Prominent People | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

July 12, 2019 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

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, an independent, college preparatory 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.

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La Pietra

Walter_Francis_Dillingham-(WC)

July 9, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Ikua Purdy

The gift of a few cattle, given to Kamehameha I by Captain George Vancouver in 1793, spawned a rich tradition of cowboy and ranch culture that is still here, today.

With a kapu against killing the cattle, by 1830, wild bullocks posed a serious and dangerous threat to humans. Spurred also by the growing business of reprovisioning visiting ships with fresh meat and vegetables, Kamehameha III and Kaʻahumanu saw the wisdom of bringing in experienced cowboys.

They hired Spanish-Mexican vaquero (cowboys) from California to hunt bullocks and train Hawaiians to rope and handle cattle. The cowboys spoke Spanish – “Espanol” which turned into “paniolo” according to one explanation of the term.

The Hawaiian cowboy, nicknamed “paniolo,” played an important role in the economic and cultural development of Hawaiʻi and helped to establish the islands as a major cattle exporter to California, the Americas and the Pacific Rim for over a century.

Some might not realize that Hawaiʻi’s working paniolo preceded the emergence of the American cowboy in the American West.

After winning the Revolutionary war (1781), American settlers started to pour into the “west;” by 1788, the first permanent American settlement in the Northwest Territory was in Ohio.

In 1800, the western frontier extended to the Mississippi River, which bisects the continental United States north-to-south from just west of the Great Lakes to the delta near New Orleans.

Then, in 1803, President Thomas Jefferson’s Louisiana Purchase doubled the size of the nation.

The Battle of the Alamo was in 1836; later that year, Texas became independent, the Mexicans left, leaving their cattle behind. Texan farmers claimed the cattle and set up their own ranches.

It wasn’t until the 1840s that the wagon trains really started travelling to the far west. Then, with the US victory in the Mexican-American war and gold soon found in California, the rush to the West was on.

The cattle trade in the American West was at its peak from 1867 until the early-1880s.

And, when in cattle country, you can expect rodeos.

Headlines in Island and Wyoming newspapers in August of 1908 announced rodeo history.

Twelve thousand spectators, a huge number for those days, watched Ikua Purdy, Jack Low, and Archie Kaaua from Hawaiʻi carry off top awards at the world-famous Cheyenne Frontier Days Rodeo (the “granddaddy” of rodeo.).

Unlike today’s calf-roping, riders lassoed powerful, full-grown steers.

The Cheyenne paper reported that the performances of the dashing Hawaiians, in their vaquero-style clothing and flower-covered, “took the breath of the American cowboys.”

Under drizzling skies, Purdy won the World’s Steer Roping Championship—roping, throwing and tying the steer in 56 seconds. Kaaua and Low took third and sixth place.

They each accomplished these feats on borrowed horses.

Purdy worked at Parker Ranch prior traveling to Cheyenne, Wyoming; his victory demonstrated the exceptional skills of the paniolo to mainland cowboys who long regarded rodeo and roping as their own domain.

On arriving home, the men were met at dockside by thousands of cheering fans and also honored by parades and other festivities on Maui and Hawai‘i.

Waimea-born Purdy moved to Ulupalakua, Maui and resumed his work as a paniolo until his death in 1945. He did not return to the mainland to defend his title, in fact he never left Hawaii’s shores again. But his victory and legend live on in Hawaiʻi and the annals of rodeo history.

In 1999, Ikua Purdy was voted into the National Cowboy Museum, Rodeo Hall of Fame. That same year he was the first inductee to the Paniolo Hall of Fame established by the Oʻahu Cattlemen’s Association.

In 2003, a large bronze statue of Purdy roping a steer was placed in Waimea town on the Big Island, erected by the Paniolo Preservation Society. In October 2007, Purdy was inducted into the Cheyenne Frontier Days Hall of Fame.

