Categories

September 8, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

George Paul Cooke

Born in Honolulu, December 2, 1881, George Paul Cooke was grandson of missionaries Amos Starr and Juliette Montague Cooke and son of Charles Montague Cooke and Anna Charlotte (Rice) Cooke.

After preliminary schooling in Honolulu and at Hotchkiss in Lakeville CT, Cooke attended Yale University (his roommate was Sophie’s brother, Charles S Judd Sr.) He received his BA degree in 1905, returning to Honolulu to take the position of stock and bond clerk for the Hawaiian Trust Co, Ltd, continuing with that institution until 1908.

He married Sophie Boyd Judd (granddaughter of missionaries Gerrit Parmele Judd and Laura Fish Judd, daughter of Albert Francis Judd and Agnes Hall Judd) (April 4, 1906.) (They had six children, Dora, George Paul, Jr., Francis Judd, Thomas Hastings, Stephen Montague and Phoebe Cooke.)

In 1897, a group of Honolulu businessmen (including Judge Alfred S Hartwell, Alfred W Carter, and AD McClellan) purchased 70,000 acres from the trustees of the Bishop Estate and leased another 30,000 acres from the Hawaiian government. Molokai Ranch was formed.

At that time, American Sugar Company began sugar cane production on the lands. Cooke became bookkeeper for the American Sugar and Molokai Ranch.

About 10-years later (December 1908,) the land was bought out by Cooke and his father; George Cooke took over the operation; George, Sophie and daughter Dora moved into the former manager’s house, composed of ‘three plantation houses put together’.

“The development of this property as a sugar cane plantation failed for the reason that the pumps, which had been installed in surface wells to irrigate the cane fields, were of such large capacity that they soon exhausted the sweet water, and pumped water with such a high salt content that it could not be used for cane culture.” (Cooke) The sugar plantation was abandoned.

“My father and I determined upon a policy to increase the revenue of Molokai Ranch and to improve its value. We planned to pay off the debt incurred when the sugar plantation failed; to develop water sources and extend pipe lines; …”

“… construct new buildings and a new camp; raise fodder; prevent overstocking by dividing the range into smaller pastures and increase the planting of trees in the forest area.” (Cooke)

“The first attempts at dry-land agriculture were made at the nine hundred foot elevation at Kualapuʻu. Here, Father CB Andrews of the Sandwich Islands Mission raised wheat and Irish potatoes to supply the miners of the California Gold Rush days. Here also, Kamehameha V had planned a sugar plantation. Our first attempts at agricultural experiments were in the same locality.” (Cooke)

“In keeping with our policy of development, an arrangement was made in 1909 with the U.S. Experiment Station in Honolulu to find crops suitable to our conditions. We were to supply the land, provide the labor and retain the crops. The Station was to furnish all seeds and planting material and report their findings of all crops obtained.” (Cooke)

Three types of corn were planted (they succumbed to the weevil;) three grains (they to cut worms;) three cottons (they to the boll-worm;) and three types of legumes (they to the aphis.)

“Alfalfa was grown there successfully for many years. Alfalfa hay made in our fields invariably was awarded first prize at many County of Maui Fairs and Territorial Fairs on Oahu because of its fine green color and its leaf-holding quality and length of stem. This hay received very favorable comments from the Judges.” (Cooke)

They raised cattle, planted sweet potato and wheat crops and produced honey. It became the second largest cattle ranch in Hawaiʻi and a major producer of beef.

In the early days, the focus was on raising beef cattle for market, plus horses and mules for use and for sale elsewhere. Over time, other ventures were tried, with varying degrees of success. Some of these included raising sheep for market, honey production, a small dairy, and various grains and row crops.

Cooke was a Representative from Maui to the Legislature, 1911 to 1913, and served Hawaiʻi as a Territorial Senator for 34-years (becoming President of the Senate.)

The Molokai Ranch was out of debt and on a paying basis. The Cookes moved to Honolulu to aid in war work (World War I) and to educate their children. They started Hanahauʻoli School (happy, joyous work) in 1918 for their six children and those of many of their friends (it started with 16-children from ages 6 to 11 years old.)

