Buildings | Page 62 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

July 24, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

James Steiner

Born in Mirschikau, Pilsen, Bohemia (Czechoslovakia) July 24, 1860, James Steiner received business training at Frankfort-on-the-Main and moved to the United States in 1881.

“(Steiner) first worked as a bell hop or a waiter someplace in Missouri, someplace in St. Louis, Missouri. Then he met a man that spoke German, like himself, and this man whose name I do not recall since it was not given to me, suggested that he, my father, come out to Hawai‘i and find a place for himself. That’s how he got here.”

“(M)y father came down here (in 1882) and he worked for a restaurant up on Hotel Street just on the ‘Ewa side of the old YMCA. The owner of that restaurant was a Lionel Hart and the restaurant was known as Hart’s Restaurant.”

“It was in this restaurant that my father worked as a waiter and later on he was taken in by Mr. Lionel Hart as a partner. There was one of my brothers named Lionel after this said Lionel Hart. At a later time, the family established a home close to that restaurant.”

“(I)t was there, on that corner or that area there bounded by Adams Lane, Bishop Street, and Hotel Street that ice cream was made here commercially. He was the first one that sold ice cream here commercially.” (Ernest Steiner, Oral History)

A February 15, 1887 ‘Notice’ in the newspaper noted a co-partnership had been formed (Hart & Steiner) and they carried on the Elite Ice Cream Parlors in Honolulu, manufacturing ice cream, Cakes, Candles, Curios and other incidentals. (Daily Bulletin, February 15, 1887)

Steiner was known all over the islands as the “Ice Cream and Candy King.” (Nellist)

“Over a thousand guests recepted the generous hospitality of Hart Co last evening in participating in the opening of their beautiful and handsome ice cream parlors in the Elite building”

“There are very few parlors in the United States that will rival the Elite parlors in beauty refinement of taste or excellence in appointment.” (Independent, November 1, 1900)

“He decided to give up the restaurant business and then he established another business right in that area there and it was known as the Island Curio Company.” (Ernest Steiner, Oral History)

The Island Curio Company was a major producer of postcards. Whether or not the subjects depicted on postcards had originally posed for the photographs that were sources for the cards, once imaged on postcards, these subjects became mass commodities in a visual economy of images that linked Hawai‘i with America and Europe.

From mass production and sale in Hawai‘i, the postcards became individual or private objects for the purchasers and the ultimate recipients. (UH)

They sold more than postcards … “Next to the Bishop Museum, the greatest and best Polynesian collection, is that of the Island Curio Company with its headquarters on Hotel Street, Honolulu … (and) for nearly half a century has been stacking up these native curios from almost every part of the island.” (Mid-Pacific Magazine)

In 1889, Steiner and Rosa Schwarz (from Czechoslovakia) were married in Hawai‘i. They had a family of four boys and one girl .

Steiner pioneered in the purchase and improvement of beach lots at a time when Waikiki was considered too far from the center of Honolulu and only served as a week-end, outing and bathing resort, and selected his property with good judgment and vision for the future. (Nellist)

“(T)hey moved to Waikiki in about 1899. The area there where they moved was on Kalākaua Avenue, just on the ‘Ewa side of what is now known as Kuhio Beach.”

“I don’t think there were any, there was very few other people in the area. There was one prominent Hawaiian family there that lived, oh, within eighty or ninety feet from our place. That was the William Kanakanui family. Mr. Kanakanui was a surveyor and engineer working for the Territory.” (Ernest Steiner, Oral History)

Steiner named his Waikiki home Kaiona “the native word for English ‘mermaid’ and German ‘lorelei,’ the suggestion having come from CL Hopkins, Hawaiian court interpreter.”

“Colonial in style, modified to suit the tropical climate, the house interior contains many innovations in the building craft. Ripley, Reynolds & Davis are the architects, while the Pacific Engineering Co., Ltd., is the builder.” (Star-Bulletin, August 10, 1912) It later became the Halekai Officer’s Club during WWII and later the Sands Nightclub and Restaurant.

“James Steiner is about to retire from the curio business, in which he is one of the local pioneers. Beginning as a clerk in Hart’s ice cream parlors about a quarter of a century ago, Mr. Steiner developed into one of Honolulu’s shrewdest business men.”

