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March 15, 2022 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Panama-Pacific International Exposition

In 1903 President Theodore Roosevelt announced that the U.S. would complete a canal across the Isthmus of Panama, begun years earlier by a French company.

The canal would cut 8,000 miles off the distance ships had to travel from the east coast to the west. No canal of this scale had been built before, and many said it could not be done.

At the turn of the 20th Century, San Francisco was the largest and wealthiest city on the west coast of the United States. In 1906, a disastrous earthquake struck San Francisco. The ensuing fire was more devastating than the Chicago fire of 1871.

Less than 10 years after most of San Francisco was destroyed, the proud city was rebuilt and its people were ready to hold a party, one designed to dazzle the world and showcase the new city.

Even as San Francisco was rebuilding after the earthquake, local boosters promoted the city in a competition to host a world’s fair that would celebrate the completion of the Panama Canal.

The new San Francisco was the perfect choice, and Congress selected the city over several other aspirants, including New Orleans and San Diego.

In order to build this grand fair, over 630 acres of bayfront tidal marsh, extending three miles from Fort Mason to east of the Golden Gate (today’s Marina District and Crissy Field), were filled.

On this new land, 31 nations from around the world and many US states built exhibit halls, connected by 47-miles of walkways. There were so many attractions that it was said it would take years to see them all.

Locals simply called it ‘The Fair.’

For nine months in 1915, the Presidio’s bayfront and much of today’s Marina District was the site of a grand celebration of human spirit and ingenuity. Hosted to celebrate the completion of the Panama Canal, the Panama-Pacific International Exposition reflected the ascendancy of the US to the world stage and was a milestone in San Francisco history.

Over 18-million people visited the fair; strolling down wide boulevards, attending scientific and educational presentations, “travelling” to international pavilions and enjoying thrilling displays of sports, racing, music and art. The fair promoted technological and motor advancements.

It was the first world’s fair to demonstrate a transcontinental telephone call, to promote wireless telegraphy and to endorse the use of the automobile. Each day, the fair highlighted special events and exhibits, each with their own popular souvenirs.

The fair was so large and spread out over such a length of land that it was virtually impossible for any visitors to successfully see it all, even over the course of several visits.

The Panama-Pacific International Exposition looked to the future for innovation. Things we take for granted today – cars, airplanes, telephones, and movies – were in their infancy and were shown off at the fair, and some well-known technological luminaries were involved in the fair.

Henry Ford, who brought mass production to American manufacturing and made the automobile affordable to middle class society, built an actual Model T assembly line at the fair. Fords were produced three hours a day, six days a week.

New farming and agricultural technologies were also introduced at the fair. Luther Burbank, creator of many new kinds of plants including the Burbank potato, Santa Rosa plum, Shasta daisy, and the fire poppy, was in charge of the Horticulture Palace.

Author Laura Ingalls Wilder was particularly impressed with new dairy techniques. She wrote, ‘I saw…cows being milked with a milk machine. And it milked them clean and the cows did not object in the least.’

The scale and design of the fair were exceptional. The Palace of Machinery, the largest structure in the world at the time, was the first building to have a plane fly through it. The Horticulture Palace had a glass dome larger than Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome.

The Tower of Jewels reached 40 stories skyward and held 102,000 pieces of multicolored cut glass that sparkled by day and were illuminated by intense electric lights at night. When the fog came in, 48 spotlights of seven different colors illuminated the sky to look like the northern lights.

The physical structures of the fair were built to be temporary. Most were torn down shortly after the fair closed. However, a few reminders of the fair remain. The railway tunnel under Fort Mason and the San Francisco Yacht Harbor still exist, and the shape of an old race track may be seen on perimeter of the grass Crissy airfield.

The most impressive remnant of all is the Palace of Fine Arts. This landmark, much loved by San Franciscans and visitors from around the world, was spared demolition and was restored and reinforced in the 1960s. It continues to dazzle many millions of people each year. (NPS)

A few agencies and municipalities purchased the smaller buildings that could be transported by boat to new locations. San Mateo County purchased the Ohio Building; Marin County purchased the Wisconsin and Virginia Buildings; the army maintained the Oregon Building on its Presidio location as a military clubhouse.

