General | Page 234 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

August 3, 2016 by Peter T Young 3 Comments

Hoʻokuleana

Our company name is Hoʻokuleana LLC; invariably, we get asked what it means.

“Hoʻokuleana” is an action word and is focused on “kuleana” (‘responsibility,’ as in, ‘to take responsibility.’) Our individual and collective responsibility to:

Participate – rather than ignore
Prevent – rather than react
Preserve – rather than degrade

We picked the name because it is an attitude we want people to share. It is about doing the right things for the right reasons.

Our natural and cultural resources are not just historic sites, oceans, streams, mountains, trees, birds and fish. They are the:

Foundation of our quality of life
Backdrop for our economy
Our natural and cultural resources define Hawaiʻi’s “sense of place.”

They make and keep Hawaiʻi, Hawaiʻi.

Each of us shares the responsibility for the protection and perpetuation of our quality of life – including economic opportunities and responsible use, understanding and respect for Hawaiʻi’s natural and cultural resources.

So, what do we do?

Without trying to be cute, I typically and simply respond, “Consulting.” I know it’s a broad term and doesn’t really get into details; but I don’t want to get pigeon-holed into people thinking we only do “this” or “that.” (Another appropriate response would be ‘what do you need.’)

Many know I have a background in real estate – sales, property management, long-term rentals, vacation rentals, appraisal, planning and consulting (I have an active real estate license and an inactive appraisal license;) I have a Business degree with a major in Real Estate from UH.

But my experience in government as Deputy Managing Director for Hawai`i County and Director/Chair of the Department of Land and Natural Resources adds to that background.

As such, I have had the unique opportunity to see places and be involved with issues that few in Hawaiʻi have been able to experience.

We are planning and land use consultants; our work has generally fallen into the following broad categories:

Planning (master planning, as well as component plans (i.e. habitat restoration, habitat conservation plan, sustainability plan, market and marketing strategies, etc))
Environmental Review (EA/EIS preparation, review of issues/alternatives and other assistance, etc)
Permitting and Entitlement (CDUA, Land Use Commission, County permitting, shoreline, correcting encroachments, etc)
Dealing with Governmental Agencies (County, State and Federal – including DLNR – having been in government, we help translate what people are saying and help to expedite the process)
Outreach and Support (messaging, strategizing and garnering support, public relations, etc)

These posts are actually the result of some of the work we do.

It started when we were fortunate to help folks in Kona, Waikiki and Koloa prepare Corridor Management Plans for their respective Scenic Byways.

Scenic Byways are ‘roads that tell stories;’ some of those stories that we worked on have made it to these posts (and, there are more on the way.)

This experience and background motivated me to prepare and post historical summaries on Hawaiʻi’s people, places and events here. Can you believe it? It has been over four years and over 1,600 posts. Thanks for following them.

What started as part of the firm’s planning activities expanded into a passion to learn more about these Islands where I and my family were born and raised, and share what I learned.

For some projects, we are the lead and organize others; but we also fit well as part of a team. Really, we are open to any and all opportunities – we work statewide. If you think we can help, we’d be interested in talking about it.

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July 24, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

James Steiner

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Island Curio Postcard-UH-Manoa

Steiner mansion still under construction on the right-1913

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

James_Steiner-Waikiki-home-interior

James_Steiner-Waikiki-home

Island Curio-eBay

Halekai (Army Officer’s Club)-kamaaina56

Elite Block-PCA-Jan_1,_1901

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

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

Curly Koa lidded Calabash from Island Curio-eBay

Steiner headstone

July 23, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kōnāhuanui

The Hawaiian Islands were formed as the Pacific Plate moved westward over a geologic hot spot. Oʻahu is dominated by two large shield volcanoes, Waiʻanae and Koʻolau. Koʻolau volcano started as a seamount above the Hawaiian hotspot around 4-million years ago. It broke sea level some time prior to 2.9-million years ago.

About 2-million years ago, much of the northeast flank of Koʻolau volcano was sheared off and material was swept more than 140-miles north of O‘ahu and Molokai onto the ocean floor (named the Nuʻuanu Avalanche) – one of the largest landslides on Earth. Ko‘olau’s eroded remnants make up the Koʻolau Mountain Range.

Mountains are one of ‘āina’s most enduring bodies, not as easily leveled as hills or forests; Kōnāhuanui (among others on the Koʻolau capture rain clouds coming in on the trade winds, and silvery shimmering steams of water tumbling down their pali have come to symbolize the sky father Wākea bringing new life to the earth mother Papa. (Kawaharada)

Ku luna ‘o Kōnāhuanui i ka luku wale e, “Mountainous Kōnāhuanui reveals the onslaught” is the tallest on Koʻolau; Kōnāhuanui is actually two peaks (3,150 feet and 3,105 feet.) It forms the northwest corner of the Mānoa Ahupua‘a boundary.