“A monument to his enterprise is the Elite block, one of the first three or four modern business structures of Honolulu.” (Hawaiian Star, June 20, 1911)

The three-story brick with terra cotta trimmings building was part of a “New Era of Building in Honolulu” which the 1900 Thrum’s Hawaiian Annual anticipated as “promising to be the handsomest business block in the city, so far.”

He retired from business in 1914 to devote his time to the management and development of his extensive property holdings in Honolulu and Waikiki. Steiner died in 1939.

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Island Curio Postcard-UH-Manoa

Steiner mansion still under construction on the right-1913

Steiner home used as an Officer’s Club before Pearl Harbor attack

James_Steiner-Waikiki-home-interior

James_Steiner-Waikiki-home

Island Curio-eBay

Halekai (Army Officer’s Club)-kamaaina56

Elite Block-PCA-Jan_1,_1901

Elite Ice Cream Parlors-Daily Bulletin, July 10, 1885

Steiner Mansion on the right known as the Sands Nightclub and Restaurant-early 1960s

Curly Koa lidded Calabash from Island Curio-eBay

Steiner headstone

July 18, 2016 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Where Love and Kindness Replace Want and Misery

In 1865, William Booth, an British ordained minister with the Methodist New Connection, along with his wife Catherine, formed an evangelical group which preached to people living in poverty within London’s East End.

Booth’s ministry recognized the interdependence of material, emotional and spiritual needs. In addition to preaching the Gospel, Booth became involved in the feeding and shelter of the hungry, the homeless and the rehabilitation of those with alcohol addiction. Soon they were tagged, ‘Soap, Soup and Salvation Army.’

Booth’s original ‘Christian Mission’ became The Salvation Army in 1878 when it became modeled after the military structure. Booth became the ‘General’ and officers’ ranks were given to ministers. (Salvation Army)

Its orders and regulations were patterned after those of the British Army. All workers assumed military titles, its trainees became ‘cadets,’ local units were designated as ‘Corps,’ places of worship became known as ‘Citadels’ or ‘Outposts’ and their evangelistic undertakings were called ‘Campaigns.’ (Ruckman)

Thousands of immigrants were pouring into Hawai‘i to work in the plantations in the 1890s. Christian men and women realized the serious need for a ‘spiritual organization with a social aim … a social organization with a spiritual aim’ to work with the young and old of all nationalities in Hawai‘i. The Salvation Army met this need.

At the request of Central Union Church, the first contingent of Salvationists came to Hawaii in 1894. Five devoted and earnest workers, led by Staff Captain John Milsaps, arrived in Hawaii and were ready to face the challenges ahead.

“An institution concerning which little is known among the general public of Honolulu, and which is yet doing an amount of practical good quite out of proportion to the limited means at its disposal, is the Salvation Army home”. (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, May 25, 1908)

“The old Hopper homestead, on King street between Likelike and Punchbowl streets, has been secured by the Salvation Army for the Home for Women which it is about to establish in Honolulu. The property, which was recently bought as a site for the proposed Single Men s Hotel, is an improved estate with a fine residence upon the same.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, July 3, 1901)

“The rescue home of the Salvation Army is distinct from (other women/girls’ homes) and will have a distinct work. Its chief aim will be the rescue of fallen women. In the home they will be given such work as is suitable and proper, moral will be thrown around them.”

“All of their temporal and spiritual Interests will be looked out for. Already six fallen women have accepted the care of this institution and are being well looked out for although the home is still in an embryo state.” (Hawaiian Star, July 11, 1901)

By 1903, “The Kaʻiulani Home for Girls is to be opened September 1st, in the old Hopper homestead at King and Punchbowl streets. The place has been leased by an organization of ladles who have for a long time been desirous of providing a home for girls who are without homes of their own. The place is intended primarily as a home for Hawaiian girls, but It will be open as well to girls of other nationalities.”

“The Hopper homestead was formerly used as a Salvation Army home and later as a boarding house. It is well adapted for use as the ‘Kaiulani Home for Girls.’” (Hawaiian Gazette, July 14, 1903)

The Salvation Army’s Home relocated near the corner of King Street and Pawa‘a. “Here homeless children are taken in and tenderly cared for, irrespective of origin, color, race or sex, age or history.”