Some of the larger buildings that were too big to move, like the Tower of Jewels, were disassembled and sold to scavengers. Unfortunately, because the fair buildings were only constructed of plaster, faux travertine and chicken wire, they did not last as long as permanent buildings; once the buildings reached a serious level of deterioration, they were demolished. (NPS)

One of the most popular attractions at the Exposition was a daily show at the Hawaiian Pavilion featuring Hawaiian musicians and hula dancers. It’s where millions of people heard the ‘ukulele for the first time. (Mushet)

“Kamehameha Day at the exposition, or Hawaii Day as they called it here, was all that had been hoped for it. There was splendid weather; the water pageant and the singing of Hawaiian music made a deep sentimental and esthetic effect, and the program as a whole drew tremendous crowds.” (Hawaiian Gazette, June 15, 1915)

At the corner of what is now Baker Street and Marina Boulevard in San Francisco’s Marina District was where the Hawaiian Pavilion stood during the Panama-Pacific International Exposition.

These Hawaiian shows had the highest attendance at the entire fair and launched a Hawaiian cultural craze that influenced everything from American music, to movies, to fashion. (Mushet)

“The hugely popular Hawaii pavilion … showcased Hawaiian music and hula dancing, and was the unofficial launching pad for ukulele-mania.” Hapa-haole songs were featured in the Hawaii exhibits.

“After the expo, Tin Pan Alley and jazz writers and musicians took interest in the cheery little instrument. Songs such as “Ukulele Lady” and “Oh, How She Could Yacki Hacki Wicki Wacki Woo (That’s Love in Honolulu)” were published in sheet-music format.”

“Guitar maker CF Martin & Co. built more ukuleles in 1926 than in any previous year. But the uke’s popularity, along with Martin’s production of the instrument, dwindled in the 1930s.” (San Francisco Examiner)

Everyone began writing hapa-haole songs, and in 1916, hapa-haole recordings outsold other types of music. Over the decades they were written in all popular styles—from ragtime, to 30’s swing, to 60s surf-rock. (Ethnic Dance Festival, 2015)

The Panama Pacific International Exposition closed in November 1915. It succeeded in buoying the spirits and economy of San Francisco, and also resulted in effective trade relationships between the US and other nations of the world. (Lots of information here is from NPS.)

© 2022 Hoʻokuleana LLC

Pan-Pacific, 1915; San Francisco-PP-19-8-006-00001
Pan-Pacific, 1915; San Francisco-PP-19-8-006-00001
Panama-Pacific Exposition-1915-LOC
Panama-Pacific Exposition-1915-LOC
Pan-Pacific, 1915; San Francisco-PP-19-8-005-00001
Pan-Pacific, 1915; San Francisco-PP-19-8-005-00001
Pan-Pacific, 1915; San Francisco-PP-19-7-020-00001
Pan-Pacific, 1915; San Francisco-PP-19-7-020-00001
Pan-Pacific, 1915; San Francisco-PP-19-8-004-00001
Pan-Pacific, 1915; San Francisco-PP-19-8-004-00001
Pan-Pacific, 1915; San Francisco-PP-19-7-009-00001
Pan-Pacific, 1915; San Francisco-PP-19-7-009-00001
Pan-Pacific, 1915; San Francisco-PP-19-7-008-00001
Pan-Pacific, 1915; San Francisco-PP-19-7-008-00001
Pan-Pacific, 1915; San Francisco-PP-19-7-003-00001
Pan-Pacific, 1915; San Francisco-PP-19-7-003-00001
Panama-Pacific Exposition - 1915-LOC
Panama-Pacific Exposition – 1915-LOC
Pan-Pacific, 1915; San Francisco-PP-19-8-017-00001
Pan-Pacific, 1915; San Francisco-PP-19-8-017-00001
Palace of Fine Arts - originally constructed for the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition
Palace of Fine Arts – originally constructed for the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition
Palace of Fine Arts-originally constructed for the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition
Palace of Fine Arts-originally constructed for the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition
Aeroplane view main group of exhibit palaces Panama-Pacific International Exposition
Aeroplane view main group of exhibit palaces Panama-Pacific International Exposition

Filed Under: General, Buildings, Economy Tagged With: Hawaii, Panama Canal, Panama-Pacific International Exposition, San Francisco

March 5, 2022 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Occidental Hotel

Edward HF Wolter was one of the military officers who helped Hawai‘i in the stirring closing years of the 19th century, during the Revolutionary period, aiding in obtaining annexation to the  United States for the islands; he then got into real estate as a builder and real estate operator.

