General | Page 112 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

May 19, 2020 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Waimea Valley

The Ha‘i ‘ōlelo (oral history) of Waimea, according to Hawaiian historian Sam Kamakau (who was from Waialua, O‘ahu), begins with the high chief Kama Pua‘a. Kama Pua‘a, according to traditional history, was given a gift from the Kahuna Nui (high priest) Kahiki‘ula. This took place sometime in the eleventh century. (pupukeawaimea)

The gift was all the lands that begin with the word Wai. The word Waimea means “sacred water.” Prior to the eleventh century, little is known about the Kānaka (people) who lived in the ahupua‘a of Waimea. The valley may have been settled a lot earlier. (pupukeawaimea)

Waimea Valley is a cultural resource of the highest possible order … There is no place quite like Waimea Valley on the island of Oʻahu, and very few places in the entire archipelago can equal it in terms of its religious associations, its preservation or its potential for answering many questions about traditional Hawaiʻi. (Hiʻipaka)

Waimea, “The Valley of the Priests,” gained its title around 1090, when the ruler of Oʻahu, Kamapuaʻa (who would later be elevated in legend to demigod status as the familiar pig deity) awarded the land to the high priest Lono-a-wohi.

From that time until Western contact and the overturn of the indigenous Hawaiian religion, the land belonged to the kahuna nui (high priests) of the Pāʻao line. (Kennedy, OHA)

The valley is surrounded by three Heiau. Pu‘u o Mahuka (“hill of escape”) is located on the north side of the valley; it is the largest heiau on Oʻahu (covering almost 2 acres) and may have been built in the 1600s.

On the opposite side of the valley near the beach is Kūpopolo Heiau. In the valley is Hale O Lono, a heiau dedicated to the god Lono. Religious ceremonies to Lono were held during the annual Makahiki season to promote fertility of the resources.

After Captain Cook was killed at Kealakekua Bay in 1779, Captain Charles Clerke took command of his ships, Resolution and Discovery. Searching to restock their water supply, they anchored off Waimea Bay in 1779. This was the first known contact of the white man on the island of Oʻahu.

Cook’s lieutenant, James King, who captained the Resolution, commented that the setting “… was as beautiful as any Island we have seen, and appear’d very well Cultivated and Popular.” (HJH)

King noted that the vista on this side of Oʻahu, “was by far the most beautiful country of any in the Group … the Valleys look’d exceedingly pleasant … charmed with the narrow border full of villages, & the Moderate hills that rose behind them.” (HJH)

Clerke wrote in his journal: “On landing I was reciev’d with every token of respect and friendship by a great number of the Natives who were collected upon the occasion; they every one of them prostrated themselves around me which is the first mark of respect at these Isles.” (Kennedy, OHA)

Clerke further noted, “I stood into a Bay to the W(est)ward of this point the Eastern Shore of which was far the most beautifull Country we have yet seen among these Isles, here was a fine expanse of Low Land bounteously cloath’d with Verdure, on which were situate many large Villages and extensive plantations; at the Water side it terminated in a fine sloping, sand Beach.”

“This Bay, its Geographical situation consider’d is by no means a bad Roadsted, being shelterd from the (winds) with a good depth of Water and a fine firm sandy Bottom, it lays on the NW side of this island of Wouahoo … surrounded by a fine pleasant fertile Country.” (HJH)

Waimea was a large settlement, though the actual number of inhabitants is unknown. With an almost constant water source and abundant fishing grounds, in addition to cultivation of traditional foods, Waimea was a classic example of the Polynesian managing natural resources. (pupukeawaimea)

Kamehameha took the island of O‘ahu in 1795, and he gave Waimea Valley to Hewahewa, his Kahuna Nui. He was the last Kahuna to preside over the heiau (temples) in the valley. Hewahewa died in 1837 and is buried in Waimea Valley. Waimea Valley has a total land area of approximately 1,875-acres and was originally part of the larger moku (district) of Koʻolauloa, but was added to the district of Waialua in the 1800s. (pupukeawaimea)

In 1826, Hiram Bingham, accompanied by Queen Kaʻahumanu, visited Waimea to preach the gospel and noted, “Saturday (we) reached Waimea … the residence of Hewahewa, the old high priest of Hawaiian superstition, by whom we were welcomed ….”