“Here also can be found a home for girls who have fallen but who have seen where their erring would certainly take them if continued and who have expressed a desire to regain the world of honesty and honor.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, May 25, 1908)

Then, they moved to Manoa, “New Structure Adds Immensely to Equipment of Salvation Army Home in Manoa” “With simple ceremonies, the cottage presented to the Salvation Army Home, Manoa Valley, by Mrs CM Cooke, was dedicated, and opened at 4 o’clock yesterday afternoon.”

“Fronting Manoa Valley and commanding a splendid view of the fine residential suburbs, the opposite mountain walls, Diamond Head and the ocean is a pillared lanai with furnishings for comfortable resting.”

“Inside of this lanai is the dormitory with 21 beds of crib pattern. Then, lengthwise of the building, is an inner lanai to serve as a common living room for studies or meals as may be desired.” (Star Bulletin, November 19, 1915)

By 1920 it was becoming apparent that there was a need for vocational training as the children, who had grown up in the Salvation Army Girls’ Home, were reaching the age of majority.

The Waioli Tea Room was added to the Home and dedicated in formal ceremonies in November, 1922. The tea room concept was patterned after the English-style High Teas popular in British Columbia, Canada. (The Canadian influence appeared with the arrival of two Canadian officers around 1915.) The morning classes produced goods to be served in the tea room every afternoon.

By the 1930s a luncheon service had become established and provided for large tour groups, especially from the frequent cruise ships calling at Honolulu Harbor. Income derived from the food service, both luncheon and high tea, maintained the cost of the operation.

Bakers, cooks, waitresses, housekeepers, maids, gardeners, kitchen helpers, cashiers, and clerks are some of the job classifications developed out of the training. (NPS)

For more than a century, The Salvation Army has functioned successfully within that unusual structure. Its outreach now encompasses 126 countries and its ministry is spoken in 160 languages.

The Hawaiian and Pacific Islands Division of The Salvation Army covers the state of Hawaii and the Pacific Islands including Guam, Republic of the Marshall Islands and The Federated States of Micronesia.

Today, The Salvation Army has grown into a well-established and comprehensive network of social services and religious programs in Hawaii serving thousands of men, women and children each year. (Salvation Army)

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Waioli Tea Room Salvation Army Girls Home Oahu Postcard ca 1930s

Waioli-Tea-Room-front-entrance-WC

Waioli Tea Room -Kauai Room Postcard

Waioli Tea Room Postcard

Waioli-Chapel

Grass Hut Salvation Army Girls Home-postcard-1930s

Inter-Island Airways Sikorsky S-38 flying over Manoa, Oahu-PP-1-4-024-1930s

July 14, 2016 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Pierpoint

The December 5, 1874 issue of the Los Angeles Herald noted, “The telegraph line along the railroad is to be built under the superintendence of Mr John Cassidy, who arrived for that purpose yesterday.”

John Cassidy, an associate of Mr Alexander Graham Bell, was the builder of the first railroad telegraph line in California. He then came to the Islands at the time the telephone services were starting.

“Honolulu was among the first cities of the world to take up the telephone practically, and as far back as the year 1880 it is to be noted that it had more telephones than any other city of the same size in the world.”

“The honor of introducing the telephone in the Islands belongs to Senator Charles H. Dickey, who brought a set of instruments to Maui and used them there; this was in the early part of 1878, barely two years after the original patent had been granted to Alexander Graham Bell.”

“And in the latter part of the same year, Mr SG Wilder, Minister of the Interior, installed a set of instruments connecting the government building in Honolulu with the office of his lumber business some distance away.”

“The practicability of the telephone thus being demonstrated, King Kalākaua purchased telephones for the Palace and had them in operation for some time, these instruments being on exhibition at the Bishop Museum at the present time.”

“In the year 1879 the first telephone company was organized and incorporated under the name of ‘The Hawaiian Bell Telephone Co,’ and on December 30, 1880, began giving service in the City of Honolulu.”

