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May 31, 2025 by Peter T Young 6 Comments

“Take it all except the Cannon Club”

When the Vice-President of Kapiʻolani Community College visited the Army headquarters at Schofield Barracks in 1965 to ask for the former Fort Ruger lands, the general was said to have replied “Take it all except the Cannon Club.” (Cultural Surveys)

Whoa … we’ve already gotten waaay ahead of ourselves. Let’s look back.

In 1884, Diamond Head went from private royal ownership to government property. Under King Kalākaua, the Diamond Head crater and part of the surrounding lands were transferred from the estate of King Lunalilo to the Hawaiian government. In 1904, the US government acquired 729-acres of Diamond Head as public domain.

From 1904 until 1950, Diamond Head was closed to the public at large. During this period of exclusive occupation, significant construction occurred within the crater. Bunkers, communication rooms, storage tunnels and coastal artillery fortifications were built. (LRB)

Between 1909-1921, the Hawaiian Coast Artillery Command had its headquarters at Fort Ruger and defenses included artillery regiments stationed at Fort Armstrong, Fort Barrette, Fort DeRussy, Diamond Head, Fort Kamehameha, Kuwa‘aohe Military Reservation (Fort Hase – later known as Marine Corps Base Hawaiʻi) and Fort Weaver.

The forts and battery emplacements batteries were dispersed for concealment and to insure that a projectile striking one would not thereby endanger a neighbor.

Fort Ruger Military Reservation was established at Diamond Head (Lēʻahi) in 1906. The Reservation was named in honor of Major General Thomas H Ruger, a Civil War hero and, later, superintendent of the United States Military Academy at West Point.

The fort included Battery Harlow (1910-1943); Battery Birkhimer (1916-1943); Battery Granger Adams (1935-1946); Battery Dodge (1915-1925); Battery Mills (1916-1925); Battery 407 (1944); Battery Hulings (1915-1925); and Battery Ruger (1937-1943).

Also at Fort Ruger was the Cannon Club, a social club with a restaurant built in 1945 for the officers and their families at Fort Ruger and other military installations.

“It wasn’t the fanciest place on the island, but it was the sort of old-style officers’ club that crisply preserved the illusion that each guest there, for the evening at least, was important and deserved some extra attention.”

“It was a place where people said “Sir” and “Ma’am” a lot; where you got fruit cocktail and thick juicy slabs of Porterhouse or prime rib, along with buttery rolls and piping hot baked potatoes heaped with real bacon bits … or watch the grown-ups glide across a dance floor that was open to the balmy breezes and the lambent sky, keeping time to the strains of a live band.” (Cultural Surveys)

The conclusion of World War II and the advent of nuclear and missile warfare made the coastal batteries obsolete. Thus in December 1955 the majority of the Fort Ruger land was turned over to the State of Hawai‘i.

The club, however, could not keep up with the times. Under a 1987 federal law, military clubs had to be self-sustaining to remain open, and the Army had to close the Cannon Club in 1997 as a result. For a few years, there was hope that the restaurant could reopen under private contractors, but the funding for the project fell through. (Cultural Surveys)

In 2001, the State acquired the 7.8-acre property across from the Kapiʻolani Community College campus (which is situated on former Fort Ruger land.)

A few years later, the Board of Land and Natural Resources approved a direct lease of the Cannon Club site to the University of Hawaiʻi for the Culinary Institute of the Pacific (under KCC) that was executed in August 2004. (I was Chair of DLNR at the time.)

Kapiʻolani Technical School was established near the Ala Wai in 1946; their first program was food service. In 1965, programs were realigned to fit the UH community college system (it was then renamed Kapiʻolani Community College – and eventually relocated to its present campus on the mauka slopes of Diamond Head.)

The Culinary Institute of the Pacific was formed in 2000 as a UH Community College System-wide consortium. Its mission is to provide career, technical and cultural culinary education. It is a collaboration with the Culinary Institute of America (CIA).

The new 65-year lease enables “the university to develop new instructional and restaurant facilities for KCC’s Culinary Institute of the Pacific at Diamond Head.”

