Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young 1 Comment

The Mess

Early Honolulu was not a city of Clubs; although residents of various nationalities had started several, their existence has not been of long duration. The British, Germans and Americans each had their respective club houses.

In 1852, the British first opened their “Mess” rooms (it was not called a “Club” back then;) it started in a one-story wooden building off of Maunakea street, which was reached by a lane leading to the rear of the premises known as Liberty Hall (also known as Bugle Alley.)

The original Mess consisted of fourteen members; they were Stephen Spencer, WA Cooper, SH Cooper, Robert Moffitt, Dr Richard H Smythe, James E Chapman, JK Dallison, William Webster, John Janion, Charles Gordon Hopkins, H Fosbrooke, James Almon and Thomas Harding.

William L Green was the head of the Mess; he was prominent in official, civic and social life, and was for a time acting British Commissioner and Consul General, and President of the Chamber of Commerce of Honolulu.

The Mess was what might have been termed “movable” property; about 2-years after its Maunakea Street location, it moved to an old building on Alakea Street, and moved again to a building on Adams Lane.

In 1861, the Mess moved from Adams Lane further up the road to a 2-story building (that had been originally built for a club house) facing on Union street.

Mess membership declined down to only 4 in 1865; through the persistent efforts of two of these four members, the Mess was kept together and in a few months later had regained its strength.

By July 1867, the Mess had more members and was renamed “The British Club.”  Member subscriptions were sought, so the club could purchase its own premises.

Fifteen members (some of Honolulu’s notables of the day) subscribed to the purchase fund: Stephen Spencer, Archibald S Cleghorn, H Prendergast, Robert Moffitt, J Bollman, Thomas Cummins, James I Dowsett, Wm L Green, John Ritson, HA Widemann, John Montgomery, Robert Stirling, John O Dominis, Dr FW Hutchinson and Dr Robert McKibbin.

A charter of incorporation under the name of “The British Club” was granted in 1879; charter members were Thomas Cummins, Henry May and Archibald S Cleghorn.

Club life in the earlier days was somewhat different to what it is now; the club house was used as a home where members spent their evenings in a social manner and receiving their friends.

This club has had the honor of entertaining several distinguished and prominent visitors during its existence; among them was the Duke of Edinburgh, who visited Hawaii in 1869.

Kings Kamehameha IV & V were frequent visitors to the club; Kalākaua and his brother Leleiōhoku, were reportedly members, as were members of the diplomatic corps.

At one time, a faction of Club members considered selling their property and leasing the “Paki” premises, formerly the home of Bernice Pauahi Bishop and Charles R Bishop (also known as the Arlington Hotel.)  The move was overruled.

Later, the Club purchased the former Cleghorn property on Emma Street (Princess Kaʻiulani, daughter of the Cleghorns, was born there in 1875.)  Another prior owner was James Campbell, who bought the home from the Cleghorns and lived there for a number of years.

The Club later merged with the University Club (1930.)  Organized in 1905, the University Club was an exclusive association that admitted members who had graduated from recognized Universities, including military academies.

The club was “an organization that would tend to cement the business interests of Hawaiʻi,” it soon evolved into a business center that provided meeting, reading, entertainment and dining room facilities to its members and to groups with business connections.  (ASCE)

In 1961, a new club house was built; it was designed by Vladimir Ossipoff (he received a Hawaiʻi Society AIA award for its design.)

To keep the Club going, while at the same time constructing the new structure, they built the new around the old (losing only one day of Club operations during the final construction/move.  The lawn and terrace mark where the old club house once stood.)

Starting as a Gentlemen’s club (for whites,) the racial policy was scrapped in 1968 (Philip Ching and Asa Akinaka joined the club;) in 1983 (under a threat of legislative action,) the Club voted to admit women (in 1984, Andrea L Simpson was the first woman member.)

Oh, in 1892, “British” in the club’s name was changed to “Pacific.” At that time, the older members of the club were outvoted by the newer and later members. (The members at the time of the renaming it “The Pacific Club” had representatives of several nationalities.)  The Pacific Club is the oldest organization of its kind in the United States west of the Mississippi River. (Lots of info here from Thrum.)

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Gardens of the World Highway

“In 1945 Governor Ingram Stainback requested that Director of Institutions, Thomas B. Vance, concentrate his efforts on developing self-supporting prison industries.”