“Starting with thirty instruments in operation, this number was considered at the time to be satisfactory, or enough for all time to come; but in this they were mistaken, for the number has always been steadily on the increase.” (Chamber of Commerce Annual Report, 1912)

“Mr. Cassidy has been in the telephone business here almost since it started. He was Superintendent of the old Bell Company during its existence, and when the consolidation with the Mutual Company took place he was made manager and has conducted the business satisfactorily.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, July 2, 1896)

“Mr. Cassidy remained with the Mutual company for several years, going to the Coast finally with a view to remaining there permanently; but the lure of the Pacific was greater than he could stand and he came back and entered the service of the Hawaiian Electric Company, where he now is.” (Advertiser, December 12, 1909)

Back in 1891, at Kālia, the ‘Old Waikiki’ opened as a bathhouse, one of the first places in Waikīkī to offer rooms for overnight guests. Then, “Ripley & Dickey, the architects are about completing plans for a new beach home for John Cassidy …. It will be one of the handsomest houses in that section of the city, which is noted for the number of its beautiful and comfortable residences.”

“The house will be two stories, of frame. It will be of the chalet type a German adaptation of the Swiss style. The exterior will be very pretty and the interior will be nicely finished.”

“Mr. Cassidy’s beach lot is a large one adjoining the premises of John Ena in Old Waikiki. The house at present occupied will be moved back and leased. … There will soon be a call for tenders for construction of the home. (Hawaiian Gazette, February 18, 1898) The Old Waikiki later served as a boarding house.

Cassidy died on March 9, 1915, at the age of 71. Advertisements shortly thereafter note his widow, Eliza E Cassidy, offering “The Pierpoint, formerly Cassidy, only home hotel, Waikiki Beach; consists of individual cottages and single rooms; cuisine excellent; 1000-ft promenade pier at the end of which is splendid bathing pool and beautiful view.” (Star Bulletin, May 15, 1916)

It appears the name of this new use as a hotel was geographical; the pier extended 1,000-feet out into the ocean from a point … a promotional item from Child’s Blaisdell Hotel noted it as a “Pier on a Point.” The pier had moments of excitement …

“When Arthur E. Troiel speared a conger-eel off the end of Cassidy’s pier at Pierpont Wednesday night he ran all the way home, donned his bathing suit and assisted in landing the big fellow before he could fully realize that he had not caught a whale or at least a shark.”

“Thereafter he was the pride of the fair ones and the envy of the stronger sex along the beach. By day Troiel works for J Hopp & Company.” (Star Bulletin, November 9, 1916)

Later Pierpoint became the Waikiki Annex for downtown Honolulu’s Blaisdell Hotel. In the early 1920s, nearby quaint clusters of cottages known as Cressaty’s Court and Hummel’s Court offered simple lodging. (Waikīkī Historic Trail)

The Pierpoint Hotel, Hummel’s Court and Cressaty’s Court, all located at Kālia, were acquired by the Heen Investment Company in May of 1926.

The six acres were re-landscaped, the cluster of cottages was renovated, and a new main building was added with the Tapa Room and a dance floor. The site, renamed Niumalu Hotel, meaning “sheltering palms,” opened in 1928. (Cord International)

Henry J Kaiser bought it and adjoining property and started the Kaiser Hawaiian Village (1955.) He sold to Hilton Hotels in 1961 and the property (now totaling 22-acres) continues to be known as the Hilton Hawaiian Village.

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Pierpoint-pier-Atkins

Fort_DeRussy_before_Maluhia_Recreation_Center-(HABS)-1938-noting location of Pierpoint

End of the Pierpoint Pier-BidStart

Pierpoint-walk way-Atkins

Pierpoint-ocean frontage-pier-Atkins

Pierpoint-house-Atkins

On the porch of a cottage at the Pierpoint Hotel-sallysdiaries4

Pierpoint-beach_lawn_frontage-Atkins

Niumalu Hotel Tarrant

Hummels Court-Tarrant

Cressatys Court-Tarrant

Kewalo-Ala_Wai_aerial-(UH_Manoa)-1927-portion-noting pier-lower

Ala_Wai-Channel_being_dredged-UH_Manoa-(2411)-1952-portion

John_Cassidy-PCA-Jan_17,_1907

Pierpont Hotel Ad-Hnl_SB-Sept 10, 1917

July 11, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Koa House

In 1840, John Joseph Halstead sailed to Hawai‘i on a whaling ship bringing with him from New York carpentry and cabinet-makings skills. He set up a shop in Lāhainā. (Martin) He was said to be the first man to put up a frame house in Lāhainā.

