Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

The Beaver Block

Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) was a fur trading company that started in Canada in 1670; its first century of operation found HBC firmly focused in a few forts and posts around the shores of James and Hudson Bays, Central Canada.

Fast forward 150-years and in 1821, it merged with North West Company, its competitor; the resulting enterprise then spanned the continent – all the way to the Pacific Northwest (modern-day Oregon, Washington and British Columbia) and the North (Alaska, the Yukon and the Northwest Territories.)

On January 21, 1829 the Hudson’s Bay Company schooner ‘Cadboro’ arrived at Honolulu from Fort Vancouver. While the HBC fur trade focused furs of beavers, sea otters, seals and other animals from the Pacific Northwest Coast and Alaska to be sold in China in exchange for tea, silks, porcelain and other Chinese goods, their interest in Hawaiʻi was to sell lumber and other goods, not furs.

When the Hudson’s Bay Company entered the Hawaiian scene in 1829, Honolulu had already become a significant Pacific port of call and major provisioning station for trans-Pacific travelers.

The earliest location of the Agency in Honolulu was on the north side of Nuʻuanu Street (between King and Merchant Streets,) where it occupied a two-story, shingle-sided building.

“The premises were named “Aienui,” meaning “great debt,” perhaps in reference to the Company’s liberal policy of granting credit on reasonable security, such as was and still is granted to the Indians on their prospective winter catch.” (The Beaver, June 1930)

In 1846 the Agency moved to a new site closer and more convenient to the waterfront at the corner of Fort and Queen Streets. They had a two-story coral building with slate roof, fronting on Queen Street, and one-story storage building along Fort Street.

Thereafter, the location of their establishment became known as the “Beaver Block,” named after the HBC ‘mascot’ (and primary economic resource,) the beaver.

As the year 1859 started, Pacific whaling entered its decline, HBC’s competition in the importation of goods increased. Janion Green and Co (forerunner of Theo H Davies), Hackfeld and Co (forerunner of Amfac,) C Brewer, and Castle and Cooke (the beginnings of the Big Five) were established firms.

Instructed to wind up affairs in 1860, the last Company representative left Honolulu in March 1861. The Company’s old Fort and Queen business site, however, continued to be known as the Beaver Block. Other businesses moved into the premises.

Twenty years passed, during them, Lunalilo ascended to the throne and died within a year; his estate took control of the property and their trustees sold it to James Campbell. In 1882, Campbell built a new building and put the old iron beaver weathervane of the Hudson’s Bay Company on its roof – affirming the Beaver Block tradition.

“Thousands of Honolulans who pass up and down Fort Street and visit the wharves have probably never lifted their eyes high enough on such trips to notice on the Makai-Waikiki cornice of the Campbell block at Fort and Queen Streets a weather-beaten weather vane, with the letter “N” missing from that particular arm and to notice that the vane itself resembles a well-known forest and stream animal…. It took a visitor from Winnipeg, Canada, to notice that the animal was a beaver …” (Advertiser, March 31, 1930; The Beaver)

Beaver Block was a large building that included uses such as storage, shops and offices that stretched along Fort Street and Queen. That year, Campbell, who owned the adjacent land (fronting Fort and Merchant Streets) built the “Campbell Block,” a similarly-large building that included uses such as storage, shops and offices.

“The activity of building, throughout Honolulu and its suburbs, continues. That in the business portion of the city gives it the most substantial aspect of any years undertaking, the most prominent of which is the Campbell Block, extending from the Bank premises on Merchant street around onto Fort street to join the Beaver Block …. In the buildings that have been constructed a more lavish style is observed, and ornamentation externally and internally is now the rule rather than the exception, both in business houses and private dwellings.” (Hawaiian Almanac and Annual, 1884)

The first elevators in Hawai‘i were installed in the early 1880s. One was in the Beaver Block, a two-story structure at Fort and Queen Streets, completed in 1882. (The elevator was replaced by an electric elevator.)

Another pioneering elevator was located near the front of a two-story brick building occupied by Wing Wo Chan & Co., on Nu‘uanu Avenue between King and Merchant Streets. This structure was lost in the 1886 Chinatown fire.) (Hawaiian Historical Society)

A notable Beaver Block tenant was GW MacFarlane & Co, shipping and general wholesale merchants. George W. MacFarlane was born in Honolulu in 1849. He got a job with Theo Davies in 1868 and stayed with the firm until 1876.

McFarlane became a prominent attendant to King Kalākaua and merchant in Honolulu during the 1870s-1880s. He was also associated with Spreckels and other financiers in sugar interests. He died in 1921.