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Ikua Purdy in Steer Roping Contest, Frontier Day, 1908

Ikua-Purdy

This undated photo, provided by the Paniolo Preservation Society shows Ikua Purdy, who became Hawaii’s most famous paniolo when he won the steer roping championship at the 1908 Cheyenne Frontier Days Rodeo in Cheyenne, Wyo. A 16-foot-high statue honors his legacy at the Parker Ranch Shopping Center in Waimea. The legacy of Hawaii’s cowboys will be honored with an entire year of events during the Waiomina Centennial Celebration. (AP Photo/Paniolo Preservation Society)**AP PROVIDES ACCESS TO THIS PUBLICLY DISTRIBUTED HANDOUT PHOTO. THE COPYRIGHT IS OWNED BY A THIRD PARTY. NO SALES**

Ikua Purdy, Billy Spencer, and Archie Ka’au’a (hawaiianhistoricalsociety)

Archie Kaaua, Ikua Purdy and Billy Spencer (paniolopreservation-org)

Billy Walker, Jack Low and Ikua Purdy

Ikua_Purdy-Statue-Parker_Ranch_Shopping_Center

July 6, 2019 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Award Winning Okolehao

“There is enough okolehao in Honolulu today to make the whole town drunk.”

“A recent arrival from Ti-root Gulch, Ke‘ei, Kealakekua, Hawaii, talked interestingly to an Advertiser man of the manufacture of the frisky spirit yesterday.”

“Keei, by the way, is the only place boasting an okolehao distillery in the Territory.”

“The distillery has been closed down, for alterations and improvements, nearly 3000 gallons of raw spirit having been turned out during the run.”

“This is now in bonded warehouse in Honolulu, in eleven charred barrels with the designation “okolehao” burned into each head. The liquor in its present state is known as proof spirits.”

“The product of the Keei plant is said to be a liquor as clear as crystal. It is said that illicitly-distilled okolehao sent from here took prizes at The Paris Exposition and the Chicago World’s Fair. It is the purest spirit known and the only liqueur to be distilled from a root.” (Hawaiian Gazette, December 6, 1907)

Eben Low tells the story … “‘It happened way back in the ‘80s – to be exact, 1889,’ said Low. ‘Col. Sam Parker have been given two gallons of okolehao which had been distilled in Waimanu valley, on the island of Hawaii. This was real okolehao, not the ‘rotgut’ which is being peddled about the country today ruining those who drink it.’”

“‘In the old days, the Hawaiians of Waimanu were noted for the excellence of the liquor they made. Copper stills were used and the liquor was given three different distillations.’”

“‘In the days of the monarchy it was illegal to have okolehao in your possession and the penalty for such an offense was severe. After sampling this liquor of Col Parker’s I decided to send some to the Paris Exposition along with a lot of other native products which were being prepared at that time.’”

“‘I did not want to take any chances of violating the law, however, and consulted John E Hassinger, who was then chief clerk of the department of the interior. Lorrin A Thurston was secretary.’”

“‘Hassinger told me that would be granted immunity provided that he received a sample.’”

“‘I took a gallon of the liquor to Macfarlane & Co, then the leading wholesale liquor dealers of this territory, and had the liquor bottled. One was given to Hassinger. Judge Dole received another, one I kept for myself and the last was prepared for the Paris Exposition.’”

“‘I designed a most attractive label and then wrote a description in Hawaiian and English as to how the beverage was made. I had another description written in French by the late Pierre Jones.’”

“‘In due time this bottle of okolehao was sent to Paris with the rest of the Hawaiian exhibit. Col ZS Spalding was the Hawaiian commissioner as the exposition. When the day of the awarding prizes arrived, he and the French awarding committee visited the Hawaiian exhibit.’”

“‘Spalding afterwards told me that the most outstanding and prominent feature of the exhibit was this artistically labeled bottle of okolehao. He was so astonished at seeing it there that he ordered it opened immediately.’”

“‘It was, in fact, when the committee and Spalding got through testing the quality of the exhibit there was none of the ti left and they immediately awarded the exhibit a bronze medal for quality and purity.’”

“‘Several months later, concluded Low, ‘a most official looking document addressed to ‘the government of Hawaii’ arrived here. It contained a diploma of award and a bronze medal – both of which had ben won by this lone bottle of okolehao.’”

“‘The diploma was in French but bracketed at the of the document was Eben Low.’” (Star Bulletin, October 10, 1925)

“‘As far as I know,’ continued Rawhide Ben, ‘it was the only award Hawaii got.’”