With the news of the discovery of gold in California in 1848, came orders from San Francisco merchants for Irish potatoes and other food supplies for those heading to the gold fields.

Halstead did not join the pioneers of 1849; He moved over to Kalepolepo, along the Kihei shoreline, with his family and shortly thereafter built a new house for himself. (Wilcox)

It was a large Pennsylvania Dutch style house made entirely of koa, built next to the south wall of Koʻieʻie Loko I‘a (fishpond) (also called Kalepolepo Fishpond.)

Halstead’s three story house/store was nicknamed the ‘Koa House.’ With the mullet-filled fishpond, the Koa House became a popular retreat for Hawaiian royalty such as Kamehameha III, IV, V and Lunalilo. (Starr)

No one remembers the actual date of construction of Koa House, but the fact that King Liholiho (Kamehameha IV), visited Kalepolepo on a royal tour immediately after accession to the throne in the fall of 1854, and stayed overnight as the guest of Halstead, its owner, is proof it was built before that time. (Wilcox)

Its timbers were from saw mills in East Makawao and from Kula, partly hewn and whip-sawed by hand Into shape, for labor was cheap In the good old days. Also pine and other material brought around Cape Horn by early traders.

When finished the first floor was fitted up with koa wood counters and shelves, and used for a store. The upper floors were used for living quarters. Many of the larger pieces of furniture were made of koa wood by Halstead himself. (Wilcox)

He opened a trading station on the lower floor. Whalers came ashore to buy fresh produce that was brought in by the farmers via the Kalepolepo Road.

He promoted the Irish potato industry in Kula, which even then was a thriving industry for provisioning whale ships in their seasonal voyages after whales.

At Halstead’s Kalepolepo Store a cartload of potatoes – thirty to forty bags – could readily be exchanged for a bolt of silk or other provisions.

During the Irish potato boom of those days any native farmer with an acre or two of potatoes would sell his crop, and as soon as he received payment in fifty-dollar gold pieces he would hurry off to the nearest store to buy a silk dress for his wife or a broadcloth suit for himself.

Halstead held his share of the Irish potato trade against more promising cash offers made by his business rivals. So lively was the competition that LL Torbert of ʻUlupalakua conceived the idea of an Irish potato corner.

He sent out his men and bought up all the Irish potatoes in sight, paying as high as five dollars for a bag of potatoes, a fabulous price for those days when native labor was plentiful at twenty-five cents a day.

Having cornered all the potatoes to be had, he shipped about $20,000 worth by the bark Josephine for San Francisco. The bark proved leaky, water got into the potato-filled holds and rotted them so that on arrival at San Francisco not enough good potatoes were left in the cargo to pay the freight bill.

At that time Kalepolepo was a thriving village, with two churches, a Mormon church where George Cannon or Walter Murray Gibson expounded the Christian doctrines of Joseph Smith against Christian Calvinism as preached by the Reverend Green and David Malo.

Reportedly, Halstead’s old house at Kalepolepo was Rev Green’s granary during the wheat boom of the 1850s and early-1860s, when the upper Makawao country from Maliko to Waiohuli was cropped to wheat.

Possibly some wheat may have been shipped from Kalepolepo in those days, for from early times to the late-1860s it was a shipping port for Wailuku and Kula. Halstead had one or two big warehouses standing makai of his residence.

In the late sixties the Irish potato trade had become unimportant and later ceased altogether. In 1876, Halstead closed his store and moved to ʻUlupalakua, where he died eleven years later, May 3, 1887. (Wilcox)

The koa house remained standing until it was burned down in 1946 by the Kihei Yacht Club. (NPS) (Lots of information here is from NPS and Wilcox.)

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John Joseph Halstead-Koa House-Paradise of the Pacific-1921

Kihei Coastline-Kalepolepo-Pepalis

Koieie_Fishpond-NPS

Koieie-Fishpond-NPS

Uwaikikilani Halstead-Stanley-Hassrick-1849

Uwaikikilani Halstead-Stanley-Hassrick

John Joseph Halstead-gravestone

July 2, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Wauke

“Canoe crops” (Canoe Plants) is a term to describe the group of plants brought to Hawaiʻi by the early Polynesians. It is believed that these settlers, and the settlers that followed them, introduced a variety of plant species.