“The Culinary Institute will expand opportunities for current students, past graduates and industry professionals seeking advance degrees in the culinary arts and managerial positions.” (Governor Lingle; UH)

The UH, through KCC, is developing new certificate and degree programs in culinary arts to serve State needs for advanced culinary instruction and training. Currently, the Community Colleges offer two-year Associate of Science degrees or non-credit culinary arts programs.

Based at the former Cannon Club, the new programs serve the needs of students completing the two year degree, industry professionals requiring advanced culinary education, and students from outside Hawai‘i seeking training in Hawai‘i Regional Cuisine. (UH)

The Culinary Institute of the Pacific at Diamond Head is a state-of-the art, environmentally sustainable culinary campus that will include a signature restaurant open to the public, competition kitchen, demonstration theater, advanced Asian culinary lab, a patisserie classroom, imu pit and theme garden plots. (Restaurant Week) (The restaurant is opening in the fall of 2025.)

© 2025 Hoʻokuleana LLC

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Filed Under: Buildings, Military Tagged With: Diamond Head, Fort Ruger, Army, Cannon Club, Hawaii, Oahu, Army Coast Artillery Corps

May 25, 2025 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Seabury Hall

“I give, devise and bequeath unto the Protestant Episcopal Church in the Hawaiian Islands, its successors and assigns forever, all of my right, title and interest in and to the said property to the said church.”

“It is the desire and intent of both the church and myself that the church shall maintain and operate on the said property a good school …” Katherine [‘Kate’] McGrew Cooper, Last Will and Testament, March 27, 1958.

From the 1950s, during a seven (7) year period of planning and discussion, Kate Cooper, together with then Episcopal Bishop Harry Kennedy and the Rev. Rodger Melrose, Seabury’s founding Chaplain and Headmaster, spent countless hours planning and praying on what Seabury Hall might become. (Seabury)

Whoa, let’s look back …

On the morning that the advertisement for “Maunalei” appeared in the Honolulu Advertiser (November 19, 1944), Mrs Charles B Cooper was sitting on the lanai with a group of friends. One of them tossed the paper to her, saying, “Here is the house that you should buy, Kate.” (Seabury Hall Alumni)

The advertisement read, “Situated at an elevation where it is constantly cool, this five bedroom house designed by Honolulu’s leading architect, is the last word in modem planning, comfort and construction. Set apart, it provides a home designed for peace and quiet living.”

“One looks out toward West Maui and the north shore while toward the south one sees the slopes of Lanai in the distance beyond the south shore. … The grounds, 8.79 acres, are fully landscaped in a manner which does not destroy the mountain beauty of the setting and yet is in keeping with the semi-colonial design of the house.” (Adv, Nov 19, 1944)

“Maunalei” was built in 1929 by Dr William Baldwin, the second son of Emily and Henry Perrine Baldwin. It was designed by Mr. Baldwin’s cousin, Charles W Dickey, one of Hawaii’s most outstanding architects. The contractor was Charles C. Savage.

Following Dr Baldwin’s death, the house was put up for sale to settle his estate. For some time, ‘Kate’ Cooper had been looking for just such a house.  Maunalei did seem to be the perfect answer for her. She purchased the estate (for approximately $109,000) and was settled on Maui by early 1945. She loved Maui and lived here very happily for 18 years.

In 1958, foreseeing a need for a boarding school for girls, Mrs. Cooper bequeathed her estate to the Episcopal Church in Hawaii, and at her death in 1963 Seabury Hall was born. (Seabury Hall Alumni)

(Seabury Hall is named after Rev. Samuel Seabury, the first Episcopal Bishop of the American Church. November 14, 1784, Samuel Seabury was consecrated Bishop in the Church of God. Seabury served the church in Connecticut.)

Founded in 1964 as an Episcopal boarding school for girls, Seabury Hall, in the 1970s the School accepted boys, and in the late-1980s it eliminated the boarding program to focus exclusively on serving Maui. It is now a coeducational independent day school.  (Seabury Hall)

The school is Episcopal in religious affiliation but nonsectarian in its instruction.  (Maunalei was later renamed the Cooper House and houses administrative offices, a reception area, a dining facility, and a chapel.)