Born on February 22, 1854, at Sprackensehl, Provinz Hanover, Germany, Wolter was the son of Jurgen H. C. and Sophia M. E. Wolter. He obtained his education in the  schools of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, and arrived in Honolulu on Oct. 7, 1881, acquiring a part ownership in Olowalu sugar plantation.  From 1882 to 1885 he served as a plantation overseer.

He accepted a position as hotel manager in 1885 and resigned in 1913, after almost thirty years of service, to enter the building and real estate business.  He also has served as a supervisor for the city and county of Honolulu.

His career as a military officer in Hawaii began during the reign of King Kalakaua and was continued through the regime of Queen Liliuokalani, the  Republic of Hawaii under President Dole and latterly in the National Guard of Hawaii, in the 298th US Infantry. (Nellist)

Then, an announcement of the construction of the Occidental Hotel was made in 1896, under ‘Local and General News:’ “Major EHF Wolter contemplates erecting a grand lodging house in place of the McDowell place on the corner of King and Alakea street.”

“If the dilapidated buildings on the other corners could be torn down a great improvement would be made.” (The Independent, October 3, 1896)

The Occidental, long popular as a modestly-priced hotel and rooming house on the makai-Waikīkī corner of Alakea and South King Streets, was built in 1896.

With its lathe and plaster exterior, iron-railed second-floor balcony grillwork, potted plants, and dormered-mansard roof and cupola, the Occidental remained substantially unchanged while Honolulu grew up around it.

In 1900 EHF Wolter presided as manager; room rates by the day in the two-and one-half story structure ran from $1.00 to $2.00, with “a substantial reduction in prices when taken by the month.”  (Scott)

The fire inspection report for 1900 noted that “the walls were full of openings; there was a ‘poor chimney’ and no bar ….”

By 1904 proprietor Wolter had added a bistro where straight goods were a specialty and a barber shop for good measure. The new $1.25 daily rates were “the lowest in the city for a refined hostelry.” 

On the King Street side of the hotel stood Fred Harrison’s Hawaiian Marble Works adjoining Spanton and Lund, sign painters and paperhangers. (Scott)

“The valuable piece of property at the corner-of King and Alakea streets, now owned by EHF Wolter, is likely to be thrown into litigation in the very near future unless an amicable agreement is reached between the present possessor of the land and Mrs. Robert Wilcox, who claims ownership of the corner by reason of an alleged defective title.”  (Hawaiian Star, November 5, 1896)

“The land was originally deeded by the King to Rieves, a kamaaina of Hawaii. At the death of Rieves the land was deeded to his six children, so Mrs. Wilcox contends.  Two of these signed off in favor of a third.”

“The land passed out of the Rieves family and has been transferred numerous times until bought in by Wolter at a public auction sale.”  (Hawaiian Star, November 5, 1896)

“Now Mrs. Wilcox claims to have proof that the land never legally passed out of the Rieves family. Her grandfather was one of the two who did not come in for his share of the property. She insists that it has been handed down to her by her ancestors and that Mr. Wolter’s title is defective.”  (Hawaiian Star, November 5, 1896)

“Mrs. Wilcox has retained WR Castle as her attorney and he will Institute suit or the recovery of the property unless Mr. Wolter agrees to settle.  LA Thurston is Mr. Wolter’s counsel. It is said that the present owner has shown some inclination to compromise. The property is worth about $12,000.”  (Hawaiian Star, November 5, 1896)

“Mr. Wolter is erecting a large building on the premises to be known as the Occidental hotel. It extends back half a block and has fully fifty feet front on King. Construction on the building has been temporarily stopped by the Government, the claim being that it is not as nearly fire proof as it should be.”  (Hawaiian Star, November 5, 1896)

“Mr Wolter is thinking of making a three story building of the Occidental Hotel.  (Hawaiian Star, October 27, 1898)

The “box-like, durable Occidental Hotel, its original cupola still intact, appeared somewhat out of place in downtown Honolulu” in 1940.

