Economy | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

October 25, 2026 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Madge Tennent

She was born Madeline Grace Cook in Dulwich, England, on June 22, 1889. Her father owned a construction business; her mother was the editor of a women’s fashion magazine.

When she was five she moved with her family to Cape Town, South Africa. At the age of twelve, she entered an art school in Cape Town.

The following year, her parents, who recognized and encouraged her talent, moved to Paris to enable Madeline to study there In Paris, she studied figure drawing under William Bouguereau, an experience that laid the technical foundation for her later figural drawings and paintings. (Beebe)

Two years later they returned to Cape Town, where Madge taught art and illustrated fashion magazines. She was also an accomplished pianist, taught by her mother, and gave regular recitals in Cape Town. One such recital was attended by a visiting military officer from New Zealand, Hugh Cowper Tennent, who was in South Africa with his regiment.

They married (1915) and returned to his home, New Zealand, where she led the haphazard life of an army camp follower until their first son Arthur was born in 1916.

Madge directed an art school, having been appointed head instructor at the Government School of Art in Woodville, the village where Madge and Hugh lived while he awaited further military orders. (Wageman)

Hugh went off to war in Europe and returned with a seriously wounded hand; the young family was sent to Western Samoa, which had become a New Zealand protectorate after the war, with Hugh as the treasurer of the territory. Their second son, Val, was born there in Apia.

They spent six years in Samoa. During her stay in Samoa, Tennent became fascinated with Polynesians, and while on a leave of several months in Australia, Tennent studied with Julian Ashton “and learned to draw seriously for the first time.” (Beebe)

On a trip to London to enroll the boys in a British boarding school in 1923, the Tennents arrived in Honolulu with their two young sons, planning on a three-day stop-over.

They were introduced to members of the local artistic community, who saw her Samoan studies and asked her to stay and paint the Hawaiians. They stayed.

As a chartered accountant (the British equivalent of a CPA), Hugh was unable to work until he put in a year of residency. Madge supported the family by doing watercolor portraits, mostly of society children. She kept a studio downtown on Hotel Street.

Madge was fascinated by the Hawaiians from the beginning, but true inspiration struck when she was given a book of colored reproductions by Paul Gauguin in Tahiti. From that time on she devoted herself to the single-minded pursuit painting Polynesians.

Often referred to as Hawai‘i’s Gauguin, Tennent was unswerving in her devotion to the beauty of the Hawaiian people with pen, brush and palette knife. (Walls)

She was active in Hawai’i from the 1930s to the 1960s. “The Hawaiians are really to me the most beautiful people in the world … no doubt about it – the Hawaiian is a piece of living sculpture.” (Tennent; HPA)

Tennent portrayed Hawaiian women as solidly fleshed and majestic – larger than life. Her method of working with impasto – applying thick layers of paint to achieve a graceful, perfectly balanced composition – is evident in ‘Lei Queen Fantasia.’

The paint is applied in whirls in what might be called the ‘Tennent whirl’ – the colors bright and luminous. Tennent envisioned Hawaiian Kings and Queens as having descended from Gods of heroic proportion, intelligent and brave, bearing a strong affinity to the Greeks in their legends and persons. (HPA)

Over the years she was very active in the arts community in Honolulu, taught frequent classes at the Honolulu Academy of Arts, and wrote for publication on art-related subjects. (Walls)

Just a few days before her death in 1972, Tennent summed up her philosophy of life and art for a newspaper reporter who interviewed her, frail and blind, at a private nursing home overlooking Diamond Head. He asked her …

“How does it feel, Mrs. Tennent, to have your genius publicly recognized during your lifetime?” … “Genius, baloney,” she muttered, with all the strength she could muster. “It was nothing but darn hard work.” (Walls)

Major collections of her work are found at the Honolulu Academy of Arts and the University of Hawaii. In 2005, Hawai’i Preparatory Academy’s Isaacs Art Center was chosen by the Trustees of the Tennent Art Foundation to become the caretaker of the collection. (HPA) Tennent died February 5, 1972.

October 24, 2026 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kiawe Corps

Following the annexation of the Republic of Hawai‘i by the United States in 1898, the US Army viewed the Islands in a strategic context. They were seen to be the advance outpost in the western defenses of the mainland United States. (Bennett)

Martial law was declared within hours of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and it lasted, with some modifications, for nearly three years, until October 24, 1944. (Densho)

After the Japanese attack on O‘ahu, the top army and navy commanders in Hawai‘i were seriously concerned about a possible invasion of the Hawaiian Islands. The two northernmost populated islands of O‘ahu and Kauai were the probable targets for such an enemy landing. (Bennett)

In general, all Hawai‘i residents were subjected to blackouts and gasoline and food rationing. Moreover, residents of Japanese ancestry, whose loyalty were questioned, were subjected to suspicion and scrutiny and were under the threat of internment.