“The industries established had to be almost entirely in noncompetitive fields and organized such that specific responsibilities, in the nature of long or short term contracts, could be given to the prisoners.”

“With that in mind, Kulani Prison Camp opened in 1945 as the successor to Waiakea Prison Camp, operated a lumbering enterprise producing logs and milled lumber of native hardwoods as materials to be processed and sold from Oahu Prison’s industrial area.”   (Department of Institutions Summary 1939-1958)

The development of Kulani Camp and its means of access, the Stainback Highway, fell under the management of Vance. (Maly)

“Also established were agricultural, horticultural, and floricultural programs built around temperate zone crops, with the emphasis on crops not grown locally (apples, plums, dahlias, etc.).”

“Kulani … provided a reservoir of manpower for the construction of public roads on Hawaii …. – roads that would have been economically prohibitive if built under contract.”  (Department of Institutions Summary 1939-1958)

Vance wanted to build a road to the top of Mauna Loa.  (The reason Mr. Vance gave for choosing Mauna Loa was the resources of the Kulani area.)

A road like that didn’t command the funds necessary for ordinary people to do the job.  Territorial law did not authorize appropriations for building roads by prison labor, but after some cajoling by Mr. Vance, the legislature allowed him to make labor available to nonprofit community service organizations.

In 1949, Vance went to the Lions Clubs of Hawaii and the Hilo Lions was specifically chartered to build a road to the summit of Mauna Loa.  The Lions held their convention in Honolulu in the spring and came up with $300 for the project.

With this amount and other Lions Clubs’ money and some Mr. Vance had collected by selling small lava rocks from the slopes of Mauna Loa for a dollar apiece to anyone coming into his office.

He made nine miles of road above Kulani which became a show place.  Contractors kept in contact to find out when a machine operator might be up for release so that they could hire him.

Funds were finally appropriated for building roads on most of the islands by Mr. Vance’s people.  Actually, the inmates began to thin out with so many projects and civil service employees of the group, called instructors, not guards, did most of the work, helping with unemployment problems.

The US Secretary of Interior visited Hilo that year.  Vance so enthralled him with another scheme he had that it was agreed to.  This was the double idea of having short ski runs scrapped out on the lava fields up near the summit and having some of the “wayward boys” brought out of the institutions and given Park Service shirts and hats and have them act as ski guides and teachers when the snow came.

This, he said would restore a sense of purpose to these youths.  The ski runs were just leveled off places at about 10,000 feet where one could use anything to slide on the snow like an old piece of roofing metal which was stacked for this purpose nearby. (Ellis)

In 1951, a weather station was set up by the Weather Bureau near the summit of Mauna Loa mountain on the island of Hawaii.  An instrumented building was dedicated there as the Mauna Loa Observatory on December 12. (Ellis)

Also in 1951, members of the East Hawaiʻi business community approached Vance with a proposal meant to draw visitors to the Island of Hawaiʻi. The proposal was for the development of the “Gardens of the World Highway.”

As proposed, the highway would ascend the slopes of Mauna Loa, ending at the summit, near Mokuʻāweoweo. The idea was enthusiastically adopted by Vance, and supported by Governor Stainback. (Maly)

“When completed it will enable motorists to travel rapidly from a tropical wonderland through the projected Gardens of the World planned by the Hilo Women’s club, up to the 13,000 foot reaches of Mauna Loa into the atmosphere reminiscent of Lake Placid, NY.”

“Mr Vance said this road will serve two major purposes, each of which encompasses other secondary values. Running to the rim of Mokuaweoweo crater, it will, first of all, open up a winter sports area for the territory.  From this would emerge an advertising and promotional value that would add to Hawaii’s fame as a resort area.”

“Ice skaters in grass skirts or snowball fights amid the palms are just fantastic enough to grip the public imagination.”

“But even though they sound unreal, they are in the process of coming to reality.”

“Not that such frivolous activities would in themselves justify the road now being pushed up the side of Mauna Loa on the Big Island.”

“But they will be a couple of the many by-products of the project to heighten tourist interest in the territory.”

