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Dole Came to Hawai‘i to Grow Coffee

The only place in the United States where coffee is grown commercially is in Hawaiʻi.

Don Francisco de Paula y Marin recorded in his journal, dated January 21, 1813, that he had planted coffee seedlings on the island of Oʻahu.  The first commercial coffee plantation was started in Kōloa, Kauai, in 1836.

Coffee was planted in Mānoa Valley in the vicinity of the present UH-Mānoa campus; from a small field, trees were introduced to other areas of O‘ahu and neighbor islands.

John Wilkinson, a British agriculturist, obtained coffee seedlings from Brazil. These plants were brought to Oʻahu in 1825 board the HMS Blonde (the ship also brought back the bodies of Liholiho and Kamāmalu who had died in England) and planted in Mānoa Valley at the estate of Chief Boki, the island’s governor.

In 1828, American missionary Samuel Ruggles took cuttings from Mānoa and brought them to Kona.   Henry Nicholas Greenwell grew and marketed coffee and is recognized for putting “Kona Coffee” on the world markets.

At Weltausstellung 1873 Wien (World Exhibition in Vienna, Austria (1873,)) Greenwell was awarded a “Recognition Diploma” for his Kona Coffee.  Greenwell descendants continue the family’s coffee-growing tradition in Kona. (Greenwell Farms) 

Writer Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) seemed to concur with this when he noted in his Letters from Hawaiʻi, “The ride through the district of Kona to Kealakekua Bay took us through the famous coffee and orange section. I think the Kona coffee has a richer flavor than any other, be it grown where it may and call it what you please.”

Hermann Widemann introduced the ‘Guatemalan’ variety (known as ‘Kona typica’) to Hawaiʻi in 1892. He gave seeds to John Horner, who planted an orchard of 800 trees in Hāmākua, comparing 400 trees of this new variety with 400 of the then-current variety known as ‘kanaka koppe,’ the so-called ‘Hawaiian coffee’, probably from 30 plants brought from Brazil by Wilkinson.  (CTAHR)

“’Coffee-trees are often planted with a crowbar,’ it is said. Strange as this may seem, it is nevertheless true. A hole is drilled through the rock, or lavacrust, and the soil thus reached; the tree, a small twig dug up from the forest, is planted in this hole, and it grows, thrives, and yields fruit abundantly.”  (Musick, 1898)

In 1892 it was estimated there were probably 1,000-acres in old coffee throughout North and South Kona; 150-acres new set out by the two companies then under way there, with expectation of setting out fifty more; 170-acres in the Hāmākua and Hilo districts and about 100 in Puna.  (Thrum)

“Hardly a mail arrives from abroad but brings further enquiry for coffee lands and information as to area; how obtainable; situation; prices, etc., and the usual multitudinous questions pertaining thereto, all of which gives evidence of the readiness of foreign capital to come in and push forward the reviving industry with vigor.”  (Thrum, 1892)

In 1893, Joe Marsden, agricultural commissioner of the recently inaugurated revolutionary government of Hawaii, sent out some examples of promotion literature which were rosy beyond the wildest dreams of a Los Angeles publicity man.

The material related especially to coffee and back in Boston, James D Dole  (who graduated in 1899 in agriculture at Harvard’s Bussey Institute (now the Arnold Arboretum)) read the publicity and made up his mind that Hawaii and coffee offered the greatest possible attraction for him.

Arriving in Honolulu, he found that the coffee business left much to be desired. His capital was limited and learning that a small homestead near Wahiawa had relinquished his land, went out to look over the prospect. (Heenan, Canning Age)

“Following my inclination toward an agricultural pursuit and the lure of Hawaii, then recently annexed to the United States, I landed in Honolulu on November 16, 1899; and within two weeks found the town quarantined for six months by an outbreak of bubonic plague.”

“During that winter I saw the fire department, with the timely aid of a stiff trade-wind, burn down all of Chinatown (the intention having been to disinfect in this thorough manner only one or two blocks).”

