Oahu Railway and Land Company | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

April 24, 2019 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Hale‘iwa Hotel

While the Moana is touted as the First lady of Waikīkī, the Hale‘iwa Hotel, at the end of the OR&L train line in North Shore O‘ahu was constructed a year before the Moana.

In 1898, as part of the O‘ahu Railway & Land Company (OR&L) rail system, the Hale‘iwa Hotel (“house of the ‘iwa”, or frigate bird) was completed.

The hotel was part of a bigger plan to expand and diversify operations of the OR&L rail line. OR&L primarily serviced the sugar plantations, adding a hotel at the end of the line opened up opportunities to expand the number of people riding the train.

Passenger travel was an add-on opportunity that not only included train rides; they also operated a bus system. However, the hauling for the agricultural ventures was the most lucrative.

Typical hotels, like the Moana and later the Alexander Young Hotel in downtown Honolulu, served the traditional function of accommodating visitors; Ben F. Dillingham’s hotel sought that, as well as the diversified use of his train line.

On the continent, railroads were building hotels on their lines as a means to enhance the passenger counts – Hawai‘i, through OR&L, was doing the same.

By the early-1900s, the expanded railway cut across the island, serving several sugar and pineapple plantations, and the popular Hale‘iwa Hotel. They even included a “Kodak Camera Train” (associated with the Hula Show) for Sunday trips to Hale‘iwa for picture-taking.

When the hotel opened on August 5, 1899, guests were conveyed from the railway terminal over the Anahulu stream to fourteen luxurious suites, each had a bath with hot-and-cold running water.

Thrum’s ‘Hawaiian Annual’ (1900,) noted, “In providing so tempting an inn as an adjunct and special attraction for travel by the Oahu Railway – also of his (Dillinghams’s) creation – the old maxim of ‘what is worth doing is worth doing well’ has been well observed, everything About the hotel is first class…”

The weekend getaway from Honolulu to the Hale‘iwa Hotel became hugely popular with the city affluent who enjoyed a retreat in “the country.”

Reportedly, a round-trip, two-day excursion by train from Honolulu to Hale‘iwa, around Ka‘ena Point, cost $10. It included an overnight stay at the Hotel, a tour through Waialua sugar mill and a ride up to Wahiawa to tour the plantations.
The original manager was Curtis Iaukea, who had been chamberlain to Kalākaua’s royal household and was famed for his knowledge of protocol.

To while away the time there, the hotel recreational activities offered guests golf (reportedly the second course to be constructed in the islands,) tennis, fishing, canoeing and glass-bottom boat rides.

With the opening of the Hale‘iwa Hotel, the business climate expanded and tourism began to play a hand in the area. Many of the early business families and their original business buildings still remain in Hale‘iwa town today. Some of the town’s buildings are protected landmarks.

As noted in ‘The Union Pacific Magazine,’ (1924) “there are few more charming spots in the Hawaiian Islands than this delightful hotel with its bungalow cottages for guests and its beautiful grounds sloping gently back to the bank of a crystal clear river that runs out between lava rocks to the sea”.

By the late-1920s, it was hard to maintain the luxury and level of service at the hotel. What had been built two decades before to lure passengers to ride the train no longer applied, as more and more people owned cars.

In 1930 the railroad closed the hotel and it became a private ‘Haleiwa Beach Club.’ Later, the Haleiwa Hotel became the ‘Haleiwa Army Officer’s Club.’

During the height of its popularity, the hotel had made the name Hale‘iwa famous, and when its, ultimately, doors closed in 1943; its name remained as the name of the surrounding community – Hale‘iwa.

The last ride on OR&L’s train operations was on December 31, 1947, ending 58-years of steam locomotives hauling all kinds of people, freight and other around O‘ahu.

By 1953, the aged, termite-ridden structure had been torn down. Hale‘iwa Joe’s restaurant now stands where the Hale‘iwa Hotel once stood.

