Images of Old Hawaiʻi

You are here: Home / Categories

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

“Not A Planned Community”

At the time of Captain Cook’s contact with the Hawaiian Islands the land was divided into several independent Chiefdoms.  By succession and right of conquest, each High Chief was owner of all the lands within his jurisdiction.

Although the chiefs controlled the land and extracted food and labor from the makaʻāinana who farmed the soil, “everyone had rights of access and use to the resources of the land and the sea … The people were sustained by a tradition of sharing and common use.”

Kamehameha III divided the lands in a process known as the Great Māhele (1848.)  Ultimately, it transformed land tenure from feudal-like/communal trusteeship to private ownership.

Hui Kūʻai ʻĀina O Hāʻena (Hāʻena Cooperative to Purchase Land) was one of many groups formed by people after the Mānele and Kuleana Act.  Members held shares in the total land area, and the land was used collectively. That is, unlike the kuleana lands (individual homesteads,) Hui lands were not divided into individual parcels.

These cooperatives formed, in part, to retain traditional ways of life on the land, which were typically thwarted by the legal system shifting to Western ways.  A fundamental precept of the hui was sharing, collectively, on the land.  (Andrade)

Over the next century, changes that were affecting the rest of the Hawaiian Islands gradually reached Hāʻena. Among the most important of these were changes that eventually brought about the break-up of the Hui Kūʻai ‘Āina and resulted in the partitioning of the lands that had been held in common.

The path to this break-up was one whereby, over time, shares in the Hui were sold, transferred or auctioned off away from the original members and their families, and into the hands of newcomers from outside. (PacificWorlds)

Later, the Taylor family purchased a parcel of coastal land in the area.  “My family sailed over from O‘ahu in August of 1968. That first morning we came down here in an old Valiant station wagon. We looked around and ate our lunch on one of the flat rocks that are still over there by the stream.”

“My parents fell in love with this place, went back to our house on O‘ahu and sold that place. They sold the boat, sold the house, sold everything and moved to Kauaʻi.” (Tommy Taylor)

Howard Taylor (brother to actress Elizabeth Taylor) went to acquire building permits to construct his family home on the property. However, the State would not grant him such a permit, since they were planning to condemn the land.

At the same time, however, they insisted that he still pay full taxes on the land. In disgust, Taylor turned the land over to the “flower power people” – they called it Taylor Camp.

Started in the spring of 1969, “Taylor Camp was not a planned community.  The land … had been loaned … to a small group of people who had been squatting at several of the county parks on Kauaʻi during 1968 and 1969.”

“The county police had shooed the group from one park to another and the county was taking legal action against them when Mr Taylor offered them the use of a small parcel of land bordering the beach at Hāʻena point.”  (Riley)

By 1970, the original group of thirteen men, women and children of Taylor Camp were gone; soon, waves of hippies, surfers and troubled Vietnam vets found their way to Taylor Camp and built a clothing-optional, pot-friendly village at the end of the road on the island’s north shore.

“The campers wanted to escape the mainland, the political situation, the Vietnam War.  There were dropping out, trying to get away and these people found Kauaʻi.”  (Taylor; Wehrheim)

Abandoning the tent village, by 1972 there were 21-permanent houses at Taylor Camp. All of them were tree houses, since local authorities would not issue them permits for ground dwellings.

In addition to the houses in the camp there was a communal shower, an open air toilet, a small church and even a cooperative store which operated on and off until the camp’s closing. (Riley)

“We were a Kauaʻi community at the end of the road in the seventies living like some of our local neighbors were living.  No electricity, no one had anything.  … It was very, very simple, very, very slow.” (Rosenthal; Wehrheim)

“It wasn’t a free for all type of place.  A lot of people came through and wanted to build something and stay but they couldn’t.  There was sort of a council and general rules to keep the peace and the order. … So everybody had to be approved by the elders”.  (Baricchi; Wehrheim)

“The camp also became an informal pool of causal labor.  While some of the campers worked legitimate jobs and a few even owned their own businesses, many – living on welfare, food stamps, unemployment and growing marijuana – welcomed causal labor”.

