It wasn’t the same back then; they didn’t have two cars in the garage and other mobility options. Back then, land travel was only foot traffic, over little more than trails and pathways.
In 1803, the first horses arrived. However, until the mid-1800s, overland travel was predominantly by foot and followed the traditional trails.
By the 1840s, the use of introduced horses, mules and bullocks for transportation was increasing, and many traditional trails were modified by removing the smooth stepping stones that caused the animals to slip.
In 1868, horse-drawn carts operated by the Pioneer Omnibus Line went into operation in Honolulu, beginning the first public transit service in the Hawaiian Islands.
The first gasoline-powered automobile arrived in the Islands in 1900. 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 changed that.
In 1899, one of Honolulu’s first subdivisions was laid out – Pacific Heights, just above Honolulu. They built the Pacific Heights Electric Railway to support the housing development.
If you look at the layout and topography of Pacific Heights, due to the slope, as you go up the hill, the road switches back and forth – making the walk a lot longer. You quickly see the challenges those in the middle or upper section have in getting to the bottom.
It is not clear how far the tram traveled up the subdivision; but if you lived near the top and needed to get up/down the hill, you had a long way to go to get there.
The developer must have seen that, too.
Hidden in overgrowth (or in use by neighboring properties,) is a flight of stone steps from the bottom of the subdivision to the middle section of the subdivision (as the road bends back, just above the Water Department facility;) it was in the original subdivision.
Middle and upper homeowners walking up/down the hill could bypass the lower switchbacks and take a bee-line to/from the bottom.
Early mapping of the subdivision notes this short cut down the hill.
While Charles Desky (the developer) is reported to have “pulled several shady land transactions”, he got it right, here – with the stone step short cut. The images show portions of the stone steps in the Pacific Heights short cut.
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Hi Peter, Do you have any info on farmers (mainly dairy farmers) on the southeast side of Honolulu (particularly Kuliouou Valley). My grandfather Marion Perry (found out originally Perreira) had a dairy business there. Probably acquired the property in the 1920s or 30s till mid 1950s. I grew up there until 1980 when my Mom and her siblings sold the property sometime in the 80s. Addresses there are 480-502 Kuliouou Road. Growing up I also remember that there was a Army Rifle Range there. There was another larger sized dairy there in Kuliouou slightly lower in the valley from where my grandfathers property was.
Also property above my grandfathers was a contractor JN Tanaka who also had a farm there goats, chickens. There was another chicken farm (in small quanson huts and pig farm(s).
In 1980 the properties that was developed and many homes built from my grandfathers property to where the rifle range was before the Forests Reserve.
I think Kuliouou Vally has a lot of histort that I am interested n knowing about.
Like your postings.
Charles Teixeira
Thank you Peter!
Great post and wondering if you live on Pacific Hts?
I am at 2765 PHR in a historic bungalow (b. 1927) which I got listed on the State Historic Register (thanks to Don Hibbard). I’ve heard about the shortcut/stairs but never experienced it.
Can you tell me at what address the stairs start at?
I’d like to check it out.
Mahalo
I do not live there; I live in Kailua. At the bottom it is at the hairpin/intersection of Pacific Heights Road and the small road servicing a few lots – look to the right of the carport for 2457 Pacific Heights Drive. If you stay on Pacific Heights Drive there is a turn off to serve 2771 – 2776 on the right; that will take you to some of the middle section (here it looks like people have incorporated the stairs into their lots. If you keep going up Pacific Heights Drive you pass the Water Supply facility, go past it and at the hairpin ahead is the top of the stairs. Right at that turn, there is a house with a garage at the hairpin – the stairs are to the right of the telephone poles (to the right of the garage.) It is not clear if the stairs have been consolidated into the adjoining lots – it may all be private property.
I walked up those stairs as a child and remember it as having steps loose and missing and being overgrown with bushes. I wrote about the 500 Steps in my book about growing up in Hawai’i, A Little Too Much Is Enough.