Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Manuia Lanai

Henry French Poor was the eldest son of Henry Francis Poor and Caroline Paakaiulaula Bush; he was born in the Islands, June 8, [1857].

“Henry F Poor was one of the most brilliant Hawaiians whose cradle ever rocked in these beautiful Islands.  … He possessed the generous spirit of his race and the keen intelligence of his New England’s forebears.”

“As secretary to Colonel Iaukea on the Kalakaua embassy to the rulers of the world he covered himself with honors and his bright letters were published in the local papers.” (The Independent, Nov 29, 1899)

Poor hosted Robert Louis Stevenson on his visit to the Islands.  On January 24, 1889, Stevenson arrived in Honolulu and spent the first six months of that year in the Hawaiian Islands (he later settled and lived in Samoa.)

On January 24, 1889, Stevenson arrived in Honolulu and spent the first six months of that year in the Hawaiian Islands (he later settled and lived in Samoa.)

“For the first few days the Stevenson party stayed with Henry Poor and his mother Mrs Caroline Bush, at 40 Queen Emma Street, Honolulu (24-27 January).”

“Then on 27 January 1889 they moved to Poor’s bungalow, Manuia Lanai [“a pavilion of the native pattern” (Brown)], at Waikiki, three miles east of Honolulu.  In early February Stevenson decided to send the Casco back to San Francisco and stay on to work in Hawaii.”

“As a result he rented the house next to Henry Poor’s. This too was a one-storey ‘rambling house or set of houses’ in a garden, centred on a lanai, ‘an open room or summer parlour, partly surrounded with venetian shutters, in part quite open, which is the living room’”.  (RLS Website)

“Mr. Robert Louis Stevenson has retired to ‘Manuia Lanai’ Mr. H. F. Poor’s sea-side place at Kapiolani Park, where he will probably

remain some time in quiet in order to complete some of the literary work he has undertaken.  We are informed privately however, that it is the intention of Mr. and Mrs. Stevenson after this week to be ‘at home’ on Wednesday afternoons from 2 to 5 pm.” (Daily Bulletin, January 28, 1889)

On Oʻahu, Stevenson was introduced to the King Kalākaua and others in the royal family by fellow Scotsman, Archibald Cleghorn.  Stevenson established a fast friendship with the royal family and spent a lot of time with his good friend King Kalākaua.

On February 3, 1889, there was a luau party at Manuia Lanai, where both Kalakaua and Liliuokalani were invited as special guests.  At the height of the party, Mrs Stevenson presented Kalākaua with a golden pearl from the Tuamotus.  (Ejiri) In giving the gift, Stevenson recited the following line of his sonnet (Daily Bulletin. Feb 4. 1889):

The Silver Ship, my king, – that was her name

In the bright islands whence your fathers came –

The Silver Ship, at rest from wind and tides,

Below your palace, in your harbour rides;

And the sea-farers sitting safe on the shore,

Like eager merchant, count their treasures o’er.

One gift they find, one strange and lovely thing,

Now doubly precious, since it pleased a king.

The right, my liege, is ancient as the Lyre,

For bards to give to kings what kings admire.

‘Tis mine to offer, for Appollo’s sake;

And since the gilt is fitting, yours to take.

To golden hands the golden pearl I bring:

The Ocean jewel to the Island King.

“The feast was purely Hawaiian there being no foreign dish upon the table. Aside from pig, fish, and fowls, roasted underground, were many strange edibles: pu-pu, opihi, two kinds of opae, koelepalau, and kulolo, taro and sweet potato poi, besides others, all beautifully arranged upon a bed of fern leaves.” (Daily Bulletin, Feb 4, 1889)

In the Islands, the renowned author found time for writing, completing The Master of Ballantrae and The Wrong Box and starting others during his short stay.

Stevenson visited Kalaupapa (shortly after Damien’s death) and later wrote of the good work of Father Damien (now Saint Damien.)  He also travelled to Kona on the Big Island (the setting for most of his short story “The Bottle Imp.”)

Henry French Poor died in Honolulu on November 28, 1899 and is buried at O‘ahu Cemetery.