Japanese culture was dismantled; language schools, religious institutions, and business and social associations were closed. (Kauai Historical Society)

The military shut down all 22 language schools and 14 other cultural associations on Kauai. Eight of 19 Buddhist temples were dissolved and five more were closed, leaving four licensed to operate and two in question. (Tom LaVenture; Discover Nikkei)

The Kauai Morale Committee of WWII served as the army’s liaison with the Japanese community on Kauai.

The goal of the committee was to alleviate fear and misunderstanding among the Japanese citizenry and to direct efforts toward the war effort and victory. (Kauai Historical Society)

During WWII, from June 1942 through 1944, the Kauai Kiawe Corps, a volunteer civilian labor battalion overwhelmingly composed of able-bodied persons of Japanese ancestry, assisted the Army in defense of Kauai.

They cleared kiawe thickets that could provide cover for possible invaders, strung barbed wire, built trails, opened areas for military camps, and helped build evacuation centers. (Soboleski)

“The Kiawe Commando corps was organized … by the Kauai morale committee to give Americans of Japanese ancestry and alien Japanese an opportunity to do actual work to assist in winning the war.” (SB, Jan 1, 1943)

“Work crews of more than 1,000 of us Japanese, including women and the elderly, turned out every Sunday to clear away the brush and undergrowth, primarily kiawe, between Kekaha and Mana on the west side of the island.”

“It was an area that the military suspected of being scouted as secret Japanese naval landing sites, due to the thick vegetation,” Ikito “Ike” Muraoka says. Clearing the brush made secret landings impossible.” (Kauai Stories)

“On Kauai, where the Kiawe Corps was a project of the Emergency Service Committee, the volunteers, most of whom were alien Japanese, continued the work for two years, giving an average of three Sundays a month for a total of 58,000 man-days.”

“In addition to hacking at brush with cane knives and burning the rubbish, they strung barbed wire, built trails, cleared areas for military camps, and helped build evacuation centers.” (Allen, Hawaii’s War Years)

“Volunteers also did much guard duty, they were primarily ‘last ditch soldiers,’ organized to repel an invasion.”

“Although volunteers who had trained for a war emergency never had to repel an invader, various groups were called to duty during air raid alarms and other alerts.”

“They also assisted following several wartime accidents.” (Allen, Hawaii’s War Years) (Other Islands also had their own Kiawe Corps.)

“The Army airfield which became Barking Sands Air Base (AB) in World War II was originally known as “Mana Airfield,” built on land acquired from the Knudsen family by Kekaha Sugar Company located nearby at Kekaha. The grassy airstrip first came into being around 1921.” (Bennett)

During the 1930s, Inter-Island Airways, later Hawaiian Airlines, served the airport. (Shettle) “The US Army acquired 549 acres, including the grass airstrip in 1941 which became “Mana Airport Military Reservation”.

“Additional land was acquired for a total of 2,058 acres. The airport experienced a great deal of military flight operations upon the onset of World War II.” (Bennett)

“The Army added 14 barracks and four mess halls. For the next two years, the Army continued to improve the airport by adding 23 revetments for heavy bombers and permanent accommodations for 1500 men.”

“When the Navy needed additional aircraft facilities in late 1943, the Army turned a portion of the base over to the Navy on January I, 1944. “

“Hawaiian Airlines continued to use the airport until 1949, when the Lihue Airport opened on the other side of the island. In 1954, the airfield was officially renamed Bonham [Air Force Base].” (Shettle)

ln 1962, the Navy officially commissioned the Pacific Missile Range Facility, Barking Sands and two year later, the Air Force transferred the ownership of the property to the Navy.” (Bennett)

There were many name changes for the facility: Mana Airport, Mana Airfield Military Reservation, Barking Sands Military Reservation, Kekaha Military Reservation, Barking Sands Airfield, Bonham Airfield, Bonham Air Force Base, Bonham Air Base, and Auxiliary Landing Field (ALF) Bonham.