“This was the substance if the report by Thomas B Vance, director of territorial institutions, yesterday.  Mr Vance appeared before the territorial affairs committee of the Honolulu Chamber of Commerce.” (Star-bulletin, October 18, 1951)

“A garden of the world, to stretch from Hilo to the summit of Mauna Loa, was discussed at the business meeting of the Hilo Woman’s club yesterday afternoon at YWCA activities building.”

“The highly imaginative plan with its practical basis as a big boost to the tourist industry was endorsed by the Woman’s club.”

“A group of citizens, including Mrs Leo Lycurgus, chairman of the Woman’s club outdoor committee, Thomas Vance, head of the department of institutions, and persons interested in both the Kulani project and the beautification of the Hilo area had met informally at Hilo hotel and formulated the idea, which was written for the presentation to the Woman’s club and will be sent to all other civic groups here.”

“The garden, according to the plan, would follow the path the new Mauna Loa highway.  Since the climate varies as the highway progresses up the mountain, the plan pointed out that ‘flowers from Argentine to the Arctic could flourish in the various sections of the area.’”

“The soon-to-be-completed Hilo waterfront area would be the base of the world garden while sectors near Hilo and the Panaewa forest reserve could be used for the long-talked-about botanical garden of island flowers.”

“Next would come an area of tropical trees, the flowering plumeria, the purple-budded jacquaranda, and the red African tulip.  All these would be interspersed with the lush native tropical jungles which now border the highway.  Flowers from temperate and cold climates would be planted at their proper growing levels.”

“Mrs. Lycurgus, who presented the plan to the Woman’s club, explained that ‘while it is a visionary idea which will take years of work before it can be completely realized, the plan for a garden of the world on the Big Island is a possibility.’”

“She said that the labor in planting and upkeep could be partially done by utilizing the prisoners at Kulani.  In addition, she pointed out that the Hawaii Vocational school is beginning landscape courses and the training of professional work and set up a new profession on the island.”

“‘The big thing is the impetus such a garden would give us to the tourist industry,” Mrs Lycurgus declared.”

“‘People have gone to visit beautiful gardens all over the world.  A great deal of interest would be generated by a long drive in which would be combined all the types of gardens throughout the world.’”

“‘We’ve always complained about the rains of Hilo,’ she continued.  ‘Yet this idea offers us an opportunity to harness the fain for our benefit, to make it produce some of the world’s best flowers in the world’s most varied and all-inclusive garden.’”  (Hawaii Tribune Herald, March 15, 1951)

Nina Lycurgus subsequently stated that the project was the work of many people and organization, and should not be solely attributed to her.

“I was not the originator of this wonderful Mauna Loa project.  For many years the women of Hilo. Always interested in plans for beautifying their city, have supported and sponsored projects for beautification, and this idea for the Mauna Loa gardens is the final result to which many people and organizations have contributed. “

“The Lions club in particular has already started with their silversword gardens on Mauna Loa.” (Nina (Mrs Leo) Lycurgus, Star-bulletin, March 24, 1951)

By 1954, the Territory had spent about $100,000 for the road above 10,000 feet and had not gotten very close to either the “Gardens of the World,” a “snow road,” or a drive in volcano, not to mention the employment opportunities that had been expected. (Ellis)

On June 28, 1956, a larger building at 11,150 feet was dedicated as the Mauna Loa Slope Observatory, which in time became known as the Mauna Loa Observatory.

Mr. Vance was administrator of the Hilo Hospital from 1960 through 1965.  He and the Hilo Lions Club were active in supporting the observatory from their strong political base during this period.  (Ellis)

They, ultimately, did rough grade a road from Kulani to the top of Mauna Loa; however, “the three-hour ride up the road was enough to shake out what little enthusiasm they might have had.”

A four-mile link to the Saddle Road was made and opened on April 27, 1963.  Thereafter, this was the route used to get to the observatory, with the road through Kulani not being used for this purpose anymore.

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by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Sliver of a Building

In 1841, on the makai side of the road (Merchant Street,) from Nuʻuanu to Kaʻahumanu Street (now the breezeway through the Harbor Court,) were empty lots, with blocks of coral for fences near the corner of Merchant and Fort streets, on the makai side of the street, were the premises of Mr. William French.  (Maly)

French first came to Hawaiʻi in 1819.  He settled in Honolulu and established himself as a leading trader. Financial success during the next decade made French known as “the merchant prince.”  He also had property in Kawaihae, on the Island of Hawaiʻi.  There, in 1835, French hired John Parker as bookkeeper, cattle hunter and in other capacities.  (Wellmon)

John Parker later purchased 640-acres (1850,) then another 1,000-acres (1851) and leased land in the Waikoloa region from Kamehameha III – these formed the foundation for the future Parker Ranch.