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by Peter T Young 3 Comments

Kula Hospital

“Man vs. Tuberculosis, the strange, uncanny fight two thousand years of age, is, in Hawaii, in favor of Man. The tremendous exertion, the patience, the attention to incalculable minutae that this mere suggestion indicates is hard to realize unless one is in the fight, but success is on the banners of the Anti-Tuberculosis League of Hawaii at last.”  (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, December 20, 1913)

Tuberculosis attacks the lungs and organs; in the second decade of the twentieth century it was the leading cause of death in Hawaiʻi, with 400 to 500 annual deaths.  (Nordyke)  (Even today, Hawai’i ranks No. 1 with the highest rate of tuberculosis (TB) in the United States.  (HealthTrends))

The campaign against tuberculosis was inaugurated in Hawaii in 1909 as a result of the interest of James A Rath and others at Pālama Settlement in Honolulu.  Stimulated by the Anti-Tuberculosis League of Hawaiʻi, interest steadily grew – the Territorial Government took over the program in 1920.

A number of years ago – though not so very many – when the present Governor Pinkham was president of the Board of health of Hawaii, it was found necessary to survey the ravages of tuberculosis, a disease which to that time had received little attention. A commission was appointed. In an unofficial way it investigated and made a report. The report was alarming.  (MacKaye, Thrum’s Annual 1917)

Tuberculosis was a graver danger than was believed, although since then it has been shown that even that estimate was short of the mark. Mr. Pinkham referred the report to the various counties and urged them to do something to remedy the situation.”

“There was no answer from Honolulu until several years later, from Kauai not until the present day, and from Hawaii not at all, so far as county government went. (MacKaye, Thrum’s Annual 1917)

But the Maui county supervisors had more vision. There was land available on the slopes of mighty Haleakala and some money that could be spent. The territorial government lent a little bit more. A doctor was employed, a nurse secured.”

“The beginnings of the Kula Sanitarium were made at Waiakoa, on the side of the “House of the Sun,” an appropriate site, for medical science has yet to find a substitute for the sun and fair winds in its combat with consumption. (MacKaye, Thrum’s Annual 1917)

“The sanitarium is located at Keokea, Kula, Maui, at an elevation of some 3,000 feet, and is most singularly fortunate in being so situated that the regular trade winds coming between the Island of Lānaʻi and Molokini have a clear ocean sweep of thousands of miles, and reach this elevated area crisp and heavily laden with pure, unused oxygen.”

“It is free from dust, since it does not pass over one acre of cultivated land, and the view, which adds much to the cheer and content of the patients, is simply magnificent.” (McConkey, Report of the Maui County Farm and Sanitarium to the Board of Health, 1911)

The Kula Sanatorium began as a vision of Dr Wilbur Fiske Boggs McConkey, who was a practicing physician treating tuberculosis patients in the Keokea district. During his long drive across the rough roads of Kula in 1909, Dr. McConkey remarked on Kula’s suitable climate for tuberculosis patients and began his quest to start a tuberculosis facility.  (NPS)

This first attempt at a sanitarium was a modest endeavor, a little shack protected with canvas, alone in the midst of a rather desolate countryside.  (MacKaye, Thrum’s Annual 1917)

“Two tent houses were built, with canvas sides, wooden floors, and corrugated iron roofing.  A cook-house of rough one by twelve inch lumber was thrown together; this had no floor but had a corrugated iron roof and was luxuriously fitted with an open lean-to and a rough board table, which served as the sanitarium dining-room.”

“Canvas cots were used in the sleeping quarters; the lights were humble barn lanterns. The cook, a Korean, was a patient himself. Six patients from the plantations were accommodated, who took care of themselves.”  (Long)

The first patients were admitted into the then-named Maui County Farm and Sanitarium on September 14, 1910.   The June 1911 Official Patient Report reported 12-patients; over the years, the ethnicity of the patients reflected the Islands’ growing diversity, Americans, Australians, Hawaiians, Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, Filipinos, Porto Ricans, Portuguese and Norwegian.

“We do not encourage the admission of patients suffering from diseases or injuries of a non-tubercular nature, but owing, in the main, to the difficulty which is met with in arranging for the means of transportation of such patients down the mountain to a general hospital, as well as the emergency cases which have been present from time to time, we have found it necessary to admit and care for these in order to avoid what would have caused hardship and extra suffering.” (Report of the Maui County Farm and Sanitarium to the Board of Health, 1913)

“Early in its history Mr. V. Woodburn Herron, a man with some hospital training, took charge as steward, nurse and non-medical superintendent. The sanitarium was a county institution with Dr McConkey regularly constituted physician.”