“Groundbreaking ceremonies for Seabury Hall’s girIs dormitory, designed by Bruce Cruikshank, will take place tomorrow [February 20, 1964] near Makawao, Maui. Seabury Hall is to open in September as a boarding school for girls and a day school for girls and boys.”

“Its nine acres were a gift from the late Mrs Katherine McGrew Cooper to the Episcopal Church. The new dormitory will have 30 double rooms on two floors, an infirmary and teachers quarters. The Reverend Roger M Melrose, headmaster, will officiate”. (SB, Feb 19, 1964)

“’Seabury Hall is being established to fill a need in Hawaii for a girls’ boarding school,” Bishop Kennedy said. “’We need a school where girls living in a community learn to meet the changing demands of life and education with new and better methods, while maintaining an unswerving emphasis upon standards and ideals of lasting value.” (SB, June 3, 1964)

Beginning in 1993, the school has built a full-size gymnasium, a Middle School building, an Upper School building, parking for school and public events, a library, and most recently a new Arts, Innovation, and Music Center. Extensive playing fields support the PE and athletic programs.

Signature programs at Seabury Hall include an AP Capstone Program in addition to 22 AP courses and 10 Honors courses offered; Engineering and Technology; Hawaiian Studies and Hawaiian language; Community Service Leadership; Winterim Program and experiential learning.

Seabury has little over 500 students (325 in Upper School and just under 200 in Middle School).  It is accredited by Western Association of Schools and Colleges; Hawaii Association of Independent Schools. (Lots of information here is from Seabury Hall.)

© 2025 Ho‘okuleana LLC

Filed Under: Place Names, Schools, Buildings Tagged With: Hawaii, Maui, Maunalei, Seabury, Seabury Hall, Katherine McGrew Cooper, Cooper House, William Baldwin

May 24, 2025 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Club Lanai

Allan Dale Starr Sr was born July 10, 1924 in Carlinville, Illinois, graduated from Northwestern University, was a naval aviator,  and came to Hawai‘i in 1949 and joined the Lund-Heitman agency. (Adv, Apr 4, 1991)

In 1965 he founded the AD Starr Co. Over the years, through growth/mergers the company grew to Hawai‘i’s largest marketing communications firm for nearly two decades.

He acquired a property at Kahalepalaoa on the north east shore of Lānai and used it as a weekend beach cottage. Kahalepalaoa was the former landing area with a long wooden pier built in about 1899 that several motor-driven boats were engaged in providing transportation of people and goods between Lānai and Lāhaina. (Lānai Culture and Heritage Center)

“The Lanai Landing site (formerly known as Halepalaoa Landing, Kahalepalaoa Landing, or Maunalei Sugar Co. Landing) has long been used as a boat harbor.” (BLNR, D-7, 11-10-22)

The pier had deteriorated, and in 1985 Starr received permission and built a new pier “to re-activate the only harbor on the windward coast of Lanai for small craft. The main purpose of restoring the Landing is to provide access to the shoreline and [Starr’s] property for small craft carrying tour groups from Kaanapali and Lahaina, Maui.” (BLNR, LA-1705, 03-08-85)

At that time, four companies operate cruise boats between Lahaina and Mānele Harbor on Lanai’s south coast. The companies offer the boat trip to Lanai and, upon arrival, picnic, swim, and snorkel at Hulopoe Bay. Hulopoe Beach Park is a private park and all facilities are located on property owned by Castle and Cooke.”

“[A]dditional boats from Lahaina would like to operate trips to Manele, but the space is not available to expand this activity.” (BLNR, LA-1705, 03-08-85)

 “Passengers on the cruise boats would disembark at Halepalaoa Landing to enjoy a picnic lunch, snorkeling, swimming, and other such activities currently offered at Hulopoe Beach Park. These activities would take place [on Starr’s] private property and the public beach area.”  (BLNR, LA-1705, 03-08-85)

Shortly thereafter, Charles Forman, Trustee, and City Cathedral Investments, Inc. took control of the property for use of the Landing and the adjoining beach retreat … Club Lanai was started.  “The concept of this place came from the previous owner, a man named [Allan Starr.]”