“The inhabitants of the place assembled with representatives of almost every district of this island, to hear of the great salvation, and to bow before Jehovah, the God of heaven.”

“There were now seen the queen of the group and her sister, and teachers, kindly recommending to her people the duties of Christianity, attention to schools, and a quiet submission, as good subjects, to the laws of the land.” (Bingham)

Reportedly, Waimea was a favored sandalwood source during the 1800s; cargo ships would anchor offshore to load sandalwood. However, by the 1830s, sandalwood was disappearing and soon the trade came to a halt.

From 1894 to 1898, a series of floods devastated the valley including homes and crops of approximately 1,000 Native Hawaiians. In 1929, Castle & Cooke acquired the land and leased it to cattle ranchers.

In the 1950s, sand was trucked from Waimea Bay Beach to replenish eroding sand at Waikīkī. Reportedly, over 200,000-tons of sand at Waimea Bay was removed to fill beaches in Waikīkī and elsewhere; there was so much sand that if you would have tried to jump off Pōhaku Lele, Jump Rock, you would have jumped about six feet down into the sand below.

From the 1970s through mid-1990s, Bishop Corporation (no affiliation with Bishop Estate) purchased Waimea and established Waimea Falls Park. For a 25-year period under the ownership of the Pietsch family, the valley was a commercial park with a restaurant and entertainment.

With financially faltering, the property was conveyed to New York investor and theme-park developer Christian Wolffer who envisioned an “adventure park,” which also failed. He later proposed a commercial attractions park and residential subdivision; the City Council gave preliminary approval to the deal. People complained.

The City & County of Honolulu later proceeded with a condemnation process to purchase the property. On June 30, 2006, the valley was purchased by a partnership of OHA, City & County of Honolulu, State Department of Land and Natural Resources, US Army and National Audubon Society.

Title passed to OHA; the remaining entities retained conservation easements over the property. I was happy to have represented the State in the arbitration negotiations on behalf of the State (after first putting $1.5-million of State funds into the pot, at the very last minute, the State made up a shortfall of $100,000, solidifying the closing of the deal.)

OHA formed Hiʻipaka LLC to own and operate Waimea Valley (kamaʻāina rates for admission are offered.) It’s a casual walk on a paved path through our World Class Botanical Gardens and Historical Sites up to our Waterfall area. The walk is ¾-mile one way or 1½-miles round trip. Visit their website: www.waimeavalley.net

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May 16, 2020 by Peter T Young 9 Comments

OK … here’s the deal

I appreciate all the kind words related to the historical summaries I have prepared over the past 8 ½ years.

Two weeks and counting, then pau … I assure you that I will miss them more than you.

The passion/obsession of preparing them has been fulfilling.

Throughout this process, I have learned a lot (boy, that’s an understatement).

Anyway, some may not know that I am actually still actively working and have been throughout this process.

I recognized a while back that I was approaching some critical times related to my real work and it was clear to me that I need to focus on the projects I am working on.

I have several significant projects that I am helping folks with on Lāna‘i that are coming to a head during the summer and latter part of the year.

Likewise, I am tasked with preparing the permitting and environmental assessment for the first decommissioning of an observatory off of Mauna Kea. That, too, is coming to a head during the summer and latter part of this year.

Related to Mauna Kea, I am also on the team preparing the update to the existing Master Plan for Mauna Kea, as well as the Comprehensive Management Plan update and other matters on Mauna Kea.

I also have some odds and ends on different parts of other Islands that I am dealing with.

With all of that, I need to focus on these things and cannot get distracted by a daily historical summary about Hawaii’s past.