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Haleiwa_Hotel-from rail

Haleiwa_Hotel

Haleiwa-Hotel

HaleiwaHotel

Haleiwa Hotel

circa 1910, from The Advertiser’s archives shows the old Hale’iwa Hotel

Bridge at Haleiwa Hotel

Haleiwa_Hotel-1930s

Haleiwa-Hotel-Interior

Haleiwa Hotel-Interior

Driveway at Haleʻiwa Hotel circa 1915

Haleiwa Hotel-1935

Panoramic-view-of-Haleiwa-Hotel-1902-four-years-after-Benjamin-Dillingham-opened-the-hotel-in-1898

January 6, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Rail’s Impact

“The science of transportation, as demonstrated by the railroad and steamboat promoters of this age, has been clearly shown to be the principle upon which the astounding commercial progress of the United States is founded.”

“The vast trans-continental systems, with their ramifications, have carried millions of people from Europe and the Atlantic states into the unbroken west, tapped the treasures of mine, forest and farm, developed a hundred industries where none was known twenty-five years ago, built cities and added to the nation’s wealth a hundred fold.”

“Within the past year Hawaii has started in the footsteps of America by projecting a railroad around the island of Oahu, and actually perfecting, within the period from April 1st, 1889, to January 1st, 1890 …”

“… a well equipped railroad in running order, extending from Honolulu along the southern shore of the island to a temporary terminus at Ewa Court House, a distance of twelve miles.”

“It was five years ago that Mr BF Dillingham advanced the idea of building a steam railroad that should carry freight and passengers, and conduct business on the most improved American methods.”

“A hundred men told him his scheme was infeasible where one offered encouragement. He believed he was right, and so put forth every endeavor to secure a franchise, which was granted to him only after vigorous legislative opposition to the measure.”

“Chief among the ends secured by facilitating the shipment of produce from the interior to the seaboard is the conjunction of ship and car, a principle that Mr. Dillingham had in view when he launched his railroad venture. This project, involving the construction of a wharf from the present railroad terminus at Iwelei to deep water in Honolulu harbor, is being carried out.”

“Only three or four cities in the United States claim this superior arrangement for rapid and economic transfer of freight, and it certainly becomes a progressive movement on the part of Honolulu when our railroad cars bring sugar, bananas and rice from plantations on the northwest side of the island directly to ship’s tackles.”

“Its usefulness will be appreciated when, in 1892, the first crop of Ewa Plantation will, with only a nominal cost of handling, be placed in the hold of out-bound packets.”

“Banana and rice planters along the line of the railroad will not be slow to avail themselves of the shipping advantages provided by the meeting of ship and car. Bananas can be cut from the plant on the morning a vessel sails, and will arrive in the California market in a much better condition than those heretofore transported by horse and mule back from the interior.”

“Hawaiian rice, which commands a higher price in American markets than the South Carolina product, can be placed in San Francisco at a lower figure than formerly.”

“While the banana and rice traffic will be stimulated to a greater extent here than in any other country on the globe, the advantage given to sugar, the staple commodity of the Kingdom, will be heightened to an extraordinary degree.”

“In no other country have we the spectacle of sugar being taken from the mill directly to ship’s tackles. In Manila, Jamaica and Cuba, and even in Louisiana and Mississippi, the process of transportation is slow, laborious and expensive, reducing the profits of the planter to a minimum.”

“Market gardening, dairying and the raising of poultry can be made lucrative to the industrious, while fruit culture, embracing a large variety of products, offers other liberal inducements.”

“Along the line of the railroad there are now 7,500 acres in rice, yielding 10,000 tons annually, and 150 acres in bananas, yielding 100,000 bunches annually, and besides these prolific plantations there are, in close proximity to the several stations, thousands of mellow acres untouched, capable of bearing all the multifarious fruits and flowers of the tropics.”

“Repeated successes in the past give some assurance that the railroad will succeed in this laudable project. … The Oahu Railway & Land Company are nothing if not progressive.”

“It is difficult at this stage of the corporation’s history to convey an idea of what will be accomplished at the close of the year 1890.”

“The projection of branch roads, the importation of locomotives and cars, the improvements around Pearl Harbor and the track laying beyond Ewa are circumstances of the present that indicate preparations for an enormous business.”

“The branches or spurs now under way are, one extending into the Palama suburb, having its terminus at a stone quarry, and the other is a line running along the peninsula at Pearl City.”