“The old hostel, at the makai Waikiki corner of South King and Alakea Streets, had recently been renovated and small shops occupied the ground floor with the upper two stories given over to furnished rooms.” (Scott)

Wolter’s son, Henry Wolter, took over the property after his father’s death in 1928.  He redeveloped the site of the Occidental Hotel (demolished in October 1950) with a 2-story office building that was ready for occupancy in 1951. (Star Bulletin, March 2, 1951)

On the curbstone in front of the Wolter Building, corner of King and Alakea, circular indentations show the location of hitching rings used to tether horses at the old Occidental Hotel.

Forty years ago a couple of the rings remained; now there are only the iron stubs of one or two shanks that fastened the rings to the stone (not concrete) curb.

© 2022 Hoʻokuleana LLC

Filed Under: Buildings, Prominent People Tagged With: Wolter, Honolulu, Occidental Hotel

February 9, 2022 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

“Excuse my back”

Conversation at Waikīkī: “I see Ed Sawtelle’s back” “I didn’t know he had been away” “I said that I see Ed Sawtelle’s back’s the best known back in Honolulu. I want to see the face in front of the back for once.”

“Ed Sawtelle doesn’t need to say ‘Excuse my back’ when he sits at the console of the great Robert Morton Organ in the Waikīkī Theater: that tall swaying silhouette under the proscenium lights is his signature.  (Blanding, Honolulu Star-Bulletin, March 27, 1954)

Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Sawtelle is a graduate of Harvard, where he majored in music, and a graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music where he studied under two of the nation’s outstanding authorities, Professor Henry Dunham and Professor Wallace Goodrich.

For some time, Sawtelle was with the Boston Symphony, and for three years was accompanist with the Boston Opera House. He entered the theatrical field in New York, and has been organist and musical director in theaters in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Denver, Atlanta, and Boston.

For many years, Sawtelle was associated with the Robert Morton Organ Company demonstrating and installing theatrical organs. In this particular field he was considered one at the greatest authorities in the country.

Sawtelle first came to Hawaiʻi in 1922 as organist at the opening of the Princess Theater. While here he was organist at the Hawaiʻi Theater, and went to Hilo to open the Palace Theater as organist and musical director. He returned to Honolulu to open the new Waikīkī Theater.

Leaving Hawaii in 1929, Sawtelle was featured on the radio in San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York. A concert tour took him through the major centers of the nation.

Mrs. Sawtelle returned to Honolulu with her husband. She, too, is noted in the field of music, having appeared throughout the country on concert tour as Carmen Prentice, mezzo-soprano.

Not only did Sawtelle supervise the building of the Hammond organ for the Waikīkī Theater, but he brought it to Honolulu with him, and has supervised the installation at the new playhouse.  (Honolulu Advertiser, August 20, 1936)

As organist for the Consolidated Amusement Company since 1922 with only a break of seven years from 1929 to 1936, Ed meant “moods, memories and music” to Honolulu audiences.

During the war years his audiences extended far beyond the limits of the movie palaces to little lonely atolls in the deep Pacific, to hospitals and observation posts in the Islands, and to ships at sea as his Star Dust Serenade went out over the airwaves to reach and sooth the homesick hearts of men and women in the service.   (Blanding, Honolulu Star-Bulletin, March 27, 1954)

Starting in 1937, Sawtelle played the new organ at intermissions and on weekly live radio broadcasts heard throughout the Pacific during World War II. For a time, Sawtelle played two shows a day, seven days a week. He eventually retired in 1955, but a succession of organists carried on the tradition through 1997.

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)

“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.”  (Richard Kelley)

© 2021 Hoʻokuleana LLC

 

Filed Under: Buildings, Economy Tagged With: Hawaii, Hilo, Oahu, Hawaii Theatre, Waikiki Theater, Edwin Sawtelle, Palace Theater

February 5, 2022 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Frank Lloyd Wright

“The mission of an architect is to help people understand how to make life more beautiful, the world a better one for living in, and to give reason, rhyme, and meaning to life.” (Frank Lloyd Wright, 1957)

Frank Lloyd Wright was born in Richland Center, Wisconsin, on June 8, 1867, the son of William Carey Wright, a preacher and a musician, and Anna Lloyd Jones, a teacher whose large Welsh family had settled the valley area near Spring Green, Wisconsin.

His early childhood was nomadic as his father traveled from one ministry position to another in Rhode Island, Iowa, and Massachusetts, before settling in Madison, Wis., in 1878.

Wright’s parents divorced in 1885, making already challenging financial circumstances even more challenging. To help support the family, 18-year-old Frank Lloyd Wright worked for the dean of the University of Wisconsin’s department of engineering while also studying at the university.