By 1840, French made numerous shipments of live cattle to Honolulu. These cattle were fattened in the pasture close to Waimea then driven to Kawaihae and transported to Honolulu to supply the numerous whaling ships that visited the port each fall.  (Wellmon)

French’s Honolulu premises extended from Kaʻahumanu to Fort Street, surrounded by a high picket fence with some hau trees standing just within the line of the fence. The building was quite a sizable one of wood, with a high basement and large trading rooms above. Mr. French was one of the oldest residents and a person of considerable influence.  (Maly)

The property was sold to James Austin, who sold it in 1882 to James Campbell, who owned the adjacent land on the Diamond Head side (fronting Fort Street.)  He built the “Campbell Block,” a large building that included uses such as storage, shops and offices.

Merchant Street was once the main street of the financial and governmental functions in the city, and was Honolulu’s earliest commercial center.  Dating from 1854, the remaining historic buildings along this road help tell the story of the growth and development of Honolulu’s professional and business community.

A great deal of the economic and political history of Hawaiʻi was created and written by the previous occupants of these buildings. Ranging from banks to bars and post office to newspapers, they have paid silent witness to the creation of present day Hawaiʻi.  (NPS)

Today, we still see these remnants of the past:  Melchers (1854,) the oldest commercial building in Honolulu; Kamehameha V Post Office (1871;) Bishop Bank (1878,) now known as the Harriet Bouslog Building; The Friend Building (1887 and 1900,) the site of the Oʻahu Bethel Church established in 1837; Royal Saloon (1890,) now Murphy’s; TR Foster Building (1891,) forerunner to Hawaiian Airlines;  Bishop Estate Building (1896;) Stangenwald Building (1901,) the tallest structure in Hawaiʻi until 1950; Judd Building (1898;) Yokohama Specie Bank (1909) and Honolulu Police Station (1931,) one of the earliest police forces in the world, dating to 1834.

Then, in 1902, near tragedy struck when “One of the hardest fights in the history of the Honolulu Fire Department was experienced Saturday afternoon, when a fire broke out in the middle of the Hawaiian Hardware Company’s warehouse.  For two hours the whole block bounded by Merchant and Queen, Fort and Kaahumanu streets, was in danger.” (Hawaiian Star, August 25, 1902)

“The fire is said to have been caused by an accident with gasoline in the warehouse. An order for gasoline for Young Bros. launch had been received and was being filled.”  (Hawaiian Star, August 25, 1902)

The Campbell Block survived (at least that fire.)

Then, on October 11, 1964, the Sunday Star-Bulletin and Advertiser noted, “Office-Parking Building Planned by Campbell Estate on Fort Street.”

Plans called for a combined office and parking structure to replace the 2-story Campbell Block on Fort and Merchants Streets; this new building was considered an important part of the redevelopment of downtown Honolulu.  (Adamson)   The new building was completed in May 1967.

So, the Campbell Block is gone … well, sort of.

You see, a fragment of the Campbell Block remains.  It was interconnected with the adjoining Bishop Estate Building and removing it all would harm its neighbor; so, a part was retained in-place.

As you walk down Merchant Street, between Fort and Bethel (across from the Pioneer Plaza loading and parking structure access,) take a look at the (now obvious) sliver of a building; it was once the Campbell Block (and the area of the former establishment of merchant William French.)

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by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Kona in the Early 1820s and 1830s

Artemas Bishop and his family were first permanently stationed at Kailua, Hawaii, in 1824, being transferred to Ewa, Oahu, in 1836, and to Honolulu in 1855, where Mr. Bishop died, Dec. 18, 1872.

Mrs. Bishop died at Kailua, Feb. 28, 1828, the first death in the mission band. She left two infant children, including Sereno Edwards Bishop, who was born at Ka‘awaloa, Hawaii, Feb. 7, 1827. The following are some of Bishop’s “Reminiscences of Old Hawaii” that he included in his book named such.