Club Lanai was a ‘day use facility’ that would bring in guests from the Island of Maui via two catamarans (65‐foot Ehukai and 70‐feet Kaulana), going over in the mornings and returning midafternoon 7 days a week, 365 days a year

Under the prior Club Lanaʻi operation, each of the boats used had a capacity of 149‐passengers. A stated “capacity” at the facility was apparently 250‐people. On some days, over 200‐guests were brought in for the day use activities, including food (typically lunch) and beverages (there were occasional nighttime activities, as well).

“Club Lanai was an 8-acre beach estate that was a cross between Gilligan’s Island and Club Med. Our guest book was signed by people returning 2 & 3 times during their week stay on Maui because they had so much fun there.”

“What made it that fun was that it was like going to your own private beach estate that was an 8-mile boat crossing from Maui to the seclude side of Lanai.”

“When you arrived there, there was a variety of activities you could do from snorkeling, kayaking, bike riding, volleyball, horseshoes, a history tour, a themed Hawaiian village where … Lanai residents shared the Aloha and history of Hawaii, and other activities that came and went though the years.”

“There was an open bar with all you could drink and an all you can eat lunch buffet that served steak, Mahi Mahi, and chicken. There were hammocks, lounge chairs, and palapas spread throughout the property.”

“It was his personal property and after some time of owning it he wanted to make it into a simple getaway place where people could come for the day. He ran out of money during the building process and put it up for sale as that concept.”

“When my father Charles Forman heard about it, he fell in love with the idea. He and the people that worked for him turned it into the above-mentioned place.” (Steven Forman, YouTube)

“The building sitting back from the coconut encrusted water was the first bar built. … It had 2 bridges going to it. The building that housed the kitchen was built by the previous owner. It was his personal home.”

“The Club used the front half of this building for an employee kitchen and living room/lounge. The back half was built into a commercial kitchen to prepare the meals that were served for the day.”

“The upstairs was used for sleeping quarters. There was always a caretaker living there with other employees and their guest staying from time to time.”

“The barn like building was used for several purposes. The back side housed all the property maintenance equipment and the front side was used as a storage room for products for the store.”

“Other building not mentioned were a serving kitchen, a 2nd bar, a commercial bathroom, and a mock Hawaiian Village designed by the Bishop museum.”  (Steven Forman, YouTube)

“In basic terms the cost of operation would end up always out weighing the income. Insurance was at the same rate as amusement parks, maintenance and dry docks on large boats are costly as well as the maintenance for all the property equipment.”

“State and County taxes as well as State Harbor taxes added a fair share of burden as well. In the end this spread of costs was a hard ship to keep afloat. …”

“[The Property] was sold to some speculators who hung on to it for several years. It sat empty at that time with just caretakers keeping the property up.”

“They eventually sold it Dole Pineapple who wanted to make back into a place where their resort guests could go for the day but the County told them they would have to pave the road if they wanted to put it into operation and that would of been too costly being that that road washes out every year from winter storms.”  (Steven Forman, YouTube)

It then ended up with Pūlama Lanai (of Lanai Resorts (Larry Ellison)), who recently (2022) stated that it is interested in using the former Club Lānai site for day activities for guests staying at Sensei Lānai or the Four Seasons Lānai resorts. The intent of Pūlama Lānai is to bring in guests via boats from Mānele Boat Harbor to the Club site. (BLNR, D-7, 11-10-22)

© 2025 Ho‘okuleana LLC

Filed Under: Place Names, Economy, Buildings Tagged With: Larry Ellison, Hawaii, Lanai, Halepalaoa, Club Lanai, Allan Dale Starr, Kahalepalaoa, Charles Forman, Pulama Lanai

May 19, 2025 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Okino Hotel

“The [Okino] hotel [on Kamehameha Avenue] was built in 1913. But before then, [Yoshimatsu Okino] had another one on Front Street [Kamehameha], but I don’t know what year that was built. And then they built this big one in 1913.” (Violet Hirata)

Hotel advertising referred to it as “The Oldest Hotel in Hilo”. (Hilo Tribune Heald, July 31, 1947) A newspaper story referred to it as “the oldest Japanese hotel in Hilo”. (Hilo Tribune Herald, July 24, 1959)

Yoshimatsu Okino was born on December 4, 1860, in Hiroshima-ken, Japan. He had at least 2 sons and 1 daughter with Waka Hamai. (Family Search)) Yoshimatsu Okino died in 1917; after that, his son, Yoshio (‘Fats’) Okino took over the operation.