By 2008, Pacific Missile Range Facility (PMRF) was the world’s largest instrumented multi-environment range capable of supporting surface, subsurface, air, and space operations simultaneously. (Hawaii Aviation)

October 23, 2026 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Tong Kee

During the spring of 1887, mounting dissatisfaction with government policies and private acts of officials led to the formation of the Hawaiian League, a group of Honolulu businessmen (largely, but not exclusively, haole (Caucasian.)) One issue they were particularly incensed by was the opium franchise bribery case, in which the King was implicated. (Forbes)

Initially the king, through his minister of foreign affairs, disclaimed any involvement. However, “To cap the climax of the opium matter, the Attorney General proceeds to acknowledge that the money was paid over by the Chinese …”

“(H)e informed the gentlemen interested in getting the money back that he would never accomplish his object so long as he allowed the newspaper to speak of the affair.”

“The Attorney General then sees that there is no use in denying the receipt of the money but suggests that if a quiet tongue is kept in the matter the cash received for the bribe may be returned.”

“This is a pretty piece of morality for the Attorney General to put forth and shows the obliquity of vision of all who are connected with the government.” (Hawaiian Gazette, May 17, 1887)

The Aki scandal was one of the events that mobilized many of the haole residents to organize and establish an armed body. (Lim-Chong & Ball) The Hawaiian League came into control of the Honolulu Rifles (made of about 200 armed men.)

On the afternoon of June 30, 1887, the league held a mass meeting during which they presented a list of reforms they intended to submit to the king. Among them were demands that the king dismiss his cabinet, and that Walter Murry Gibson be dismissed of ‘each and every office held by him.’

After that was accomplished, in July 1887, King Kalākaua was induced to promulgate a new constitution, known as the “Bayonet Constitution of 1887.” (Forbes)

Let’s look back …

Celso Caesar Moreno, a professional lobbyist well known in Sacramento and Washington, DC, arrived in Honolulu on the China Merchant Steam Navigation Company’s ship ‘Ho-chung’ in November 1879.

One week later, he invited King Kalākaua, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Royal Chamberlain aboard the steamer to meet Fan Yau Ki, a wealthy Chinese industrialist. One of the things Moreno was looking for was the liberalization of Hawai‘i’s strict opium laws. He advocated making Honolulu the opium processing and distribution center for the whole Pacific.

An opium bill was passed providing for a license for four years, to be granted by the minister of the interior with the consent of the King. (Reports of Committee on Foreign Relations)

Early in November, 1886, Junius Kaae, (who has access to the King,) informed a Chinese rice planter named Tong Kee, alias Aki, that he could have the opium license granted to him if he would pay the sum of $60,000 to the King’s private purse …”

“… but that he must be in haste because other parties were bidding for the privilege. (Executive Documents US House of Representatives, 1895)

In a later affidavit, Tong Kee (Aki) described what happened …

“I met Junius Kaae in the street and he spoke to me in Hawaiian and said ‘Do you not want the opium license?’ I replied ‘Yes, perhaps so,’ and asked him how it could be obtained. He said he could help me. A few days after this I went to the Record Office with some documents for record.”

“While there, he took me outside of the door and spoke of the matter again saying ‘I can help you about it and will push it until you get it but it will take a great deal of money. Several people have been to me to help them but he who takes money to the king, and a great deal of it, will get the license.’”

First, “I was to get 20,000 … I went to look for the King (and) found him in the Palace. I then went in and handed him a letter … He read it laughed and said ‘Where is that money?’”

“I replied that it was outside in a carriage so we … walked outside upon one of the verandas – when he looked around and seeing a good many people about, said, ‘It won’t do now, come again at six this evening with your money.’”

“We … then went to the King’s office in the Bungalow and carried the basket (‘heavy with gold’) … Kaae … asked where the money was. It having been pointed out to him he took a key from his pocket unlocked and opened a drawer in the Kings table …”

“… into which he put all of the gold and certificates locked the drawer again and put the key into his pocket. I asked for a receipt but he refused saying that it would be all right that if I did not get the license all of the money would be returned”.

“The next day Kaae came to the house and said that he and the King had counted over the money the evening before and that it was short of $20,000 by $2.50 so I handed that to him in silver.”

“I then set about raising the last $40,000 … Upon the 7th of December … I went … to the Palace and handed the King in person a check for $10,000 …”

“The King took the check looked at it and put it in his pocket. … The same day Kaae came to me with the check and said as he handed it back, that I must draw the money as it would not do to have any checks – that the King said that by and by people would find out about it and it would be all exposed.”