“In the morning builders or farmers in need of strong backs could pull up in their trucks and find a few campers willing to work cheap.”  (Wehrheim)

Kauaʻi’s north shore boomed with surfers and hippies to a point where more than 350-people were in and around Taylor Camp.

“It was getting to be a mess.  It wasn’t a commune anymore.  The communal life just didn’t work.  There were too many freeloaders.  There were only two or three people that were gathering, buying and cooking the food … but the people eating were not even cleaning up … That’s what started the break-up.  (Harder: Wehrheim)

“(I)t was really kind of stressful, when we had so little and there were freeloaders mooching, not contributing anything.  Soon it evolved into, ‘We are not doing this communal thing anymore!’ “

“And people started building little shelters and then everybody said, ‘Okay, we will do our individual house and we will do our individual cooking,’ and so the commune ended”.(Harder; Wehrheim)

Folks on the outside added to the pressures.  “There was a lot of tension between the locals and the hippies … We were the devil – evil incarnate.… The locals who knew us didn’t think that, but the politicians, the elected officials, they needed a bad guy”.  (Rosenthal; Wehrheim)

“People did not like Taylor Camp, because it was different.  Like you have homeless in Honolulu living on the beach – that was Taylor Camp. … People just did not like hippies.  They weren’t wearing clothes and they were planting marijuana all over the place.”  (Malapit; Wehrheim)

Then, the headlines told the future, “Condemnation for Park;” “All the land on the North side of Kauaʻi between Limahuli Stream and the end of the road at Hāʻena is about to be taken over by the State through condemnation proceedings. A State Park is planned for the area.”  (Garden Island, May 17, 1971)

In 1974, after five years of bureaucratic government maneuvers, the State government finally formally condemned and acquired Howard Taylor’s land.  But some of the residents didn’t leave and they made claims back upon the State.

The dragged-out eviction proceedings and other legal challenges wore on the campers and they finally dropped all claims against the State and left voluntarily.   Many moved to the Big Island.

In 1977, government officials torched the camp – leaving little but ashes and memories of “the best days of our lives.”  (Wehrheim) (Much of the information and images here are from John Wehrheim’s Taylor Camp book – that was an unanticipated, but much appreciated arrival at my door one day.)

The original 13: Victor Schaub,  Sondra Schaub (with 4-year old daughter Heidi Schaub,) Webb Ford, Carol Ford, John Becker, George Berg, Jr, Thomas Carver, Teri Ann Rush, John Rush, Kirby Nunn, Wendy Nunn, Jackie Nixon and Gail Pickolz.  (Wehrheim)

© 2024 Hoʻokuleana LLC

by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Bellows

Waimanalo Military Reservation was created in 1917 by Presidential Executive Order, and later renamed to Bellows Field in 1933 (named after Lieutenant Franklin Barney Bellows, a war hero who was killed in action during World War I while on a reconnaissance flight near St. Mihiel, France, on September 13, 1918.)

The land was leased from Waimanalo Sugar Plantation. It was used as the bivouac area and a target practice area by the Coastal Artillery, which strung a line of 90-mm guns along the beach.  During the 1930s, Bellows was used as a bombing and gunnery range by aircraft from Luke (Ford Island,) Wheeler and Hickam Fields.

Back then, the field was nothing but overgrowth of sugar cane and guava. The only clearings were for training areas and tents where the men slept.  It was a training area for the infantry, coast artillery and Air Corps. There was a wooden traffic control tower and a single asphalt runway, 983-feet long and 75-feet wide.

Bellows Field was used for training both air and ground forces. During the mid-1930s the Air Corps chiefly used this area for a strafing and bombing practice site.  Those operations extended into 1938, when the total Air Corps personnel on duty only consisted of five to ten men supplied from Wheeler Field.