“The enterprise shown by the Oahu Railway and Land Company from the very commencement of its great undertaking, and in every branch of its service, is worthy of special note and commendation.”

“Every month witnesses the opening of some new plan, or the completion of some noteworthy object, in which all will be more or less interested.”

“Of what may be termed the Pearl Harbor Section of the Oahu Railway there will be sixteen miles of track from the city to the mill of the Ewa Plantation, located near the shores of the west loch of the lagoon.”

“Of this, twelve miles are completed and in excellent order to Pearl City Depot, improving, however, with each month’s service and use by daily freight and passenger trains, and with the additional ballasting which the road receives from time to time, wherever and whenever wanted.”

“At each station convenient buildings have been erected, with two good depots at Honolulu and Pearl City. A commodious turn-table building has been erected near the Honolulu Depot, where the engines may be housed when not in use, and another smaller one at Pearl City.”

The freight business of the read is increasing with each new enterprise, that is being developed at or near the present western terminus.”

“And it is also a noticeable fact that business along the line of road between Honolulu and Ewa has already received a stimulus that is helping to increase the passenger and freight traffic and to develop the resources of those fertile plains.” (Whitney; Tourist Guide, 1890)

And their attitude/outcome in 1890? … “From what we have learned from all sources we have greater faith than ever in the success of … the Oahu Railway and Land Company”. (Whitney; Tourist Guide, 1890)

Rail about 130 years ago; what about today (you can include SuperFerry in those thoughts, as well)? Back then, private enterprise “came forward at the right time and purchased enough stock and bonds to set the enterprise on foot.” And today …

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OR&L Railroad Station 1890

OR&L Station

OR&L Alakea Street Honolulu

pulls into the Honolulu Depot to pick up and dispatch passengers. Photo taken in 1890.

OR&L Honolulu Depot-1901

OR&L Honolulu Depot-1914

OR&L_Waianae

Railroad along Pearl Harbor-1890

Train turning into Fort Kamehameha, Oahu, 1923

Waianae Train Station

OR&L Steam Locomotive-Leahi

May 17, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Train Terminal, Depot

Benjamin Franklin (Frank) Dillingham’s OR&L company, created in 1889, changed the landscape of west Honolulu. Its first train depot was created between a fishpond and North King Street, next to Prison Road, later renamed Iwilei Road.

The first section of track extended only as far as Aiea, but by the 1920s, tracks had been laid all over the island. The train was the primary mode of transportation. (Burlingame)

“Among the most important works now in progress of rapid construction, is the Oahu Railway to Pearl Harbor, which is already approaching completion, so far as grading is concerned.”

“Eleven miles of this line will have the grading completed in two weeks; and of this length ten miles are already finished. The material for the bridges is already on the ground, and the work of driving the piles has been begun at the larger estuaries of Kalihi and Moanalua.”

“A few of the bridges on this line will be of considerable length; but, with the present energy being displayed only a short time will elapse before the gaps in the line will all disappear.”

“Many of the smaller bridges and culverts have been already built. There will be altogether twenty bridges between Honolulu and Ewa, of various lengths—from 16 to 300 feet, with an aggregate length of 1250 feet.”

“Plans have been approved by which the main depot will be placed 180 feet from King street in what is now a fish-pond dividing Oahu prison from the royal stables.”

“A large portion, if not all of this extensive fish-pond will be filled in without delay, and this substantial and eligible building ground, artificially firmed, will become of great value by close proximity to the main depot buildings.”

“The depot itself will be of imposing size and made as ornamental in appearance as convenience and traffic requirements will allow. The grading of the whole division of this line, twelve miles, will be completed within the next month; and the laying of the rails will commence immediately upon their arrival by the bank Deutschland now nearly due from Germany.”

“The progress of this important work has been so rapid during the month of July that we give it first place among works in progress. (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, July 27, 1889)

The inauguration of the OR&L rail service was November 16, 1889. (LOC)Eventually, the railroad ran west out of Honolulu to Waianae, around Kaena Point and on to Kahuku, and is significant in the development of the sugar industry on the island of Oahu.