“This regime lasted some months, when a change of administration brought Mr WE Foster up from Paia to act as superintendent. His wife, a trained nurse, accompanied him. Mr. Foster’s untimely demise – he was himself a victim of the disease – ended this arrangement, but not before he had lighted the way for future progress.”  (Long)

With public funds and by private subscription, the Sanitarium staff and its Board of Supervisors built and equipped a plant for the treatment of tuberculosis very favorably comparable to anything on the mainland.  A favorite method of fund-raising/facility building was the contribution of a cottage for an individual by the latter’s friends. After the patient has passed through the treatment the cottage became the property of the Sanitarium.  (Long)

In 1926, children were admitted into the Preventorium.  The overall facility was expanded into the Charles William Dickey-designed Kula Sanatorium (one of the largest designed by Dickey in his career,) with the first patients moving in on May 27, 1937.

The facility was designed to accommodate 166-patients in wards and 16-patients in private rooms and had facilities on the porches to accommodate 59-more patients in an emergency.  The primary consideration in treatment was rest, “rest to the body, mind, and lungs.”

The layout of the gardens at Kula Sanatorium was a combination of formal plantings and careful use of indigenous plantings. They were designed by the first registered landscape architect in Hawaii, Catherine Jones Thompson and her husband, Robert O Thompson.

In the 1950s when drugs were developed to control tuberculosis, Kula Sanatorium changed its focus to serving long-term care patients.  In 1960, psychiatric patients were admitted on an experimental basis.

In 1975, tuberculosis services were discontinued and on April 9, 1976, the complex was renamed Kula Hospital.  The Kula Hospital & Clinic is a five story Moderne style hospital (“traditionalism and modernism” popular from 1925 through the 1940s) that serves as a general hospital and clinic to residents within the Kula area.

The complex has acute care beds, 24-hour emergency room and outpatient clinic with lab and x-ray services.  Kula Hospital continues to provide long-term care for its residents.

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Halepōhaku

As part of the New Deal Program, to help lift the United States out of the Great Depression, Franklin D Roosevelt established the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1933. The CCC or Cs as it was sometimes known, allowed single men between the ages of 18 and 25 to enlist in work programs to improve America’s public lands, forests, and parks. (NPS)

President Roosevelt proposed that the CCC “be used in simple work, not interfering with normal employment, and confining itself to forestry, the prevention of soil erosion, flood control, and similar projects …”

… and argued that “this type of work is of definite, practical value, not only through the prevention of great present financial loss, but also as a means of creating future national wealth”.

On March 31, 1933, Congress passed a bill under the title “Emergency Conservation Work” (ECW) and on April 5, 1933, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 6101 which officially established the ECW Program, administered under the auspices of the CCC.

The CCC had two main objectives – to employ hundreds of thousands of unemployed young men in conservation work and to provide vocational training, and later education training, for enrollees. (PCSI, OMKM)

Enrollment periods lasted six months and enrollees could opt to re-enroll for additional six-month periods for up to two years. Four distinct enrollment categories existed – Junior enrollees; Local Experienced Men; World War I veterans; and American Indians and residents from US Territories.

Juniors comprised 85% of enrollees and were single men between the ages of 18 and 25, whose families were on relief aid. Two groups of older men, Local Experienced Men and Veterans of World War I each comprised 5% of enrollees.

Territorial enrollees comprised 1% of total CCC enrollment and were not subject to age or marital status restrictions and were permitted to live at home and work on nearby projects

For many, just the prospect of three meals and a bed were enough to get young men to enroll. As jobs and income were incredibly scarce, the CCC for a lot of these young men was their first job.

The CCC provided room, board, clothing, transportation, medical and dental care, and a monthly salary of $30 per enrollee, $25 of which would be sent straight to their families, while the other five was for the worker to keep. (NPS)

The CCC was officially inaugurated in 1933 in the Hawaiian Territory under the supervision of the Territorial Forestry Commission and the Hawaiian National Park, but the first Corps work projects were not begun until 1934. (PCSI, OMKM)

Frank Harrison Locey, the President of the Board of Commissioners of Agriculture and Forestry, wrote that: “It appears to me that the CCC camp is a kindergarten in a way.”

