Buildings | Page 52 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

June 21, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Chinese Wo Hing Society Temple and Cookhouse

Some suggest Captain James Cook’s crew gave information about the “Sandwich Islands” when they stopped in Macao in December 1779, near the end of the third voyage.

In 1788, British Captain John Meares commanded two vessels, the Iphigenia and the Felice, with crews of Europeans and 50-Chinese. Shortly thereafter, in 1790, the American schooner Eleanora, with Simon Metcalf as master, reached Maui from Macao using a crew of 10-Americans and 45-Chinese. (Nordyke & Lee)

Crewmen from China were employed as cooks, carpenters and artisans, and Chinese businessmen sailed as passengers to America. Some of these men disembarked in Hawai’i and remained as new settlers.

The growth of the Sandalwood trade with the Chinese market (where mainland merchants brought cotton, cloth and other goods for trade with the Hawaiians for their sandalwood – who would then trade the sandalwood in China) opened the eyes and doors to Hawaiʻi.

The Chinese referred to Hawaiʻi as “Tan Heung Shan” – “The Sandalwood Mountains.” The sandalwood trade lasted for nearly half a century – 1792 to 1843. (Nordyke & Lee)

Starting in the 1850s, when the Hawaiian Legislature passed “An Act for the Governance of Masters and Servants,” a section of which provided the legal basis for contract-labor system, labor shortages were eased by bringing in contract workers from Asia, Europe and North America. The first to arrive were the Chinese (1852.)

“These Chinese were taken to the plantations. There they lived in grass houses or unpainted wooden buildings with dirt floors. Sometimes as many as forty men were put into one room.”

“They slept on wooden boards about two feet wide and about three feet from the floor. … (T)hey cut the sugarcane and hauled it on their backs to ox drawn carts which took the cane to the mill to be made into sugar” (Young – Nordyke & Lee)

The sugar industry grew, so did the Chinese population in Hawaiʻi. Between 1852 and 1884, the population of Chinese in Hawai’i increased from 364 to 18,254, to become almost a quarter of the population of the Kingdom (almost 30% of them were living in Honolulu.) (Young – Nordyke & Lee)

During the years 1852-1898, many thousands of Chinese came to Maui to work on sugar plantations and in sugar mills. Chinatown in Lahaina began as one-story shops and housing on Front Street, and as more Chinese were attracted to the area, two-story wooden buildings were built to accommodate them.

Between 1869 and 1910 over thirty secret societies that have their roots in seventeenth century China were established in the Islands, six on Maui. These secret societies were formed to politically re-establish the deposed Ming dynasty.

The societies in Hawai‘i were not significantly interested in the political aspects of the parent societies. However, these societies made financial contributions to the 1911 Chinese revolution conducted by Sun Yat-Sen.

These local clubs were mutual aid societies which met social and recreational needs of its members providing funeral services and burial, protective services and made contributions to their members.

The Wo Hing Society – Wo, meaning “peace and harmony” and Hing, meaning “prosperity” – a branch of the Chee Kung Tong in Lahaina was incorporated in 1905 and the original structure repaired in 1906. “The extensive improvements at the Wo Hing Society House will be completed in season for the Chinese New Year’s festivities.” (Maui News, December 23, 1905)

The Society was an important aspect of cultural and social life for its immigrant Chinese members. Since many of the early Chinese immigrants were single men the society provided a fraternal structure which was a substitute for the absent family.

The Chinese Tong Society was a club opened to men sixteen to sixty. An initiation fee was paid and members participated in rigorous initiation rites and took an oath based on thirty-six codes of morality, brotherhood, patriotism and chivalry. Members could be identified by special gestures, secret chopstick maneuvers and passwords.

The members would meet to exchange news of China with people from other island , and read, or have read to them Chinese newspapers. The festivals and celebrations have included the Kuan Ti festival , to celebrate the god, the New Year festival to celebrate the Chinese New Year, the Ching Ming in April , when offerings were made to ancestral graves.