“In July, I bought a government homestead of sixty-four acres, twenty-three miles from Honolulu, and on August 1, 1900, I took up my residence thereon as a farmer – unquestionably of the ‘dirt” variety.”  (Dole, Harvard)’

At the time coffee turned out not to be a viable crop, so he switched to pineapples.  He incorporated Hawaiian Pineapple Company on December 4, 1901.

Exporting fresh pineapples to the continental United States resulted in a high level of wastage in the era before modern refrigerated sea and air transportation. So Dole decided to process the fruit before it was exported.

At the time fruit was often preserved in glass containers and one of his fellow pineapple growers at the settlement adopted this method of preserving his fruit. However, Dole chose to preserve his fruit in tin cans.  This proved to be a wise choice. (Hawkins)

In the 1930s Dole went into business with Castle & Cooke as principal shareholders in Hawaiian Pineapple Company and beginning in 1933 the Dole name was affixed to the company’s products. (Dole)

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Circumnavigation of the World

With the recent voyages of Hōkūleʻa and Hikianalia on their journey around the world “to learn, create global relationships, and explore how to care for our oceans and island earth,” (PVS) we recognize they followed in the footsteps of Hawaiʻi’s last king, Kalākaua, over a century ago in sharing the Islands with others.

“O’er land and sea I’ve made my way; To farthest Ind, and great Cathay; Reached Afric’s shores, and Europe’s strand; And met the mighty of every land.”

“And as I stood by each sovereign’s side, Who ruled his realm with a royal pride, I felt how small my sway,—and weak:— My throne based on a mere volcanic peak, Where millions do these Kings obey, Some thousands only own my sway.”

“And yet I feel that I may boast, Some good within my sea-bound coast, Richer than those of my grander peers, That I within my realm need have no fears”

“May mingle with my people without dread: No danger fear for my unguarded head, And boast a treasure, sent me from above That I have indeed, my people’s love.”  (Kalākaua’s Boast, PCA)

King Kalākaua was the first ruling Monarch to tour of the world; in doing so, he made good on his motto, and motivation, proclaimed at his accession, ‘Hoʻoulu Lahui!’- (Increase the Nation!)

“Since the concert of the morning stars, or the appearance of man on the globe, sovereigns have done many great and many small things; but not one of them, even in these later days, has had the audacity or pluck to circumnavigate this little planet.”  (Armstrong)

“A deep feeling of anxiety and interest pervaded the community on the eve of the departure of the King, and all classes and races strove to outvie each other in their expressions of good-will and affection, in bidding adieu to His Majesty.”  (PCA)

“(T)he King goes but for the good of his people, to make the country richer by getting more capital and people to come this way. … So the King this time takes with him a Commissioner to enquire into and bring other people of brown skins here to re-people these isles.”  (Kapena)

The King and others were concerned about the declining Hawaiian population in the Islands.  “The King himself would be only so in name if he had no people to rule. The King will not rest until his hope of re-peopling these isles has been fulfilled.”  (Kapena)

Leaving January 20, 1881 on the Oceanic and arriving back in the Islands October 29, 1881 (nine months and nine days later,) Kalākaua travelled to the US, Japan, China, Siam, Burma, India, Egypt, Italy, Belgium, Germany, Austria-Hungary, France, Spain, Portugal and the United Kingdom.

Kalākaua wanted to gain recognition for his kingdom and learn how other monarchs ruled.  He believed the best way to conclude diplomatic relations with foreign countries was to understand their customs.

He met with the Emperor of Japan; General Li Hung Chang, of China; the Governor of Hong Kong, in the name of the British Queen; the King of Siam; the British Governors or Commissioners of Singapore, Penang, the Malacca Straits, and of Burma; the Vice-Regal Court of India; the Viceroy of Egypt; the King of Italy; the Pope, Holy Father in Rome; the British Queen; the King of Belgium; the Court of Emperor William of Germany; the officials of the Austrian Empire, in the absence of the Emperor; the officials of the French Republic; the officials of the Spanish Court, whose Regent was absent; the King of Portugal; and finally, the President of the United States.

For the most part, the King travelled incognito (his trip was claimed to have “no official significance.”) At times his unannounced arrivals caused some confusion (and missed opportunities to meet with leaders (who were out of town.))