“They take young boys in, do not work them too hard but harden them for normal employment. That is why I call it a kindergarten or a stepping stone to future labor.”

The CCC aimed to supplement on-the-job training with a formal educational program. Approximately half of the CCC enrollees had less than an eighth-grade education and suffered from illiteracy. To remedy this situation, evening instruction in the camps taught remedial reading and writing skills, general education courses, and specialized vocational classes.

Acting Territorial Forester, Leicester Winthrop Bryan, reported that: “In addition to the good done to the youth of this Island through giving them an opportunity to earn money we have tried to teach them to live together, to work, to learn some useful trade, to continue their education, to improve their health and to become better citizens.”

“We feel that a large number of these boys have left our camps in a much better condition to go out in the world and earn their living and be better citizens.”  (PCSI, OMKM)

The stone cabins at the present location of the mid-level astronomy facilities on the Mauna Kea Access Road (the Halepōhaku Rest Camp) were constructed by members of the CCC in Hawai`i in 1936 (Rest House 1) and 1939 (Rest House 2). (The Comfort Station was constructed by the Territory of Hawai‘i’s Division of Forestry in 1950.)

Hale Pohaku literally ”stone house,” refers to the two stone cabins constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1936 and 1939 at an elevation of 9,220 feet on the southern slope of Maunakea. L. W. Bryan, who served as the Territorial Forestry Office and helped with the construction of the “stone houses,” also named them Hale Pohaku. (Cultural Surveys)

In the first entry of the Halepōhaku Register Log (1939) LW Bryan wrote that the “Halepohaku Rest Camp” was constructed by the CCC under the direction of the Territorial Division of Forestry by CCC Foreman Yoshinobu Hada. (The letters “Ha” and the date “1936” were inscribed into mortar near the doorway of Rest House 1 – presumably referring to Foreman Hada.)

In articles published in Paradise of the Pacific, Bryan described Rest House 1 and identifies its’ early usage, writing that: “Halepohaku is well named for the stone rest-house located there. This house is within the Mauna Kea Forest Reserve and is available for use by any one.”

“It is located in a sheltered spot, near 9,500 feet, at the upper edge of the timber line. Fire wood is plentiful and a 2,000 gallon water tank, fed by gutters from the house roof, furnishes a supply of good clean water.”

“A 3 x 5 foot built in stove furnishes ample warmth and a suitable place to cook and the size of the fire box is such that the cutting of fire wood is an easy matter. The house door is never locked and the only charge made is that each occupant is requested to leave the place clean, not to waste the water and to prepare a small supply of fire wood for the next fellow.”

“Aside from a stove, a table and benches, this building is unfurnished. … Halepohaku is only two miles from where the car is left and makes an excellent stopping place for the night.”

“The cabins replaced a complex of buildings near Ho‘okomo, at the 7,800 foot elevation, which had been used by Forestry personnel who were building and maintaining the Forest Reserve fence and by workers constructing the road to Hale Pohaku.”

“The cabins at Hale Pohaku were placed under the jurisdiction of the State Parks Division of the Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) in 1962. Hale Pohaku was never officially designated as a State Park.”  They later were included under the lease to the University of Hawai‘i.

Per the 1977 Mauna Kea Master Plan, “The Hale Pohaku facility will consist of mid-level facilities for necessary research personnel for the summit, a central point for management of the mountain, and a day-use destination point for visitors and primitive overnight camping facilities.” Master Plan 1977;7

While hunting on Mauna Kea as a kid, we overnighted at Halepōhaku (well before astronomy’s mid-level facilities were built (1983)), as well as in the Pu‘u La‘au cabin above the Kilohana Girl Schout Camp.

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

“Honolulu’s Tropical Jewel”

This CW Dickey-designed structure was once referred to as “Honolulu’s Tropical Jewel.” (TheatresOfHawaii)

No one man has a more central place in Hawaiʻi’s architectural history than Charles William Dickey (1871-1942.) Born of a kamaʻāina family (his maternal grandfather was missionary Rev. William P Alexander,) he grew up on Maui, graduated from MIT in 1895 and practiced architecture in Honolulu from 1895 to 1904 and from 1920 until his death twenty-two years later.  (Neil)

“Previous Waikīkī buildings had divided into two types: the palatial – such as the Moana Hotel and the Castle residence – and the small and informal – such as the beach house of Kamehameha V. … Dickey’s 1936 design for the Waikīkī Theater is an extreme contrast.”