In 1912, using private donations, the society built a two-story temple on Front Street; the society provided social contacts, support in times of crisis, and housing for retired workers. It is believed that the present building replaced the older structure.

Upstairs is a temple with an altar for religious ceremonies, downstairs was the social hall and adjacent was the cookhouse. It served the growing Chinese population centered in Lahaina.

By the 1940s the declining Chinese population in Lahaina slowly made the building redundant and the property was neglected. In 1983, Lahaina Restoration Foundation took steps to restore this valuable site for Lahaina.

Under a long-term agreement with the Wo Hing Society, the foundation provided funds to bring the buildings back to life and maintain them as a museum. (Lots of information here is from Lahaina Restoration Foundation and National Park.)

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Wo Hing Society Social Hall, Temple & Cookhouse-NPS

Wo Hing Temple Founders, Chung Koon You and Chan Wa-WC

Wo Hing Society Social Hall, Temple & Cookhouse

Wo Hing Society Social Hall, Temple & Cookhouse-plaque

June 19, 2017 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Kona Hotel

From 1899 to 1926, Hōlualoa was a sugar town; coffee was cut down to make way for fields of sugarcane, which surrounded Hōlualoa. The sugar plantation carried the region’s economy, and Holualoa became its commercial center.

Plantation camps sprang up near the mill and along the length of the railway. Catholic, Protestant and Buddhist churches were established to serve the multiethnic community.

Luther Aungst chose Hōlualoa as headquarters for the Kona Telephone Company, started in the 1890s. Using mules to drag telephone poles across lava flows, Aungst installed a line from Hilo to Ka‘u, and across Kona to North Kohala.

Dr Harvey Saburo Hayashi from Aomori-ken, Japan, one of Kona’s first full-time resident physicians and publisher of Kona’s first newspaper, the Kona Echo, lived there.

The Kona Sugar Company started in 1899 with ambitious plans to create a major sugar plantation in Kona. The company built Kona’s first sugar mill above Kailua Village in 1901.

The mill site was near Waiaha Steam. But water was not sufficient to properly process the cane; in 1903, the company went broke. Other investors tried to keep it alive, but the plantation failed in 1926.

Sugar’s collapse spelled economic ruin for many people. Coffee kept Hōlualoa alive, but just barely. Young people looking for employment left North Kona in droves, finding work in Honolulu or the mainland. (Kona Historical Society)

It was at this time (1926,) when Zentaro and Hatsuyo Inaba opened their 11-room Kona Hotel in 1926, they advertised “Rooms and Meals”.

The business was quickly a going concern in Hōlualoa town and initially catered to traveling businessmen like the Love’s Bakery salesman. They also welcomed the occasional tourist traveling from Hilo, via Volcano, in modified Packard ‘Sampan’ automobiles. (Pulama ia Kona)

“My father was Zentaro Inaba. That’s my stepfather. My mother was Hatsuyo Inaba. Her maiden name was Hatsuyo Miyamoto. Now, my real father, when I was very young, left for the Mainland.”

“And subsequent to that, my [step]father came to Kona and married my mother. As far as I’m concerned, I don’t know my real father. Ever since my childhood, my father was Zentaro Inaba.”

“I think they came here during the latter part of the 1890s. Mother came to Kona with my father – that is, Kitao – and my stepfather came from Pāpaʻikou to Kona. He was one of the contract laborers in Pāpaʻikou.”

“You know, those days, because of the pressures, because of the treatment that they had in the plantation under a contract system, he was dissatisfied. So, he actually ran away from his contract and came to Kona.”

“He used to tell me how he came to Kona. He travelled at night. He was afraid of being caught during the day. And from Pāpaʻikou to Kona, it took him three days to get to Kona.”

“He settled in Kona. As soon as he settled in Kona, he started working for the LS Aungsts – Luther Aungst’s family as a cook. He cooked for the family for 17 years, I think. I think it was about 17 years that he cooked for the Aungst family.”