Kōnāhuanui plays a part in the ‘Punahou’ story told by Emma M. Nakuina, a tradition of the creation of Punahou Spring by a moʻo god named Kakea.

The main characters in ‘Punahou’ are twin rain spirits: a boy named Kauawa‘ahila (a rain of Nuʻuanu and Mānoa) and his sister Kauaki‘owao (a rain and fog carried on a cool mountain breeze.)

The twins were abused and neglected by an evil stepmother named Hawea while their father Kaha‘akea was away on Hawai‘i Island. The siblings fled from their home near Mount Kaʻala, the highest peak on O’ahu (4,020 ft) to Kōnāhuanui above Manoa.

The affinity of the twins for mountain peaks suggests their rain cloud forms and also their moʻo ancestry; their flight from Kaʻala to Kōnāhuanui depicts the movement of rain clouds associated with cold fronts which sweep over the islands from west to east during the rainy season of Ho‘oilo (October to April).

Pursued by their mean-spirited stepmother, the twins fled from Kōnāhuanui to the head of Mānoa Valley. Like a cold north wind behind a passing front, Hawea followed her stepchildren to the head of the valley, so the twins went down the valley to Kukao‘o Hill; then to the rocky hill behind Punahou School.

The movement of the twins down the valley represents the path of the rains called Kauawa‘ahila and Kauaki‘owao sweeping from the wet uplands toward the dry plains. Each stop is drier than the last, with less food.

At Kukao‘o hill, the twins planted and ate sweet potatoes, a dry-land crop, not as prized as the wetland taro of the upper valley. At the rocky hill near the mouth of the valley, they lived on leaves, flowers, and fruits and on ‘grasshoppers and sometimes wild fowl.’ The rocky hill marks a rain boundary: it may be pouring rain in the upper valley, while it is sunny and dry below the hill. (Kawaharada)

Translated “his large seeds (testicles,)” the name Kōnāhuanui is said to come from a story summarized by T Kelsey: “when a man, probably a giant, chased a woman who escaped into a cave, he tore off his testes and threw them at her”. (Kawaharada)

Kōnāhuanui is the highest peak in the Koʻolau Mountains and is the northwest corner of the Mānoa Ahupua‘a boundary. It was the home of the gods Kāne and Kanaloa.

It was where their parents came on their way to and from the east from above and from the right (mai kahiki a mai ka hiwamai), meaning it was the starting and resting point of the gods since the formation of the islands. (Cultural Surveys)

It is home to a moʻo goddess, a large mythic lizard that lives in freshwater pools and streams. Rain clouds gather around its peak, and its Kona side, often ribboned with waterfalls, is the wettest area of Honolulu: here is the source of the waters of Manoa and Nuʻuanu valleys.

On the Ko‘olaupoko side, below Konahuanui, is a stream called Kahuaiki (the small seed,) one of three streams said to be wives of the god Kāne (the other two are Hi‘ilaniwai and Māmalahoa).

The three join together as one, Kamo‘oali‘i (the royal mo‘o), which brings life-giving water to the fields and plains of Kāne’ohe before entering the bay near Waikalua fishpond. Huanui, big seed, and huaiki, small seed, both speak to the fertility of the land.

To the northwest of Konahuanui is Lanihuli (swirling heavens,) a name suggesting rain clouds moving in the wind around the peak; northwest of Lanihuli is Kahuauli, the dark seed. Uli may refer to the dark rain clouds, their shadows on the land below, and the dark green vegetation along the summit and below it. (Kawaharada)

“There is only one famous hiding cave, ana huna on Oʻahu. It is Pohukaina… This is a burial cave for chiefs, and much wealth was hidden away there with the chiefs of old … Within this cave are pools of water, streams, creeks, and decorations by the hand of man (hana kinohinohiʻia), and in some places there is level land.” (Kamakau)

Pohukaina involves an underground burial cave system that connects with various places around O‘ahu and is most notable as the royal burial cave at Kualoa. The opening in the Honolulu area is in the vicinity of the Kauikeaouli (Kamehameha III) residence (the grounds of ʻIolani Palace,) where also many of the notable chiefs resided. (Kamakau; Kumu Pono)

The opening on the windward side on Kalaeoka‘o‘io faces toward Ka‘a‘awa is believed to be in the pali of Kanehoalani, between Kualoa and Ka‘a‘awa, and the second opening is at the spring Ka‘ahu‘ula-punawai.

On the Kona side of the island the cave had three other openings, one at Hailikulamanu – near the lower side of the cave of Koleana in Moanalua—another in Kalihi, and another in Pu‘iwa. There was an opening at Waipahu, in Ewa, and another at Kahuku in Ko‘olauloa.

