 8 tables and 24 benches have been made, 3 safes for the pantry, a table and cupboard for the kitchen, a table and cupboard for the hospital, and 42 desks have been set up and placed in the schoolroom.

The following buildings were built by the boys: a clothes and store room, 18 by 48 feet, a closet with 10 compartments, 5 by 30 feet, with urinals and latticed screen, a carpenter shop, 20 by 40 feet, and a poi house of corrugated iron with cemented floor, 13 by 15 feet.

In 1903, there were a total of 78-boys in the Waialeʻe Industrial School. (At that time, their attendance was noted as: In school 73; In hospital 1; In Oahu jail 3; and Escaped 1.)

Their offenses included: Truancy 18; Vagrancy and homeless 11; Disobedience to parents 15; Common nuisance 1; Trespass 3; Assault and lottery 2; Larceny 25; Housebreaking 1; and Burglary 2. (Reportedly, an average of 180-boys lived at the school at any given time.)

All was not pretty at the place. “Members of the education committee of the house of representatives are of the opinion that the so-called dark cells or dungeons are improper and should be abolished.” (Star-Bulletin, 1919; as noted in Honolulu Weekly)

Another Star-Bulletin article reveals excerpts of a journal discovered by then-superintendent Morris Freedman that covers most of the inmates from 1899 to 1908. “Disobedience to the moral suasion of parents [resulted in] a man-sized term of 3 to 5 years . . . Runaways were not few and far between . . . Ball and chain were used.” (As noted in Honolulu Weekly)

A related article on the “Boys of Waialee” notes an unpublished piece by Freedman between 1935–1939 that notes corporeal punishment: “Oregon boots, shackles, leg irons, cat-o-nine tails, straps soaked in vinegar and salt, terrific lashings and beatings were the order of the day.”

“In 1921, when Mr. Wesson [took over] the school his first act was to destroy these vestiges of the Dark Ages era [and he] discontinued the use of dark cells which were built below the level of the street surface … his treatment was by far more humane than it had been before.”

A September 3, 1953 editorial in the Honolulu Record notes, “70 per cent of the Oahu Prison inmates comes from Waialee Training School for Boys, which is supposedly a correction and rehabilitation home.”

“This does not include prisoners at Honolulu Jail who “graduated” from Waialee, many of them asking in early youth while at Waialee to be transferred to the jail rather than withstand the brutality and bestiality of the administration staff at the boy’s school.”

The school was operational for approximately 50-years; the boys were moved to facilities on the windward side (above Kailua.)

Later, Crawford’s Convalescent Home operated mauka of Kamehameha Highway. On about 135-acres of the makai lands (below the highway) UH-Manoa College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources (CTAHR) operated the Waialeʻe Livestock Experiment Station, an animal research and demonstration facility.

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IMG_2274
Wailaee (OYS-HYCF)
Youth Garden Program-(OYS-HYCF)
Youth Shop Program-(OYS-HYCF)
Waialeʻe Industrial School For Boys-(ghosttowns)-1906
Waialeʻe Industrial School For Boys-(ghosttowns)-1930s
Waialeʻe Industrial School For Boys-1940
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Waialeʻe Industrial School For Boys-(historichawaiifoundation)
Waialeʻe Industrial School For Boys
Waialeʻe Industrial School For Boys-band_room-front; jail-middle; poi_factory-back-(ghosttowns)
Waialee, dinning hall
Waialee, dinning hall
Waialee Trainning School - infirmery
Waialee Trainning School – infirmery
Waialeʻe Industrial School
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Waialeʻe Industrial School For Boys-Nationality-Offenses-Length_of_Terms-1903

Filed Under: General, Schools Tagged With: Crawford Convalescent Home, Hawaii, Koolau Boys Home, North Shore, Oahu, Waialee Industrial School

May 20, 2020 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Immigration Station

By the middle of the 19th century the Hawaiian population had declined drastically through the impacts of disease and epidemics and the dispersal of the young men of the Kingdom on whaling ships and seeking their fortunes in the California gold fields.

In 1850, the Hawaiian population was down to 46,500. At the same time the American occupation of California and Oregon gave the islands a large, relatively close market for agricultural crops.

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.

In 1852, the first group of 200 Chinese labor contract immigrants were brought in to work in the sugar plantations. In the hundred years from 1850 to 1950, over 350,000 labor immigrants were brought in to supply workers for the plantations and to augment a declining population with people of kindred races.