Another tenant in the building was the Beaver Saloon, opened on April 5, 1882 by HJ Nolte (who also had “The Casino” on his property at Kapiʻolani Park.)

The Beaver Saloon was “a favorite lunch resort for a large majority of the business element, the civil service, the factory and waterfront toilers, judges, lawyers and doctors … (and) has indeed been the most frequented noonday club in Honolulu, a recognized exchange for public opinion and clearing house for community gossip.” (Hawaiian Gazette, March 29, 1907)

Then, on October 11, 1964, the Sunday Star-Bulletin and Advertiser noted, “Office-Parking Building Planned by Campbell Estate on Fort Street.”

Plans called for a combined office and parking structure to replace the 2-story on Fort and Merchants Streets; this new building was considered an important part of the redevelopment of downtown Honolulu. (Adamson) The Beaver Block and Campbell Block buildings were torn down and a new building was completed in May 1967.

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Beaver_Weathervane-HBC-Honolulu-(TheBeaver)
Carved wooden beaver for the Hudson's Bay Company store, Honolulu-HSA-PP-37-4-009
Beaver_Relic-HBC-(TheBeaver)
Hudson Bay Co Beaver On Branch Pendant Tag
MacFarlane-whiskey_bottle-(globtopwhiskies)
The_Beaver,_No._4,_March_1932,_outfit_262,_Hudson's_Bay_Company_Publication
Beaver_Saloon-Casino-advertisement-Daily_Bulletin-Aug_12,_1885
Downtown_Honolulu-Building_ownership_noted-Map-1950-noting_Beaver_Block
Fort St near makai-Waikiki corner with Queen St-King St crossing in distance-1880s-Beaver_Block_to_Left
Fort_St-left are G.W. Macfarlane & Co., Gency Hall's Safe & Lock Co, and H.J. Nolte's Beaver Saloon-HSA-PP-38-6-012
Hudson_Bay_Company,_Honolulu,_by_Paul_Emmert-1853
Kalakaua_aboard_the_U.S.S._Charleston-Colonel_George_W_Macfarlane_is_behind_the_King-(WC)-1890
MacFarlane_advertisement-(AllAboutHawaii)
View of Queen Street, Honolulu in 1857, left, Hudson's Bay store-right work begun on the demolition of 1816 fort wall-1857
Waikiki-Kaneloa-Kapiolani_Park-Monsarrat-Reg1079 (1883)-The_Casino-noted
Hudson_Bay_Company-Honolulu_Layout-Beaver_Block
Downtown and Vicinity-Dakin-Fire Insurance- 4-Map-1891-notin_Beaver_Block
Honolulu and Vicinity-Dakin-Fire Insurance- 04-Map-1906-noting_Beaver_Block
Hudsons_Bay_Company_Flag

by Peter T Young 1 Comment

In The Beginning They Called It Wireless

Since previous communication had been by means of wires, “wireless” seemed like the logical name and it served until 1906.

In that year, an international conference meeting in Berlin, Germany, decided that, instead, the word “radio” should be used to describe the new means of communication.  (Coe)

In the 1920s, there were four communications organizations in the US: the American Telephone and Telegraph Co, Western Union Telegraph Co, International Telephone and Telegraph Co, and Radio Corporation of America.

Two of them operated international radiotelegraph circuits – the ITT and the RCA. The ITT had a radio-telegraph subsidiary known as Mackay Radio and Telegraph Co, which operated radio circuits to a few foreign countries, in addition to its radio service to and from ships at sea.

Mackay Radio & Telegraph Company was founded by Clarence H Mackay, son of John W Mackay.  Clarence Mackay was the father-in-law of composer Irving Berlin.

John Mackay initially made his fortune in Comstock silver, but he later (1883) moved into telegraphic communications.  Mackay formed several telegraph communications companies to compete with Western Union.

When John Mackay died in 1902, Clarence inherited the businesses.

Clarence Mackay saw to the completion of the transpacific cable. Radio was added to the business end of things in 1925 to provide “radiogram” service to every area of the world.

In May, 1928, the Federal Mackay Radio Company opened a new station at Kailua, Oʻahu. Intended to take overflow cable traffic, the station operated on the then new high frequency radio system for transpacific communication and developed into an important transpacific station.  (Thrum 1929)

Mackay Radio was mainly interested in maritime communications which went along with the maritime radio-telegraph business.  By 1928, ITT had merged with most of Mackay’s business interests but the Mackay name continued on for several decades.

The Mackay Radio and Telegraph Co radio tower was located on the Kāneʻohe side of Kailua Road just before you get to the bridge that marks the entrance to Kailua town (the wooden bridge was replaced by a concrete one in 1940.)