As a result of the development of this rail line the lands of western and northern Oahu were able to be opened for the cultivation of sugar, with plantations started at Ewa, Waipahu, Waianae, Waialua, Kahuku and other areas. Besides freight, the OR&L also provided plantation workers with easy access to Honolulu. (NPS)

In 1924-1925, a new Depot was constructed to replace an earlier 1889 wooden terminal building, and was the main Honolulu rail terminal for OR&L’s passenger operations.

The building was designed by local architect Guy N. Rothwell. The contract to erect the terminal was officially given to the Hawaiian Contracting Company (a company that was owned by the Dillingham family), though much of the work was performed by OR&L’s in-house construction crews.

Upon completion, the building had dual functions, with the 2nd floor providing offices for the company’s daily railroad operations, and the 1st floor accommodating passengers. The 1st floor layout included a porte-cochere, a ticket office and lobby with a restaurant and bar, as well as a news stand.

The offices upstairs were occupied by OR&L’s president, general manager, superintendent and treasurer, as well as the station’s dispatcher.

Both floors also included spacious restrooms for travelers and employees. As soon as the building was completed, an extension was constructed on the north side, to accommodate the company’s growing freight department.

The railroad prospered until the 1930s when the advent of improved roadways led to its decline. The railway continued in operation through World War II, but in 1947 all operations outside of Honolulu were abandoned. (NPS)

The company continued to use Depot building as a terminal well after rail passenger operations ceased at the end of 1947. The property was acquired by the State of Hawaii in 1961. After OR&L moved off the premises eighteen months later the building was used as office space.

A 1975 renovation completely reconfigured the interior of the building for office use, and an elevator and expanded stairwell were added at an unknown date. Various state organizations have occupied the offices, with the current users being the Division of Accounting and General Services, Department of Human Services in the terminal building. (HABS)

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First day of operation Nov 16, 1889.

OR&L Railroad Depot 1890

OR&L Honolulu Depot-1890

OR&L Railway Depot

OR&L Railroad Yard, November 1941

OR&L Railroad Depot

OR&L Railroad Station 1890

OR&L Honolulu Terminal Roundhouse-Adv

OR&L Honolulu Depot-1914

OR&L Honolulu Depot_1890

OR&L Alakea Street Honolulu

OR&L Honolulu

OR&L Honolulu Depot-1901

OR&L Station 325 N. King St. Honolulu, late 1940s

OR&L-Iwilei-map

OR&L-Oahu-Map

OR&L-Map

March 4, 2017 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Getting Around

Throughout the years of AD 1400s – 1700s, and through much of the 1800s, the canoe was a principal means of travel in ancient Hawaiʻi. Canoes were used for interisland and inter-village coastal travel.

Most permanent villages initially were near the ocean and at sheltered beaches, which provided access to good fishing grounds, as well as facilitating convenient canoe travel.

Royal Centers were where the aliʻi resided; aliʻi often moved between several residences throughout the year. The Royal Centers were selected for their abundance of resources and recreation opportunities, with good surfing and canoe-landing sites being favored.

The canoes “have the bottom for the most part formed of a single piece or log of wood, hollowed out to the thickness of an inch, or an inch and a half, and brought to a point at each end.”

“The sides consist of three boards, each about an inch thick, and neatly fitted and lashed to the bottom part. The extremities, both at head and stern, are a little raised, and both are made sharp, somewhat like a wedge, but they flatten more abruptly, so that the two side-boards join each other side by side for more than a foot.”

“They are rowed by paddles, such as we had generally met with; and some of them have a light triangular sail, like those of the Friendly Islands, extended to a mast and boom. The ropes used for their boats, and the smaller cords for their fishing-tackle, are strong and well made.” (Captain Cook’s Journal)

Although the canoe was a principal means of travel in ancient Hawai`i, extensive cross-country trail networks enabled gathering of food and water and harvesting of materials for shelter, clothing, medicine, religious observances and other necessities for survival.

Ancient trails, those developed before western contact (1778,) facilitated trading between upland and coastal villages and communications between ahupua‘a and extended families.

These trails were usually narrow, following the topography of the land. Sometimes, over ‘a‘ā lava, they were paved with water-worn stones.

June 21, 1803 marked an important day in the history of Hawaiʻi land transportation and other uses when the Lelia Byrd, an American ship under Captain William Shaler (with commercial officer Richard Cleveland,) arrived at Kealakekua Bay with two mares and a stallion on board.

