Images of Old Hawaiʻi

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Kidwell’s Mānoa Pineapples

John Kidwell was born January 17, 1849 in the small north Devonshire village of Marwood. At the age of fifteen (in 1864,) he left home to become an apprentice to a second cousin, who was a nurseryman in London. He emigrated to the US in 1872 and became a nurseryman in San Francisco. In 1882, with letters of introduction, Kidwell sailed to Honolulu. At the time, there was great demand for fresh Hawaiian pineapples in San Francisco.

Kidwell started a pineapple farm with locally available plants at Wailele (where Mid-Pacific Institute is situated). The fruit was of poor quality; so he searched for better cultivars, importing 12 ‘Smooth Cayenne’ plants. Kidwell is credited with starting Hawai‘i’s pineapple industry; after his initial planting, others soon realized the potential of growing pineapples in Hawaii and consequently, started their own pineapple plantations. The commercial Hawaiian pineapple canning industry began in 1889 when Kidwell’s business associate, John Emmeluth, a Honolulu hardware merchant and plumber, produced commercial quantities of canned pineapple.

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Mānoa War Homes

“Housing was a critical problem at the beginning of the war.” “On December 7, 1941, the only project operated by the Hawaii Housing Authority was Kamehameha homes consisting of 221 units for families in the low-income bracket.” “Prior to the declaration of war, plans had been prepared for the construction of a low income family project of 368 units to be known as the Mayor Wright homes. The war prevented this development from going ahead”. Following the war more homes were needed.

In 1946, the problem has become even more serious – 11,000 additional houses were needed in the Honolulu-Pearl Harbor area. “Of those who applied the authority could provide houses for only 1,265, 1,000 of whom were placed in Mānoa war homes.” It worked for a while; then, “The Commissioners of the Authority froze vacancies as of January 1, 1956, at Mānoa War Homes, a 982-unit temporary war housing project, as the site must be vacated, buildings demolished, and the land restored to its owners by June 30, 1958.” Familiar Mānoa landmarks that were once the site of the Mānoa War Homes are the Mānoa Marketplace, Noelani School and Mānoa Innovation Center.

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Kūka‘ō‘ō Heiau

According to legends, the Menehune built a fort and a temple at the top of the hill ‘Ulumalu. They were driven away from their fort by the high chief Kuali‘i during his reign (sometime in the 1700s). Kuali‘i rebuilt it after his seizure of the fort. This heiau was the center piece of a string of heiaus that strung across the Kona district of O‘ahu. The existence of such an important heiau at the mouth of the valley could be taken as an indication of the early importance of Mānoa.

Another legend says that the Menehune were driven from their fort and temple by the owls, who became their bitter enemies. The legends say that the Menehune built a temple and a fort a little farther up the valley above Pu‘u-pueo, at a place called Kūka‘ō‘ō. The heiau has been restored and is part of the Mānoa Heritage Center, a non-profit organization whose mission is to promote stewardship of the natural and cultural heritage of Hawai‘i. The site consists of Kūka‘ō‘ō Heiau, a Native Hawaiian garden and Kūali‘i, a Tudor-style house, built in 1911.

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Kōnāhuanui

Ku luna ‘o Kōnāhuanui i ka luku wale e, “Mountainous Kōnāhuanui reveals the onslaught” is the tallest on Koʻolau; Kōnāhuanui is actually two peaks (3,150 feet and 3,105 feet.) It forms the northwest corner of the Mānoa Ahupua‘a boundary.

To the northwest of Kōnāhuanui is Lanihuli (swirling heavens,) a name suggesting rain clouds moving in the wind around the peak; northwest of Lanihuli is Kahuauli, the dark seed. Uli may refer to the dark rain clouds, their shadows on the land below, and the dark green vegetation along the summit and below it.

by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Mānoa Arboretum

“Not enough rain and not enough water in the streams are great evils”. “The forest, which not only produces rain, but also retains the rainwater, holding it among its leaves and branches, its undergrowth, its myriads of roots and rootlets and its fallen debris, letting the rainwater trickle down slowly to the water streams and keeping them supplied for a long time”. “(T)hat forest is not there. Rain pours down, the water rushes in torrents through the streams to the sea and soon after everything is dry again.”

In the early-1900s, Mānoa Valley’s lower slopes were stripped of their native vegetation by excessive agricultural cultivation and the overgrazing of cattle. Without healthy forest cover, rainwater flowed to the ocean rather than recharging the ground water table. In 1918, HSPA established Mānoa Arboretum in order to develop methods of watershed restoration, test tree species for reforestation and collect plants of economic value. Dr Harold L Lyon, a young botanist from Minnesota, was in charge – they later named the Arboretum after him.