One such was Wauke (Paper Mulberry.) It’s a tree that can grow up to 50-feet. It thrives in places along streams, in woods, hollows or uneven grounds, in dry taro patches, in moist land where water flows. It is a species of the Hawaiian wet forests.

Legend identifies wauke with Hina, on the island of Maui. This may indicate that the paper mulberry, like one species of bamboo, was first brought to and planted on that island, which was Hina’s home.

The legend tells of Hina and her tapa making that anciently the sun hurried across the sky so fast that her tapa had no chance to dry. So her son Maui went to the place where the sun rises (Haleakala.) There he watched and caught the first ray that rose and broke it off, so that ever since the sun has traveled the sky more slowly.

The proper time for planting wauke is at the beginning of a rainy period. The shrub is said to mature within 18 months from the time the slip is planted.

Thereafter it continues to grow, young shoots springing from the roots to replace old ones. By recultivating an old patch, a flourishing crop of stems (for bark-stripping) may be had.

According to Thrum, in the upland plantations the whole plant was sometimes pulled out for harvesting and the roots lopped off and cut into segments for replanting. (Handy)

As the wauke tree grew, planters cut off the side branches, so a straight trunk stalk without branch holes could later be stripped. In 6-10 months the trunk shoots were cut down and the roots and tops removed.

The chief use and the main purpose of its cultivation were the making of cloth. In Hawai‘i, wauke made the softest, finest, and most durable kapa (tapa – bark cloth) for dress, bed sheets and for ceremonial purposes.

Indeed, the wealth of a household was often counted in the number and quality of its fine kapa materials, and in those made available, through the industry and skill of the womenfolk, as a store from which gifts might be made to ʻohana and revered ali‘i. (Handy)

It was pounded into kapa and made into a malo: a strip of cloth nine inches wide and nine feet long for the man, and pa‘u for the woman: a strip a little wider and somewhat longer.

The Hawaiians beat the fibers with beaters that had designs carved into them, this would leave a watermark on the cloth. Second, they used colors not found on other kapa, reds, blues, pink, green, and yellow.

The method of getting wauke is the same for the various kapas which a person desires; it is only during the process of beating out the kapa that a person could make use of the pattern which she prefers. (Fornander)

The trunks were stripped of bark, as thick as a finger and about 4 feet long. The outer bark was slit and peeled off. The inner bark fibers, called bast, were then soaked in running water, such as a high tide pool, with stones placed on top of the fiber pile.

This part of the process breaks down the woody fibers and washes away the starch. A complicated process of soakings and fermentation followed, leaving the fine fibers of the moist inner bark still tough and resilient when finally removed from the waters.

At this time in the process, the women of Hawai`i would often twist cordage out of the fibers, for use as fish nets, upena and as carrying nets, koko, from which to hang calabashes of wood and gourds. (CanoePlants)

For Kapa, strips were laid edge to edge, and felted together by beating with wooden beaters of different sizes, square in cross section, having carved geometric designs on their four faces to give watermarking. Many successive beatings with lighter and lighter clubs were required to make the finest cloth. (Handy)

For the process of beating the kapa these things are prepared: The block on which to do the beating; this block is made broad and flat on top and the two ends are made thus: the top one is lengthened and the under one is shortened. Water is used through the beating process to keep the wauke continually wet. (Fornander)

The first i‘e (club – tapa beater) (a coarse-figured club) is used for hard pounding. After that is the i‘ekike, the dividing club, a smaller-figured club; then comes the printing club and the finishing club. The kapa is then cut. It is next taken to soak in water.

It is then spread to dry at a place prepared for drying it, that is the drying ground; there it is spread out and pressed down with rocks placed here and there so that the pa‘u would not wrinkle. This is continued until the pa‘u is dry. And this is done until there are five kapa; they are then sewn together. That is called a set of kapa.

The sap is used medicinally as laxative. Ashes from burned tapa was used as medicine for ‘ea (thrush). Strips of coarse tapa were worn around a nursing mother’s neck for milk flow. (kcc.hawaii-edu)

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