Eventually, wider, straighter trails were constructed to accommodate horse drawn carts. Unlike the earlier trails, these later trails could not conform to the natural, sometimes steep, terrain.

By the early 1850s, specific criteria were developed for realigning trails and roadways, including the straightening of alignments and development of causeways and bridges. On August 30, 1850, the Privy Council first named Hawaiʻi’s streets; there were 35-streets that received official names that day (29 were in Downtown Honolulu, the others nearby).

To get around people walked, or rode horses or used personal carts/buggies. It wasn’t until 1868, that horse-drawn carts became the first public transit service in the Hawaiian Islands, operated by the Pioneer Omnibus Line.

Nuʻuanu Valley was the first of the valleys to undergo residential development because it was convenient to the town (when most people walked from town up into the valley).

In 1888, the animal-powered tramcar service of Hawaiian Tramways ran track from downtown to Waikīkī. In 1900, the Tramway was taken over by the Honolulu Rapid Transit & Land Co (HRT).

That year, an electric trolley (tram line) was put into operation in Honolulu, and then in 1902, a tram line was built to connect Waikīkī and downtown Honolulu. The electric trolley replaced the horse/mule-driven tram cars.

“In those days – there were only four automobiles on Oahu in 1901 – you lived downtown because you worked downtown, you couldn’t live in Kaimuki or in Manoa.” (star-bulletin) The tram helped change that.

“The company’s service extends to Waikiki beach, the famous and popular resort of the Hawaiian and tourist, and where the aquarium, the property of the company, is one of the great objects of attraction. Kapiʻolani Park, the Bishop Museum, the Kahauki Military Post, the Royal Mausoleum, Oʻahu College and the Mānoa and Nuʻuanu valleys are reached by the lines of this company.” (Overland Monthly, 1909)

The streetcars were replaced completely by buses (first gasoline and later diesel buses). Bus service was inaugurated by HRT in 1915, initially using locally built bodies and later buses from the Mainland (acquired in 1928).

Trolley buses operated on a number of HRT routes from January 1938 to the spring of 1958. Electric street cars, first used by HRT on August 31, 1901, were withdrawn early in the morning of July 1, 1941. (Schmitt)

In 1888, the legislature gave Dillingham an exclusive franchise “for construction and operation on the Island of O‘ahu a steam railroad … for the carriage of passengers and freight.”

Ultimately OR&L sublet land, partnered on several sugar operations and/or hauled cane from Ewa Plantation Company, Honolulu Sugar Company in ‘Aiea, O‘ahu Sugar in Waipahu, Waianae Sugar Company, Waialua Agriculture Company and Kahuku Plantation Company, as well as pineapples for Dole.

Likewise, OR&L hauled various stages in the pineapple harvesting/production, including the canning components, fresh pineapple to the cannery, ending up hauling the cased products to the docks.

By 1895 the rail line reached Waianae. It then rounded Kaʻena Point to Mokuleʻia, eventually extending to Kahuku. Another line was constructed through central O‘ahu to Wahiawa.

Passenger travel was an add-on opportunity that not only included train rides, they also operated a bus system. However, the hauling for the agricultural ventures was the most lucrative.

They even included a “Kodak Camera Train” (associated with the Hula Show) for Sunday trips to Haleiwa for picture-taking. During the war years, they served the military.

Repeatedly evidenced in the early years of rail across the continent, railroads looked to expand their passenger business by operating hotels and attractions at the ends of the lines.

Once a railroad was being built to a new location, the land speculators would prepare for cashing in on their investment. A hotel would typically be in place by the time the railroad service began.

Just like the rail programs on the continent, the railroad owned and operated the Haleiwa Hotel and offered city folks a North Shore destination with beaches, boating, golf, tennis and hunting.

On August 5, 1899, as part of the O‘ahu Railway & Land Company (OR&L) rail system, the Hale‘iwa Hotel (“house of the ‘iwa”, or frigate bird) was completed.

The weekend getaway from Honolulu to the Hale‘iwa Hotel became hugely popular with the city affluent who enjoyed a retreat in “the country.”