To help you fill in the gap, I am hopeful to get an interactive map (like Google Earth) up on the www.ImagesOfOldHawaii.com website that will distract many of you, as you search the icons at the place on the earth where each of the stories happened.

Each icon is a story. When you hover over an icon you get the title; click on it and you get the 2 paragraph summary that has been in Facebook and elsewhere; click the ‘Click for More’ and you get the full post.

The image shows only some of the stories and their location (there are a whole bunch across the globe, far east, the continent, etc.) (Each icon represents a story, at the place it happened.)

So, anyway … two weeks and counting.

Thanks, again, for your support and kind words.

Peter.

May 15, 2020 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

At The End Of The Line

Repeatedly evidenced in the early years of rail across the continent, railroads looked to expand their passenger business by operating hotels at the ends of the lines.

Once a railroad was being built to a new location, the land speculators would prepare for cashing in on their investment. A hotel would typically be in place by the time the railroad service began.

Prospective buyers needed to have a place to stay, so they could become enamored of the scenery and have time to be enticed into buying a piece of property.

Likewise, an ocean liner, while it served as a moving hotel, needed to make sure people had places to stay where the cruise ships stopped.

Simply look at the early history of trains and ships, the pattern is apparent. Several in Hawai‘i followed this example in the planning of their transportation systems.

Here’s a summary of a few hotels and attractions associated with Hawaiʻi’s transportation providers:

OR&L – Haleiwa Hotel
Dillingham’s Haleiwa Hotel was conceived as part of a larger concept. O‘ahu Railway & Land Company was built with the primary purpose of transporting sugar from western Honolulu and the North Shore to Honolulu Harbor.

Dillingham hoped to capitalize on his investment (and expand upon the diversity of users on his trains) by encouraging passenger travel as well; his new hotel was a means to this end. It thrived.

Matson – Moana Hotel
The Moana officially opened on March 11, 1901. Its first guests were a group of Shriners, who paid $1.50 per night for their rooms. Matson Navigation Company bought the property in 1932; they needed land-based accommodations equally lavish to house their cruisers to Hawaiʻi.

Over the course of Matson’s ownership of the Moana, it grew along with the popularity of Hawaiian tourism. Two floors were added in 1928 along with Italian Renaissance-styled concrete wings on each side of the hotel, creating its H shape seen today.

In 1952, a new hotel was built adjacent to the Moana called the Surfrider Hotel (on the east side of the Moana.) In the late-1960s (after the new Sheraton Surfrider Hotel was built on the west side of the Moana,) the old Surfrider building was made into a wing of the Moana Hotel.)

Matson – Royal Hawaiian Hotel
With the success of the early efforts by Matson Navigation Company to provide steamer travel to America’s wealthiest families en route to Hawaiʻi, Captain William Matson proposed the development of a hotel in Honolulu for his passengers.

This was in hope of profiting from what Matson believed could be the most lucrative endeavor his company could enter into. The Royal Hawaiian (Pink Palace of the Pacific) opened its doors to guests on February 1, 1927 with a black tie gala attended by over 1,200 guests. The hotel quickly became an icon of Hawaiʻi’s glory days.

Matson – Princess Kaʻiulani
After the war, tourism to Hawaiʻi expanded in the mid-1950s. To capitalize on this increasing boom in travel and trade, Matson constructed its third hotel, the Princess Kaʻiulani in 1955. Formerly the site of the Moana cottages, the land was cleared in 1953 to make way for a new high-rise.

At the time, the hotel’s Princess Wing was the tallest building in Hawaiʻi (11 stories, 131 feet above the ground). It was the largest hotel built in Hawai‘i, since The Royal Hawaiian in 1927.

In 1959 (the year Hawai‘i entered statehood and jet airline travel was initiated to the State,) Matson sold all of its hotel properties, including the four year-old Princess Kaʻiulani Hotel, to the Sheraton hotel chain.

Hotels weren’t the only end-of-the-line attraction.