Tong Kee then delivered ‘a large package of certificates’ ($10,000 in cash.) Kaae “then urged me very strongly about getting the remaining $30,000.” Tong Hee then brought more money. “The King then invited us into the office. We entered and presented him with a letter … and said ‘Where is the money?’” They were invited into the King’s office.

“The King went into a door on the Ewa side of the room mauka end … (we) put the baskets on the floor near the door – but the King said, ‘No, not there,’ and going to a trunk unlocked and opened it and then taking out some quilts … (we were) told to put the money in there.”

They laid the bags in the trunk; “The King laid back the quilts closed and locked the trunk and put the key in his pocket. … We were then dismissed.”

“Very soon after this Kaae came to my house – others were there. He looked angy or disturbed. He said, ‘The King has shown me a letter from John S Walker, in which he said that Kwong Sam Kee had been to him and wanted him to assist them about an opium license. That they offered $75,000 for it’ … Now what do you think, Aki? If you don’t give more money, Kwong Sam Kee will get that license!’”

“We went to the Bungalow (with more money) and waited on the same veranda as formerly … The King came soon and we presented the pig which caused him a smile of pleasure. … He asked where the money was and on seeing it entered into conversation about the license.”

“Seeing people about I suggested that the money had better be put away. He then sent off a Lelewa woman who was sweeping and himself carried the basket into the same room where the $30,000 had been put. This $15,000 was mostly in US gold but it contained some certificates and the whole was in a basket.”

“(W)e went away but I first asked him when the license would be issued to me. He replied that it must be done in regular course through the Ministers as by law required that there would be a meeting very soon and he promised to help me about it.”

Tong Kee was later informed that Chun Lung was getting the opium license. The King informed him that he would have a share in the license. “The King finally said that he had arranged it that the license had fifteen shares in all – that Chung Lung was to have five, I was to have five and he was to keep five himself.”

“Fearing that I should lose all my money I agreed to this proposition on condition that part of my money was returned. I said that as $75,000 were paid to the King for the whole license and I was only to have a third that $50,000 should be returned and the King might keep $25,000.”

“But he gave no definite answer to this at that time but said it was to be arranged by and by after the whole matter was adjusted.” But resolution was uncertain “it appealing that he (Kalākaua) was constantly shifting his ground.”

“I asked the King to return me all of my money and drop the whole thing. He exclaimed that this could not be done that it was all understood and arranged about the division of the license and could not be changed.”

“I insisted on the return of my money. He finally seemed to assent to this and intimated that by and by he would pay me back when they paid in their money. I do not know who he meant but inferred from what had been said that he meant the opium licensee.” (Affidavit of T Aki (Tong Kee;) Hawaiian Gazette, May 31, 1887)

Just when it seemed that Aki himself was about to come forward and make a statement … he died under mysterious circumstances. It was widely believed that he was poisoned.” (Zambucka)

The King’s disastrous financial affairs were then placed in the hands of trustees. Aki’s estate petitioned for return of what he paid Kalākaua.

On September 21, 1888, Judge Preston decided, “the claim against the defendants for the sum of $71,000 is established as just and correct within the meaning of the deed of trust in the bill mentioned and that the complainants are entitled to be paid pro rata with other approved claims …”

“… and order defendants (Kalākaua’s trustees) to pay the same accordingly out of the moneys which may have come to their hands under the trust of the said deed …” (Zambucka)

The Aki scandal was one of the events that mobilized Kalākaua’s enemies to secretly plot his downfall and ultimately led to the 1887 Constitution, known as the ‘Bayonet Constitution,’ which took away much of the king’s power. (IslandExpat)

October 21, 2026 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kapaka

Hanohano ʻia home aʻo Kapaka
E kipa aʻe e nā pua a ka lehulehu
Ka nehe o ke kai lana mālie
Ke ʻala līpoa e moani nei
A ʻike i ka nani o Kaliʻuwaʻa
Ka beauty aʻo Sacred Falls aʻu i aloha
Hoʻi au i ka home o nā Makua
Nanea e hauʻoli me nā hoaloha
Puana kuʻu mele no Kapaka
E kipa aʻe e nā pua a ka lehulehu

Proud are we of our home, Kapaka
Where there is welcome for all
The lapping of the sea is gentle
The fragrance of seaweed is in the air
Behold the splendor of Kaliʻuwaʻa
The beauty of Sacred Falls, that I love
I go to the home of my parents
To relax and be happy with loved ones
My song is a story for Kapaka
Where there is welcome for all
(Home Kapaka – Mary Pukui, music by Maddy Lam (Huapala))

Kapaka is an ahupuaʻa in Koʻolauloa on the windward coast of Oʻahu. (23-ahupua‘a (traditional land division) make up the district of Koʻolauloa.) Kapaka (the tobacco) takes its name from the crop that was once grown there. (Huapala)

The Islands grew “four different kinds of tobacco … some of them are much better than others”. (Royal Hawaiian Agricultural Society, 1854)

First, native tobacco – when tobacco was first introduced into these islands, there were two kinds cultivated by the natives, one with a large round leaf, and the other with a smaller and more pointed one.