The Waikīkī Aquarium opened on March 19, 1904; it is the third oldest aquarium in the United States. Its adjacent neighbor on Waikīkī Beach is the Natatorium War Memorial.

It was also a practical objective of using the Aquarium as a means of enticing passengers to ride to the end of the new trolley line in Kapiʻolani Park, where the Aquarium was located. (The trolley terminus was across Kalākaua Avenue from the Aquarium, near the current tennis courts.)

Honolulu resident HP Baldwin is credited with having the first automobile back in October 1899 (it was steam-powered). The first gasoline-powered automobile arrived in the Islands in 1900.

Fast-forward a half-century of road building, growth in the number of automobiles and the associated traffic.

Interstate H-1 was first authorized in as a result of the Statehood Act of 1960. Work was completed on the first segment of the new H-1 Interstate, spanning 1-mile – from Koko Head Avenue to 1st Avenue, on June 21, 1965.

A temporary westbound exit to Harding and a temporary eastbound entrance from Kapahulu Avenue allowed motorists to access the new freeway until the Kapiʻolani Interchange was completed in October 1967.

Click HERE to view/download for more information on ‘Getting Around’.

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Horse_drawn_tramcars,_Honolulu,_Hawaii,_1901

September 4, 2016 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Benjamin Franklin Dillingham

Benjamin Franklin (Frank) Dillingham was the son of Benjamin Clark Dillingham, a shipmaster, and Lydia Sears (Hows) Dillingham, born on September 4, 1844 in West Brewster, Massachusetts.

He left school at 14 and shipped on his uncle’s vessel for a voyage around the Horn to San Francisco. During the Civil War, on June 6, 1863, he was nineteen-year-old third mate on the clipper ship Southern Cross bound for New York with a cargo of ‘log wood.’

‘Florida’ was flying the British ensign, though as she steamed closer, she ran up the rebels’ ‘stars and bars.’ A squad of armed Confederate sailors boarded and took Dillingham and the rest of the clipper’s small crew prisoner.

Then, as the new prisoners watched from the deck of their captor, the Southern Cross was set ablaze and sunk. Eventually they were put ashore at Rio de Janeiro and worked their way back to the war-torn United States.

Dillingham headed west, determined to take up residence in San Francisco and find work ashore. An unsuccessful hunt for employment led him back to the sea, and in 1865 he was hired by Captain John Paty as first mate on the bark whistler, on the San Francisco/Honolulu run.

“A brief sojourn in the city enabled me to realize that I had no training in any other vocation, save that of the sea, and learning that Capt. Paty of the bark Whistler plying between the coast and Honolulu was in need of officers, I applied and obtained the position of first mate without delay.” (Dillingham; Chiddix & Simpson))

Dillingham wrote that he felt at home the first time he came ashore in Honolulu: “After my tempstuous experiences in rounding Cape Horn and the Cape of Good Hope, the trip seemed to me like a pleasure excursion.”

“It felt as if I had anchored in a home port; the cordiality I experienced from all those whom I met removed at once the feeling of being in a foreign land though the streets were filled with several nationalities. The luxuriant foliage, the balmy breezes, the tropical fruits, all afforded such delights that I felt sure I should return.”

He did return, and ultimately stayed after an unfortunate encounter between his horse and a carriage; “The first officer of the bark Whistler, Mr. Dillingham, whose leg was broken last Friday night, by being thrown from a horse, in collision with a carriage, on the valley road …”

“(Dillingham) is now at the American Marine Hospital, where he receives every care and attention, and is in favorable condition for recover.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, July 29, 1865) Unfortunately for him, the Whistler left him in Honolulu and sailed away.

He accepted a job as a clerk in a hardware store called H. Dimond & Son for $40 per month. The store was owned by Henry Dimond, formerly a bookbinder in the 7th Missionary Company. In 1850 Dimond had been released from his duties at the Mission and had gone into business with his son.

Dillingham later bought the company with partner Alfred Castle (son of Samuel Northrup Castle, who was in the 8th Company of missionaries and ran the Mission business office;) they called the company Dillingham & Co (it was later known as Pacific Hardware, Co.)

On April 26, 1869, Dillingham married Emma Smith, daughter of 6th Company missionaries Reverend Lowell and Abigail Smith.