“‘To snub up this yarn,’ he finished, ‘Hassinger’s bottle didn’t last 24 hours. Judge Dole kept his. Before he died he told me I could have it. That bottle was snitched from my hotel room. But this bottle of mine,’ he fondled it ‘… well, when the time comes, I’m going to pull the cork and try it.’”

“Eben’s bottle of 50 year old oke is legal, federal authorities said today, although illegal when made and with no tax ever having been paid.” (October 24, 1938)

“The federal authorities have decided to make war upon our local moonshiners. The lay of the land in the Territory lends itself easily to the easily to carrying on of Illicit distilling.”

“With high mountains deep valleys, ample wood for fuel, excellent places for observing anybody coming near the lair, and with the natural leniency of those around to protect, or at least to say nothing about the moonshiners, there has been a great opportunity for this class of illicit work.”

It has been carried on close to the environs of the city and even within the city limits. The local police have been forever after these people, but the revenue officers, whose whole attention has to be given to the matter are likely to be more successful when they thoroughly understand local conditions.”

“The practice of distilling the liquor, called by the euphonious name of okolehao, from the ti root, was introduced by old lags from Australia.”

“In the early and middle part of the last century quite a number of convicts found their way here, one lot arriving in a schooner from which they landed near Kawaihae, burning their vessel to hide its identity.”

“Well, the lags started making liquor from ti root, and taught the Hawaiians. Since then the Hawaiian has found out for himself that liquor can be made from other things besides ti root. Molasses is very largely used in the manufacture of okolehao.”

“The best okolehao, however, is made from the ti root, and it was for a bottle of this that Eben Low received a medal from the Paris exposition. It was the only liquor of its class.” (Hawaiian Star, April 14, 1920)

“‘I still have the diploma, the medal and last, but not least, my bottle of okolehao. Now that so much publicity has been given to the latter I think I will have it stored in my safe deposit box.’” (Low; Star Bulletin, October 25, 1925)

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Eben Low pulling prized Okolehao from safe-SB-10-24-1938

Hawaiian Exhibit, Exposition Universelle, Paris, 1889

Eben ‘Rawhide Ben’ Low-PP-75-5-006-1931-400

Eben ‘Rawhide Ben’ Low-PP-75-5-006-1931

June 30, 2019 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Duke Kahanamoku

Born in 1890, Duke Paoa Kahinu Makoe Hulikohoa Kahanamoku was one of nine children of a Honolulu policeman. He was born at Haleʻākala, the “pink house” (home of Bernice Pauahi Bishop) located near ʻIolani Palace (near where Bank of Hawaiʻi now stands on King Street.)

With respect to his name “Duke,” he was named after his father. The elder Kahanamoku was born during the Duke of Edinburgh’s visit to the islands in 1869.

The elder Duke explains his naming as “after I was washed by Mrs. Bishop she gave me the name “The Duke of Edinburgh.” The Duke heard and was glad and came to house and I was presented to him and tooke [sic] me in his arms. And that is how I got this name.” (Nendel)

Duke lived in interesting times in Hawaiʻi; in his lifetime, Hawaiʻi moved from an independent monarchy to full statehood in the United States of America.

Kahanamoku’s family lived in a small house on the beach at Waikiki where the present day Hawaiian Hilton Village now stands. He would never graduate from High School due to the need to help his family earn enough money to live.

Duke Kahanamoku had a very normal upbringing for a young boy his age in Waikiki. He swam, surfed, fished, did odd jobs such as selling newspapers and went to school at Waikiki grammar school.

For fun and extra money he and others would greet the boatloads of tourists coming to and from Honolulu Harbor. They would dive for coins tossed into the water by the visitors, perform acrobatic displays of diving from towers on boat days, and explore the crop of newcomers for potential students to teach surfing and canoeing lessons to on the beach.

He earned his living as a beachboy and stevedore at the Honolulu Harbor docks. Growing up on the beach in Waikiki, Duke surfed with his brothers and entertained tourists with tandem rides.