“Kailua In The 1820s … Kailua was the capital of the Island. It is situated on the west coast, twelve miles north of Kealakekua, where Captain Cook perished. It lies at the base of the great mountain Hualalai, 8,275 feet high.”

“The entire coast consists of lava flows from that mountain, of greater or less age. Here and there in the village were small tracts of soil on the lava, where grew a few cocoanut, kou, and pandanus trees.”

“There were no gardens, for lack of water. Heat and general aridity characterized the place. But it pleased the natives, on account of the broad calm ocean, the excellent fishing, and the splendid rollers of surf on which they played and slid all day.”

“North of the town, the whole region seemed to be occupied by an ocean of black billowy lava which at some recent period had flowed down from the mountain. This bounded that end of the village.”

“A vast breadth of this lava-sea had invaded the ocean for miles, beyond the older shore line of Kailua. A wide tongue of lava had bent around and partially enclosed the little cove with its deep sand beach where was the chief landing of the town.”

“Surfing And Canoes … This was a universal sport of the chiefs and common people alike. The ponderous chiefs had very large boards of light wood.”

“In the Bishop Museum may be seen today an immense surf board of the cork-like wili-wili wood, on which the famous Paki used to disport himself at Lahaina fifty years ago. I doubt whether Kuakini, with his 500 pounds, was agile enough to attempt it.”

“In handling canoes the natives were most adroit. Kona, with its great koa forests inland abounded in canoes. There were no boats. The people were skilled fishermen and often went many miles to sea, in pursuit of the larger deep-deep-sea fish.”

“A name given to Mt. Hualalai behind us, was “Kilo-waa,” or Canoe-descrier. The canoes were of elaborate form and smoothness. Most of them were single canoes with outriggers. Many large ones, however, were rigged double, six or eight feet apart, with a high platform between them.”

“All the fastenings were of carefully plaited sinnet or cocoanut fiber, the lashings being laid with great care and skill. The mast was stepped in the platform. The common people had mat sails. Those of Kuakini’s canoes were of sail-duck.”

“Appearance Of Chiefs And People … The relative rank of other natives could be approximately estimated by their stature and corpulence. There were quite a number of large fat men and women of some rank among our neighbors.”

“The leading women met weekly at our house, most of them wearing the lei-pa-Iaoa, consisting of a thick bunch of finely plaited hair passed through a large hole in a hooked polished piece of whale-tooth, and tied around the neck, forming an insignium of rank.”

“They also carried small kahilis to brush away the flies. Any chief of high rank was attended by one or more fly-brushers, by a spittoon-bearer, and other personal attendants.”

“The spittoon holder was the most honored, being responsible to let none of the spittle fall into the possession of an evil-minded sorcerer, who might compass the death of the Alii therewith. Broad, elastic cocoanut leaf fans were in constant play.”

“Hawking and spitting were continued in any gathering of natives, and were apt seriously to disturb public worship at church. But the great crowd of the common people were miserably lean, and often very squalid in appearance. “

“They were too much in the sea to appear filthy, although the heads of both high and low were thoroughly infested. It was a daily spectacle to see them picking over each other’s heads for dainties. Their vicinity rendered necessary the frequent use of a fine-toothed comb on us children, much to our discomfort. But I believe our ancestors at no remote period were little better off.”

“Styles Of Clothing … The common multitude wore no foreign cloth. Their few garments were wholly of tapa. The younger women were rarely seen uncovered beyond decency, although old crones went about with the pa-u only. The smaller children had nothing on. The men always wore the half-decent malo, and nothing more.”

“At meetings, they wore the little kihei, or shoulder cape. Before 1836, simple cotton shirts would not unfrequently be seen in the church. I never saw but two Hawaiians wearing trousers in Kailua. One was Kuakini and the other Thomas Hopu, from the Cornwall School, who came out with Bingham and Thurston.”

“The national female costume was the pa-u, which was worn by all at all times. It was a yard wide strip of bark-cloth wound quite tightly around the hips reaching from the waist to the knees, and secured at the waist by folding over the edges. Foreign cloth was also used. At one great ceremonial, a queen had her body rolled up in a pa-u of one hundred yards of rich satin.”

“Sources Of Drinking Water … The drinking water of the people was very brackish, from numerous caves which reached below the sea level.”

“The white people, and some chiefs had their water from up the mountain where were numerous depressions in the lava, full of clear, sweet rain water.”