Then, “they built that hotel – Kona Hotel – in 1926. So, they were running the hotel. … Father used to cook, and mother used to clean the rooms and so on. And they had a girl there that did the rooms. Mother did the laundry and things like that. And father did the cooking.”

“Who were the people who used to stay at the hotel? … Oh, most of them were salesmen … Travelling salesmen. Then, we’d have tourists come in once in a while. Because, at that time, the only hotels were the Kona Inn and Manago Hotel in Kona. And, of course, my folks’ hotel.” (Minuro Inaba, Social History)

“I guess his cooking ability was the reason they opened the hotel. The hotel food was western and Father was quite a cook. He always served soup which was well liked by the customers … beef soup.”

Zentaro and Hatsuyo’s son Goro and wife Yayoko continued the family tradition and today the historic Kona Hotel is still operated by the Inaba ‘ohana. (Pulama ia Kona)

By 1958, just over 1,000 people lived in Hōlualoa area. The construction of Kuakini Highway in the early-1950s reduced traffic through town even further.

Tourism and a coffee boom have brought new life to Hōlualoa. Eager entrepreneurs have transformed old garages and empty houses into galleries showcasing art of every description, some of it produced by artists who grew up in Hōlualoa.

Friendly family-run businesses such as Kimura’s Lauhala Shop, the Kona Hotel, and thrice-named Paul’s Place (formerly Tanimoto General Store in the 1890s, and later Morikami Store in the late 1920s) keep old Kona alive. (Kona Historical Society)

Ranchers herded their cattle to Kailua Bay where they were shipped out. This process involved lassoing the cattle and pulling them into the bay, where they were lashed onto the gunwales of waiting whaleboats and delivered to waiting ships. The last cattle were shipped out in 1956, when the deep harbor at Kawaihae supplanted the Kailua Harbor. (Kona Historical Society)

I fondly remember, as a kid in Kona, we occasionally got to go sheep hunting at Pu‘uwa‘awa‘a. A regular stop for us on the way home was to see the Inabas at Kona Hotel, where we left with them one of the sheep we shot.

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Kona_Hotel-Pulama ia Kona-Kona Historical Society

Kona Hotel-1940s

Kona Hotel

Kona Hotel-kona123

Kona_Hotel-Wizard

June 16, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Steward’s House

In the years following his arrival in New England in the summer of 1809, ‘Ōpūkaha’ia would become integral to the founding of the Foreign Mission School in Cornwall, Connecticut.

‘Ōpūkaha‘ia became legendary for his earnest pursuit of an American education. He captured the hearts and Christian spirits of the New Haven community, where he first resided.

‘Ōpūkaha‘ia’s situation encouraged his hosts and community members to explore the possibility of creating a formal school in the US for students like him: “heathens” who were stranded in the US but who were interested in being “civilized” and “saved” nonetheless.

The Foreign Mission School was instituted in the autumn of 1816, and opened in the beginning of May, 1817. “There belong to it a commodious edifice for the school, a good mansion house, with a barn, and other out-buildings, and a garden, for the Principal; a house, barn, &c with a few acres of good tillage land for the Steward and Commons …”

“… all situated sufficiently near to each other and to the Congregational meeting-house, in the south parish of Cornwall, Connecticut, and eighty acres of excellent wood land, about a mile and a half distant.” (American Missionary Register, 1821)

The Foreign Mission School was a religious experiment. Instead of sending missionaries to foreign lands, it brought students to America.

It was believed that a mission school in religiously pious New England would be more efficient and effective than traditional mission schools established within ‘heathen’ settings because it removed these young students from the pagan influences of their native communities.

At the beginning of the school’s tenure, ‘Ōpūkaha‘ia was considered a leader of the student body, excelling in his studies, expressing his fondness for and understanding of the importance of the agricultural labor, and qualifying for a full church membership due to his devotion to his new faith.

Between 1819 and 1826, there were altogether ninety-seven students on the official record. The ages of these ninety-seven students ranged from ten to thirty.