Bellows was a sub-post of Wheeler Field until July 22, 1941 when it became a separate permanent military post under the jurisdiction of the Commanding General, Hawaiian Department. Overnight, an accelerated construction program began and Bellows began to grow. Two-story wooden barracks and a new and larger runway started filling the landscape.

Bellows was among those installations attacked by the Japanese during the Pearl Harbor attack. The 44th Pursuit Squadron had 12 P-40’s located at Bellows on December 7th, 1941. Unfortunately the planes had been flown the day before the attack and the aircraft guns had been removed for cleaning.  (Trojan)

Two military members were killed (Lt. Hans Christenson and Lt. George Whiteman) and six wounded at Bellows.  They included three pilots of the 44th Pursuit Squadron who were at Bellows for gunnery training and attempted to take off in their P-40s.  One of the pilots had to swim to shore when his badly damaged aircraft crashed into the ocean.

Also swimming ashore the next day was the commander of a Japanese two-man midget submarine which grounded on the reef off of Bellows.  Ensign Kazuo Sakamaki, captured by Cpt. David Akui and Lt. Paul S. Plybon, was the first US prisoner of war taken in WW II.  His companion, Petty Officer Second Class Kiyoshi Inagaki, died and his remains later washed up on the shore.  (hawaii-gov)

With the outbreak of war, Bellows was transformed almost overnight into an important facility where aircraft were prepared for their duty in the Pacific Theater.  Hundreds of men and aircraft flowed through Bellows requiring more runways and facilities.

Five runways, the longest 6,290-feet, were in two different airfields, connected by a taxiway – they were identified as “Bellows Field (Army)” to the south and “Bellows Field Bombing Range (Emergency)” to the north.

Later (1955,) the north Bellows airfield was “closed” and the south field was labeled simply as “Bellows,” without any kind of military designation. The field was also described as “Not attended.”

The south Bellows airfield may have been used for some time during the 1950s as a civilian airfield of some type.  The runways at Bellows were eventually closed in 1958 and the base was used for other purposes.

In 1960, the U.S. Army built two Nike-Hercules anti-aircraft missile sites at Bellows, which were operated full-time by the Hawaiʻi Army National Guard for the aerial defense of Hawaii until inactivated in 1970.  The communications transmitter facility replaced the Kipapa area transmitter and receiver sites. The Army National Guard continued at Bellows until 1995.

Later, Bellows was operated and maintained by members of the 15th Communications Squadron.  Its transmitters were the principal ground-to-air link with aircraft (particularly military aircraft) flying to and from Hawaiʻi; and they provided communications for Presidential flights and others carrying high-level government officials.  (The facility was decommissioned in the 1980s or 1990s.)

This communications network was one of the reasons the runways at Bellows went out of use; an antenna was located right in one of the runways. In addition, a large communication building was constructed right in the middle of the crossed runways.

The Bellows property was renamed Bellows Air Force Station (AFS) in 1968.  In 1970 the US Air Force offered part of Bellows to the State of Hawaiʻi for use as a general aviation airport, but opposition by the nearby Waimanalo community was so strong that the state had to decline.

In 1999, the Marine Corps acquired about 1,050-acres for the Marine Corps Training Area Bellows (MCTAB;) it’s now part of Marine Corps Base Hawaiʻi, headquartered in Kāneʻohe Bay. MCTAB adds significant training capabilities and maneuver space for non-live fire military training activities.

The Marines and other services use the training areas to conduct amphibious, helicopter and motorized exercises in conjunction with troop land maneuver training. It is currently the only place in Hawaiʻi where amphibious landings can transition directly into maneuver training areas for realistic military training.

The Air Force’s property at Bellows is now limited to the recreational facilities.   The Bellows Recreation Center is composed of 102 beach cottages, a small exchange & a beach club. Bellows is still depicted as an abandoned airfield on recent Sectional Charts.

