Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Coral Gardens

When I was growing up, we called them the ‘mud flats’ – mauka runoff covered the fringe reefs in Kāneʻohe Bay.  That’s not how it used to be …

The early twentieth century was a time when some parts of Kāneʻohe Bay were clear and clean with healthy coral reefs and a host of colorful fishes still apparent.  The southern region near Kāneʻohe town became known for its ‘coral gardens.’

Around 1911, the Coral Gardens Hotel was built in the vicinity of what is now Makani Kai Marina.  This resort’s featured attraction was a glass-bottom boat tour of the nearby reefs.

A brochure printed in 1919 described the underwater scenery: “Only those who have seen the Gardens can appreciate the marvelous beauty of their marine growth and the variety of undersea life they hold.”

“Looking through the glass-bottom boat, one sees a natural aquarium of vast extent, set in an undersea forest of strange trees and crags, valleys and Hills.”

These enthusiastic remarks were written by then-territorial governor CJ McCarthy.  They may be the first promotion of an underwater tourist attraction in Hawai‘i.

The Coral Gardens Hotel, once located above the mouth of Kea‘ahala Stream, operated glass bottom boats which visited the famed ‘coral gardens’ of south Kāneʻohe Bay. The coral bottom was once regarded as among the most beautiful in Hawai’i.  (Hawai‘i Coral Reef Inventory)

Arthur Loring MacKaye, the eldest son of the playwright/actor James Steele MacKaye, was the proprietor of the Coral Gardens.  He was born in New York in 1863 and was a newspaper man in New York and Los Angeles.  He came to Hawaii in 1910 and was the city editor for the Pacific Commercial Advertiser. (Mid-Pacific Magazine)

MacKaye wrote in the February 1916 issue of Mid-Pacific Magazine, “One of the most fascinating sights on the Island of Oahu, and within twelve miles of the Honolulu post office, over the Pali, are the Coral Gardens of Kaneohe Bay.”

“Here can be viewed in comfort through the glass bottom boats which ply from the Coral Garden Hotel, a strange and wonderful world, one which is a revelation to those who see it with its …”

“… strange marine life, its ‘painted’ fishes, curious coral formations, beautiful sea plants and ferns, fantastic water-snakes, so-called, of varied hues, and combination vistas of corrugated mountains and a typical South Sea Island with its palm-fringed sandy beach.”

“Since last winter over two thousand visitors, the majority of them tourists, have visited the Coral Gardens and have departed enthusiastic over the wonders of the under-water world seen there.”

“Many of these tourists have visited the marine gardens of Catalina Island, off the coast of Southern California, also the marine gardens of Bermuda and the West Indies, yet all have declared that nowhere else have they seen such a varied and beautiful scene of color and marine life as at the Coral Gardens of Kaneohe Bay.”

“[W]e board the big glass-bottomed boat in command of the local Admiral, who will pilot us to the beauty spots along the coral reefs.”

“Away we go, headed for Moku o Loe, (Coconut Island), which has been made famous by photographers and color artists, views of the island on glass being on exhibition at the San Francisco Exposition where they have attracted all art-lovers at the Hawaiian Building.”

“Within a few minutes the boat glides over the first reef, but this is a dead reef and illustrates the manner in which land is built up upon the coral reefs of the Pacific; here all is dark-colored silt with patches of coarse seaweeds and pieces of dirty coral.”

“A moment later we glide over another deep channel, for Kaneohe Bay is full of these channels radiating between the reefs, in fact the word ‘Kaneohe’ in ancient Hawaiian means ‘deep, still channels.’”

“From this spot is secured a wonderful view of the Koolau Mountains with their corrugated sides, which lift their heads to the clouds with their emerald green peaks shining in the morning sun, or standing out like bluish green silhouettes in the late afternoon, or when the setting sun crowns them with halos of rose flames. It is a sight to be remembered.”

“And here we come to the second reef, one which is partly dead on one side, but alive on the other, showing as we cross it in water only two or three feet deep, the changes in a coral reef-top from muddy silt to white coral sand, interspersed with crimson sponges and green seaweeds.”

“As we pass over the outer rim of this reef we take a peek through the covered plate-glass box which runs through the center of the boat.”

“It gives you an eerie sensation as we pass from the shallow reef into water fifty feet deep; and as the boat glides out you catch a glimpse of a coral precipice along the steep sides of which strange fish are swimming, and a moment later the boat seems to be floating in space of a bright green hue.”

“And then the fish! My, what a lot! Swarms of manini, yellowish green with vertical black stripes; kikakapus, yellow with black spots on their tail and a black rim around their heads; the aawa, ohu, pilani, and many other “painted” varieties.”