“We had all different customers. We used to have – month to month, we had salesmen that came from Honolulu, and different tenants. We had some boarders that worked in Hilo. So they boarded there and they went to work. So we had quite a few of them boarding, regular boarders.”

[Masako Kayano Okino], born in Pahala, married Yoshio Okino, son of the Okino hotel founder. Masako “was busy with the cooking and all that with the ladies.”

“And [we] had my aunt living with us when we were young to help my mom. So, besides the ladies that work with her, we had one aunt, older aunt that stayed, and then the younger one came in and stay, take over after that. We were lucky.”

“And they had [base]ball teams coming. Or, Fourth of July, they have [sumo] wrestlers coming in. The group comes and goes. We were very busy.”

“Grandfather built it. Grandfather died when [Yoshio] was nineteen, so [Yoshio] had to take over that. Grandma [Waka Okino] died later, but he was nineteen only when Grandfather died.”  (Violet Hirata, daughter of Yoshio Okino)

Yoshio Okino and Masako Kayano Okino owned and operated Okino Hotel on 482 Kamehameha Avenue. There were family quarters in one section of the hotel. The children helped their parents in the hotel dining room, serving food to customers and clearing tables.

Okino Hotel was destroyed in the 1946 tsunami. Hirata and the family managed to escape the waves by fleeing in back of the building – away from the ocean – toward the Hilo Gas Company gas tanks. Her brother, George, became trapped in the debris and was later rescued. A guest of the hotel died that day.

Yoshio later established another hotel on Kino‘ole Street, which they operated until 1959. Hirata eventually worked as a hairdresser, and later, for Western Auto. She retired in 1989. She and her husband, Takeshi Hiiata, whom she married in 1949, raised three children and currently have five grandchildren. (NOAA Fisheries)

“The Okino Hotel, which was completely demolished in the tidal wave of April 1, 1946, will reopen its modern, two story building Friday in a new location at 481 Kinoole street.” (Hilo Tribune Herald, July 31, 1947)

(“Ironically, the single remaining ‘monument’ from the 1946 tsunami, the furo bathroom of the old Okino hotel, stood firm through the … wave assault”. (Hilo Tribune Herald, July 18, 1960))

“Construction of the proposed Okino Hotel has been postponed indefinitely, Yoshio Okino reported today.  Instead, Okino has taken a lease on the two story building at 481 Kinoole Street … he said he cannot afford to wait any longer to get back into business”.  (Hilo Tribune Herald, June 16, 1947)

“The new structure is situated across from the Hilo fire department and will be under management of Yoshio Okino …. The hotel has been located in Hilo for over 50 years and prior to the tidal wave was on Kamehameha avenue.”

“Well-ventilated, the hotel will have 24 rooms for transient guests, and will have hot and cold showers. A restaurant will be located on the ground floor.”

“In his youth, [Yoshio] Okino was one of the most noted  baseball players in the territory, known as the ‘Babe Ruth of the Pacific.’  [He was referred to as the ‘home run king’ with a batting average of .556]”. (HTH)

“He was centerfielder of the Japanese Athletic club nine that toured Japan in the early ‘20s. Later he became a catcher. His sons are prospective Hilo senior leaguers.” (Hilo Tribune Herald, July 31, 1947)

Yoshio “started in Honolulu with the Japanese High school team there and played for the JAC combine in Hilo during his summer vacations. That was his start.”