But hard times came on Dillingham with the collapse of whaling and the rise of sugar. Large suppliers pulled Dillingham’s credit lines, and his accounts were paid late. Then Dillingham was given the opportunity to buy the James Campbell lands in Ewa.

While he couldn’t raise the money to buy it, Campbell leased the land for 50-years. Dillingham realized that to be successful, he needed reliable transportation.

On September 4, 1888, Frank Dillingham’s 44th birthday, the legislature gave Dillingham an exclusive franchise “for construction and operation on the Island of O‘ahu a steam railroad … for the carriage of passengers and freight.”

Dillingham formed O‘ahu Railway and Land Company (OR&L,) a narrow gauge rail, whose economic being was founded on the belief that O‘ahu would soon host a major sugar industry.

“Among the most important works now in process of rapid construction, is the Oahu railway to Pearl Harbor, which is already approaching completion, so far as grading is concerned. Eleven miles of this line will have the grading completed in two weeks; and of this length ten miles are already finished.”

“The depot itself will be of imposing size and made as ornamental in appearance as convenience and traffic requirements will allow. … The progress of this important work has been so rapid during the month of July that we give it first place among the works in progress during the past month.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, July 27, 1889)

“Mr BF Dillingham, promoter of the Oahu Railway and Land Company, on his birthday a year previous, was accosted by an acquaintance with the remark: ‘Well, Mr. Dillingham, you have got your franchise: when are you going to give us the railway?’”

“Mr. Dillingham replied that on his next birthday, that day one year, he hoped to treat his friends to a railway ride. … with a strong company now at his back, the originator of the enterprise, having taken the contract to build the road, resolutely pushed operations to their present advanced stage.”

“When the appointed day arrived Mr Dillingham was ready to celebrate. His engine had been set up some days. Two third class cars, the best passenger accommodation as yet on the ground, were put together. … With a shrill blast from the whistle and the bell clanging, the engine moved easily off with its load. Three rousing cheers were given by the passengers, and crowds assembled at the starting point responded.” (Daily Bulletin, September 5, 1889)

By the early-1900s, the expanded railway cut across the island, serving several sugar and pineapple plantations, and the popular Haleʻiwa Hotel. They even included a “Kodak Camera Train” (associated with the Hula Show) for Sunday trips to Hale‘iwa for picture-taking.

When the hotel opened on August 5, 1899, guests were conveyed from the railway terminal over the Anahulu stream to fourteen luxurious suites, each had a bath with hot-and-cold running water.

Thrum’s ‘Hawaiian Annual’ (1900,) noted, “In providing so tempting an inn as an adjunct and special attraction for travel by the Oahu Railway – also of his (Dillingham’s) creation – the old maxim of ‘what is worth doing is worth doing well’ has been well observed, everything About the hotel is first class…”

The weekend getaway from Honolulu to the Haleʻiwa Hotel became hugely popular with the city affluent who enjoyed a retreat in ‘the country.’

In addition, OR&L (using another of its “land” components,) got into land development. It developed Hawai‘i’s first planned suburban development and held a contest, through the newspaper, to name this new city. The winner selected was “Pearl City” (the public also named the main street, Lehua.)

The railway owned 2,200-acres in fee simple in the peninsula. First they laid-out and constructed the improvements, then invited the public on a free ride to see the new residential community. The marketing went so well; ultimately, lots were auctioned off to the highest bidder.

“Mr. Dillingham, besides creating the O‘ahu Railway, a line for which he struggled twenty-seven years against a public prejudice that would not see its financial possibilities, established Olaʻa plantation on the Island of Hawai‘i and McBryde plantation on Kauai.”

“He retained active management of the Oahu Railway & Land Company until 1915, when he relinquished it to George P. Denison.” (Sugar, May 1918) Dillingham died April 7, 1918 (aged 73.) (Information in this post taken, in part, from ‘Next Stop Honolulu.’)

The Dillingham Transportation Building was built in 1929 for Walter F Dillingham of Honolulu, Hawaiʻi, who founded the Hawaiian Dredging Company (later Dillingham Construction) and ran the Oahu Railway and Land Company founded by his father, Benjamin Franklin Dillingham.

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