It was a small school, from kindergarten through sixth grade where all the children cooperated as in a large family; it’s in the same location on the corner of Nehoa and Makiki Streets.

Cooke was first in the movement to make the island of Molokai a source of food supply for Honolulu. He established a model dairy ranch at Mapulehu, Molokai, in 1920, and constructed the “Leleiona” and later the “Pualele,” motor propelled sampans, to make deliveries of crops and milk to Honolulu, proving beyond question his theory that such an undertaking was feasible.

He was also the first Executive Secretary of the Hawaiian Homes Commission, where he was empowered to execute the Act; he “initiated leases and regulations, prepared the lands for settlement, distributed domestic and irrigation water and helped to select the first homesteaders.” (Cooke)

He also encouraged research into water resource development and management, geological knowledge and the cataloguing of native and exotic plants, all with an eye to finding crops that would improve the economy of Molokai.

Cooke was manager of Molokai Ranch for 40 years; when he left, he took with him a reputation as an honest and fair businessman, and the respect of the Hawaiian cowboys with whom he worked from the saddle. (hicattle)

Follow Peter T Young on Facebook

Follow Peter T Young on Google+

Follow Peter T Young on LinkedIn

Follow Peter T Young on Blogger

Cooke Family-Horses-1913-Cooke

George_P_Cooke

Ranch Office Kualapuu-1908-Cooke

Manager’s House Kualapuu-1913-Cooke

Molokai Ranch Employees-1913-Cooke

Manager’s House Kualapuu-1908-Cooke

Hanahauoli-First_Buildings-1921-(hanahauoli)

George_P_Cooke-Makaiki_Heights_Bungalow-(Paradise_of_the_Pacific)-1918

Cooke_House-remodeled in 1945 as Seaside Inn-remodeled in 1950 as Pau Hana Inn-1940

Cooke Home Kualapuu-1933-Cooke

7th_legislature_territory-1913

Leleiona-Cooke

Land_Office_Map_of_the_Island_of_Molokai,_Hawaii-1897

September 7, 2017 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Pedestrian Suspension Bridges

Once a flourishing community existed in the heart of Kapaia Valley on Kauai.

In the 1920s, most of the plantation villagers traveled by foot because they could not afford to own an automobile. A foot bridge was used daily to go to and from work, school, shopping and recreation.

The Kapaia Swinging Bridge crosses the Kapaia Stream, whose source is the Kapaia Reservoir and outlet is Hanama‘ulu Bay.

Kapaia Camp was one of many camps established by Līhu‘e Plantation. Workers from Kapaia irrigated and maintained the sugar cane fields at Hanama‘ulu.

Because the Kapaia terrain made it unsuitable for sugar cultivation, Līhu‘e Plantation allowed the area to be used for shops, churches and other agricultural activities. Lands were leased, and later sold to farmers and businessmen.

The interspersion of private landowners, business enterprises and the plantation camp gave the community of Kapaia a truly unique, multicultural character.

Chinese and Japanese shops with names like Ah Chock, Naganuma, Ogata and Ihara established themselves to serve the people of the area. Portuguese merchants such as Fernandes and Carvalho opened general merchandising stores.

Built first as a low foot crossing, it bridged upper Kapaia to the lower valley. Often, heavy rains swept through the stream, washing away the low foot bridge, creating a huge inconvenience for the villagers.

Finally, in 1948, a suspension bridge was constructed by the County of Kauai.

Much of the plantation housing was located on the “Upper Kapaia” (Kapaia Road) side of the bridge. The Immaculate Conception Catholic Church occupied the east side of the Kapaia Stream. Rice fields, a Filipino camp, taro patches, Hawaiian and Japanese families lived on the inner valley side.

On the west side of the bridge stood the Līhu‘e Hongwanji Buddhist Temple, Korean Methodist Church and Chinese Church. Naganuma Store, Ogata Store, Moriwake and Ah Chock’s store lined the road leading up to the main Kūhiō Highway.