However, he was greeted and handled with stately attendance.  He was royally entertained and decorated with the highest orders; armies were paraded before him and banquets held in his honor.

Three white men went with him as advisers and counsellors, William N Armstrong (his Attorney General,) Colonel Charles H Judd (his Chamberlain and one of his most trustworthy friends) and a personal attendant/valet (a German known as ‘Robert.’)

Armstrong and Judd were sons of American missionaries to the Islands – and the only companions of the King on the voyage.  (Armstrong)

Armstrong and Judd were Kalākaua’s schoolmates at the Chiefs’ Children’s School in 1849.  (Marumoto)  “Thirty years afterward, and after three of our schoolmates had become kings and had died (Kamehameha IV & V and Lunalio) and two of them had become queens (Emma and Liliʻuokalani,) it so happened that Kalākaua ascended the throne, and with his two old schoolmates began his royal tour.”  (Armstrong)

During the trip, Armstrong was given the additional titles of Minister of State and Royal Commissioner of Immigration. The title of Minister of State was given in order to place Armstrong in the same rank as the cabinet ministers of foreign sovereigns.  (Marumoto)

One striking incident occurred while the King was being entertained by the Khedive of Egypt at Alexandria. The royal party, during the reception, was brought out on the balcony of the palace to look out over the harbor. And while they were standing there, an attaché pointed out to King Kalākaua an old hulk used for receiving coal.

The hulk was all that was left of the Resolution, the ship in which Captain Cook ‘discovered’ the Hawaiian Islands. The King said: “Let us drink a toast to the old ship.” The wine was brought, and on the grand balcony, with the harbour lighted with rockets and lanterns, the King raised his glass and said, “Here’s to the ‘Resolution.’”  (Armstrong)

At the end of his trip Kalākaua declared that he had found nothing in the civilized world of which his nation stood in need with the exception of some well bred horses and sheep. He said that he found his own subjects to be better off than the majority of the nations he had visited.

They had enough to eat and wear and were certainly happier than any people he had seen.    (Lesley’s Monthly)  (The Pacific Commercial Advertiser (PCA) chronicled is voyage; much of the information here is from there.)

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by Peter T Young 4 Comments

Hawaiʻi Youth Correctional Facility

American and English heritage found those members of society who either cannot care for themselves or who do not fit societal expectations have been the subject of ‘parens patriae’ (parent of the nation,) whereby the state acts as the parent of any child or individual who is in need of protection (i.e., destitute widows, orphans, abused and neglected children and law violators of minority age.)

In 1850, the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi passed its first legislation towards the care and training of Hawaiʻi’s delinquent youth.

Then, the legislature, on December 30, 1864, approved “An act authorizing the board of education to establish an industrial and reformatory school for the care and education of helpless and neglected children, as also for the reformation of juvenile offenders”.

“The only object of the said industrial and reformatory schools shall be the detention, management, education, employment, reformation, and maintenance of such children as shall be committed thereto as orphans, vagrants, truants, living an idle or dissolute life, who shall be duly convicted of any crime or misdemeanor”.  (Hawaiian Commission, Annexation Report, 1898)

In 1864, Kamehameha V created, and placed administratively under the Kingdom’s Board of Education, the Keoneʻula Reformatory School, an industrial and reformatory school for boys and girls in Kapālama.  The first juvenile facility of its kind in the Islands. (The site is now home to the Princess Victoria Kaʻiulani Elementary School on King Street.)

The Board had authority to establish other industrial schools across the Islands. (Jurisdiction shifted from the Board of Education to the Board of Industrial Schools in 1915, then to the Territorial Department of Institutions in 1939.)

The Industrial School model was in response to the belief that segregation in an institutional setting was the most effective way to address the needs of neglected and delinquent youth. Major characteristics of this congregate-care facility included strict regimentation, harsh punishment, unequal treatment for boys and girls, a poor education system and an emphasis on work.

