Downtown Honolulu | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

January 9, 2020 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Honolulu Courthouse

Up to late-1840s, the Judiciary found quarters in other people’s houses.

At the end of 1846 the King’s Privy Council resolved to authorize funds and have Governor Kekūanāoʻa’s stone house within the old fort of Honolulu “be turned into a court house for the foreign judges and Hopkins’ house for a district court house, said houses however to be put in good condition.” Back then this was at the water’s edge.

An act to organize the judiciary department of the Hawaiian Islands was passed in September, 1847. It set up a superior court and otherwise assembled the machinery of law and order.

Beginning early in 1851, as a combined courthouse and jail, work was soon halted “on account of the depth of water found upon the foundation rock, which rendered it impracticable to proceed.”

When work was recommenced in June, the jail had been dropped and the plans for the new building called only for one that would “serve the purposes of the Legislative Assembly, as well as for holding the Courts.”

In October, sixty prisoners were used to cut coral blocks for the Courthouse. One night while staying in houses near their work place (in order to take advantage of a low tide very early in the morning,) forty men overpowered the guards and seized the gun batteries overlooking Honolulu.

Loaded cannon were trained on prominent buildings. But the prisoners lacked fire to set off the pieces. The prisoners were captured and order was restored in the morning.

On July 5, 1852, the superior court of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi met for the first time. At the time, it was the second largest building in the kingdom and served concurrently as a courthouse, parliament house and civic center.

Judge Lee opened the session of the superior court with an address in which he asked those in attendance to “pause a moment, as we meet for the first time in this temple dedicated to justice, and reflect upon our duties as lawyers, as jurors, and as judges.”

In concluding his address, Judge Lee referred briefly to the new courthouse: “I well remember when I landed on these shores, now nearly six years ago, the court met in an old grass house, floored with mats, without benches, seats or comforts of any kind …”

“… with one corner partitioned off with calico, for judge’s office, clerk’s office, police court, and jury room, standing on the very ground where now stands this substantial edifice erected at a cost of upwards of forty thousand dollars, and which would do credit to any land.”

He continued, “Justice in a grass house is as precious as justice in one of coral, but no one can fail to agree with me, that the latter with all its comforts and conveniences is greatly to be preferred, inasmuch as it tends to promote that dignity and propriety of manners so essential to secure a proper respect for the law and its administration.”

“May this Hall ever be the temple of Justice – may its wall ever echo with the accents of truth – may its high roof ever look down upon us in the faithful discharge of our duties — and may the blessing of Him who builded the Heavens and whose throne is the fountain of all justice ever rest upon us.”

When the court house was built, the city gained a new and bigger set of public rooms. The result was that the chambers dedicated to the government’s judicial and legislative processes were the scene of a variety of private and community functions.

In addition to its official function as a courthouse and legislative hall, the building was frequently used for public meetings. The congregation of the Second Foreign Church of Honolulu announced it would use the new court house for its services.

Among the more colorful events to be held at the courthouse were the festivities given during the reign of King Kamehameha IV. On November 13, 1856, the Chinese merchants of Honolulu and Lāhaina combined to give a grand ball to their majesties King Kamehameha IV and Queen Emma, in honor of their recent marriage.

Almost the last official action to take place in the courthouse was the special session of legislature, called for February 12, 1874, to elect a successor to King Lunalilo, who had died without having designated an heir to the throne.

Lunalilo himself had been elected king in this building on January 8, 1873, after Kamehameha V died without issue and without having proclaimed an heir on December 11 of the preceding year.

In accordance with the provisions of the constitution in cases where the previous occupant of the throne failed to nominate or proclaim a successor, the cabinet of the late king called a meeting of the legislative assembly to “elect by ballot some native alii of the kingdom as successor to the throne.” Such a meeting was ordered by the cabinet for noon Feb. 12.

With the Court and Legislative functions in the old Courthouse ended, the regular session of the legislature for 1874 met on April 30, 1874 in the legislative hall of the new government building – Aliʻiolani Hale.

The old Courthouse was advertised for sale at auction in the Pacific Commercial Advertiser of May 9, 1874. The courthouse property was sold to H. Hackfeld & Co., predecessor of American Factors, Ltd. (AmFac – one of Hawaiʻi’s Big Five,) at the upset price of $20,000. As reported by the Hawaiian Gazette, “It is the best business stand in Honolulu.”

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September 8, 2019 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Hawaiʻi’s First Skyscraper

At six stories, the Stangenwald building was considered Hawaii’s first skyscraper and one of the most prestigious addresses in Honolulu.