The pathway across the Kapaia Foot Bridge was much shorter and more convenient than climbing up Kapaia Road, onto Kuhio Highway, then trekking down the highway to the shops and churches.

Most of the traversing was done by people walking from their camp homes, across the bridge, to all of the activity on the “Lower Valley” side of Kapaia Stream.

Japanese children from Hanama‘ulu and upper Kapaia Valley crossed daily to attend Japanese School. Plantation laborers from the “Middle and Lower Valley” met across the bridge at 5 am daily to walk together to Hanama‘ulu, where they were trucked to the sugar fields.

Housewives walked back and forth the bridge to do their daily grocery shopping and to visit friends. These are just a few examples demonstrating the integral role of the Kapaia Foot Bridge, evolving to become the Kapaia Swinging Bridge in 1948, in the daily life of Kauai’s sugar plantation immigrant population.

With the emergence of automobiles as a major form of transportation, and with the closing of sugar plantations, the swinging bridge became less important as a mode of transportation.

In the 1950s and early-60s, Līhu‘e Plantation began phasing out camp housing, offering private ownership to their employees in Hanama’ulu, Lihue and elsewhere.

By 2000, when Līhu‘e Plantation closed, all of the plantation housing had disappeared and all of the private farms and businesses were gone. Only remnants of a once flourishing plantation community still exist.

In September, 2006, the Kapaia Swinging Bridge was declared unsafe for use and was closed. Concerned citizens have been working with governmental entities to restore and maintain the bridge. (NPS)

The Kapaia Swinging Bridge is a suspension bridge. It is one of four known similarly constructed pedestrian suspension bridges in Hawaii. All are located on Kauai – Hanapepe, Waimea and Kapa‘a.

The wooden deck is suspended from hangers attached to steel cables draped over 2 wooden towers and secured into solid concrete/boulder anchorages at both ends. The cable span between the two 15’ 10” tall towers of the Kapaia Swinging Bridge is 80’. The entire bridge is 125’ long.

Hanapepe Swinging Bridge was built in 1911; it was later extensively rebuilt after Hurricane Iniki in 1992. The 3-foot wide Hanapepe bridge has a span of 172.0 feet

Waimea’s pedestrian suspension bridge is at the ‘Menehune Ditch;’ this 3-foot wide bridge was built in the early 1900s and was damaged and rebuilt following Hurrican Iniki in 1992. Kapa‘a’s bridge is 125-feet in length.

Kauai is not the only Island with pedestrian-only bridges; of note, Maui has a couple, an older bridge in Waihe‘e and a new one in Kapalua. (Lots of information here is from Historic Register, Save Kapaia Swinging Bridge, Bridgemeister and BridgeHunter.)

Follow Peter T Young on Facebook

Follow Peter T Young on Google+

Follow Peter T Young on LinkedIn

Follow Peter T Young on Blogger

Waimea-entry-Schmidt

Waimea-entry-Philpott

Waimea-crossing-Schmidt

Waimea-crossing-Philpott

Waimea-crossing

Waimea_crossing-Philpott

Waihee River_crossing-ODonnell

Waihee River_crossing-Derderian

Kapalua-Suspension_crossing

Kapalua_Suspension-crossing

Kapaia-Swinging-Bridge-crossing-HHF

Kapaia-Hanamaulu-crossing-ODonnell

Kapaia-Hanamaulu_crossing-ODonnell

Kapaia-Hanamaulu_crossing-NPS

Kapaa_crossing-Schmidt

Hanapepe-crossing-Schmidt

Hanapepe-crossing_Philpott

Hanapepe_sign-Schmidt

Hanapepe_entry-Philpott

Hanapepe_crossing-Schmidt

Hanapepe_crossing-Philoptt

September 6, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Alexander House

Reverend Richard and Clarissa Chapman Armstrong and Reverend William and Mary Ann McKinney Alexander were members of the Fifth Company of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM.)