Second, there were some plants from seeds introduced from Havana by Robert C Wyllie. Both in appearance and flavor, the tobacco bears a strong resemblance to the broad-leafed native kind, and none but one well acquainted with tobacco, could distinguish them.

Third, there were a few plants from seed sent us by William L Lee, procured by him from the NYSA Society. It has a very small, round and fine leaf, and a superior tobacco.

Fourth, seed sent by John Montgomery; the plant is so different from any other we have seen, that it was suppose it was from Manila. (Royal Hawaiian Agricultural Society, 1854)

Later, “Cooperative experiments with tobacco have been conducted on the island of Hawaii with the object of producing a type of tobacco that is especially adapted to Hawaiian conditions.” (USDA; Pacific Commercial Advertiser, December 19. 1904)

Kapaka was an ahupuaʻa anomaly in that a ‘lele’ of Kapaka is situated in the adjoining ahupuaʻa of Kaluanui. Lele (’jumps’) are distinct sections of land in different parts of an ahupuaʻa (in this case, the Lele of Kapaka ‘jumped’ to a portion of the adjoining ahupuaʻa.)

“The district of Koʻolauloa is of considerable extent along the sea coast, but the arable land is generally embraced in a narrow strip between the mountains and the sea, varying in width from one half to two or three miles.”

“Several of the vallies are very fertile, and many tracts of considerable extent are watered by springs which burst out from the banks at a sufficient elevation to be conducted over large fields, and in a sufficient quantity to fill many fish ponds and taro patches.” (Hall, 1839; Maly)

“Lele o Kapaka” contained approximately 6.75 acres, and by its location on the kula of Kaluanui, it was presumably used for agricultural production, perhaps lo‘i kalo or lo‘i ‘ai (taro pond fields,) irrigated by the system of ʻauwai which early land accounts describe as being on the kula lands. (Maly)

On January 28, 1848, King Kamehameha III and William Charles Lunalilo agreed to their Māhele ‘Āina, and as a result, the ahupua‘a of Kapaka, including the Lele o Kapaka, was kept by Lunalilo.

In 1864 and 1894 various leases were granted that encumbered Kapaka and the lele o Kapaka. Those leases noted, a thatched “house standing on the land … likewise, the pa (wall or fence) surrounding the land (were to be maintained.)”

Likewise, the tenant may “cut and collect the mikinolia, guava, and hau trees for fire-wood and fencing, and the hau bark to be used as cordage, from places pointed out (and) may also release six animals upon the Kula, under the direction of the Luna Paniolo.” The latter lease allowed cultivation of rice on the Lele land. (Ulukau)

Lunalilo followed Kamehameha V as King of Hawai‘i; when he died in 1874, income from the sale of his lands was used to fund development and operation of the Lunalilo Home for elderly Hawaiians.

October 15, 2026 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Objets d’art

Honolulu’s first neon sign flickered to life on February 19, 1929, with the opening of Gump’s Waikiki an antiques and home furnishing store. (Honolulu) The third oldest structure in Waikiki, Gump’s was one of the first retail shops in Waikiki.

S & G Gump was founded in San Francisco in 1861 as a mirror and frame shop by Solomon Gump and his brother, Gustav. It later sold mouldings, gilded cornices and European artwork to those recently made wealthy from the California Gold Rush.

With the beginning of a new century, the Gump brothers handed over the reins to Solomon’s son, Alfred Livingston Gump. Soon thereafter, the San Francisco earthquake of 1906 forced AL, as he was known, to rebuild and restock the store.

He looked to the Far East for new inspiration, sending buyers to Japan and China to find exotic rugs, porcelain, silks, bronzes and jade. Among the most prized acquisitions, a Ch’ing Dynasty gilded wood Buddha, still gazes serenely over the first floor of Gump’s. It remains the largest of its kind outside of a museum.