The facility also serves as all-service beach-front recreational area for active-duty and retired military personnel, civilian employees of the Department of Defense, dependents and guests.

On most weekends and holidays, the Marines continue a practice started by the Air Force to open the Bellows Beach training area to the general public, in cooperation with the City and County of Honolulu.  (Lots of information here from hawaii-gov and Trojan.)

© 2024 Hoʻokuleana LLC

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

May Day is Lei Day

May 1 is a special day in many cultures. The Celts and Saxons and others in pre-Christian Europe celebrated the first planting and the beauty of spring. These agrarian celebrations continued down through the centuries and remain today. In much of Europe, May 1 is also a labor holiday, honoring the labor workers.  (Akaka)

The first of May, however, has a unique and very special significance to the people of Hawaiʻi. May Day is Lei Day in Hawaiʻi.  (Akaka)

Lei making in Hawaiʻi begins with the arrival of the Polynesians. Polynesians, across the South Pacific, adorned their bodies with strings of flowers and vines.

When they arrived in Hawai`i, in addition to the useful plants they brought for food, medicine and building, they also brought plants with flowers used for decoration and adornment.

Lei throughout Polynesia were generally similar. Types included temporary fragrant lei such as maile and hala, as well as non-perishable lei like lei niho palaoa (whale or walrus bone), lei pupu (shell) and lei hulu manu (feather.)

“The leis of Old Hawaii were made of both semi-permanent materials – hair, bone, ivory, seeds, teeth, feathers, and shells; and the traditional flower and leaf leis –  twined vines, seaweed and leaf stems, woven and twisted leaves, strung and bound flowers of every description.”

“Leis were symbols of love, of a spiritual meaning or connection, of healing, and of respect.  There are many references to leis, or as the circle of a lei, being symbolic of the circle of a family, embracing, or love itself: “Like a living first-born child is love, A lei constantly desired and worn.”  (Na Mele Welo, Songs of Our Heritage, (translated by Mary Kawena Pukui,) Gecko Farms)

Robert Elwes, an artist who visited the Hawaiian islands in 1849, wrote that Hawaiian women “delight in flowers, and wear wreaths on their heads in the most beautiful way.”

“A lei is a garland of flowers joined together in a manner which can be worn. There are many different styles of lei made of numerous types of flowers. The type of flower used determines the manner in which the lei is woven.”  (Akaka)

Reportedly, Don Blanding, writing in his book ‘Hula Moons,’ explained the origins of Lei Day: “Along in the latter part of 1927 I had an idea; not that that gave me a headache, but it seemed such a good one that I had to tell some one about it, so I told the editors of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, the paper on which I worked.”

“They agreed that it was a good idea and that we ought to present it to the public, which we proceeded to do. It took hold at once and resulted in something decidedly beautiful.”

“… The custom of weaving and wearing flower leis originated with the Hawaiians so long ago that they have no record of its beginning. … When tourists discovered Hawaii, they loved the charming gesture and they spread the word of it until the lei became known around the world.”

“… Hawai`i observed all of the mainland holidays as well as those of a number of the immigrant nationalities in the Islands. But there was no day that was peculiarly and completely Hawaii’s own; that is none that included all of the polyglot population there.”

“So, the bright idea that I presented was, “Why not have a Lei Day?” Let everyone wear a lei and give a lei. Let it be a day of general rejoicing over the fact that one lived in a Paradise. Let it be a day for remembering old friends, renewing neglected contacts, with the slogan “Aloha,” allowing that flexible word to mean friendliness on that day.”

In 1929, Governor Farrington signed a Lei Day proclamation urging the citizens of Hawaiʻi to “observe the day and honor the traditions of Hawaii-nei by wearing and displaying lei.”‘  (Akaka)  Lei Day celebrations continue today, marking May 1st with lei-making competitions, concerts, and the giving and receiving of lei among friends and family.