They sailed from New Bedford, Massachusetts, November 26, 1831, whaleship ‘Averick,’ Captain Swain, and arrived at Honolulu, May 17, 1832, a voyage of 173 days.

“Honolulu, Friday, May 18, 1832.-Yesterday morning at day-break I found the island, Oahu, but a few miles distant. With a favorable wind, we rounded Diamond Head, and cast anchor in the outer harbor, before eight o’clock AM. ‘The town looked like a city of hay-stacks; only grass houses were to be seen; I believe there were one or two frame houses’.

“Soon we were surrounded by natives in their canoes, bringing milk and eggs for sale, some of them altogether naked, except the malo.” (Alexander Diary)

“Saturday, May 19.-We were introduced to the young king to-day (not yet king, for there was a regent). He received us very politely, welcomed us to the Hawaiian shores, acknowledged the great good the nation had received from missionary labors, and expressed great pleasure at the increase of their numbers.”

“A short address made to him in the name of the newly-arrived missionaries was interpreted to him by Brother Bingham. Then accompanied by the king and his chiefs we’ walked to the house of Kaahumanu. … She received us with tears of joy. She was very ill and unable to speak much; we therefore soon withdrew.” (Alexander Diary)

Shortly after arrival, Clarissa wrote about a subject most suspect was not a part of the missionary lifestyle … On October 31, 1832, she noted, “Capt Brayton has given me a little beer cask – it holds 6 quarts – Nothing could have been more acceptable.”

“I wanted to ask you for one, but did not like to. O how kind providence has been & is to us, in supplying our wants. The board have sent out hops – & I have some beer now a working. I should like to give you a drink.”

Reverend Alexander visited the Marquesas and the Society Islands with Messrs. Whitney and Tinker in 1832 investigating it as the possible site for a missionary station.

The Alexanders, Armstrongs and Parkers made an attempt to establish a station in the Marquesas, July 2, 1833 – May 12, 1834; that mission was surrendered to the London Missionary Society. (The arrangement had been made that the equator should be the dividing line between the English and American missions.) They returned to Hawai‘i.

After a few mission assignments in the Islands Armstrong was assigned on Maui and built a house, there in in 1836 (the Armstrongs lived there for three years. (The Armstrongs later moved to O‘ahu where he replaced Hiram Bingham as the pastor of Kawaiahaʻo Church in 1840.)

The Armstrong house has walls of field stones 20 inches thick; the coral and sand used in the construction were burned to make lime and hauled to the site from the ocean by ox car. It has ohia rafters. The two-story, stone residence is termed “the oldest building in Wailuku.”

Alexander was stationed at Waiʻoli, 1834-1843, and at Lahainaluna from 1843 to 1856. For reasons of health, 1856, by advice of physicians, Alexander resigned his post at Lahainaluna, after having there labored thirteen years, and took charge for a few months of the ranch of Ulapalakua, as an excellent place to recruit his health.

In 1849, Alexander was granted by the mission one year of respite from school teaching. He spent this year in surveying land for the Hawaiian Government in Kamaole, on East Maui. Here, at an elevation of twenty-five hundred feet above the sea, he lived in a tent, and was engaged in cutting trails through the forest to divide the country into sections for sale to the Hawaiians.

He preached regularly on Sundays in this district. He also did surveying during the vacations of the school, and thereby both recruited his health and obtained the means to educate his children. In 1851 he stopped receiving financial support from the ABCFM, thereafter continuing his work with local recompense.

He worked at Lahainaluna on Saturdays for money to educate his nine children (five sons and four daughters) and when his health failed he did surveying to be out of doors. He accepted a call from the church at Wailuku where he preached first on December 25, 1856 and was installed in January, 1857.

The Alexanders visited the United States seeking funds and a new president (Cyrus Mills) for O‘ahu College (Punahou School), 1858-1860. In 1863 Mr. Alexander founded the Theological School at Wailuku.

He resigned his pastorate in 1869 to give more time to the Theological School, continuing to preach, however, and assisting in the pastoral work of the church. (HMCS) In 1874 he was obliged, by failing health, to relinquish the Theological School, and it was removed to Honolulu.