Designed by noted architect Charles William Dickey, construction of the steel-frame and brick building began in 1900 and the building was completed in 1901.

The Stangenwald Building melds Italian Renaissance Revival elements and a hint of the Romanesque Revival Style with arched windows, terra cotta ornaments, and a wide balcony with fine grillwork above the entrance.

Dr. Hugo Stangenwald, the “student revolutionist, Austrian émigré, able practicing physician, and recognized early-day daguerreotype artist (photographic process,)” left Austria in March 1845. After living in California, he arrived in Honolulu in 1853. He married the former Mary Dimond in 1854.

He opened a shop in late-1854 in a one-story frame structure on the site of the present Stangenwald building. His advertisement was well-known: “To send to them that precious boon, And have your picture taken soon, And quick their weeping eyes they’ll wipe To smile upon your daguerreotype.”

Stangenwald bought the Merchant Street property in 1869 and formed a partnership with his fellow-physician neighbor, Dr. Judd.

In January, 1899, Stangenwald leased his property to a hui, a limited partnership firm which was to lease his property from him and erect a building there to match the quality of the Judd Building (1898) next door.

Though the project was named for the well-known physician and photographer, Stangenwald had little to do with it. He died in June of that year.

The hui sold its interest in the land to the Pacific Building Company, newly formed to finance the project.

The building’s earliest occupants were lawyers, many of whom were in the hui and so had a vested interest in the building, so that early conceptions of the building included a law library and a Business Men’s Club, though neither were realized in the final building.

The Stangenwald Building’s steel frame supported a decorative structure, “with dark terra cotta and pressed metal trimmings and cornice, massive in design yet promising a pleasing effect. This building is of the most modern style of fire-proof architecture, designed with completeness of office conveniences equal to that of any city.”

Honolulu’s business community seemed to agree, for its prestigious address was claimed by several of Honolulu’s most prominent company names: The Henry Waterhouse Trust Company, BF Dillingham, Castle and Cooke, Alexander & Baldwin and C Brewer Companies.

It was part of downtown redevelopment plan and construction boom in the wake of the terrible Chinatown fire that destroyed blocks of buildings in 1900.

The Stangenwald remained the tallest structure until 1950, when the seven-story Edgewater Hotel in Waikīkī took over that title.

The building defined Honolulu’s skyline for more than 60 years and it was not until the 19-story First National Bank of Hawaiʻi Building was constructed in 1962 that Honolulu’s downtown would break the six-story mark (the only exceptions being the spires of Aloha Tower (1926) and Honolulu Hale (1929.))

Renovated periodically throughout its life – including alterations to the original ornate cornice, the Stangenwald was the subject of a major rehabilitation in 1980.

Today, the building is home to several architectural firms and the American Institute of Architects (founded in 1926, with Dickey as its inaugural president.)

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June 15, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Smallpox Epidemic – 1853

Smallpox was introduced to Hawai‘i by an American merchant ship, the Charles Mallory, sailing from San Francisco and arriving at Honolulu Harbor on February 10, 1853.

Displaying a yellow flag indicating a serious infection on board, the ship berthed in isolation on a reef off Kalihi.

One of the passengers had smallpox.

When the period of quarantine ended in late-March, no new cases had been reported, the smallpox patient was recovering and the ship set sail and left.

In May 1853, the disease reappeared.

Two native women were stricken; their homes and the adjacent properties were cordoned off and their infected clothing and grass huts were burned.

This time smallpox spread rapidly; cases were reported from most of Honolulu’s districts.

In response to the growing impacts, June 15, 1853 was declared a national day of mourning, prayer and fasting.

The epidemic was at its worst in July – August with the island of O‘ahu recording more than 4,000-cases and 1,500-deaths.

Despite efforts to contain it, smallpox spread to Kaua‘i, Maui and Hawai‘i, killing at least 450-people.

The people on Ni‘ihau, Moloka‘i and Lāna’i remained protected because of their remoteness, stricter quarantine and better vaccine quality.

Missionary Dr. Dwight Baldwin was the government physician for Maui, Moloka‘i and Lāna’i during the smallpox epidemic. Due to his vigilance, the number of smallpox deaths on these islands was only 200 deaths.

Statewide, during an eight-month period, about 8% of Hawai‘i’s population died of the disease.

When the epidemic ended late in January 1854, the estimated number of statewide cases was 6,400 – 9,100 and an estimated 2,500 – 5,750 deaths.