Honolulu Rapid Transit and Land Company – Waikīkī Aquarium
The Waikīkī Aquarium opened on March 19, 1904; it is the third oldest aquarium in the United States. Its adjacent neighbor on Waikīkī Beach is the Natatorium War Memorial.

Then known as the Honolulu Aquarium, it was established as a commercial venture by the Honolulu Rapid Transit and Land Company, who wished to “show the world the riches of Hawaiʻi’s reefs”.

It was also a practical objective of using the Aquarium as a means of enticing passengers to ride to the end of the new trolley line in Kapi‘olani Park, where the Aquarium was located. (The trolley terminus was across Kalākaua Avenue from the Aquarium, near the current tennis courts.)

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OR&L Train thunders past Mokuleia Field, Oahu,-(hawaii-gov-hawaiiaviation)-c1942-1943-400

1930s Matson cruise ship departs Honolulu for San Francisco

Matson-Royal_Hawaiian-Princess_Kaiulani-Moana-Surfride-Hotels_Ad-(eBay)-1958

Archibald Cleghornʻs 50 years of membership in the British Club, taking place at Haleiwa Hotel

circa 1910, from The Advertiser's archives shows the old Hale'iwa Hotel

Moana Hotel-Apuakehau Stream-(Kanahele)-1915

BVD 14-1-31-32 royal hawaiian hotel aerial August.22_750-150w-Kamehameha Schools Archives

BVD-14-1-31-41-Bertha Young residence and Royal Hawaiian hotel_150w-KamehamehaSchoolsArchives

Royal_Hawaiian-(hawaii-gov)-1928

Princess_Kaiulani_Hotel-Moana-Surfrider-1958

May 13, 2020 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

ʻAʻala International Park

Hard as it may be to conceive today, in the 1880s the entire area near ʻAʻala Park and the OR&L train station (now a Human Services Building) was under water. The original 1889 OR&L station was built on stilts and the train tracks ran on hastily-placed fill.

Just ʻEwa of Chinatown was swampy lowland bordered Nuʻuanu Stream; it was an area that many wished to see developed. It used to include private lands that were conveyed to the Minister of Interior in 1871.

On May 14, 1898, the Republic of Hawaiʻi officially adopted “an act to convert land at Kaliu … into free public recreation grounds, and to maintain the same as such under the supervision of the Minister of the Interior.”

They called the nearly 4-acres “River Park.” (The Territorial government confirmed the same in 1915.)

The project was underway in 1898, with the masonry work completed the following year walling in Nuʻuanu stream’s banks, allowing sand and rocks to be brought in. Nuʻuanu Stream formed the Waikīkī boundary of the new park, and Chinatown the other three sides.

Reportedly, it was announced in 1900, when it was decided the park should be converted from “a barren waste composed of harbor dredging into a resort of beauty.”

Bounded on one side by Nuʻuanu Stream and by Chinatown – with its laundries, shops, slaughterhouses, rail yards, piers and tenements – on the other three sides, the park was born.

Later named ʻAʻala Park (officially, ʻAʻala International Park,) it featured a bandstand and two baseball diamonds and baseball became the park’s defining image. The ʻAʻala Park comfort station, built in 1916, was the first public restroom in Honolulu.

ʻAʻala Park, dedicated to “Almighty Baseball” in 1902, evolved as a result of insistent public clamor that called for filling in this marshy section of lwilei.

Avid fans came out to watch their local teams – the Honolulus, the Kamehamehas, the Punahous, the Athletes and the Maile Ilimas (the top five teams in 1902.)