The quaint old Alexander mansion “became a sort of ideal home, beautiful with many varieties of tropical fruit trees, with palms and ornamental shrubbery and flowering vines, delightful as the center of a large circle of children, dwelling mostly on the same island, and as a place of unbounded hospitality, and attractive by the magnetic kindness, the sunny humor, and the beauty and power of the piety there displayed.”

“In this home the desire long previously expressed by Mr. Alexander, for a reunion of his family, was at length fulfilled; and in 1873 a gathering was held of all his family, the first and the only complete gathering of them ever held, then twenty-nine in number, counting parents, children and grandchildren, amongst whom there had not yet been a single death.” (Alexander)

A long cherished plan of visiting his son Samuel, in California, led Mr. Alexander and his wife to leave Wailuku on the 26th of April, 1884. Mr. Alexander took walks every day, sometimes going a distance of two miles, and was in better health and spirits than for several years previous, until his last sickness suddenly occurred.

“Wednesday, August 13.-The long conflict is over. Father lies by me at rest, not father though, he is above with a crown of victory. Oh, what a terrible long valley of the shadow of death he had to pass through to victory!”

“He kept his consciousness to the last, but his power of speech failed. … He breathed very peacefully at the last, the breath growing fainter and fainter, until we hardly knew when he ceased to breathe.” (Samuel Alexander)

The Armstrong house was the home of missionaries William and Mary Alexander between 1856 and 1884. Sugar planter HP Baldwin married Emily Whitney Alexander in the home in 1879.

After the death of Mr. Alexander the building passed into the hands of Mr. Bailey until 1905, when the property came into the possession of Mrs. HP Baldwin. It had been her girlhood home.

Her children bought it and presented it to her. The house was restored and fitted up to be the parsonage home of the Hawaiian Board’s missionary for central Maui. Rev. and Mrs. RB Dodge lived there.

In 1919, Mrs. Baldwin deeded this property to the Maui Aid Association with the understanding that it should continue to be used as a parsonage for the Board’s missionary. (Gossin, The Friend, December 1, 1922)

The building is currently occupied by the Maui Architectural Group, but is not open to the public. It is located on Main Street near the intersection with High. (Lots of information here is from HMCS, Alexander, Bishop and The Friend, December 1, 1922.)

Follow Peter T Young on Facebook

Follow Peter T Young on Google+

Follow Peter T Young on LinkedIn

Follow Peter T Young on Blogger

Alexander House-Wailuku

Alexander-Home_Wailuku_HMCS

Alexander_Home-Wailuku-HMCS

Alexander_Home_Wailuku-HMCS

Alexander_Home_Wailuku_HMCS

Alexander Home-Wailuku-LOC

Alexander Home-Wailuku-HMCS

Alexander Home-Wailuku-Alexander

Alexander Home_Wailuku-HMCS

Alexander Home Wailuku-HMCS

Richard_Armstrong,_c._1858

Clarissa_Chapman_Armstrong

William_Patterson_Alexander

Mary_A._Alexander

September 4, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

EE Black

He was born Everette Earl Black. His company was called EE Black; folks called him ‘Johnny’.

“My partner that worked in the same stuff with me in the mine – I think we’d been in and had a beer, as I remember, and had come out that here was this good-looking girl and her mother, older woman, standing on the corner.”

“I said, ‘I’ll bet you a buck I can make mother and all.’ So I went up to her and I said, ‘Good evening.’ She had to introduce me to her mother and she called me Johnny Jones and the Johnny stuck.”

Black “was born on a log cabin ten miles from Terre Haute”, Indiana in 1889. His father “was originally a farmer, and then a carpenter, then a railroad car builder – freight cars first and then passenger cars later – for the Pennsylvania Railroad.”

“(W)e were what they called poor honest people. … I started selling papers on the street when I was nine years old, and as I got older I had a paper route and I had a paper route all the way through engineering school till I was twenty-two.” He also sold drawing instruments for Keuffel Instrument Agency.