By the time that Kahanamoku burst upon the world scene in 1911 (at the age of 21,) shattering American and world records in the one hundred and fifty yard freestyle swimming races at an Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) sanctioned meet in Honolulu Harbor, sport had become a tool of nationalism used by countries around the world to demonstrate modern manliness and vigor. (Nendel)

He later won an Olympic gold medal in 1912 – a feat he repeated eight years later at the age of 30. In 1924, he won the silver. Overall he won five medals at the various Olympic Games.

Returning to Hawaiʻi as a hero, yet unable to find a suitable job, Duke took his swimming ability abroad through exhibition swimming competitions – he also used every opportunity to introduce the world to surfing (he even appeared in 28-films as a bit-part actor, with such stars as John Wayne.)

However, fame brought him into politics and he served as Sheriff for thirteen consecutive 2-year terms. He initially ran as a democrat, but later switched and served as a Republican. After the office was eliminated, he became the city’s official greeter.

However impressive these feats are, it was his love of surfing that Duke is most remembered. He used surfing to promote Hawaiian culture to visitors who wanted to fully experience the islands.

Through his many travels, Duke Kahanamoku introduced surfing to the rest of the world and was regarded as the father of international surfing. On one trip to Australia in 1914-15, Kahanamoku demonstrated surfing and made such an impression that the Australians erected a statue of him. (Nendel)

British royal, Prince Edward asked Kahanamoku to teach him to surf. Duke heartily agreed.

Focusing surfing at home – and at Waikiki – the Outrigger Canoe and Surfboard Club was formed in 1908 in order “to give an added and permanent attraction to Hawaii and make Waikiki always the Home of the Surfer.” (Nendel) Duke joined the club in 1917.

Duke is credited for writing an article “Riding the Surfboard” in the January, 1911 edition of ‘The Mid-Pacific Magazine.’ It notes, “How would you like to stand like a god before the crest of a monster billow, always rushing to the bottom of a hill and never reaching its base, and to come rushing in for half a mile at express speed, in graceful attitude, of course, until you reach the beach and step easily from the wave to the sand? “

“Find the locality, as we Hawaiians did, here the rollers are long in forming, slow to break, and then run for a great distance over a flat, level bottom, and the rest is possible. Perhaps the ideal surfing stretch in all the world is at Waikiki beach, near Honolulu, Hawaii.”

On August 2, 1940, he married, Nadine Alexander, a girl from the mainland.

At the Huntington Beach Surfing Walk of Fame, Kahanamoku was the first ‘Surf Pioneer’ inductee in 1994. In 1999, Surfer magazine honored Duke as the century’s most influential surfer and placed his portrait on the cover of its annual collector’s edition.

In its December 27, 1999 issue, Sports Illustrated named Duke Kahanamoku the top athlete in the list of the top 50 greatest 20th-century athletes in Hawaiʻi.

On August 24, 2002, the United States Postal Service issued a commemorative stamp in honor of the man whom Robert Rider, Chairman of the Postal Service Board of Governors, called “a hero in every sense of the word.” The stamp honored Duke Kahanamoku, a man regarded with the reverence bestowed upon a legendary figure in his home State of Hawaiʻi.

“Kahanamoku represented a link to old Hawai`i and its monarchy and proud people as well as serving as the emerging image of modern Hawaiʻi as depicted in travelogues and television advertisements. There is no question that Kahanamoku is a symbol of the old and new Hawaiʻi.” (Nendel)

At his funeral services in 1968, Reverend Abraham Akaka said, “Duke Kahanamoku represented the aliʻi nobility in the highest and truest sense – concern for others, humility in victory, courage in adversity, good sportsmanship in defeat. He had a quality of life we are all challenged and inspired to emulate.”