Initially, the board leased nine-acres in Kapālama, initially for 15-boys and 2-girls, and had them grow taro, vegetables and bananas.  In 1903, with the growing population, 75-boys were relocated from Keoneʻula to farmland in Waialeʻe on the North Shore, where wards could learn “habits of industry.”

Farming activities were intended as much to make this facility self-supporting as to provide therapy and training for the wards. Reports about the Waialeʻe institution refer to conditions as always overcrowded.

Meanwhile, female wards moved from Kapālama to Mōʻiliʻili, then in the 1920s to the Maunawili Training School on the mauka side of Kalanianaʻole Highway in Kailua, Koʻolaupoko.

The girls’ Maunawili complex included five major buildings sited on approximately 430-acres on the slopes of Olomana.  All the buildings (primarily designed by CW Dickey) were constructed between 1927 and the opening of the school in February 1929, with the exception of the gymnasium which was built in 1938.

According to an early Honolulu Star-Bulletin report, “the buildings are scattered about over the hillside, each different from the other in architectural detail. The effect is pleasing; there is no air of the reform school about the place.”  (NPS)

In 1931, the boys’ facility underwent a name change from Waialeʻe Industrial School to the Waialeʻe Training School for Boys; that year, the girls’ Maunawili complex became known as the Kawailoa Training School.

These were Territorial institutions, in rural Oʻahu, formerly under the Department of Public Instruction but from 1915 were under a Board of Industrial Schools.  (Report of Governor’s Advisory Committee on Crime, 1931)

Delinquent or dependent children under 18 years of age may be committed to these schools by the juvenile courts in proceedings not to be deemed criminal in nature; no child under 14 may be confined in any jail or police station either before, during or after trial, and no child under 18 may be confined with any adult who shall be under arrest, confinement or conviction for any offense.  (Report of Governor’s Advisory Committee on Crime, 1931)

Then, in succeeding decades, various types of facilities and locales were used to house, train and educate the youths.

In 1950, three “cottages” for boys (named, Olomana, Kaʻala and Maunawili) were built on the makai side of Kalanianaʻole Highway from the girls’ Kawailoa Training School in Kailua.  Then, all operations at the Waialeʻe Training School for Boys (111-boys and 45-staff members – the entire population from Waialeʻe) transferred to the new facility and the name changed to the Koʻolau Boys Home.

In 1961, all operations came under a combined administrative unit (including housing both male and female youths) with a new name, the Hawaiʻi Youth Correctional Facility (HYCF,) a branch of the Corrections Division of the reorganized Department of Social Services and Housing.

HYCF is the state’s sole juvenile facility. It’s comprised of two separate facilities with three housing units: two boys’ housing units and a girls’ housing unit (with certain exceptions, HYCF houses boys confined for long terms at the main secure custody facility (“SCF.”)

The SCF is comprised of a central courtyard surrounded by three housing modules, with ten cells and a common area in each module, a school, a gymnasium, kitchen facilities, offices for administrative and medical staff, and two isolation cells.

The Olomana School, Olomana Hale Hoʻomalu and Olomana Youth Center were established since 1985 and provide support services to alienated students throughout the State of Hawaiʻi.

Olomana School (operated by the DOE) offers three main educational programs:  incarcerated youth are served at HYCF; the Olomana Hale Hoʻomalu program is to provide educational and support services to students who are temporarily confined to the juvenile detention facility; and The Olomana Youth Center serves at-risk students from Windward Oahu’s secondary schools and also HYCF students who are in transit.

Due to the pending litigation in 1991 against the State regarding conditions of confinement for women, the temporary Women’s Community Correctional Center (in what was the Koʻolau Boys Home on the makai side of the highway) was remodeled and completed in 1994 as the State’s primary women’s all-custody facility.

Women’s Community Correctional Center (WCCC) is the only women’s prison in Hawaii. It also serves the needs of pre-trial and sentenced female offenders. The facility houses female offenders who are of maximum, medium and minimum custody levels.

The facility is comprised of four (4) structures; Olomana, Kaala, Maunawili and Ahiki Cottages. Every cottage operates in accordance with specific programs and classification levels.  WCCC also offers a 50-bed gender responsive, substance abuse therapeutic community called Ke Alaula.  (Lots of information here from reports from the Auditor, Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, Office of Youth Services and NPS.)