Later, Japanese and Chinese leagues were formed. “ʻAʻala Park is a public park where baseball is almost constantly in progress.” (Schnack)

On a week-end afternoon during the 1900s, two games would often be in progress at the same time. Japanese push carts bristling with soda water bottles, peanuts, cigars, cakes and candy, served the spectators rain or shine. (Saga – Scott)

Horse drawn hacks, filled with boisterous participants and excited onlookers, converged upon ʻAʻala from all parts of Honolulu. Umbrellas sprouted like magic when showers moved down Nuʻuanu Valley, folded with the clouds passing, and then reappeared when the mid-day sun beat mercilessly down. (Saga – Scott)

The park, one of the oldest in Hawaiʻi, benefitted from the first project of the then newly-formed Outdoor Circle (TOC;) founded by Mrs. Frederick J. (Cherilla) Lowrey, Miss Frances Lawrence, Mrs. Charles M. (Anna Rice) Cooke, Mrs. Henry (Ida) Waterhouse, Mrs. George (Laura) Sherman, Mrs. Isaac M. (Catharine) Cox and Miss Kulamanu Ward, TOC’s mission was to “Keep Hawai‘i clean, green and beautiful.”

The Outdoor Circle’s maiden project (1912) was the planting of twenty two monkey-pod trees “to shade the children’s play space,” this being the City’s first playground.

ʻAʻala also boasted a sizeable bandstand ʻEwa of the baseball diamonds with a two-story tenement conveniently overlooking the activity. Although political rallies were regularly held at the Park, the name ʻAʻala to Honoluluan’s was synonymous with baseball. (Saga – Scott)

Until 1947, the train ran from Kaʻena Point into Honolulu, with the line ending directly across from ʻAʻala Park. “Every day the train would leave here, go down to Kaʻena Point, go to Kahuku, go load up the sugar and pineapple in Waialua area, come around the point, stop in Makua to pick up cattle if they had cattle and load up the sugar and go back to town.” (HawaiiHistory)

Chinatown and ʻAʻala Park were the meeting place for urban and rural, land and sea, work and leisure, and cultures from all over the world. (HawaiiHistory)

Half a century later, most of what is known as the ʻAʻala Triangle consisted of slum housing, dance halls, pool rooms and a dilapidated three-story building that housed the ʻAʻala Pawn Shop, at the point of North King and Beretania streets.

Then, in the late-1960s, every structure in the triangle was razed and the entire 4-acre wedge transformed into a landscaped “gateway to Honolulu.” That’s when the City and County of Honolulu (City) asked that the land be conveyed to the City.

By the 1980s, the homeless had returned, along with a growing number of drug dealers, prostitutes and what Honolulu City representatives referred to as other “unsavory elements.” Last time I looked, it’s still a magnet for the homeless.

(Lots of information here is from Saga by Scott, Honolulu-The Story of OR&L and HawaiiHistory-org. The image shows ʻAʻala Park (Saga, Scott.))

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20001121 CTY AALA 01. Aala Park is undergoing renovations. This photo taken from top of Hale Pauahi. SB photo by Ken Ige.

May 12, 2020 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Sewing Circles

Long before Western explorers and missionaries arrived in the Polynesian islands, many traditional crafts existed in Hawai‘i that set the stage for the development of its unique style of quilting.

Among other things, Hawaiians were skilled in the creation of kapa (tapa,) clothing or bedding made from the bark of the wauke (paper mulberry) plant.

It is thought that kapa technique – involving the pounding together of strips of bark to form sheets of different textures, which are then colorfully decorated by pen with various dyes – provided the foundation upon which Hawaiian quilting was eventually built.

The use of stitchery in Hawai‘i is documented as early as 1809. After contact, Western and Chinese cloth and silk became available as trade with the islands opened up. Cotton was grown on Maui and O‘ahu in the 19th century, but cotton gins for processing were quite rare.

When missionaries from New England arrived in 1820, the missionary women brought with them their quilts (mostly as keepsakes.) Missionary women helped Hawaiian women to learn to sew in the European style.

“One of the former queens had before requested that our wihenes would make her a gown like their own, was told that it was the Lord’s day, and that they would make it tomorrow.” (April 2, 1820, Thaddeus Journal)

The next day, the first Hawaiian sewing circle was held on the decks of the Thaddeus, “Kalakua brought a web of white cambric to have a dress made for herself in the fashion of our ladies, and was very particular in her wish to have it finished while sailing along the western side of the island, before reaching the king.”