Reportedly, the “tradition” of giving a kiss with a lei dates back to World War II, when a USO entertainer, seeking a kiss from a handsome officer, claimed it was a Hawaiian custom.

In 2001, Hawaiʻi Senator, Dan Akaka, during a May 1 address, said, “’May Day is Lei Day’ in Hawaiʻi. Lei Day is a nonpolitical and nonpartisan celebration. Indeed, its sole purpose is to engage in random acts of kindness and sharing, and to celebrate the Aloha spirit, that intangible, but palpable, essence which is best exemplified by the hospitality and inclusiveness exhibited by the Native Hawaiians — Hawaii’s indigenous peoples — to all people of goodwill.”

© 2023 Hoʻokuleana LLC

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kamokuʻakulikuli

Coral doesn’t grow in fresh water.  So, where a stream enters a coastal area, there is typically no coral growth at that point – and, as the freshwater runs out into the ocean, a coral-less channel is created.

In its natural state, thanks to Nuʻuanu Stream, Honolulu Harbor originally was a deep embayment formed by the outflow of Nuʻuanu Stream creating an opening in the shallow coral reef along the south shore of Oʻahu.

Honolulu Harbor (it was earlier known as Kuloloia) was entered by the first foreigner, Captain William Brown of the English ship Butterworth, in 1794.

They called the harbor “Fair Haven” which may be a rough translation of the Hawaiian name Honolulu (it was also sometimes called Brown’s Harbor.)  The name Honolulu (meaning “sheltered bay” – with numerous variations in spelling) soon came into use.

More sailors came.  Captain William Sumner arrived in the Islands in 1807.  Arriving first at Kaua‘i, Sumner jumped-ship and lived amongst the Hawaiians there.  Kaumuali‘i was the king of Kaua‘i at the time, and when he saw Sumner, he was entranced by this youth, and took him as a “keiki hoʻokama” (adopted him.)

In the Islands, Kamehameha I, who had been living at Waikiki, moved his Royal Residence to Pākākā at Honolulu Harbor in 1809. Sumner served as one of the captains on ships in this fleet.

Some foreigners, like Sumner who sailed ships for Kamehameha, Liholiho (Kamehameha II) and Kauikeaouli (Kamehameha III,) were awarded land grants for their services.

In 1819, Kamehameha I gave land to Sumner for services rendered.  This site was at the corner of today’s Hotel and Punchbowl Streets (near where the present Barracks are at ʻIolani Palace.)

Sumner was also awarded “… a fishery of the 647-Diamond Head acres of the reef lying between the Kalihi and Honolulu Harbor Channels.  The area carried the Hawaiian name of Kaholaloa (Koholaloa, Kahololoa, Kaholoa.)  The Ewa portion of this reef was designated Mokauea.”

Hawai‘i’s whaling era began in 1819 when two New England ships, the Balena out of New Bedford, and the Equator, out of Nantucket, became the first whaling ships to arrive in the Hawaiian Islands.

Rich whaling waters were discovered near Japan and soon hundreds of ships headed for the area.   The central location of the Hawaiian Islands between America and Japan brought many whaling ships to the Islands.

With increased whalers to the Islands, so did disease.  A law was passed noting, “All vessels having had contagious diseases on board … on arrival at Sandwich Islands, or at any port hereof, shall be entirely at the direction of the Board of Health … all vessels quarantined … shall keep constantly flying, during the day, a yellow flag at the main top.”  (Quarantine Laws, May 29, 1839)

The first efforts to deepen Honolulu Harbor were made in the 1840s. The idea to use the dredged material, composed of sand and crushed coral, to fill in low-lying lands was quickly adopted.   Some of the material was deposited on the fringing reef.