“There were also many tunnel-caves, the channels of former lava-streams. The air from the sea, penetrating these chill caverns, deposited its moisture, and much distilled water filled the holes in the floor.”

“Sometimes the fine rootlets of ohia-trees penetrating from above, festooned the ceilings of these dark lava-ducts as with immense spider webs. If in a dry season, water was lacking on the open ground, it could always be found higher up on the mountain in such caves.”

“Twice a week one of our ohuas or native dependants went up the mountain with two huewai, or calabash bottles, suspended by nets from the ends of his mamaki or yoke, similar to those used by Chinese vegetable venders.”

“These he filled with sweet water and brought home, having first covered the bottles with fresh ferns, to attest his having been well inland. The contents of the two bottles filled a five-gallon demijohn twice a week.”

“Source Of Food Supply … The people had ample cultivable land in the moist upland from two to four miles inland at altitudes of one thousand to twenty-five hundred feet.”

“It is a peculiarity of that Kona coast that while the shore may be absolutely rainless for months gentle showers fall daily upon the mountain slope.”

“The prevailing trade-winds are totally obstructed by the three great mountain domes and never reach Kona. There are only the sweet land breeze by night, and the cooling sea-breeze by day.”

“The latter comes in, loaded with the evaporations of the sea, and floats high up the mountain slopes. As it rises, the rarification of the air precipitates more and more of its burden of vapor, so that at two thousand and three thousand feet, there are daily copious rains, and verdure is luxuriant.”

“The contrast is immense and delicious between the arid heat of the shore, and the moist cool greenness of the near-by upland. The soil is most fertile, being formed from the decay of recent lava flows.”

“There the natives found their chief means of subsistence, and, in good seasons, were sufficiently fed. In bad seasons there were drought, and more or less of ‘wi,’ or famine. The uala or sweet potatoes, and the taro, which constituted their chief food grew best on the lower and warmer ground, where was more liability to drought.”

“How Fire Was Obtained … The people commonly procured fire by friction of wood, although some of them had old files, from which they elicited sparks by strokes from a gun-flint. It was common to carry fire in a slow-burning tapa-match, especially when they wanted to smoke.”

“I first saw fire obtained from wood at our camp on Mauna Kea. A long dry stick of soft hau or linden wood was used. A small stiff splinter of very hard wood was held in the right hand, and the point rubbed with great force and swiftness in a deep groove formed in the soft wood by the friction.”

“A brown powder soon appeared in the end of the groove, began to smoke and ignited. This was deftly caught into a little nest of dry fibre and gently blown into a flame, which soon grew into an immense camp-fire.” (Bishop)

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View of Kailua from Laniakea-1836
View of Kailua from Laniakea-1836
Persis_Goodale_Thurston_Taylor_–_Kailua_from_the_Sea,_1836
Persis_Goodale_Thurston_Taylor_–_Kailua_from_the_Sea,_1836
Kaawaloa, Kealakekua Bay. A copperplate engraving from a drawing by Lucy or Persis Thurston about 1835
Kaawaloa, Kealakekua Bay. A copperplate engraving from a drawing by Lucy or Persis Thurston about 1835

by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Hilo Railroad Company – Hawaiian Consolidated Railway

The Treaty of Reciprocity (1875) between the United States and the Kingdom of Hawai‘i eliminated the major trade barrier to Hawai‘i’s closest and major market.  Through the treaty and its amendments, the US obtained Pearl Harbor and Hawai‘i’s sugar planters received duty-free entry into US markets for their sugar.

At the industry’s peak in the 1930s, Hawaiʻi’s sugar plantations employed more than 50,000 workers and produced more than 1-million tons of sugar a year; over 254,500-acres were planted in sugar.

Sugar cultivation exploded on the Big Island.  As a means to transport sugar and other goods, railroading was introduced to the Islands in 1879.

On March 28, 1899, Dillingham received a charter to build the original eight miles of the Hilo Railroad that connected the Olaʻa sugar mill to Waiākea, that was soon to become the location of Hilo’s deep water port.

Rail line extensions continued.  Extensions were soon built to Pāhoa, where the Pahoa Lumber Company was manufacturing ʻōhia and koa railroad ties for export to the Santa Fe Railroad.