Among them there were forty-three Indians, nineteen Hawaiians, thirteen Americans, five Chinese, three Marquesans, two Greeks, two Jews, two Malays, two Tahitians, one Bengalese, one Hindu, one Javanese, one New Zealander, one Portuguese, and one Scotch.

The year 1819 saw increased diversification of the student body as several Cherokee students arrived in Cornwall. Over the span of its operational years, the FMS taught Native Americans from fourteen tribes: one Abenaquis, eleven Cherokees, five Choctaws, five Delawares, one Mexican, one Mohegan, one Narragansett, two Ojibwas, two Omahas, three Oneidas, three Osages, two Senecas, four Stockbridges, and two Tuscaroras.

Due to the variety in national background, the students’ prior experiences were also enormously diverse. The majority came from seafaring careers; however, others were military personnel, farmers, barbers, coopers, servants and students from other schools.

The object of the School as set forth in the Constitution, is – “The education in our own country of Heathen Youths, in such manner, as, with subsequent professional instruction will qualify them to become useful Missionaries, Physicians, Surgeons, School Masters, or Interpreters …”

“… and to communicate to the Heathen Nations such knowledge in agriculture and the arts, as may prove the means of promoting Christianity and civilization.” (Missionary Herald, January 1821)

Students studied penmanship, grammar, arithmetic, Latin, Greek, rhetoric, navigation, surveying, astronomy, theology, chemistry, and ecclesiastical history, among other specialized subjects.

Students rose around 5 or 6 am and ate breakfast together at 7 am in the dining room of the steward’s house. Daily classes ran from 9 am to noon, and again from 2 to 5 pm, with all sessions taking place on the first floor of the main school building just across the street from the steward’s house.

Curricula operated at various levels, as some of the pupils were more advanced in their studies while others where just learning basic literacy – the more advanced students helped teach the others.

Academics were balanced with mandatory outdoor labor. Students were tasked with the maintenance of the school’s agricultural plots and assigned to labor in the fields “two (and a half) days” a week and “two at a time.” Additionally, the school enforced strict rules for students’ social lives and study times.

The months of May and September included scheduled vacation times for the school’s boarded students; however, only certain pupils were authorized by the administration to “go abroad.”

Much of the Foreign Mission School’s campus buildings were acquired through donations. The citizenry of Cornwall donated fourteen acres of land as well as the building that would become the main educational site, which had been built in 1797 as a school house.

The ground floor of the school building housed one large classroom, while the second floor was refurbished for students’ quarters. Located near this school building was the Principal’s house. Purchased in 1815, the Principal’s house was acquired before the establishment of the school was complete.

The third of the main campus buildings, and certainly the most social and vibrant, was the Steward’s house. This building was constructed in 1814 by architect Eber Maxfield and was sold to the school. The exchange of property included 18-more acres that were used for agriculture by the students and staff.

As a site for regular and informal interactions between students and Cornwall residents, the Federal-style farmhouse (built 1814) served as the steward’s family home, the school dining hall, a boarding house and a nurse room for sick students. (Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation)

According to the school ‘constitution,’ the role of the Steward was to “superintend the agricultural interests of the school,” though the actual responsibilities necessitated far more involvement with both the school’s operations and the students’ daily lives.

Over time, the Steward’s role expanded to include counseling and skills training. The Steward was expected to reside in the Steward’s House on the school campus. Thus, because of the consistent level of daily activity that mixed different communities within this house, the Steward remained abreast of the major events and social issues happening within the student body.

Steward’s duties were broadened to include supervising the school’s landed properties, training the scholars in the art of agriculture, bookkeeping and managing the FMS accounts, assuring a steady supply of firewood, buying and selling livestock, arranging travel for staff and students, providing the students with clothing, and hosting visitors, among others tasks.

Over time, there was an increased the level of care given to the students outside of their academic activities and instituted greater involvement between the steward’s family and the student body. For example, the steward’s wife was in charge of the kitchen and cooking.