“In the year 1849 … the land of Kahololoa, was confirmed to William Sumner by Land Commission Award No, 153 … The title to these lands passed to JI Dowsett and John K Sumner, and from them to the Dowsett Company, Limited, and the Oahu Railway & Land Company.”

In 1872, the small island off Iwilei – “Kamokuʻakulikuli” – became the site of a quarantine station used to handle the influx of immigrant laborers drawn to the islands’ developing sugar plantations. The site is described as “little more than a raised platform of sand and pilings to house the station, with walkways leading to the harbor edge wharf, where a concrete sea wall had been constructed” and as “a low, swampy area on a reef in the harbor”.

Improvements were made.   “Looking seaward from the prison I noticed a building which had been erected upon the reef, and on enquiry found it to be a Quarantine Station. … (it was) used occasionally as a temporary accommodation for immigrants.”

Then, the arrival “of a vessel bringing twenty-five Chinese passengers, among whose crew small-pox had broken out, demonstrated the foresight of the Government in erecting this commodious building…”  (Bowser, 1880-1881; Maly)

More came.  “Over seven hundred Chinese immigrants, mostly men, who came here on the steamer Septima on the 13th of last month, were placed in quarantine on their arrival, on account of the existence of small pox among them. For nine days they were detained on board of the ship in the harbor, until the quarters were prepared for them on the quarantine island.”

“Those ill with small-pox were removed from among the others as soon as the disease appeared, and finally when about twenty days had passed since the last case had been removed the Board of Health allowed them to go as fast as they found employment; or as they found responsible persons who would become responsible to the Board of Immigration that they would not become vagrants or a charge on the community for their support.”  (Hawaiian Gazette, March 23, 1881)

By 1888, Kamokuʻākulikuli Island had been expanded and was known as “Quarantine Island.”  If vessels arrived at the harbor after 15 days at sea and contagious disease was aboard, quarantine and disinfecting procedures were required at Quarantine Island.  (Cultural Surveys)

“Upon annexation of the islands the United States took possession of Quarantine Island in the belief that the title to that land had been vested in the Hawaiian government. (Dowsett and OR&L filed suit.)”

In a compromise, “in 1902 the (Oʻahu Railway & Land Company) and the Dowsett Company turned over to the federal government 550-acres of what is now Quarantine Island and adjacent ground, and for themselves kept only 82-acres.  (They also retained wharfage privileges and rights to access the channel/harbor.)”  (Honolulu Star Bulleting, June 16, 1914)

Quarantine Island became the largest United States quarantine station of the period, accommodating 2,255-individuals.  This facility included two hospitals and a crematorium.  (Cultural Surveys)

Dredged materials from improvements to Honolulu harbor had enlarged Quarantine Island again and by 1906 the island was encircled by a seawall and was 38-acres.  By 1908 the Quarantine Station consisted of Quarantine Island and the reclaimed land of the Quarantine wharf (with a causeway connecting the two.)

On February 15, 1910, Honolulu Harbor Light station was built and the beacon went into service. Soon, with added filling and subsequent connection of the two emergent islands on the reef, the resulting single island took the name Sand Island.

In 1916, Sand Island Military Reservation was established on the reclaimed land of the quarantine station. Subsequent episodes of harbor improvements resulted in enlarging the island and, by 1925 the reef around Sand Island had been removed and the island was completely surrounded by water.  (Dye)

Following the bombing of Pearl Harbor and declaration of martial law on December 7, 1941, military authorities immediately rounded up Japanese and placed them in internment camps.  Those arrested on Oʻahu were initially crowded into the Honolulu Immigration Station pending a hearing or a short boat ride to Sand Island.

In May 1942, military authorities turned the quarantine station into the Sand Island Detention Center, complete with 10-foot-tall fences.  Other internment facilities were constructed in the Islands and on the continent.  By the end of the war, an estimated 1,440-people were detained or interned in Hawai’i at one of five locations on O’ahu, the Big Island, Maui and Kaua’i.