“His problem was to design a 1930s movie palace which would be appropriate to Hawaiʻi. He used the expected art deco with such flair and taste that the theater compares favorably with any of the type … He then made the theater appropriate.”  (Charlot)

Its initial design was based on a building at Chicago’s moderne 1933 and 1934 ‘A Century of Progress International Exposition,’ but in harmony with its island location.

The final tropical moderne design featured a large garden courtyard between the street and auditorium entrance, with lush plants surrounding a large fountain.

Inside, past fresco murals on the walls and ceiling, the atmospheric auditorium was flanked by lush artificial plants with the proscenium in the form of a rainbow, and tall artificial coconut palms on each side.  (TheatresOfHawaii)

No expense was spared in its construction and furnishings.  This was intended to be owner’s (Consolidated Amusement) deluxe flagship theater.

The 1,353-seat Waikīkī Theater opened with great fanfare on August 20, 1936.  “This first-class theatre survived as a single-screen house its entire life.”  (TheatresOfHawaii)   Dickey created an environment as charming and artificial as the image on the screen.  (Charlot)

In 1939, the Waikīkī Theatre was equipped with a Robert Morton theatre organ, which had originally been installed (with a twin console) in the Hawaiʻi Theatre in 1929.  (Peterson)

“No theater in the world has a more picturesque setting than Waikīkī.  Situated on the beach at Waikīkī, it stands on the site where once Hawaiʻi’s royalty played.  The playhouse now becomes a glorious new addition to the beach made famous in song and story.  It is the new center of activity of that district which long been the mecca of travelers from the world over.”  (Honolulu Advertiser; Alder)

“The auditorium is a revelation in theatrical architecture. Spacious, cool, it is acoustically correct in every detail. Perfect hearing and vision are available from every seat of the huge auditorium.”

“One of the most unique ideas in theatre ‘atmosphere’ has been incorporated in the decorations. The ceiling, done in soft blue, becomes a replica of the heavens through special lighting effects.”

“Stars twinkle, soft, fleecy clouds float about, the planets send off their soft light. The Waikīkī theatre is one of the few in the world in which this unusual lighting feature has been installed.”

“Through this lighting the great rainbow that spans the proscenium becomes a soft, misty, fairy arch rivaling in loveliness the great rainbows that arch Hawaiʻi’s skies.”  (Honolulu Advertiser, August 20, 1936; Del Valle)

“Inside the theater, it felt as if you were in a tropical paradise. A full-colored rainbow arched over the curtains that hid the screen. Along the side walls, there were palm trees that reached from floor to ceiling and lush jungle plants, which appeared absolutely real to my child’s eyes.”

“Then, a distinguished gentleman named Ed Sawtelle would appear and sit down at a large organ console, located just below and in front of the stage, and begin a concert that filled the hall with rolling music that vibrated off the walls.”

“About that time, with the house lights dimmed, someone would flip a switch and magical images of moving clouds would be projected onto the arched, midnight-blue ceiling, completing the illusion of having landed in the middle of a tropical jungle on a remote Pacific island.”

“Finally, the curtains would part and the show would start with a short cartoon and the Fox Movietone News. The ‘news’ events shown were about four weeks old by the time they got to Hawaiʻi, but that’s how we would find out what was happening in the world in those pre-television days.”  (Richard Kelley)

After successfully celebrating its first 30+years, and as the multiplex made movie-going more competitive, in 1969 the Waikīkī Theater name was relegated to Waikīkī #3 (following the construction of the Waikīkī #1 & #2 nearby.)

Renovations in the late-60s, and remodeling a decade or so later kept the theater on life support.   An expanded concession area replaced most of the forecourt, the interior decoration was removed and the auditorium draped.

“Imagine how much half an acre on Kalākaua Avenue is worth. By then, Consolidated was paying half a million dollars per year in property taxes – you have to sell a lot of popcorn to cover that.” (Lowell Angell, Theatre Historical Society of America; Hana Hou)

Waikīkī Theater (Waikīkī #3) remained a single screen theatre until it closed in late-November 2002; Waikīkī #1 & #2 closed at the same time.  They demolished all three in 2005 (the demolition started about 9-years ago, today.)