“But it is the rainbow fish which calls forth enthusiasm.  This is a rare species which has never been seen in the aquarium, nor is there a specimen in the Bishop museum.”

MacKaye noted, “Probably no other one spot in the Territory of Hawaii can show such a wonderful variety of coral as the waters of Kaneohe Bay and the surrounding reefs on Windward Oahu.”

“Considerably over one hundred varieties of corals are known to exist in Kaneohe Bay, where lie the famous Coral Gardens, the sheltered formation of the encircling shores being advantageous to the propagation of nearly all the species inhabiting the Hawaiian waters.”

The original Coral Gardens resort and its tours persisted until shortly before World War II.  Then more than a decade of massive dredging and removal of whole reefs for primarily military purposes obliterated the coral gardens in the calm, sheltered southern bay.

Prior to 1930, the coral reefs of Kāneʻohe Bay were still in excellent condition. Then, the area of the south basin was subsequently impacted by dredging, sedimentation and sewage discharge.

Much of the dredged reef mass, at least 15 million cubic yards, went into landfill and runway construction at the Marine base on Mokapu Peninsula. Many of the south bay’s pedestal-formed patch reefs were blasted apart and the rubble dredged up to clear landing zones for seaplanes. (Culliney, Islands in a Far Sea)

After a lot of hard work by a lot of people over a long time, Kāneʻohe Bay is recovering; while not yet back to being a ‘coral garden,’ invasive algae has literally been sucked off the coral, coral is recolonizing and the Bay and reefs are recovering.

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Plymouth Colony Absorbed Into Province of Massachusetts Bay

Massachusetts takes its name from the Massachusett tribe of Native Americans, who lived in the Great Blue Hill region, south of Boston. The Indian term is roughly translated as “at or about the Great Hill”.

There are, however, a number of interpretations of the exact meaning of the word. The Jesuit missionary Father Rasles thought that it came from the word Messatossec, “Great-Hills-Mouth”: “mess” (mass) meaning “great”; “atsco” (as chu or wad chu) meaning “hill”; and sec (sac or saco) meaning “mouth”.

The Reverend John Cotton used another variation: “mos” and “wetuset”, meaning “Indian arrowhead”, descriptive of the Native Americans’ hill home. Another explanation is that the word comes from “massa” meaning “great” and “wachusett”, “mountain-place”.  (Secretary of the Commonwealth)

Massachusetts Bay Colony

While it is well known that the Massachusetts Bay Company, under the leadership of John Winthrop, ultimately settled Massachusetts Bay in 1630, it is less well understood that the Massachusetts Bay Company’s claim on New England was preceded by those of two other joint stock companies.

The first of these belonged to an association of “Adventurers” known as the Dorchester Company, organized by the Anglican minister John White. Although it succeeded in launching a settlement on Cape Ann in 1623, the Dorchester Company went out of existence in 1626.

In 1627, the Council for New England issued a land grant to a new group of investors, including a few from the Dorchester Company, to establish a for-profit enterprise, “The New England Company for a Plantation in Massachusetts Bay” (better known as the New England Company), led by John Endecott.

Endecott would ultimately found the town of Salem, Massachusetts, in 1628.  Endecott’s shares and those of fifty-six other New England Company investors would ultimately be absorbed into those of the Massachusetts Bay Company in 1629. (Genealogical-com)

The Massachusetts Bay Colony was a colony located near modern-day Boston and Salem Massachusetts.  It  was the first English chartered colony whose board of governors does not reside in England, thus paving the way for permanent settlement. (Native Philanthropy)

The Puritans used the royal charter establishing the Massachusetts Bay Company to create a government in which “freemen” – white males who owned property and paid taxes and thus could take on the responsibility of governing – elected a governor and a single legislative body called the Great and General Court, made up of assistants and deputies.

In April of 1630, the Puritans, led by one of the company’s stockholders, John Winthrop, left their homes in Boston, England and gathered at a dock in Southampton to set sail for the New World.

The fleet of 11 ships, now known as the Winthrop fleet, set sail and finally reached the shores of Massachusetts on June 12 and landed at Salem.

The Puritans established a theocratic government with the franchise limited to church members.  Bending the charter to their own purposes, the Puritans transformed the company into a religious commonwealth.

Their ambition had been to establish an ideal Christian community — a “city on a hill,” as Winthrop called it — with the eyes of England and the entire world on it. Winthrop was reelected governor, and a theocracy was in fact established.