During the early-1940s, Sand Island became the headquarters of the Army Port and Service Command and in the early 1940s the island was further enlarged with fill materials from the dredging of the seaplane runway.  (Dye)

In 1959, the Department of the Army transferred Sand Island to the Territory of Hawaiʻi, and in 1963 ownership was transferred to the State of Hawaiʻi.  (Star Bulletin, March 12, 1991)  The island was once home to the Jaycee’s 50th State Fair.

Initial vehicular access was via a causeway; in April 1962, the Army Corps of Engineers completed the Lt John R Slattery Bridge (Slattery was the first Army Corps of Engineers Honolulu District Engineer in 1905.) The two-lane bascule bridge (draw bridge) originally could be raised and lowered to allow boat traffic to pass underneath.

In the late-1980s, though, the state permanently sealed the metal bridge and built a new concrete bridge alongside, creating four lanes to accommodate the growing commercial traffic on and off the island.

Several other names have been associated with Sand Island. Lot Kamehameha (Kamehameha V) gave the name Mauliola to the island in reference to the island’s use as a quarantine station. (Star Bulletin, April 28, 1969)  Older names for the island were Kamokuʻākulikuli or Kahaka‘aulana. Rainbow Island and ʻĀnuenue were names used in the 1970s. (Dye)

© 2024 Hoʻokuleana LLC

 

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

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 ancient Hawaiʻi (a sign of the change of the season to winter.)

In Hawaiʻi, the Makahiki is a form of the “first fruits” festivals following the harvest season common to many cultures throughout the world. It is similar in timing and purpose to Thanksgiving, Oktoberfest and other harvest celebrations.

Something similar was observed throughout Polynesia, but it was in pre-contact Hawaiʻi that the festival reached its greatest elaboration.  As the year’s harvest was gathered, tributes in the form of goods and produce were given to the chiefs from November through December.

Various rites of purification and celebration in December and January closed the observance of the Makahiki season. During the special holiday the success of the harvest was commemorated with prayers of praise made to the Creator, ancestral guardians, caretakers of the elements and various deities – particularly Lono.

Makaliʻi is also known as the Pleiades; its common name is the Seven Sisters.

But it is not these seven sisters that is the subject of this summary; this story is about Mellie, Kulamanu, May, Einei, Lucy, Kathleen and Lani – the seven daughters of Curtis and Victoria Ward.

Curtis Perry Ward was born in Kentucky and arrived in Hawaiʻi in 1853, when whaling in the Pacific was at its peak. Curtis worked at the Royal Custom House, which monitored commercial activity at Honolulu Harbor for the kingdom.

Victoria Robinson was born in Nuʻuanu in 1846, the daughter of English shipbuilder, James Robinson and his wife Rebecca, a woman of Hawaiian ancestry whose chiefly lineage had roots in Kaʻū, Hilo and Honokōwai, Maui.

Ward started a livery with headquarters on Queen Street and expanded into the business of transporting cargo on horse-pulled wagons. The size of Ward’s work force became just as big as the harbor’s other major player, James Robinson & Co. (Victoria’s father.)

Curtis and Victoria married in 1865 and for many years they made their home near Honolulu Harbor on property presently occupied by the Davies Pacific Center.

The Wards bought land on what was then the outskirts of Honolulu, eventually acquiring over 100-acres of land running from Thomas Square on King Street down to the ocean.

They built the “Old Plantation” in 1882, a stately, Southern-style home on the mauka portion of the property.  It featured an artesian well, vegetable and flower gardens, a large pond stocked with fish, and extensive pasturage for horses and cattle. Self-sufficient as a working farm, Old Plantation was surrounded by a vast coconut grove.

Here’s a link to a video of “Old Plantation” with Anna Machado Cazimero, Kanoe Cazimero, Rodney Cazimero, Melveen Leed and Tito Berinobis. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtPTv1QENC0

That year, Curtis Ward died (at age 53,) leaving Victoria to raise seven daughters and manage the estate.  Here’s a little bit about the girls.