The intensity of the epidemic led the Hawaiian legislature to make vaccination mandatory for both residents and visitors in 1854.

Smallpox is a serious and contagious disease due to a virus, causing illness and death wherever it occurred. It mainly affected children and young adults. Family members often infected each other.

Smallpox localizes in small blood vessels of the skin and in the mouth and throat. In the skin, this results in a characteristic rash, and later, raised fluid-filled blisters.

After a twelve-day incubation period, patients developed severe headaches and backaches, a high fever, and chills, followed by a severe rash, a return of the fever, and bacterial infection. Death came by infection of the lungs, heart, or brain. The entire course from infection to death usually took five or six weeks.

Smallpox spreads easily from one person to another from saliva droplets. It may also be spread from bed sheets and clothing. It is most contagious during the first week of the infection. It may continue to be contagious until the scabs from the rash fall off.

It is reported that the Honuakaha Smallpox Cemetery (near South Street and Quinn Lane in Kakaʻako) has more than 1,000 burials from the 1853-1854 smallpox epidemic.

This is near the present Honolulu Fire Department Headquarters stands, adjoining the former Kakaʻako Fire Station. (Some suggest, because of this, the Kakaʻako firehouse is haunted.)

Because of the smallpox epidemics a Small-Pox Hospital opened. Likewise, over the years a small island in the reef across from Downtown Honolulu was used as a quarantine site.

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‘View_of_Smallpox_Hospital’,_oil_on_canvas_painting_by_Paul_Emmert,_c._1853-59

Honolulu_Harbor-Reef_Titles-Reg1471 (1885)-Note_’Quarantine_Island’-(present_day_Sand_Island)

Smallpox

Kakaako Fire Station, Hook & Ladder Building, 620 South Street, Honolulu-LOC-218878pv

Kakaako Fire Station, Hook & Ladder Building, 620 South Street, Honolulu

Hawaii_Small_Pox-tally

Hawaiian officials documented statistics of the smallpox epidemic, O‘ahu, 1854

May 24, 2019 by Peter T Young 3 Comments

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.

Back then, Bishop only went to Beretania – with no further mauka extension (it finally popped through and extended/ connected to the Pali Highway and became the windward gateway into “Town.”)
Bishop Street was the home of the Big 5. Bishop Street was and continues to be the center of Hawai‘i commerce and banking (in the center of the map, running up/down.)

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. Davies (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, Watumull and Andrade – 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-years later, I directed DLNR which now has the Bureau of Conveyances under its management umbrella.

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Downtown_Honolulu-Building_ownership_noted-Map-1950

Bishop Street ended at Beretania in 1959

American Factors Building was demolishe

Amfac-Building-corner-of-Fort-Queen-Streets

Theo H Davies Building-1920s

Queen-Street-view-of-C.-Brewer-Building

c brewer & co ltd

In_front_of_Castle&Cooke-Building-1945-Star-Bulletin

Alexander&Baldwin-Building

First_Hawaiian_Bank_Building (old)

Dillingham_Transportation_Building

Queens_Hospital-1954

Schuman Carriage-corner of Beretania and Richards-the entire block was torn down to build the State Capitol Building-1950s

McInerny

Alexander Young Building

Honolulu Iron Works 1960. Today it is the location of Restaurant Row.

Honolulu Harbor-1950s

Fort Street looking mauka from King street-11-08-59

Downtown Honolulu in 1956. McInerny on the left, and the overhead lines are for trolley buses

Bishop_Street-1954

Bishop_Street_Looking_Makai-Dillingham_Transportation_Bldg-1940

Honolulu_Harbor-Downtown-aerial-1950s

Downtown_Honolulu-1957

Honolulu and Vicinity-Transit-Map-1949

Honolulu-HVB-map-1952

April 16, 2019 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Bubonic Plague

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

The plague is caused by bacteria; it is usually spread by fleas. These bugs pick up the germs when they bite infected animals like rats and mice. (WebMD)

They then pass it to the next animal or person they bite. You can also catch the plague directly from infected animals or people.

Bubonic plague is the most common type. It causes buboes, which are very swollen and painful lymph nodes under the arms, in the neck, or in the groin. Without treatment, the bacteria can spread to other parts of the body. (WebMD)

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

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

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

The “Black Death,” or Bubonic Plague, had struck Honolulu.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(Lots of good info and images for this summary came from: “A Brief History of Bubonic Plague in Hawai‘i,” DLNR and ChinatownHonolulu-org.)

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