The tower was an inescapable landmark overshadowing the community.  It’s gone now; and so is Mackay’s company from the community.

But Mackay Radio and Telegraph has left a lasting legacy in corporate operations.

By the mid-1930s, Mackay Radio’s principal West Coast office was in San Francisco, and it had other sending facilities in several cities. These facilities transmitted and received both telegraph and radio messages.  From the San Francisco facility, the company maintained point-to-point radio circuits with Los Angeles, Seattle, New York, Hawaiʻi, Tokyo and Shanghai, among other locations.

However, the Mackay system had long been in weak financial condition and, by the mid-1930s, its corporate parent stood under considerable strain.  Disturbed by cutbacks in their working conditions and changes in employment policies, the Mackay workers began a union-organizing effort in the early part of 1934.

They then sought to negotiate with the Company. No agreement was reached, and a strike began at 12:01 am on October 5, 1935.  A later National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) finding led to a lawsuit and subsequent US Supreme Court decision.

In a landmark 7-0 ruling (NLRB v. Mackay Radio & Telegraph Co (1938)) the Supreme Court made two significant decisions: (1) an employer may hire strikebreakers and is not bound to discharge any of them if or when a strike ends and (2) workers who strike remain employees for the purposes of the National Labor Relations Act and an employer may not discriminate on the basis of union activity in reinstating employees at the end of a strike.

The “Mackay Doctrine,” as the striker replacement portion of the ruling is known, is one of the most significant Supreme Court rulings in American labor law, and has defined collective bargaining in the United States since its publication.

The rule forbids employers to discharge workers who engage in a legal strike. At the same time, it allows employers to hire other workers to take their jobs.

Mackay was more than a decision that provided an instrumental method for a firm to replace economic strikers and to resist their return to employment after a strike. It was also a decision that established important practices that constituted the conduct of union-management bargaining.

The ruling is highly controversial, even over 70-years later. It is strongly and uniformly condemned by labor unions, and resolutely defended by employers. In the legal community, however, “the doctrine continues to provoke the notice and the nearly universal condemnation of scholars.”  (Getman & Kohler)

The lawsuit that initiated this decision was based on the economic conditions of the larger company, not its Kailua presence; however, Mackay was here at the time of the decision and, as such, Kailua and Hawaiʻi are a part of that legacy.

by Peter T Young 3 Comments

Seaside Hotel

What we think of today as the “Royal Hawaiian Hotel” actually is the second hotel of like name (the first one was in downtown Honolulu – the location of the State Art Museum and office) and, the site of the present Royal Hawaiian used to be the home of the Seaside Hotel.

But there was a link between the site and the hotel’s name. In the 1890s, the Seaside Hotel was a beach annex to the Royal Hawaiian Hotel located at Richards and Hotel streets.

There is now another “Seaside Hotel” in Waikīkī, but that’s different from the hotel we are discussing here. That other “Seaside” was built in 1970 and has been used by United Airlines as a perk for employees and company retirees.

This Seaside was really on the water and until the Royal Hawaiian took its place, it was one of the earliest hotels in Waikīkī.

It was situated on 10 coconut-covered oceanfront acres on one of the best parts of Waikīkī Beach (Kamehameha V (and others) had a residence here, on land known as Helumoa.)

It was the only Honolulu hotel where guests were accommodated in separate and distinct cottages (bungalows and tent houses.) Each was named for prominent people who stayed there (one was the Alice Roosevelt Longworth cottage – named for Teddy Roosevelt’s cigar-smoking daughter.)

It was marveled as “folksy, family-style living”) and it was a favorite of author, Jack London, who noted, “The older I grow, the oftener I come back, and the longer I stay.” (SagaOfSandwichIslands)

In 1907, the Seaside Hotel opened on the property, and was later acquired by Alexander Young’s Territorial Hotel Company, which operated the Alexander Young hotel in downtown Honolulu.

In 1924, the Seaside Hotel’s lease of the land at Helumoa was soon to expire and the land’s owners (Bishop Estate) put out a request for proposals to build a hotel.

Matson Navigation Co. had big plans to build luxury ocean liners to bring wealthy tourists to Hawaiʻi. But, they needed a hotel equally lavish at Waikīkī.

Soon Matson’s luxury ocean liner and its 650 wealthy passengers would be arriving in Honolulu every two weeks and the two largest hotels, the Alexander Hotel and the Moana, could not accommodate all of them. The availability of the Bishop Estate land began putting wheels into motion.