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Nadine_and_Duke_Kahanamoku-(Star-Bulletin)

Duke_Kahanamoku_in_his_late_teens-(WC)-1900s

Duke_Kahanamoku_at_Log_Angeles-(WC)-1920

Duke Paoa Kahanamoku with his surfboard-(WC)-c. 1910-1915

David_Kahanamoku,_Lord_Louis_Mountbatten,_Prince_Edward,_and_Duke_Kahanamoku,_c.1920

7 Jul-12 Sep 1920: Duke Paoa Kahanamoku (Lane #5) of the USA preparing to start a race in a Swimming event at the 1920 Olympic Games in Antwerp, Belgium. Kahanamoku won gold medals in the 100 Metres Freestyle and the 4 x 200 Metres Freestyle events. Mandatory Credit: IOC Olympic Museum /Allsport

Duke_Kahanamoku_accepting_the_Olympic_Gold_Medal_from_King_Gustav,_Stockholm,_Sweden-(WC)-1912

Bernice Pauahi's residence at Haleʻākala-the building itself is called Aikupika - near what is now the intersection of Bishop and King streets

June 24, 2019 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Shangri La

Doris Duke was the only child of tobacco and electric energy tycoon James Buchanan Duke.

She received large bequests from her father’s will when she turned 21, 25, and 30; she was sometimes referred to as the “world’s richest girl.”

She also acquired a number of homes. Her principal residence was Duke Farms, her father’s 2,700-acre estate in Hillsborough Township, New Jersey. Here she created Duke Gardens, 60,000-square-foot public indoor botanical display that were among the largest in America.

She spent summer weekends working on her Newport Restoration Foundation projects while staying at Rough Point, the 49-room English manor-style mansion that she inherited in Newport, Rhode Island; she also had a home at “Falcon’s Lair” in Beverly Hills, California, once the home of Rudolph Valentino.

She also maintained two apartments in Manhattan: a 9-room penthouse with a 1,000-square-foot veranda at 475 Park Avenue and another apartment near Times Square that she used exclusively as an office for the management of her financial affairs.

In the late 1930s, Doris Duke built her Honolulu home, Shangri La, on five acres overlooking the Pacific Ocean and Diamond Head. Shangri La incorporates architectural features from the Islamic world and houses Duke’s extensive collection of Islamic art, which she assembled for nearly 60 years.

It was a retreat and sanctuary for a woman who greatly valued her privacy; she typically spent winters there.

From its inception, Doris Duke’s estate was envisioned by its founder as a home of Islamic art and architecture. As early as 1936, Shangri La was shaped by a symbiotic relationship between the built environment and the collection.

For nearly 60 years, Doris Duke commissioned and collected artifacts for Shangri La, ultimately forming a collection of about 3,500 objects, the majority of which were made in the Islamic world.

In the same manner that her father transformed Duke Farms from flat New Jersey farmland into his ideal of a magnificently landscaped country estate, Doris Duke transformed her own private Shangri La into a haven from the unwanted publicity that came with being one of the wealthiest women in the world.

Through an Exchange Deed dated December 8, 1938 between the Territorial Land Board of Hawai‘i and Ms. Duke, two underwater parcels (totaling approximately 0.6 acres) were added to the Duke property.

The transfer gave the Territory a perpetual easement of a four-foot right-of-way for a pedestrian causeway along the coastline.

At water’s edge below the estate, Duke then dynamited a small-boat harbor and a seventy-five-foot salt-water swimming pool into the rock. The harbor was built to protect Duke’s fleet of yachts, including Kailani Lahilahi, an ocean-going, 58-foot motor yacht and Kimo, the 26-foot mahogany runabout that Duke sometimes used to commute into Honolulu.

Doris Duke died at her Falcon’s Lair home on October 28, 1993, at the age of 80. In her will, Duke set in motion plans to open Shangri La to the public as a place for the study of Islamic art and culture.

Doris Duke’s philanthropic work extended throughout her lifetime; her estimated $1.3-billion fortune was largely left to charity. Duke’s legacy is now administered by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, dedicated to medical research, prevention of cruelty to children and animals, the performing arts, wildlife and ecology.

Today, Shangri La is open for guided, small group tours and educational programs. In partnership with the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art – which owns and supports Shangri La – the Honolulu Museum of Art serves as the orientation center for Shangri La tours.

Education programs such as residencies, lectures, performances, panel discussions, among other special events with a focus on Muslim arts and culture are offered. The estate can also be visited by public tour and by virtual tour.

The public shoreline access and small basin is a popular swimming hole (which the State recently took over); in addition, the harbor’s jetty serves as a jump-off point to get to two nearby surf breaks, Cromwells and Browns.

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