Daily, she prepared bread and meals for all of the students. She also outfitted the students with new clothes and tended to the laundry and repair of these items. And, she was also primarily in charge of the students’ medical care.

Whenever one of the students fell ill, “he was moved into the Steward’s house” to live with the family for as long as was necessary for recovery. These duties also fell to daughters of the steward, who were effectively housewives in training.

The year the school opened, it housed twelve students. Enrollment doubled to twenty-four by the second year. Four students left as seven others joined in the school’s third year, bringing the enrollment to twenty-seven.

In the fourth and fifth years, enrollment rose to twenty-nine and thirty-five students, respectively. By the seventh year, however, the student body dropped to twenty-four. The school experienced another spike in enrollment in its eighth year with thirty-six pupils from seventeen different nations.

In its ninth year, the school’s population once again decreased, this time to twenty-five. By the time the school closed in 1826, only fourteen students remained.

Operated from 1817 to 1827, the Foreign Mission School remains the first and last experiment in a domestically located “foreign” mission and represents educational and social politics concerning racial tolerance, Asian and Native American migration, and American identity in the early 19th century.

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Steward’s_House

Steward’s house (far right)-School house (to left) (yellow)-1836

Cornwall Valley Map Sketch-1825-26

Cornwall Map-1854

Henry_Opukahaia,_ca. 1810s

Four_Owyhean_Youths-Thomas Hoopoo, George Tamoree, William Tenooe and John Honoree

June 6, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Timeline Tuesday … 2000s

Today’s ‘Timeline Tuesday’ takes us through the 2000s – US Supreme Court opens OHA elections to all registered voters, Andy Irons wins most prestigious surfing titles in a single year: the World Championship, Triple Crown and Pipeline Masters and Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument established. We look at what was happening in Hawai‘i during this time period and what else was happening around the rest of the world.

A Comparative Timeline illustrates the events with images and short phrases. This helps us to get a better context on what was happening in Hawai‘i versus the rest of the world. I prepared these a few years ago for a planning project. (Ultimately, they never got used for the project, but I thought they might be on interest to others.)

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June 4, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Along Ali‘i Drive

Current archaeological research indicates that from ca. AD 1000 to 1200 permanent settlement was in the windward areas of Hawai‘i Island, where rainfall was sufficient for successful growing of crops near the shore, population gradually spread throughout these windward areas during these centuries.

By the A.D. 1200s-1300s, it seems likely that Kona or parts of Kona had formed into a small settlement(s) with a ruler, local chiefs and commoners. Oral histories indicate that other settlements existed on the island, with Hilo and Hamakua (the later controlled by Waipi‘o) and several in Kohala of note. Small national heiau were present at this time.

Most historians estimate that Pa‘ao came to Hawai‘i (reportedly from Tahiti) around AD 1300. He arrived with his warriors, priests (kahunas) and new rulers (ali‘i). Pa‘ao is credited as initiating and/or expanding the kapu system of social structure, religion and order in Hawai‘i.

In the A.D. 1400s-1500s, the island became unified under the Pili line of rulers; based in Waipi‘o on the Hāmākua coast. In the time of the ruler ‘Umi-a-Liloa, ca. A.D. 1490-1525, the Royal Center was moved from Waipi‘o and Royal Centers in Kona became of importance.

From Kailua-Kona to Keauhou covers the entire length of Ali‘i Drive, seven miles of roadway and over seven centuries of Hawaiian Royalty archaeological, historic and cultural traditions that have shaped Hawai‘i into what it is today.

The focal point of Hawaiian social order and kapu was the ali‘i, or royal class. From this highborn group came the ruler-caretakers of the islands. The Ali‘i of Hawai‘i achieved such envied status primarily through strong genealogical connections.

In the centuries prior to 1778, several large and densely populated Royal Centers were located along the shoreline between Kailua and Hōnaunau.