In March 1925, William Roth, Manager of Matson Navigation Company, his wife Lurline (whose maiden name was Matson) and Mrs. William Matson, the widow of the founder of Matson Navigation Company, arrived in Honolulu for a three-week stay so that Roth could attend the annual Matson conference.

Famous New York-based architect Charles V. Wetmore also arrived in Honolulu at the invitation of Matson Navigation Company leadership.

Wetmore advised Matson Navigation that “Honolulu is one of the wonder spots of the world, and it should have a hotel that is as much of an attraction as the city itself.”

Castle & Cooke, Matson Navigation and the Territorial Hotel Company successfully proposed a plan to build a luxury hotel, with 400 rooms, at a cost of $2 million on the parcel of Waikīkī beach to be leased from the Bishop Estate.

The ground-breaking ceremony took place on July 26, 1925, before a building permit was issued or a contract was signed with the building contractor, Ralph Wooley. By the time the contract was executed on September 5, 1925, some three hundred men were already at work.

The building permit still was not signed by August, and the City withheld granting it unless the building codes were first revised (high rises were not, then, permitted.) The planning commission did not want to revise the building code to allow high rises on Waikīkī beach.

The City and County Board of Supervisors disregarded their concerns and allowed the increase in heights. This would forever change the landscape of Waikīkī, as the decision also allowed much taller highrises to be built in the area.

The opening of the Waikīkī Royal Hawaiian on February 1, 1927, ushered in a new era of luxurious resort travel to Hawai‘i. The six-story, 400-room structure was fashioned in a Spanish-Moorish style, popular during the period and influenced by screen star Rudolph Valentino.

The Honolulu Star-Bulletin described the newly opened Royal Hawaiian as “the first resort hostelry in America.”

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Seaside-Hotel-(SagaOfSandwichIslands)-1916
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Seaside_Hotel-(SagaOfSandwichIslands)-1903
Guests walking toward Seaside office and entry-(SagaOfSandwichIslands)-1913
Seaside-lanai-(SagaOfSandwichIslands)-1913
Royal Hawaiian Hotel-screened_patio-HSA-1890
Advertisement_for_Seaside_Hotel-1908
Waikiki-fronting_old-Seaside_Hotel-seawall-1915
Cocoa-Nut_Grove,_and_Residence_of_the_Late_King_Kamehameha_V.,_at_Waikiki,_Oahu-before-1875
BVD-14-1-31-41-Bertha Young residence and Royal Hawaiian hotel_150w-KamehamehaSchoolsArchives
Helumoa_Summer House of King Kamehameha V, Waikiki-(eBay)-1873
Bellmen_at_Porte_Cochere-(honoluluadvertiser)-1927
Coconut Grove during the hotel's construction (HHF) (1925)
Coconut_Grove_Lanai-(HHF)-1927
Dancers are from the Dan Wallace Hula Studio in the Royal Hawaiian Hotel-(HSA)-1950s-PP-33-5-023
Royal_Hawaiian-(HSA-Matson-HHF)-1927
Royal_Hawaiian_oceanside_construction-(HSA-HHF)-1926
Seaside_Hotel-noted-(Moana_Hotel-Apuakehau_Stream-marshland_behind)-1920
Waikiki scene arial view of moana & RH

by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Old Plantation

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

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

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

When tensions began to rise between the American North and South in the late-1850s, Ward would defend his Southern heritage. As a result, Ward’s home, named “Dixie,” was often stoned by Northern sailors. (Hustace)

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

Seven daughters were born during these years: Mary Elizabeth, Kulamanu, May, Einei, Lucy, Kathleen and Lani.

As was common for many young married couples of English and Hawaiian ancestry during this period, the Wards socialized comfortably with Honolulu’s expatriate British families, as well as with members of the various Royal families.

This was a period of considerable turbulence in Hawaiian political affairs, and Curtis and Victoria joined with their friends in resisting the rising power of the sugar barons and firmly opposed reciprocity with the United States. (Ward Centers)

Even in later years, Victoria Ward held to her political convictions and remained a loyal friend and supporter of Liliʻuokalani after the overthrow of the monarchy in 1893. (Ward Centers)

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

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

In 1882, Curtis Ward died at age 53, leaving Victoria to raise seven daughters and manage the estate.

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

In 2002, Chicago-based General Growth Properties Inc (owner of Ala Moana Center) closed on an agreement to buy Victoria Ward Ltd., giving it control of one of the state’s largest private landowners and operator of a growing retail complex in Kakaʻako.

In 2010, General Growth spun off its development properties as the Howard Hughes Corporation and is working on plans for the creation/redevelopment of an urban master planned community in Kakaʻako. (OHA and Kamehameha Schools are other large landowners in Kakaʻako.)