He knew he wanted to be an architect. In 1887, he left Madison for Chicago, where he found work with two different firms before being hired by the prestigious partnership of Adler and Sullivan, working directly under Louis Sullivan for six years.

In 1911, he began construction of Taliesin near Spring Green as his home and refuge.  There he continued his architectural practice and over the next several years received two important public commissions: the first in 1913 for an entertainment center called Midway Gardens in Chicago; the second, in 1916, for the new Imperial Hotel in Tokyo, Japan.

Wright always aspired to provide his client with environments that were not only functional but also “eloquent and humane.” Perhaps uniquely among the great architects, Wright pursued an architecture for everyman rather than every man for one architecture through the careful use of standardization to achieve accessible tailoring options to for his clients.

Over the course of his 70-year career, Wright became one of the most prolific, unorthodox and controversial masters of 20th-century architecture, creating no less than twelve of the Architectural Record’s hundred most important buildings of the century.

Realizing the first truly American architecture, Frank Lloyd Wright’s houses, offices, churches, schools, skyscrapers, hotels and museums stand as testament to someone whose unwavering belief in his own convictions changed both his profession and his country.

Designing 1,114 architectural works of all types – 532 of which were realized – he created some of the most innovative spaces in the United States. With a career that spanned seven decades before his death in 1959, Wright’s visionary work cemented his place as the American Institute of Architects’ “greatest American architect of all time.” (Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation)

Two of his designs are in Hawai‘i; one, an unbuilt plan done in 1954, originally conceived for the Cornwell Family in Pennsylvania, was constructed in 1995 in Waimea on Hawai‘i Island.

It envisioned to be part of master-planned community that would include many unbuilt Wright designs within a 450 acre plot on Hawai‘i Island.  The “Hawai‘i Collection” development never got off the ground.

The other Hawai‘i Frank Lloyd Wright design was also an unbuilt design for a prior client of Wright’s that he designed in 1949.  This was originally a home called Crownfield; but the couple who commissioned the home never built it.

When Wright was approached in 1952 to design a home for the cliffs of Mexico’s Acapulco Bay, he began with the Crownfield plans, and added a covered terrace and lower level. Unfortunately, the plans were shelved once again.

Again, after further modification in 1957, Crownfield almost became the home of Marilyn Monroe and her husband Arthur Miller.  Monroe and Miller separated the next year and the home was never built.

For several decades the plans for the Crownfield House were archived in Taliesin West, Wright’s former winter camp near Scottsdale, Arizona, which became the headquarters for the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation.

There they remained until, in 1992, owners of the Ted Robinson-designed Waikapu Valley Country Club looked for a Wright design for the golf clubhouse.

The Crownfield House’s various reincarnations were reworked and expanded yet again . The finished building, now called the King Kamehameha Golf Clubhouse, is 74,788 square feet. The concrete and steel building was completed in 1993 and is split into three levels with two-thirds of the structure underground. It is the largest golf clubhouse on Maui.

Many of the interior touches reiterate other famous Wright design triumphs. The focus of the main banquet room is a 32-foot diameter dome with a convex chandelier made of one-and-a-half-inch acrylic tubing that echoes the concave chandelier in the Johnson Wax Building’s executive suite (1944) in Racine, Wisconsin.

The art glass on the front double doors was adapted from the Johnson Wax Building as well. The etched design on the glass of the main stairwell’s koa railing, the foyer’s six-foot-diameter art glass window, and the brass elevator doors can all be traced to Wright’s Avery Coonley House (1907) in Riverside, Illinois.

The ten-foot diameter art glass in the foyer ceiling was translated from a 1957 woven living room carpet at Taliesin West and the skylight above the main stair recalls the curved ransom over the Susan Lawrence Dana House’s entrance (1902) in Springfield, Illinois.

Six years after it was built the country club shut down during an economic downturn. The property was pretty much neglected and abandoned. However, the clubhouse stayed open and was used for special events. In 2004 a buyer bought the place and refurbished it. It was reopened in 2006 as the King Kamehameha Golf Clubhouse.  (Maui 24/7, King Kamehameha Golf Course)

© 2022 Hoʻokuleana LLC

Filed Under: Buildings, Prominent People, Economy Tagged With: Hawaii, Frank Lloyd Wright, Crownfield, King Kamehameha Golf Clubhouse

January 30, 2022 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Palikū

In 1837, Samuel Northrup Castle arrived in Honolulu as a missionary.  He left Hawaiʻi for a short time, then returned as a businessman for the mission.