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Isaac Ridler

“[T]he maritime fur trade on the Northwest Coast of America had its origin in the accidental discovery by Captain Cook’s sailors that the furs which they had obtained at Nootka in exchange for the veriest trifles were of great value in the eyes of the Chinese. Naturally the earliest of these traders came from India and China.”

“In September of [1788] appeared at Nootka a new flag – that of the United States of America. This first American venture consisted of the Columbia and the Washington, commanded by captains Gray and Kendrick.”  (Howay)

“The Columbia, after remaining at Nootka until October, 1789, carried furs to Canton, exchanged them for teas, completed the circumnavigation of the earth, and in August, 1790, her return was celebrated at Boston with much enthusiasm.”

Back in the Islands, “In 1787, or less than ten years after the death of Cook, the Irish ship’s surgeon John Mackey, formerly in the East India Company’s service, was landed in Hawai’i from the Imperial Eagle, en route to China, at his own request.”

“Within a year he had been joined by three deserters – Ridler, carpenter’s mate of the Columbia; Thomas; and a youth named Samuel Hitchcock …”

“… while by 1790 the Hawaiian beachcombers numbered 10, including John Young, kidnapped at Kealakekua, and Isaac Davis, spared at the cutting off of the Fair American, both of whom were destined to leave their mark on Hawaiian history.”  (Maude)

Isaac Ridler was Carpenter’s Mate on the Columbia and was left in the fall of 1788 to collect sandalwood.

Ridler was a ‘Beachcomer’ in the Islands – beachcombers were typically a motley crew of castaways, deserters, traders and escaped convicts.  (Maude))

“Beachcomber is a word of American coinage. Primarily, it is applied to a long wave rolling in from the ocean, and from this it has come to be applied to those whose occupation it is to pick up, as pirates or wreckers, whatever these long waves wash in to them.”

“Nothing comes amiss to the so-called beachcomber; he is outside of civilization – is indeed a waif and stray not only on the ocean of life, but on the broad South Pacific, and he is certainly not above picking up those chance crumbs of the world around him which may be washed within the circle of his operations.”

“If the average British colonist and capitalist has not since his boyhood’s days, when he may have dipped into Cook’s Voyages, given a thought to the islands of the great South Sea, other white men have; and these pioneers of the Pacific are chiefly of their own stock – English or American.” (Chambers, 1881)

“In the majority of cases, the beachcomber has been a seafaring man, who has become weary of a life of hard work, with but scant remuneration, on board of Whalers or trading craft; and having landed from his vessel on one of the Pacific islands, and becoming domesticated among the natives”.

“While it is true that their intellect is of a low order, and that they know little or nothing of ordinary morality, as we understand it, it yet must be borne in mind that the race of half-castes thus produced is likely to form a prominent factor in the future civilisation of Polynesia.” (Chambers, 1881)

“Historically beachcombing is as old as European contact itself, for the first beachcombers came from Magellan’s own Trinidad, deserting at one of the northern Marianas.”

“(N)ot more than a handful of Europeans settled in the islands, either voluntarily or as castaways, in all the two and a half centuries of the age of discovery, which may be said to have lasted roughly to the founding of New South Wales.”

“Desertion was attempted, of course; even Cook, on his last voyage, had difficulty in recovering a midshipman and two others who deserted at Raiatea, and he recorded that they were ‘not the only persons in the ships who wished to end their days at these favourite islands.’”  (Maude)

In his four years in the Islands, Ridler “was what he termed one of Tommahommahaw’s (Kamehameha’s) runners, who boarded all vessels to windward merely to discover their strength and give information to the King.”

“Other American vessels had recently stopped at the Sandwich Islands, and had not been favorably impressed with the character of the natives. In the latter part of 1789 the Eleanor, an American armed trading vessel, commanded by Captain Metcalf, of New York, stopped en route to China.”

“Natives stole a small boat in order to get nails and iron, and Metcalf, a few days later, took revenge by firing into a crowd, who had come in canoes to trade, and killed many innocent persons.”