“Over the years, the movie business has changed dramatically. …  Multiplex theaters offer a variety of features almost any time of the day or night. Cartoons are now feature films. The news of the day is seen on one’s TV, laptop or cell phone.”

“The gracious theater usherettes have long since retired and have not been replaced. The guy at the door who takes your ticket is often dressed in a baggy T-shirt and jeans and barely looks up as he says, ’Your film will be shown in theater seven, second on the right.’”  (Richard Kelley)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Teshima’s

Teishoku #3 was my mother’s favorite.

With the meal came the anticipated stop and discussion with Mrs Teshima, proprietress of the place.  Mrs Teshima is now gone, but the memory of her gracious hospitality and her ability to remember the family and life experiences of her customers will live forever.

To tell the story of Shizuko (Mary) Teshima and her restaurant, Teshima’s, we need to step back a few years … a lot of years.

In the early-1900s her father, Goichi Hanato, emigrated from Hiroshima, along with her mother, Kiku Morishima, in a picture bride marriage (1905.)  Shizuko (Mary) was born June 24, 1907 in a Kona coffee field, not far from where Teshima’s restaurant is today.

Her father was an industrious man who tried his hand at many jobs; among other things, milked cows and made butter. He got a farm in Honalo and opened a store. He and his wife made tofu at home and delivered it by horse and wagon to their customers.  (Kona Historical Society)

A few years after arriving in Hawaiʻi, Goichi Hanato opened a general store, tofu factory and taxi service.

During World War I, Shizuko attended Konawaena Elementary School.   As a teenager having only an eighth grade education, Shizuko worked at her father’s general store.  It was there that she met Fumio (Harry) Teshima, an islander who worked as a mechanic for the Captain Cook Coffee Company.

Shizuko’s father wrote to his family back in Hiroshima Japan to ask about fiancée Fumio’s farmer family/reputation – the response was favorable, so Fumio was allowed to marry Shizuko.  (Narimatsu)  In 1926 they were married, and in 1929 the couple opened a store and called it F Teshima Store.

While her husband worked at Captain Cook Coffee Company and earned a cash salary, Shizuko worked in the store and started raising their family of five children.  She did sewing at night with a gas lamp to make extra cash, earning a dollar for trousers and seventy-five cents a shirt.

“To begin with I had the store. It was kinda boring, and I wanted to do something to keep me real busy. So, I decided …to run up to the church (when) they had classes in cooking.  So, I said, oh, I must like this work. I started with an ice cream parlor at first ‘cause I had general merchandise.”

“People, when they came to buy something, wanted to eat, and that’s how I got into food, too. I had two tables, one dozen ice cream spoons, one bamboo ice cream scoop, and the glasses….We made our own ice cream. Our ice used to come from Hilo.”

“We bought 100 lbs. and we packed it in the coffee skins, in the box, and we made ice cream the night before after we closed the store. In the morning it was ready and we packed it in ice with salt, but there was no electricity anyway, so we did it the hard way.”  (Kona Historical Society)

Around 1940, Mary purchased a fountain so Kona kids could have ice cream sodas, as well.  When World War II started, life changed.

The store became a popular saimin stand before serving libations and food to soldiers stationed nearby.  The store expanded into a hamburger stand, before it was launched a Japanese family restaurant.

Suddenly, Kona was filled with hungry, thirsty US servicemen who showed up at F Teshima Store with money in their pockets, looking for drinks at the horse shoe bar and hot off the stove hamburgers.

“Homesick boys, only 18 or 19,” she said, “but they were all very nice.”  These WWII soldiers, who couldn’t pronounce her name, gave her the name Mary.  (Winther)  (Relatives and good friends called her Grandma; we, always, respectfully, called her Mrs Teshima.)

When the war was over, the family made a smart decision in 1957 to tear down the old store and build a restaurant.  (Kona Historical Society) What was the general store evolved into a 230-seat restaurant.  (Her husband Fumio (Harry) Teshima died April 20, 1997.)

In 2009, Shizuko “Mary” Teshima was recipient of the Women’s Hall of Fame award, given by the Hawaiʻi County Committee on the Status of Women.

On October 22, 2013, “Mary” “Grandma” “Mrs Teshima” died at the age of 106 (she worked for 83-years at her Honalo landmark.)  She had five children, 17 grandchildren, 27 great grandchildren and 16 great-great grandchildren.

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