“In 1916, he played football and baseball for the Mid-Pacific Institute, also known as Mills school. The following year he came to Hilo and started playing for the JAC in dead earnest.” (Hilo Tribune Herald, April 6, 1928)

Back to the hotel … a July 24, 1959 notice in the paper noted, “Okino Hotel will be closed from July 31, 1959. [Yoshio Okino stated,] I wish, at this time, to extend sincere thanks and appreciation to my many patrons and friends for their kind patronage in the past years. Retiring after 40 years in the Hotel Business.” (Hilo Tribune Herald) He then moved to Honolulu.

Shortly thereafter, a “Notice” in the paper, “Announcing the Change of Name and Ownership of Okino Hotel, Effective August 1st, 1959” to Lincoln Hotel. “Richard M Inouye, Owner of the Lincoln Grill)”.

Later, “The New Rainbow Hotel … Formerly Known as Okino Hotel” was “Completely Remodeled” “all with Private Bathrooms” and “Open for Business”. (Hawaii Tribune Herald, Dec 29, 1965).  The former Okino Hotel still stands across from the Fire Station on Kino‘ole street.

© 2025 Ho‘okuleana LLC

Filed Under: General, Buildings, Economy Tagged With: Yoshimatsu Okino, Yoshio Okino, 1946 Tsunami, Hilo, Tsunami, Okino Hotel

May 12, 2025 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Lanai City Schools

The schools in Pālāwai, Kō‘ele, and Lānai City underwent changes in name and location. The schools had their start around 1904 when Charles Gay started Pālāwai School, a one-room schoolhouse for his own children and children of ranch employees. (UHM Center for Oral History)

The Pālāwai School was built near the lower end of Keaaku Gulch where it opens into Pālāwai basin, about two miles south of Kō‘ele. The school was built like a house and had one classroom.  (The Pālāwai School building had been moved three times.)

Pālāwai was chosen for the location of the school because of its central location; students came from Kō‘ele, Malauea, and Waiapa‘a.  (Pālāwai School, HABS HI-612)

Violet Gay was the eighth of eleven children born to Charles Gay and Louisa Kala Gay; some of her sibling went to school on O‘ahu. As she notes, “there were five of us that stayed on Lanai and went to [Pālāwai] School.”

“My oldest sister, Amelia, is Mrs. Dickson. And they all came to Punahou, you know. My grandmother put them all in Punahou, see. And they were boarders up at Punahou.”

“Then when she [Amelia] left, she came back to Lanai, that’s when they started the school. Down Palawai, started a school. And I was six years old when I went to the school.”

“About twelve or fifteen children, I think, went to that school. And we walked all the way from Ko’ele, you know, where Kahonu is, past Kahonu down there to Palawai.”  (Violet Keahikoe Gay, UHM Center for Oral History)

“It was a one-room schoolhouse, a short walk from our home. And they put me in school so that we could have fifteen children in order to get a schoolteacher. The schoolteacher lived with us because there was no other place for her to stay.”

“Well, it was a little white house with several windows around it and inside we had these desks and blackboards on the walls, the back wall with no windows. … We were put in rows of desks by age, and the teacher would go row by row teaching. Each row, just a different subject.”

“And we had two little outhouses (laughs) away from the school. One for boys and one for girls. … There was a flagpole out in front. … We put the flag up every morning and learned the Pledge of Allegiance. And then we’d march into class . And that’s about all I remember of that.” (Jean Forbes Adams, UHM Center for Oral History)

Sometime about 1920-22, the Pālāwai School was moved to Kō‘ele, and set up at a site near where the 7th green of the Cavendish Golf Course is today.  (Pālāwai School, HABS HI-612) It then became generally known as Kō‘ele School.

In 1922 the school became part of the public school system of the Territory of Hawaii. The Kō‘ele School ceased functioning as a classroom in 1927, when the two-room Kō‘ele Grammar School was built a short distance away. (Pālāwai School, HABS HI-612)

Around 1927, with the construction of the new Kō‘ele Grammar School, the Pālāwai/Kō‘ele) School was moved to the Kō‘ele Ranch Camp and became a residence.  The building underwent numerous alterations since the time it was a one room school house, including a kitchen addition, bathroom, and the partitioning of the original single class room.  (Pālāwai School, HABS HI-612)

The Kō‘ele Grammar School was a single-story, gable roof, wood building with an 8′ wide lanai along the front long side of the building.  The interior of the main portion of the Kō‘ele Grammar School is divided into two 24’ x 26’ classrooms by a partition wall with a doorway (no door).