Mary Elizabeth “Mellie” Ward (February 16, 1867 to July 26, 1956) – married Frank Hustace September 30, 1886; Frank worked with, then succeeded his father-in-law in the draying business.

May Augusta Ward (May 10, 1871 to January 6, 1938) – married Ernest Hay Wodehouse in 1893; he was a prominent figure in the business world of Hawaiʻi; former president of Hawaiian Sugar Planters’ Association and the Sugar Factors Co, Ltd.

Annie Eva Theresa “Einei” Ward (March 13, 1873 to July 19, 1934) – married Wade Armstrong (Einei was the first of the Ward sisters to die, living to the age of 61.)

Keakealani Perry “Lani” Ward (May 27, 1881, December 31, 1961) – married Robert Booth; in 1966, Kapiʻolani Medical Center for Women and Children completed a new four-story Lani Ward Booth wing on Punahou Street.

Three sisters never married, and Lucy and Kathleen lived their lives at Old Plantation:
Hattie Kulamanu Ward (March 26, 1869 to March 2, 1959)
Lucy Kaiaka Ward (August 27, 1874 to March 20, 1954) (one of the founding members of the Hawaiian Humane Society)
Victoria Kathleen Ward (February 27, 1878 September 12, 1958)

Victoria Ward established Victoria Ward Ltd. in 1930 to manage the family’s property, primarily the remaining 65-acres of Old Plantation, now part of the core of Kakaʻako real estate adjoining downtown Honolulu.  Victoria Ward died April 11, 1935.

Victoria Ward was loyal to the Kingdom (Queen Liliʻuokalani was her personal friend) and she died under the flag much in the same way her husband passed under the Confederate flag more than 50 years before.  (Command)

Three sisters, Lucy Kathleen and Kulamanu, took control of the Victoria Ward Estate, with Kathleen becoming president and Lucy the secretary.

All was not always happy in the family.

In 1951, sisters Lucy and Kathleen sued to establish guardianship for sister Kulamanu.  At the hearing, evidence of insanity was undisputed and proved to the judge’s satisfaction that Kulamanu was mentally incapable of managing her estate. On evidence of suitability the probate judge found that Hawaiian Trust Company, Limited, is “a fit and proper person to be appointed” as guardian of her estate.  (Circuit Court Records)

Later (1957,) the Supreme Court decided on sisters Lani and Mellie (and nephew Cenric Wodehouse) petition for the appointment of a guardian for their sister, Kathleen, alleging that Kathleen was seventy-seven years of age, mentally infirm and unable to manage her business affairs.

The court found Victoria Kathleen Ward was incompetent to manage her business affairs (but not insane) and appointed Chinn Ho, Mark Norman Olds and George H Vicars, Jr guardians of the property.  (Supreme Court Records)

In 1958, the city bought the mauka portion of the Old Plantation Estate and tore it down to build the Honolulu International Center (later re-named Neal S. Blaisdell Center (after Honolulu’s former Mayor.))

The Blaisdell Center has been in operation since 1964 and in 1994 was remodeled and expanded.  The Blaisdell Center complex includes a multi-purpose Arena, Exhibition Hall, Galleria, Concert Hall, meeting rooms and parking structure.

On April 8, 2002, General Growth Properties, Inc announced the acquisition of Victoria Ward, Limited; this included 65-fee simple acres in Kakaʻako, with improvements of over one-million square feet of leasable area (Ward Entertainment Center, Ward Warehouse, Ward Village and Village Shops.)

General Growth later (2004) acquired the Howard Hughes Corporation.  With excessive debt, General Growth was pushed into bankruptcy in 2009; then, in 2010, it spun off the Ward assets into the Hughes entity (General Growth was out of bankruptcy by the end of that year.)

2024 Hoʻokuleana LLC