In May 1631 the Puritan leaders agreed to recognize only church members as freemen (those entitled to vote and hold office). The company’s officers became the colony’s magistrates. The ministers of the church defined orthodoxy, and the colony’s magistrates enforced it. Dissenters were suppressed or banished.

Conflicts arose over the arbitrariness of the assistants, and in 1641 the legislature created the Body of Liberties. This document was a statement of principles for governance that protected individual liberties and was the basis for the guarantees later expressed in the Bill of Rights of the U.S. Constitution.

Early challenges to the charter were averted by the outbreak of the English Civil War in the 1640s; for about 50 years, with little interference from England, the Massachusetts Bay Colony developed into a Puritan commonwealth.

The Massachusetts Bay Colony flourished with literacy, schools, town meetings, longer lives, clean drinking water, a cool climate, and a variety of crops. Though the Puritan faith eventually waned, the Massachusetts Bay Colony thrived and was a strong start for the New World.

In 1684, however, the government of Charles II revoked the company’s charter. The colony was merged briefly into the extensive but short-lived (1686–88) Dominion of New England, which included New Hampshire and New Jersey and the colonies lying between them.  (Oscar Zeichner)

Plymouth Colony

On September 6, 1620 (Old Style; September 16, New Style), the Mayflower departed from Plymouth, England, and headed for America.

After 65 days at sea, the Mayflower dropped anchor near present-day Provincetown on November 11 (OS; November, 21, 1620, NS), and 41 male passengers signed the Mayflower Compact, an agreement to enact “just and equal laws for the general good of the colony.”

The colonists who traveled to the New World on the Mayflower were a small group of Separatists who had fled to Holland from England to practice their religion without official interference. Economic hardship and a desire to establish an identity free of Dutch influence prompted them to seek out America.   Most of the Separatists had been living in exile in Holland for ten years before sailing for America, and the rest of the passengers were drawn from the greater London area.

The area around Plymouth and Cape Cod, settled by the Pilgrims, was known as Plymouth colony, or the Old Colony.  By the mid-1640s its population numbered about 3,000 people.

The Pilgrims were never granted a royal charter; their government was based on the Mayflower Compact. The compact was hardly democratic, since it called for rule by the elite, but it established an elective system and a basis for limited consent of the governed as the source of authority. The Old Colony was rapidly overshadowed by its Puritan neighbor to the north, the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

Massachusetts Becomes a Royal Province in 1691

After losing its charter in 1684, Massachusetts continued to oppose the will of the Crown.  The Puritan government often operated as an independent state, to the point of minting its own money and even conducting its own foreign affairs.

In 1686, the British king canceled the Massachusetts charter that made it an independent colony.

When James II fled in 1688, the Puritans failed in their attempt to revive the Massachusetts Bay Company, and Massachusetts, in 1691, became a Royal Province under a Governor appointed by the Crown. 

To let more control over trade with the colonies, the King combined British colonies of Massachusetts, Plymouth and Maine and the islands of Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard into a single territory governed from England in 1691.  The religious laws instituted by the Massachusetts Bay Company were largely repealed. 

In this new Massachusetts, the franchise was given only to those who owned property or paid taxes. Continued lack of interference from Great Britain allowed the colonists to gain a tradition of self-reliance and self-government. (Maine remained a part of Massachusetts until 1820, when it was established as a separate state.)

The Massachusetts Charter of 1691 was a charter that formally established the Province of Massachusetts Bay.  The charter provided for the Governor’s appointment by the Crown rather than local election, and at the same time broadened the Governor’s powers.

Two legislative houses were permitted, however, and the requirement that every voter must be a church member was abolished.

The new restrictions incidental to the status of a Royal Province, applied in Massachusetts and elsewhere, provoked the series of controversies that culminated in the Revolutionary War.   During the end of the seventeenth century and the beginning of the eighteenth century, Massachusetts grew in population and in maritime trade.

These were the years of the so-called Second Hundred Years’ War between France and England. In these wars, 1688-1760, Massachusetts played an important part. Its crowning feat was the capture in 1745 of the fortress of Louisburg on Cape Breton Island (NS), a fortress so strong it was known as the Gibraltar of America. At the same time, Massachusetts’ maritime trade, especially with Caribbean ports, rose to the point that Boston was known as “The Mart (or market town) of the West Indies”. (Mass Facts, Secretary of the Commonwealth)

Click the following link to a general summary about Plymouth Colony Absorbed Into Province of Massachusetts Bay:

Click to access Plymouth-Colony-Absorbed-Into-Province-of-Massachusetts-Bay.pdf

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

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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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

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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