“When I was ready for the sixth grade [in 1927] we went over to the [Ko’ele Grammar] School [located near the present Cavendish Golf Course clubhouse], which was about another half mile away.”

The building was financed by the County of Maui. It was built about a half mile from the Kō‘ele Ranch Camp, to the south, across Iwiole Gulch on the site of what would become the Cavendish Golf Course.  Students from Kō‘ele Ranch and from Lānai City attended. Eighth grade graduation ceremonies from Kō‘ele Grammar School were held at the Lanai Theater in Lānai City.

“I think there were six of us [in 1928]. And it was the first class to graduate from [Ko‘ele Grammar] School, so we had a big ceremony down at the one and only theater. We had chairs set up on the platform … we had these lovely leis, leis you don’t often see anymore.” (Jean Forbes Adams, UHM Center for Oral History)

In September 1928, the people of Lanai City petitioned the Maui County board of supervisors to have the school’s name changed to Lanai City School.

By the mid-1930s, school children of Hawaiian Pineapple Co. (HAPCo) employees had expanded public school enrollment on Lanai to such a degree that additional classes were held in the Lanai Japanese School and in the HAPCo plantation gymnasium.

By about 1937, “There were two buildings and the smaller building had two classes and the other building must have had four classes. … And new teachers were brought in, they had to build a cottage for these new teachers. Because prior to that, the teacher at [the old] Ko‘ele School stayed with us.”

“At the Ko‘ele [Grammar] School, by the golf course. When we’d go to school, we had to make a garden. We had a project. We’d go out and make our garden and plant vegetables.” (Jean Forbes Adams, UHM Center for Oral History)

“[W]hen we used to be naughty, we had to go pull weeds. And during our Ko‘ele [Grammar] School days – not the old cottage, maybe we were too young, but the other school – if you were naughty or were to be punished, we had to go pull weeds, you know. And then we always took turns to clean the rooms. Young as we were, we used to mop.”  (Warren Nishimoto, UHM Center for Oral History)

“[M]ost of the kids, from sixth grade into seventh grade, most of the kids would leave. The ones that (the family) could afford it, their parents either send them to Lahainaluna (in Maui), Punahou (or) Kamehameha School in Honolulu. That’s about it. We might lose maybe five or six (children per school year).”  (Charlotte Richardson Holsomback, UHM Center for Oral History)

“I was pau with school after the sixth grade. … most of them [the girls] quit after the sixth grade. However, if there were older sisters who could take care of the house, sometimes a girl could go on to intermediate school.”  (Tama Teramoto Nishimura, UHM Center for Oral History)

In January 1938, the Lānai High and Elementary School was opened at its present location on Fraser Avenue. The buildings of the Kō‘ele Grammar School complex were moved, in sections, to this new high school site.

During the 1970s the Kō‘ele Grammar School, on its second site at the high school campus near 7th and Fraser Avenues, was used as a meeting hall for the Lanai City chapter of the Boy Scouts of America.

© 2025 Ho‘okuleana LLC

Filed Under: Buildings, Schools Tagged With: Hawaii, Lanai, Palawai School, Koele School, Koele Grammar School

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Images of Old Hawaiʻi

People, places, and events in Hawaiʻi’s past come alive through text and media in “Images of Old Hawaiʻi.” These posts are informal historic summaries presented for personal, non-commercial, and educational purposes.

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  • “I really pity you in comeing here.”
  • March 6, 1899
  • About 250 Years Ago … Boston Massacre
  • Oceanic Steamship Company
  • Charles Hinckley Wetmore

Categories

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Hoʻokuleana LLC

Hoʻokuleana LLC is a Planning and Consulting firm assisting property owners with Land Use Planning efforts, including Environmental Review, Entitlement Process, Permitting, Community Outreach, etc. We are uniquely positioned to assist you in a variety of needs.

Info@Hookuleana.com

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