“I graduated actually in electrical engineering. I was offered a job – I don’t know whether it was Westinghouse or General Electric now – at fourteen cents an hour, ten hours a day, six days a week. I was doing better than that with the rackett I had selling papers and instruments and stuff like that, so I wasn’t interested.”

So I had an uncle in Victor, Colorado on the old (Portland Mining Company) gold mine and I shook him down for a job, so I worked in the gold mine for a year after I graduated and got a little money ahead … I didn’t have the education sufficient to give me a chance to go up … So I left to Salt Lake and got a job at the Garfield Smelter”.

He and George Collins “got seventy- five dollars a month. George Collins married ‘Tillie Neumann from Honolulu here who was related to the Hackfelds who ran the H Hackfeld which is now American Factors, and he had a job on the Waiahole tunnel to develop water for the high cane fields”.

“He wired me that there was a job for $150.00 if I wanted it, because I’d had experience in driving tunnels. So I went back to Victor, Colorado and got my gal (Ruth Aliene Emens) and we came out here and arrived on the old Sonoma on the 10th of June, 1913.”

“Then I got a job with the US Army Engineers in fortification and river and harbor work, and l had to be a civil engineer to get over a hundred dollars, so I passed the civil engineer examination and got raised to $125. 00.”

“I worked there about three years and then I got a job with the City and County as an engineer, mostly project engineer on improvements that they were doing then, and became assistant city engineer at one time.”

“It was during this time that EF Ford had a job of paving Lusitana Street and he had a superintent … that knew less about running a job than he should have and Mr Lord was losing his shirt and he got excited.”

“I said, ‘I can do the engineering work here for the city and county and run your job, too, better that it’s being run now.’ And he looked at me and said, ‘You’re not fooling, huh?’ I said, ‘I’m sure not fooling..”

“So I went to work with the men. l used to work with them, shoveling concrete and that sort of stuff because there was a lot of handwork in those days … it changed from a losing job to a profitable job so he offered me a job working for him as an engineer assistant to him, So I went to work for him for three years.”

Black later left Lord and “got a job with an old contracting company, Hawaiian Contracting Company, and I was in charge of quite a lot of the work on the famous Doheny work tanks and piers and one thing and another down at Pearl Harbor … (I earned) my first five thousand dollar bonus that paid for my house.”

“Then Mr Lord offered me a forty percent interest in the company if I’d come back after some three years and I went back to work with him, and not too long afterwards he wanted to get out, so that he took the money and I took the plant and in 1930 it became EE Black, Limited.”

The company was originally headquartered on O‘ahu, where it maintained its own office building, maintenance/ wood working shops, steel fabricating facilities and heavy equipment storage yard. It is well tooled and financed to serve as general contractor.

In 1958, the Black Group of Companies expanded his Hawai‘i-based operations westward to Guam with the construction of 1,050 concrete single and duplex buildings for the Capehart Military Housing area at Andersen Air Force Base Guam.

In 1962 Robert Black Everett Earl’s son took control of his father’s company and formed EE Black Ltd’s subsidiary on Guam known today as Black Construction Corp.

EE Black became one of Hawai‘i’s largest contractors. “I received a tremendous amount of help from people all over this state, and it makes me feel very humble because I’ve been given credit for things that other people have come pretty near doing themselves.”

In 2008, merger of Tutor-Saliba and Perini Corporation took place which made EE Black, Ltd. a Tutor Perini company. The parent company office is located in Sylmar, California. The company eventually withdrew from Hawai‘i to focus on its operations in Guam.

Over the years, Black has developed diversity and flexibility. The increasing number of new clients as well as repeat clients enhanced its reputation, earning the company’s slogan “On Track with Black”. (EE Black) (The bulk of this information is from an oral history interview with EE ‘Johnny’ Black.)