Although not the first railway on the Big Island, the Hilo Railroad was arguably the most ambitious.  The Olaʻa line was completed in 1900, immediately followed by a seventeen mile extension to Kapoho, home of the Puna Sugar Company plantation.

Immediately after that two branch lines were constructed (also to sugar plantations,) and then the railroad was extended north into Hilo itself.

All the sugar grown in East Hawaiʻi, in Puna and on the Hāmākua Coast, was transported by rail to Hilo Harbor, where it was loaded onto ships bound for the continent.

An early account stated that the rail line crossed over 12,000 feet in bridges, 211 water openings under the tracks, and individual steel spans up to 1,006 feet long and 230 feet in height.

Some of the most notable were those over Maulua and Honoliʻi gulches, the Wailuku River and Laupāhoehoe.  Over 3,100 feet of tunnels were constructed, one of which, the Maulua Tunnel, was over half a mile in length.

While the main business of the railroad remained the transport of raw sugar and other products to and from the mills,  it also provided passenger service.

A chiefly tourist line, branching from Olaʻa, was built inland 12.5 miles up the mountain to Glenwood where visitors to the Volcano House near Kilauea Volcano would then transfer to buses. Due to stiff competition from motor vehicles, the Glenwood extension was scaled back to Mountain View in 1932.

Between 1909 and 1913, the Hāmākua Division of the railroad was constructed to service the sugar mills north of Hilo. Unfortunately, the cost of building the Hāmākua extension essentially destroyed the Hilo Railroad, which was sold in 1916 and reorganized as the Hawaiʻi Consolidated Railway.

Targeting tourists to augment local passenger and raw sugar transport, the Hawaiʻi Consolidated Railway ran sightseeing specials under the name “Scenic Express.”

Not for the faint of heart, these trips included a stop on the trestles, where passengers disembarked to admire the outstanding scenery.

The Great Depression saw a decrease in business, but business picked up in the 1940s, when thousands of battle-weary troops packed the passenger cars en route to Camp Tarawa, in Waimea, to rest, recuperate and prepare for another campaign.

But the end was near for the Hawaiʻi Consolidated Railway. Early in the morning of April 1, 1946, a massive tsunami struck Hawaiʻi. The railroad line between Hilo and Paʻauilo suffered massive damage; bridges collapsed, trestles tumbled and one engine was literally swept off the tracks.

The expensive option of rebuilding the railway was rejected. Hawaiʻi Consolidated offered the rights-of-way, tracks and remaining bridges, trestles and tunnels to the Territory of Hawaiʻi, but the offer was refused, and finally the company sold the entire works to the Gilmore Steel and Supply Company.

Shortly thereafter, realizing its error, the Territory bought it all back.  Much of the current highway along the coast follows the route of the old railroad; five original railroad trestles have been converted into highway bridges.  (This route averaged better than one bridge per mile over its 40-mile length.)

At the time of the tsunami, plantations were already phasing out rail in favor of trucking cane from the field to the mill. It was inevitable that trucking would also replace rail as the primary means of transporting sugar to the harbor. The tsunami accelerated that transition.

Most sugar from Hāmākua was trucked to Hilo Harbor, although the Hāmākua Sugar Company continued to use its offshore cable landing at Honokaʻa until 1948.

A few remnants of the railway are still visible. Hawaiʻi Consolidated’s yards were in the Waiākea district of Hilo, where the roundhouse still stands today, next to the county swimming pool on Kalanikoa Street.

In Laupāhoehoe, a concrete platform remains where Hula dancers once performed for tourists. And the Laupāhoehoe Train Museum is housed in the former home of Mr. Stanley, the superintendent of maintenance.

Today, the Laupāhoehoe Train Museum and Visitors Center keeps the memory of Hawaiʻi Consolidated Railway alive.  Although the Laupāhoehoe Train Museum is among the state’s smallest museums, it attracts an estimated 5,000 visitors a year. The admission fee is $4 for adults, $3 for seniors, and $2 for students. Special rates for tours are also offered.

The museum is open weekdays from 9 am to 4:30 pm and on weekends from 10 am to 2 pm. The address is 36-2377 Māmalahoa Highway, Laupāhoehoe, Hawaiʻi 96764.  (Lots of information here for Laupāhoehoe Train Museum and Ian Birnie.)

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