Images of Old Hawaiʻi

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Ward Airport

“The first airdrome (airport) was the Ward airport near the shore, not far from the steamship piers”. (1920s) It was just behind Kewalo Basin across Ala Moana on the Waikiki side of Ward Avenue. “Ed Lewis, operating automobile tours on Oahu, early saw the possibilities of airplanes for sightseeing. For several years he operated ‘Lewis Air Tours’ with a number of small open cockpit planes flying from Ward airport on Ala Moana.”

From this same airport two former army fliers named Anderson and Griffin started a flying school and a limited air service (Western Pacific Air Transport) between the islands. In 1929, Newton Campbell, 18, a student pilot at Ward Airport, received the first civilian private pilot license issued by the Department of Commerce in Hawai‘i. However, attention to aviation activity moved to John Rodgers Airport (dedicated March 21, 1927 and placed under the jurisdiction of the Territorial Aeronautical Commission – then, construction began.)

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Camp Very

“The Hawaiian Islands are to be created into a military department headquarters as soon as the new plans of the war department are carried into effect for the concentration of troops in the city of Honolulu.” “(T)he District of Hawaiʻi is to have twelve thousand men stationed on the Island of Oʻahu and with a […]

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Kaʻākaukukui, Kukuluāeʻo and Kewalo

Ka‘ākaukukui, Kukuluāe‘o and Kewalo were once the ‘ili (sub-sections of ahupuaʻa) that is now generally referred to as “Kakaʻako,” whose shoreline portions became Kakaʻako Makai. Until fairly recently, Kaka‘ako and the surrounding area were sometimes referred to as something of a wasteland, or empty space, between the better-known locations of Kou (stretching from Nuʻuanu to […]

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Seven Sisters

Nā-Huihui-O-Makaliʻi, “Cluster of Little Eyes” (Makaliʻi) (a faint group of blue-white stars) marks the shoulder of the Taurus (Bull) constellation.  Though small and dipper-shaped, it is not the Little Dipper. Traditionally, the rising of Makaliʻi at sunset following the new moon (about the middle of October) marked the beginning of a four-month Makahiki season in […]

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Salt

Within ten years after Captain Cook’s 1778 contact with Hawai‘i, the islands became a favorite port of call in the trade with China.  The fur traders and merchant ships crossing the Pacific needed to replenish food supplies and water. The maritime fur trade focused on acquiring furs of sea otters, seals and other animals from […]