According to archaeological reports and cultural traditions, there were seven Royal Centers in use in Kona and four that existed along what is now Ali‘i Drive on the Kona Coast, circa A.D. 1600-1800:

Kamakahonu, Kailua – Occupied by Kamehameha I between 1813 and 1819.
Hōlualoa – Area with numerous heiau and good surf. Associated with Keolonahihi in the ca. 1300, Keakamahana and Keakealaniwahine in ca. 1600 and Kamehameha I in the 18th Century.
Kahalu‘u – Complex of multiple heiau surrounding Kahalu‘u Bay.
Keauhou – This area is noted for the largest hōlua slide in Hawai‘i called Kaneaka, the surfing area called Kaulu, and numerous heiau.

The Royal Centers were areas selected by the ali‘i for their residences and ali‘i often moved between several residences throughout the year. The Royal Centers were selected for their abundance of resources and recreation opportunities, with good surfing and canoe-landing sites being favored.

With Kamehameha’s death in 1819, Liholiho (his son) and Ka‘ahumanu (his widow) assumed control of the kingdom. Shortly thereafter, the capital of the kingdom was moved from Hawai‘i Island, never to return.

In the absence of the king, high chief Kuakini (brother of Ka‘ahumanu) was eventually appointed governor of Hawai‘i Island and became an extremely powerful figure on the island. Kuakini resided primarily in Kailua Village. Here, the missionaries arrived in 1820, establishing a station where Kuakini and his many subjects lived.

On July 18, 1823, Ellis and his missionary companions traveled via the ala loa or ancient foot trail near the coast. There are a number of documentary resources (i.e. Māhele records, journal accounts, and survey documentation) that place the ancient ala loa in the vicinity of the “Government Road”, now known as Ali‘i Drive.

Along the seven-mile stretch of land between Kailua to Keauhou, Ellis counted 610 houses and 19 heiau, and estimated the uplands contained another 100 houses.

Allowing five persons to a house, Ellis and his companions estimated that there were 3,550 persons in the area. Ellis` narratives provide readers with further descriptions of the communities through which the group passed; he notes (segments of text relating to the coastal area:)

“Leaving Kairua (Kailua), we passed on through the villages thickly scattered along the shore to the southward.. The country around looked unusually green and cheerful, owing to the frequent rains, which, for some months past, have fallen on this side of the island. Even the barren lava, over which we travelled, seemed to veil its sterility beneath frequent tufts of tall waving grass, or spreading shrubs and flowers.”

In 1882, Queen Kapi‘olani brought four trees to Kona. Two were reportedly cuttings from a banyan tree at ‘Iolani Palace where they had been presented by royals from India. One banyan was planted at Hulihee Palace and later, in 1906, the Maguire family transplanted one that now stands near the entrance to Kailua Pier.

The other two trees were Moreton Bay Figs. One was planted at Holualoa Bay to mark the site where canoes were blessed and launched and it recently met its demise. The second was a gift from the Queen to Alexander Burgess and he planted it fronting his beach house – the present site of the Banyan Court Mall.

Today, Ali‘i Drive is a perfect setting for walking, running or biking, for the casual to competitive. Mile markers pace individual performance and guide exercisers along its level, picturesque course.

Historic Kailua Village also hosts renowned international sporting events (Hawaiian International Billfish Tournament, Ironman Triathlon Championship and Queen Lili‘uokalani Long Distance Canoe Races.)

Beautiful views and sweeping vistas make for pleasant drives; turn a corner and you move quickly from a strong lava flow shoreline to crystal clear white sand beaches, then quickly back again.

Historic sites once covered much of the Kailua to Keauhou section of the Kona Coast. It is important for us to honor the Ali‘i by maintaining, enhancing and interpreting the remaining ancestral inheritance.

By whatever means (vehicle, transit, bicycle or on foot,) following the footsteps of ancient royalty and embracing the scenic beauty, natural and archaeological features, historic sites, associated cultural traditions and recreational opportunities will give the traveler a greater appreciation and understanding of Hawai‘i’s past and sense of place in the world.

Click HERE to view/download for more information on Along Ali‘i Drive.

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