“The Fair American, commanded by Metcalf, after having been detained at Nootka, arrived a few days later, and was captured by natives, who proceeded to kill all on board except Isaac Davis.”

“The latter’s life was saved by interposition of one Ridler, the carpenter’s mate of the Columbia, who had remained at Hawaii.”

Ridler “said a small schooner named the Fair American was taken by the natives of Owhyhee (Hawaii). This schooner was tender to the Eleanora, Captain Metcalf, of New York, and commanded by his son, whom the natives killed with 3 seamen.”

“One (Isaac Davis) they threw overboard, but after beating and bruising him in a most shocking manner, they took him into one of the canoes and lashed him in with his face downwards, where Ridler found him, and interceded to save his life, in which he succeeded.” (Ingraham

“The natives were preparing 26,000 canoes to attack Captain Metcalf’s brig, a few miles away, while pretending to be trading, but the Americans on the island exaggerated the power of Metcalf’s guns and obtained permission of the king to send a letter requesting the captain to depart, but not stating what had occurred.” (Callahan)

“When Kamehameha learned of the taking of the schooner, he feared retaliation. So, when Captain Metcalf stood off shore, Kamehameha placed a taboo with penalty of death upon the sailing of any canoe. He hoped, by so doing, to keep Metcalf ignorant of the theft of the Fair American.”

“This taboo accounts for the closed houses. John Young knowing nothing of the system of the taboo, was unaware of the situation.”  (Kelley)

“Six months later, Captain Douglas, in the schooner Grace, arrived, and sent a letter requesting the delivery of the whites that remained, but failed to get them. He left Young and James Cox in care of the king to oversee the collection of sandalwood for the China market.” (Callahan)

“When Kamehameha met John Young and Isaac Davis, he took them home with him to his own houses, showing them the greatness kindness. Isaac Davis’ wounds were given careful attention. He was blind for several months, but eventually recovered his sight.”

“It is said many times that John Young and Isaac Davis were prisoners on Hawaii. They were not prisoners, although a careful watch was kept that they did not leave the islands.”

“The Captain of an incoming ship, learning that the two Englishmen were stranded on Hawaii, sent a letter ashore offering them passage. The chief, Kaiana, who was especially jealous of the friendship of Kamehameha for the two men, volunteered to take them out to the vessel in his own canoe.”

“But Kamehameha, knowing the secret desire of the chief, perhaps to destroy them. persuaded them not to go. It was with this background that John Young and Isaac Davis began their lives in the Sandwich Islands.” (Kelley)

Following the events of 1790 with the Eleanora and Fair American, “Davis and John Young … finally became chiefs, and instructed natives in the use of firearms.”

“In 1791 Captain Joseph Ingraham in the brig Hope, while cruising off Maui, was hailed by a double canoe in which were three white men, besides natives. These men were dressed in malos (loin cloths), being otherwise naked.”

“They were so tanned that they resembled the natives. They told Captain Ingraham that they had deserted Kamehameha, who had maltreated them, after the arrival at Kailua of the boatswain of the Eleanora.”

“These men were [Isaac] Ridler, James Cox and John Young (an American, not the boatswain of the Eleanora).”  (Cartwright)

Ridler joined Ingraham in October, 1791 and accompanied him back to New England on the same voyage. (The image shows the Columbia.)

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Historic Homes of Waikīkī

A Waikīkī historic home walking tour from the Historic Hawaiʻi Foundation is a self-guided itinerary, suitable for individual travelers, and focuses on sites of historic or cultural significance that are either open to the public or visible from the public way.

The Historic Homes in Waikīkī Walking Tour takes 45-minutes or more. The tour starts at the War Memorial Natatorium, then head towards Diamond Head to the Tahitienne apartment.

The traveler then weaves in between the Honolulu Tudor/ French Norman Cottages and other charming historic residential homes. At the end of the tour, the traveler will finish off with the Mediterranean inspired La Pietra School for girls.

1.  The War Memorial Natatorium is significant as a major social and recreational local landmark and for its association with the history of competitive swimming. The swimming complex was rendered in a Beaux-Arts style and was finished in the summer of 1927, the first “living” was memorial in the United States.