For nearly one hundred years immigrants arriving in Hawaiʻi had their initial processing in the area of the present immigration building at the entrance to Honolulu Harbor.

In the 19th century they came over the channel wharf to be processed at the pavilion and quarters of the Kingdom’s Quarantine and Immigration Depot built in 1879 on what was popularly called Fisherman’s Point.

King Kalākaua, who personally initiated Japanese immigration in a visit to the Emperor, visited the station to greet the initial group of Japanese laborers arriving in 1886. After a hospitable welcome which included entertainment of hula dancers, he invited some of the group to the Palace to display their skill at fencing. (NPS)

The United States government took over immigration matters after annexation and built new structures out over the mud flats (which opened July 4, 1905.)

The buildings were designed to fit the climate and atmosphere of Hawaiʻi and to be an inviting place for immigrants to come through. (This was the first use of terra cotta in Hawaiʻi.)

Although Herbert C. Clayton was the architect who contracted to design the building, it is quite evident that the architect associated with him for this project had the major design role, CW Dickey.

The entrance portico designed by Dickey as the most important architectural feature of the building reflects Hawaiʻi and the Immigration Station function as a bridge between East and West.

The portico is accented by Chinese architectural details and the large bronze compass plaque set in the floor of the entrance lobby shows Hawaiʻi as the crossroads of the Pacific by indicating distances to principle cities on the Pacific rim.

An interview with Mr. Dickey on July 27, 1934 in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin best describes the intent and execution of the complex in the designer’s own words:

“In designing the new immigration station buildings the main objective was a group of buildings expressing the spirit and environment of Hawaiʻi and at the same time maintaining well balanced and well-proportioned masses, graceful lines and a pleasing color effect.”

“This meant a wide departure from the more or less stereotyped stations of the mainland and it required no small amount of persuasion and diplomacy to get such a design accepted….”

“In general the buildings consist of low lying masses of cream colored stucco walls surmounted by graceful sloping roofs of variegated green and russet tiles.”

A special area was designed into the building to provide a “matrimonial” room where Japanese girls, who had been married by proxy in Japan to men living in Hawaiʻi, met their husbands for the first time and were formally married. These picture brides numbered 14,276 between the years 1907 and 1923.

Mr. AE Burnett, for many years the District Director of Immigration, hoped that the buildings would serve as a model for other stations across the nation.

The Dickey designed buildings were placed on the National Register of Historic Places (much of the information here came from those records.)

(By the way, in the existing immigration center, there is a fountain put in by Italian POWs from WWII – unfortunately, it is in a secured area and you can’t get directly to it. However, you can see it through a chain link fence on the back side (makai) of the building.)

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Arrival of Japanese contract laborers at Honolulu Harbor-1893
US-immigration-station-Honolulu-(HSA-S00042)-1905
US-immigration-station-Honolulu-(eBay)
Fort Armstrong-Immigrations_Station-behind-1910
Japanese immigrants landing at Honolulu Harbor-1893
Chinese_contract_laborers_on_a_sugar_plantation_in_19th_century_Hawaii-(WC)
Filipino_immigrant_family_in_Hawaii,_c._1906
Japanese_Picture_Bride
Kalakaua_in_Japan_(1881)
Korean_immigrant_family_in_Hawaii_during_the_19th_century
Portuguese_immigrant_family_in_Hawaii_during_the_19th_century-(WC)
Statue erected on the 100th anniversary of the 1st Japanese immigration to Hawaii-1885-Kepaniwai Heritage Gardens, Iao Valley
Hawaii_Sources_of_Immigration-1853-1933
Japanese_Picture_Brides-Desert_News-July_8,_1922
US-immigration-station-Honolulu-(PBN)
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Filed Under: Economy, General, Sailing, Shipping & Shipwrecks Tagged With: Dickey, Hawaii, Honolulu Harbor, Immigration Station, Oahu

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Images of Old Hawaiʻi

People, places, and events in Hawaiʻi’s past come alive through text and media in “Images of Old Hawaiʻi.” These posts are informal historic summaries presented for personal, non-commercial, and educational purposes.

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Hoʻokuleana LLC

Hoʻokuleana LLC is a Planning and Consulting firm assisting property owners with Land Use Planning efforts, including Environmental Review, Entitlement Process, Permitting, Community Outreach, etc. We are uniquely positioned to assist you in a variety of needs.

Info@Hookuleana.com

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