“Monday morning April 3d (1820,) the first sewing circle was formed that the sun ever looked down upon in the Hawaiian realm. Kalakua was directress. She requested all the seven white ladies to take seats with them on mats, on the deck of the Thaddeus.”

“Mrs Holman and Mrs Ruggles were executive officers to ply the scissors and prepare the work … The four native women of distinction were furnished with calico patchwork to sew – a new employment for them.”

“The dress was made in the fashion of 1819. The length of the skirt accorded with Brigham Young’s rule to his Mormon damsels, – have it come down to the tops of the shoes. But in the queen’s case, where the shoes were wanting, the bare feet cropped out very prominently.” (Lucy Thurston, part of the Pioneer Company)

“These were made in the style then prevailing, a very deep yoke, with a short bodice, belted at the waist, and a full skirt. The chiefess was a huge woman, and a belt was found to be impracticable, so the ladles instead gathered the loose skirt on to the yoke.”

“The native women were so delighted with the now garb, so much more convenient than their own, that they at once gave It the name holoku, expressive of the fact that in it they had perfect freedom of motion.”

“The holoku is exactly like the ‘Mother Hubbard gown’ that had such a painful popularity in our country some years ago. It is, to-day, the regulation costume of the Hawaiian women.”

“They wear it at church and on shopping expeditions, in the park and on state occasions, and, this delightful climate permitting such scantiness of attire, it is not an uncommon thing to meet upon Fort street an old woman of the poorer class whose holoku is her sole garment.” (San Francisco Call, March 19, 1893)

“All the women wore the native dress, the sack or holoku, many of which were black, blue, green, or bright rose color, some were bright yellow, a few were pure white, and others were a mixture of orange and scarlet.” Isabella Bird 1894

“At first the holoku, which is only a full, yoke nightgown, is not attractive, but I admire it heartily now, and the sagacity of those who devised it.”

“It conceals awkwardness, and befits grace of movement; it is fit for the climate, is equally adapted for walking and riding, and has that general appropriateness which is desirable in costume.” (Isabella Bird, 1894)

Quilting in Hawai‘i back in 1820s was done in the patchwork style. The Hawaiian women tediously cut the material into the patchwork squares and sewed them back together as they were taught by the missionaries.

It is theorized that Hawaiian women gradually began incorporating elements of tapa design into patchwork quilts, and soon discarded the patchwork approach altogether in favor of the appliqué quilt.

A traditional Hawaiian quilt is a bed sized quilt that is completely an appliquéd design. The design is cut out of one square piece of fabric with a repeat of 8.

The appliqué fabric is folded in half, or three times and all 8 layers are cut out at the same time, then opened out, like a “snowflake”. Usually the designs are symbolic of the flowers, trees or places in Hawai‘i.

The designing of a quilt was a very personal thing. Women occasionally shared their designs with a special friend or relative, but copying a quilt without permission was very much frowned upon.

Many believed that the spirit of the person creating and stitching the quilt became an integral part of the finished work, giving it an added dimension – a sense of life.

Each quilt was given a name, often reflecting the inspiration behind the design. These intriguing quilts have survived as they were only used for special occasions and then passed on from generation to generation.

Four methods of constructing and designing a quilt, when combined, make the Hawaiian quilting process unique:

use of whole pieces of fabric for the appliqué and background;
the “snowflake” method of cutting the design all at one time;
the use of usually only two colors of fabric; and
the echo, or outline style of quilting which follows the contour of the applied design throughout the entire quilt

The image shows my mother with quilts she made for her grandchildren; they are made in the patchwork tradition her great-great grandmother (Sybil Bingham) and the other missionary wives used in 1820 when teaching sewing aboard the Thaddeus and later. (I also added to the album our recent addition, a quilt bed cover at our Colorado house.)

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Hawaiian_Quilts-LSY