The property contains a 100 meter saltwater swimming pool, concrete bleachers that rises 13-levels high, and a main entryway that includes an elaborate sculpture and triumphal arch entablature. The memorial is dedicated to those from Hawai‘i who served in World War I.

2.  The Tahitienne is a nine-story apartment building rendered in a 1950 modern, utilitarian style. The Tahitienne was planned and built by California architects Bob Fraser and Paul Hammarbarg. Local Architect, Edwin L Bauer, helped design the layout and interiors of the apartments.

This building is associated with the commercial development of real estate in Hawaiʻi, and specifically with the co-operative apartments in Honolulu.  There are approximately 50 co-operative apartments which appeared during the 1950s and early 1960s in Honolulu, which remain functioning as a co-op.

3.  The Egholm Residence was built in 1926 in the Diamond Head Terraces subdivision.  It is significant as one of the few examples of small cottages in the Spanish Colonial Revival style popular in Hawai‘i in the 1920s and early 1930s. The hipped red clay tile roof, stucco exterior and arcaded entrance are characteristic features of this style.

The residence is the work of notable architect and builder Carl William Winstedt. The modest scale of this house is rare compared to the other palatial residences built in the Spanish Colonial Revival style during this time period in Hawai‘i.

4.  The Honolulu Tudor/French Norman Cottages Thematic Group are made up of fifteen different residences, built between 1923 and 1932. These homes display a high degree of craftsmanship and design detail and include the work of several local architects and builders, including: Earl Williams, Hart Wood, John Morley, Theo Davies & Co., and J Alvin Shadinger.

5.  The James JC Haynes Residence, built in 1926, is a two story, shingle sided house facing south. The house stands out as a well-constructed house, having been built by Lewers & Cooke, rendered in a distinctive colonial style distinguished by its high pitched, front facing gable roofs clad with cut shingles and closed eaves with 4″ beaded tongue and groove soffits.

The house is also significant for its adaptation of this colonial revival form to Hawai‘i’s climate. Its easy access to the outdoors bespeaks a Hawai‘i architectural tradition for informal living.

6.  The CW Dickey Residence, built in 1926, is associated with the well-known local architect, Charles William Dickey, and the development of the Hawaiian style of architecture. This cottage, with its prominent double-pitched hipped roof, became the prototype for numerous modest cottages built in the Islands during the late 1920s and 1930s.

Through the use of graceful sloping roofs, overhanging eaves, extensive windows and screened openings, and lanai, Dickey said, “I believe I have achieved a distinctive Hawaiian type of architecture” (Honolulu Advertiser, March 14, 1926). The house appears intact and serves as a well-crafted, well-designed statement of Dickey’s development of an exclusive Hawaiian style of architecture.

7.  Doctor Frank and Kathryn Plum Residence was constructed by Rudolph Bukeley in 1929.  It is significant as an example of a Cotswold Cottage style residence constructed in Hawai‘i during the time period of the late 1920s and early 1930s.

It well reflects the style with its romantic asymmetric massing, and its use of such eclectic and picturesque elements as its skewed gable, front bay window, wrought iron mock-balconet in the round arched gable vent, canted walls with their wound arched doors, double pitched roof, and shed roof dormers.

8.  Built in 1923, Fred Harrison Rental Property is a one and a half story, shiplap sided, vernacular style house. It is a good example of a dwelling constructed as a middle class rental property.

Although a modest house, it presents a distinctive appearance to the street with the curved, sweeping roofline; prominent bay window; double gable ends on the west side; and a front doorway that does not face the street.

9.  The Adolph Egholm Kiele Avenue House is a single story, Spanish Mission Revival style cottage that was constructed in 1926. It features stucco walls and a red clay tile, hipped roof with overhanging eaves and exposed rafter tails.

The house sits on a lava rock basement and is distinguished by its centered, outset, flat roofed front porch with its round arched openings.  It is significant as a good exaple of a Spanish Mansion cottage built during the 1920s.