Follow Peter T Young on Facebook

Follow Peter T Young on Google+

Follow Peter T Young on LinkedIn

Follow Peter T Young on Blogger

EE Black Cranes

September 3, 2017 by Peter T Young 13 Comments

Roosevelt High School

At time of annexation, there were 140 public schools, including industrial schools at Lahaina and Hilo, and 55 private schools (including one Japanese school.)

`Through the 1920s, more than half of the high school students in the Territory attended McKinley High School. Among its 1929 student body of 2,339, nearly one of ten students was (Caucasian) … 43% were of Japanese ancestry and 20% of Chinese parentage. Eleven percent … were Hawaiian or part-Hawaiian and 4 percent were Portuguese’. (Javonovich)

In the entire territory, there were four high schools: McKinley (the former Honolulu High School;) Hilo, established in 1905; Maui (1913;) and Kauai (1914). The Territory had a proportionally smaller high-school enrollment than any of the forty-eight states, Puerto Rico or the Canal Zone.

Unhappy that so many students came from homes where English was not spoken, Caucasian parents forced the first English Standard grammar school, Lincoln. Admission required a passing grade in an English proficiency exam. (Javonovich)

When the upper grades of Lincoln school became the nucleus of Roosevelt Junior High School, the English standard plan was carried over to that institution. (LRB) Roosevelt was the only public, English-standard secondary school in the Territory of Hawai‘i.

It was initially composed of grades seven to eleven and housed in temporary quarters in an old, Normal School building that formerly trained teachers for Hawai‘i’s public schools. When Roosevelt became a senior high school (President Theodore Roosevelt High School) – Robert Louis Stevenson Intermediate School taking over the Roosevelt junior high school grades. (LRB)

In 1937, the seventh, eighth and ninth grades were permanently removed to the Normal School building, reorganized as an intermediate school, and Roosevelt High remained as a school for tenth and eleventh graders until 1939 when it became a three year high school. (NPS)

Honolulu students would typically go to Lincoln, then to Jefferson or Stevenson (both English Standard) and then to Roosevelt.

The school’s property encompasses a little over 20-acres in upper Makiki, in Honolulu. From 1883-1927, the site had been the home of Lunalilo Home, an institution for the aged and infirm Hawaiian , whose creation was willed by the estate of Hawaii’s sixth king , William Charles Lunalilo.

Crowning a wide, grassy knoll is the Main, or administration, building of President Theodore Roosevelt High School , named in honor of the twenty-sixth US President.

This predominantly three-storied building with its tower and auditorium are of the Spanish Revival style with plain, cream-colored stucco walls, a symmetrically placed window, decorative arches and vents and a red tile roof. It is the only Spanish Revival building in an eleven-building complex.

The building was designed by Guy Rothwell and Marcus Lester and built of reinforced concrete in 1932. Its plan is generally H-shaped with slight modifications. Attached to the front of the shorter east wing in 1935 are a square tower, approximately 75-feet high, and to that, an auditorium.

The campus classrooms are loosely arranged in a generally horizontal formation on three graded levels of sloping topography. All other buildings, added after 1932, are two stories high and of contemporary design. (NPS)

A heated football rivalry began in 1933 between Roosevelt and nearby Punahou. Roosevelt seniors Lex Brodie, Rufus Hagood and Gibby Rietow responded by painting the blue pie sections of Punahou’s Pauahi Hall dome green.

(At the time Roosevelt’s school colors were green and gold; out of deference for Leilehua High School, Roosevelt’s colors were changed to today’s red and gold in 1939.)

After several years of costly vandalism on the eve of their games, the ‘Paint Brush Trophy’ was jointly created in 1948 by the student bodies of both schools as a peacemaking gesture. Thereafter, the winner of the annual Punahou-Roosevelt football game took possession of and proudly displayed ‘The Paint Brush Trophy.’

The tradition continued until 1969, after which Roosevelt became a part of the O‘ahu Interscholastic Association and Punahou the Interscholastic League of Honolulu, and the two schools no longer played regular season games against each other. (Punahou)

Follow Peter T Young on Facebook

Follow Peter T Young on Google+

Follow Peter T Young on LinkedIn

Follow Peter T Young on Blogger