With Amos Cooke, he founded Castle & Cooke Company, in 1851 – it grew into being one of Hawaiʻi’s “Big Five” companies.

One of his ten children would surpass him as a businessman; James Bicknell Castle was born November 27, 1855 in Honolulu to Samuel and Mary (Tenney) Castle.

Harold Kainalu Long Castle was born July 3, 1886 in Honolulu, son of wealthy landowner James Bicknell Castle and Julia White, and grandson of Castle & Cooke founder Samuel Northrop Castle.

In 1917, Harold Castle purchased about 9,500-acres of land on the windward side of Oʻahu, in what became Kāneʻohe Ranch.  Later acquisitions added several thousand acres of land, with holdings from Heʻeia to Waimanalo.  The Castle fortune was built on ranching and dairying.

The family had land in Waikīkī, as well; it was formerly called Kalehuawehe. The surf break ‘Castles’ is named after the Castle family’s three-story beachfront home; they called it Kainalu.  They later sold it to the Elks Club, who now use part of the site and lease the rest to the Outrigger Canoe Club.

With the widening and paving of Old Pali Road in 1921 (which helped to initiate the suburban commute across the Koʻolau,) the Castles realized that the Windward side of the island of Oʻahu was a beautiful place to live and could become a vibrant community.  (The Pali Highway and its tunnels opened in 1959.)

In 1927, Harold and his wife Alice Hedemann Castle built a home for themselves that overlooked much of their land holdings.  It was just below the hairpin turn, below the Pali.

They called the home Palikū (Lit., vertical cliff.)

Architect Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue designed it (Goodhue’s other work included Los Angeles Central Public Library, the Nebraska State Capitol and Saint Thomas Church, New York City;) there were 27 rooms with ornamental ironwork, redwood beams, plumbing and electricity – one of the first buildings on the windward side of the island to have those amenities. (Brennan, Honolulu Advertiser)

In 1946, the Castles sold the 22-acre Palikū to the Catholic Church for the Saint Stephen Seminary (the seminary closed in 1970; it’s now the St. Stephen’s Diocesan Center (the driveway is makai, just below the scenic lookout at the hairpin turn.))

St. Stephen’s Seminary was shut down for a time after a mysterious occurrence in October 1946.

Some suggest the seminary was haunted; when one night there were methodical clicking and tapping sounds; invisible pressure on a person in bed; dishes, pots and pans strewn all over – they suggest it was “diabolical obsession.”  Later, “I understand there was some kind of a blessing done,” said Bishop Joseph Ferrario, the retired bishop of Honolulu. (honoluluadvertiser)

After the seminary’s ultimate closure, the facility was transformed into a diocesan center housing various offices of the diocesan curia (a diocesan center (chancery) is the branch of administration which handles all written documents used in the official government of a Roman Catholic diocese.)

The former Castle home also serves as the residence of the Bishop of Honolulu, Clarence Richard Silva, popularly known as Larry Silva (born August 6, 1949), bishop of the Roman Catholic Church. He is the fifth Bishop of Honolulu, appointed by Pope Benedict XVI on May 17, 2005.

In 1962, Castle founded the Harold KL Castle Foundation. On his death in 1967, he bequeathed a sizeable portion of his real estate assets to the Foundation.

Throughout his life, Castle donated land for churches of all different denominations because he felt that churches would bring congregations, congregations would bring stability, and that would benefit the community that was growing around them.

Mr. Castle also donated land and money to Hawaii Loa College, Castle Hospital, ʻIolani School, Castle High School, Kainalu Elementary School and the Mōkapu peninsula land, which would become the Kāneʻohe Marine Corps Base.

His foundation has annually provided millions of dollars in support to worthy causes, a good chunk of it going to the windward side of Oʻahu.

© 2022 Hoʻokuleana LLC

Filed Under: Prominent People, Economy, Buildings Tagged With: Mokapu, Paliku, Hawaii, Castle and Cooke, Oahu, Kaneohe, Kailua, Kainalu, Harold Castle, Koolaupoko, Kaneohe Ranch, Windward

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Images of Old Hawaiʻi

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