10.  The Mrs. Josephine Ketchum Residence is a Craftsman-style bungalow built in 1931.  It is significant for its architecture as an example of a Craftsman inspired house in Hawai‘i. The naturally-stained board and batten walls and use of heavy timbering are character-defining elements of the building’s design.

In addition to these typical craftsman hallmarks, the house features the “Hawaiian” style, double-pitched hipped roof, which was very popular in the Islands during the late 1920s and early 1930s. This further accentuated the horizontal sense of the house, another typical Craftsman characteristic. The screened lanai and exterior bathroom door further fix its location near the beach, where a number of houses from this period featured such doors for use by beach goers.

11.  The Folk Residence, Tavares Residence and Coconut Avenue Residence were built by John Morley for the Pacific Trust Company and are part of the Honolulu (made up of fifteen different residences, built between 1923 and 1932.

These homes display a high degree of craftsmanship and design detail and include the work of several local architects and builders.)

12.  The Helene Morgan Residence is a single story, Hawaiian style duplex with a pair of double-pitched hipped roofs with overhanging eaves and exposed rafter tails.

Presently, the house is a single family dwelling, but originally it was two separate laid out units connected by a passage. The duplex sits on a raised, post and pier, foundation with lava rocks at the base.

13.  The Richard M Botley Residence was built in 1931.  It is significant for its architecture as a good example of a Spanish Mission Revival house built in Hawai‘i during the period 1920-1931.

It is characteristic of the style with its red tile roof and white masonry walls. The two-story, L-shaped house was designed by noted Honolulu architect Robert Miller.

14.  Constructed in 1929, Hibiscus Place is a two-family Mediterranean Revival style residence. The builder, Charles Ingvorsen and his wife, Mary M. Ingvorsen, came to the United States from Denmark. He developed a number of smaller homes in the Diamond Head Terrace subdivision, and retained this property high on the slopes of Diamond Head for his family.

Originally, the Hibiscus Place land consisted of approximately 17,739 square feet but, the property was subdivided in the 1950’s into three separate parcels. The current owner acquired and reassembled two of the three parcels of land into a single property that now consists of 12,495 square feet.

15.  La Pietra, which was constructed in 1921, is an extensive two-story Mediterranean Style building built to resemble an Italian Villa. Its two stories are arranged in a hollow square containing a central rectangular patio. The central patio is lined on all four sides with arcades supported by cut sandstone Doric columns.

La Pietra is significant as a representation of the kind of lifestyle enjoyed by the very wealthy in Hawaiʻi at that time as well as an example of Mediterranean architecture. The building was designed by prominent Chicago-based architect David Adler for Walter F Dillingham, a prominent Honolulu industrialist and businessman known as the Baron of Hawaiʻi Industry.

16.  Kapi‘olani Park was dedicated in 1877 and is a recreational open space of 160 acres. Kapi‘olani Park has an extensive and varied history. The park began as a private preserve that transitioned over the years into the present-day iconic public park. Kapi‘olani Park is historically significant for its past association with indigenous Hawaiian culture and royalty.

King Kalākaua envisioned the park as a place of recreation for all and named it after his famous Queen, Kapi‘olani. Long before the park was established, on Waikīkī/Kapiʻolani park area was the center of Hawaiian culture on Oʻahu. Agricultural cultivation, fishponds, coconut groves and indigenous settlements dotted the area.

17.  The Diamond Head Lighthouse is a 57 foot white concrete pyramidal tower with a red roof. It sits seemingly on the side of a sharp cliff when viewed from seaward, and at night the light can be seen up to 18 miles by the mariner.  It was first established in 1899 to guide mariners into the then budding port of Honolulu.

Constructed in the Monarchy period, the lighthouse and accompanying buildings have not changed since 1917. The lighthouse itself is of the classic lighthouse design – a thick white tower with a barn-red pointed roof.

Heritage Tourism Reminders
Please remember to be respectful and considerate towards the owners of the Historic Homes you are viewing.

  • Heed signs and respect the fact that each house is privately owned.
  • Please do not trespass.
  • Try not to loiter or display suspicious behavior around these houses.
  • Do not litter.

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