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  • 19580108 – Ward Estate (looking out driveway toward King Street. The daughters of Curtis P. Ward, gentleman from Kentucky who built Old Plantation, once romped on this lanai. SB BW by Terry Luke.
  • OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Look for the Mamo Hidden Under a Rock

Hawaiʻi’s capitol – the “Square Building” on Beretania, although it’s actually 360-feet x 270-feet – is full of symbolism.

In the words of Governor John A Burns, “The open sea, the open sky, the open doorway, open arms and open hearts – these are the symbols of our Hawaiian heritage … there are no doors at the grand entrances … there is no roof or dome to separate its vast inner court from the heavens … We welcome you! E Komo Mai! Come In! The house is yours!”

The perimeter pool represents the ocean surrounding the islands; the 40-concrete columns are shaped like coconut trees; the conical House and Senate chambers infer the volcanic origins of the Islands; and the open, airy central ground floor suggests the Islands’ open society and acceptance of our natural and cultural environment.

In 1959, an advisory committee was formed. They selected the Honolulu firm of Belt, Lemmon & Lo and the San Francisco firm of John Carl Warnecke & Associates to design the new state capitol.

Their design was approved by the Legislature in 1961; construction commenced in November 1965. The building opened on March 16, 1969, replacing the former statehouse, ʻIolani Palace.

A notable capitol feature central on the ground floor is the tiled mosaic “Aquarius.” The tile work is based on a painting of the same name by Tadashi Sato; the mosaic is circular (36-feet in diameter.)

Sato, the eldest of six children of Japanese immigrants who came to work on Maui’s pineapple plantations, was born (1923) and raised on Maui and attended King Kamehameha III School and graduated from Lahainaluna.

He perfected his artistic skills over the next several decades, studying in Japan and New York and eventually became recognized as a member of the abstract expressionist movement and known for his abstract and semi-abstract paintings, mosaics and murals.

He is described as “an artist with a tranquil spirit, at peace with his place in the world, who eloquently used his brush to speak about what is most true and enduring in that world”. (Maui Council)

Tadashi Sato was an artist of international stature whose work has hung in places such as New York’s Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim and Whitney, and the Willard Gallery. Aquarius is still arguably his most famous work of art.

A lot of Sato’s work goes back to recollections of the reflection of sky, submerged rocks and sparkling colors in the tide pools and coastline where he fished near Nakalele Point in West Maui. (Keiko Sato, his sister)

Standing on the upper floors of the capitol, looking down on the Aquarius mosaic, gives a view much like what Sato saw from the coastal cliffs of West Maui looking down on the shoreline and tidepools below.

In 1965, Sato was honored by President Lyndon Johnson at the White House Festival of Arts, alongside Georgia O’Keeffe, Jackson Pollock and other American artists. In 1984, he was named a Living Treasure of Hawai’i by the Honpa Hongwanji Mission of Hawaiʻi.

Exposure to the elements in the open air of the capitol took its toll on the mosaic. It has been replaced twice since its initial installation.

In 1988, the mosaic was replaced because it was subject to ponding water and it lacked accommodation for expansion and contraction. These factors lead to cracking, heaving and failure of the tiles and mortar bed. (SFCA)

Again, in 2005, a new set of the approximate 600,000-tiles replaced the former and a new system of drains, expansion joints, mortar bed and thicker tiles increased the mosaic’s durability and improved it significantly. (SFCA)

Coincidental, but symbolic of the diversity of cultures in Hawaiʻi, in this most recent replacement/repair, a crew of six (Hawaiian, Filipino and Portuguese (from Hawaiʻi,) and German, Polish and Italian (from abroad)) set the new tiles in place.

Fifty-seven different colors of various shades of blue, green and white tiles make up the Aquarius mosaic.

However, it was at this time a new color was added; the Italian added a single red tile to the mosaic.

Several sources incorrectly suggest the tile is representative of the artist’s signature. These folks also note you should search the mosaic for the single red tile.

However, as noted in the title of this piece, and continuing the symbolism at the capitol, folks at the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts feel Sato would prefer you look for the Mamo hidden under a rock. (The Mamo is the Hawaiian Sergeant reef fish.)

Today is opening day of the legislature. Take the time to look at Tadashi Sato’s design … and see what you can find. (Tadashi Sato died in 2005.)

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  • State Capitol. Mosaic by Tadashi Sato. From The Top-The view from the top of the Capitol. Star-Bulletin photo by Warren R. Roll on March 19, 1970. Ran on Thursday, March 19, 1970.
  • 19990909 CTY Tadashi Sato. Photo by Gary Kubota