By the 1920s, San Francisco was roaring right along with the rest. Gump’s and The City had become intertwined – the store synonymous with San Francisco in its elegance, worldly style and maverick spirit. (Gumps)

Back in the Islands, as tourism began to develop in the 1920s and 30s, people saw commercial possibilities for Waikiki. One of the most endearing was the Honolulu branch of S&G Gump Company of San Francisco.

Asian design elements were beginning to influence architecture in Hawai‘i, and the merging of these motifs and Western forms became visible in the Gump Building, as well as the Alexander & Baldwin Building on Bishop Street in Downtown Honolulu and the Honolulu Museum of Art.

In 1927, Hawai’i architect Hart Wood was commissioned to design this new outpost perfectly located between the Far East and the West.

The store opened in 1929, across the street from the recently completed Royal Hawaiian Hotel, to cater to the affluent traveler and Honolulu elite. It carried an aura of class and provided products from around the world to Hawai’i’s doorstep, presenting tourists and residents with an ornately appointed atmosphere filled with ancient and modern objet d’art. (Oahu Publications)

In Mr. Wood’s work there is a notable lack of the garishness, over-ornamentation and ‘weirdness’ too often loosely associated with Oriental architecture. His roofs curve, it is true, but only slightly; colored tiles are used, but in a restrained manner.

“The insertion of a grill of plaster in a plain stucco wall, the design and size being in walls are of stucco, quite plain, the roofs of tile, the whole effect one of substantial simplicity. The only difference lies in the details of ornamentation, mostly about the doors and windows.”

“One of the more noticeable of these decorative details is found in the designs of iron grill work, leaded windows, balcony railings and like places. Chinese designs are geometrical, mostly coordinated squares keeping with the medium, offers one of the most charming forms of decoration imaginable.”

“The introduction of color by the use of tiles is interesting also, not only in tiling for the roof, but inset in the walls as decoration. Where wood is used, natural teak is preferred, and the pillars are simply slender round columns with a characteristic cross bar treatment at the top.”

“An outstanding example of such a building is the branch shop at Waikiki of the S & G Gump Company of San Francisco. It is of two story, concrete construction of pleasing design.”

“The walls are of white stucco, the gutters, leaders and leader heads are of antique copper verde, and the plaster grills as mentioned before, it proves a particularly effective way to use this form of decoration.”

“Gateway openings in the walls are of quaint and unusual design, one of them being a ‘moon gate’ which is shown in one of the illustrations. The circle motif appears again in one of the slightly curving roof of imperial blue tiles.”

“This brilliant blue is a favorite roof color in China and one that blends well with the blue of the sub-tropical sky. No other colors than this blue, jade and white appeal in the building, except the dark teakwood pillars of the entrance and railings of the several balconies.”

“A white plaster wall incloses three courtyards, and these walls are pierced by windows of the shop. All the windows show the geometrical design in the shape of the panes or in grills. Balcony railings are also geometrical.” (The Architect & Engineer, October 1929)

Back then, it was a two-story white building standing virtually alone on Kalākaua Avenue. It is an example of the architecture of Hawai‘i’s pre-War territorial period, 1898-1941, when the sugar and pineapple industries were operating at full tilt.

A number of distinctive buildings were constructed during those years, adapting features of Asian, Mediterranean or European styles that suited Hawai‘i’s tropical climate, including large openings to catch the trade winds, wide eaves and often a double-pitched hipped roof.

The first commercial perfume successfully made in Hawaiʻi from local island flowers (pikake, pink plumeria and fern lei – each sold in hand-carved wooden bottles) was introduced in January 1935 at the Gump’s store in Waikiki. (Schmitt)

If the Gump family had a vision of the potential for shopping along Kalākaua Avenue, they were decades ahead of their time. Even in the 1950s and early 1960s, Kalākaua Avenue was not a center of high-end retail sales.

February 24, 1951 Gump’s announced it will close its Waikiki store after 25 years of business in Honolulu. The store was closed to settle the estate of AL Gump.

It was not until the 1980s, with the arrival of waves of visitors from Japan, that a significant number of other high-end shops, comparable to Gump’s, sprang up in Waikīkī.

In fact, the Gump building in Waikīkī was converted into a McDonald’s restaurant (in the 1970s or 1980s.) With the boom that began in the late-1980s, it was sold in 1991 to a corporate affiliate of high-end retailer Louis Vuitton Malletier of Paris, refurbished and, in 1992, rededicated to retail. (Kelley)