The mountain peak of Kōnāhuanui was the highest point of the ridgepole of this burial cave “house,” which sloped down toward Kahuku. Many stories tell of people going into it with kukui-nut torches in Kona and coming out at Kahuku. (Kamakau; Kumu Pono)

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Konahuanui-USGS-marker

July 21, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Not Just a Piano Man

Leonard E Thayer was born in New Hampshire on November 24, 1842. He served as a First Lieutenant in the Civil War and then took a business course in college, after which he went west, settling in Michigan.

Thayer spent the next thirty-five years of his life in the piano business. In 1905, he went to Honolulu, where he organized the Thayer Piano Co. (Music Trade Review, 1917)

Wade Warren Thayer was born at Jackson, Jackson County, Michigan, September 15, 1873, the son of Leonard E and Fannie (Fletcher) Thayer.

He received his early education in the public schools of Fort Wayne, Indiana, and at Howe School, Indiana, entering Hobart College in 1891. Later he attended the University of Michigan, receiving an AB degree in 1895 and a law degree in 1896.

Before going to the Pacific Coast Thayer was engaged in newspaper work at Salt Lake City, Utah. “He came to Honolulu (from San Francisco) for the Advertiser in June, 1900, resigning in October of that year to enter upon the practice of law.” He had an office in the Stangenwald building.

He was a business organizer, “East meets West on the financial map of the world when daily business is transacted at the International Trust Co., Ltd, Honolulu. Establishment of this institution, in which capital of American and Japanese stockholders is equally invested, was made possible by Wade Warren Thayer”.

Thayer has been identified with other business enterprises. He was secretary and treasurer of the Consolidated Soda Works from 1905 to 1916, had been secretary of the Thayer Piano Co since 1910 and was a director of the Sumitomo Bank of Hawaii, Ltd. (Nellist)

In 1909, he was appointed second district magistrate for the district of Honolulu. (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, October 8, 1909)

He was appointed and served as attorney general, starting on January 1, 1913, then, in 1914, Secretary of the Territory of Hawai‘i. The Act providing a government “for the Territory of Hawai‘i” noted, “The executive power is lodged in a Governor, a Secretary, both to be appointed by the President and hold office four years”.

The Act further noted that the secretary, “shall (among other things) record and preserve all the laws and proceedings of the legislature and all acts and proceedings of the governor, and promulgate proclamations of the governor.” When the Governor was away, the Secretary served as acting Governor.

“(Thayer’s) conduct of the office (of attorney general) is regarded as having been sound and progressive and though he is a Democrat, he has been given strong Republican support for the secretaryship.” (Honolulu Star-Bulletin, January 27, 1914) He was made secretary of the Territory, holding this position from 1914 to 1917.

“Nearly four years of work on the part of Secretary of the Territory Wade Warren Thayer came to a close today with the issuance from the press of the Paradise of the Pacific of a digest of the reports of the local supreme court for the last 70 years.”

“Secretary Thayer began work on the digest four years ago and labored off and on during the first three years, but during the last year he devoted practically all of his time to the big task.”

“The decisions and reports are contained in 22 volumes and they date as far back as June 6, 1847, when Kamehameha IV was king and when William Lee was Justice of what was then known as the superior court, later the supreme court. … The table of cases, including all citations, is the work of Mrs Thayer.” (Honolulu Star-Bulletin, June 23, 1916)

Thayer liked golf, “The White Rock cup trophy of the Honolulu Golf Club was played for yesterday both morning and afternoon on the Country Club links, and was won by Wade Warren Thayer, by a net score of 80 points.” (Hawaiian Star, June 10, 1907)

He helped form gold clubs, “The Manoa Golf Club ceased to be last night, being formally disbanded at a meeting in the Young Hotel. In his final report, the secretary, WW Thayer, recited the history of the club since its inception in May, 1904, when the number of golfers in the Territory was probably not more than fifty.”

“’Now,’ said Mr. Thayer, ‘their numbers are well up in the hundreds. We have all known that the life of the club would be necessarily brief, and now that its days are numbered we have the satisfaction of knowing that a worthy successor will take up its work – the Oahu Country Club.’”

“’It should be further a source of gratification to us that had it not been for the Interest in golf that the Manoa Golf Club has stirred up the Country Club would not be so near a reality as it is at the present time, perhaps might never have been a reality at all.’”

“Practically all the members of the Manoa club are among the charter members of the Country Club, the latter being, in fact, almost a continuation of the pioneer golf association.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, June 30, 1906)

Thayer was part of the organizing group, forming the O‘ahu Country Club. The September 1, 1904 Evening Bulletin noted the lease transaction between “Mary Rooke (widow) et al (CB Rooke heirs) to Wade W Thayer; pc land, Waolani, Honolulu; 20 yrs at $900 per an. B 283 p 441. Dated Oct 2, 1905”.

Then a subsequent transaction (assignment of lease) was made from Thayer to the O‘ahu Country Club, “Wade W Thayer to Oahu Country Club; AL; lands, Waolani, Honolulu; $1. B 283, p 444, Dated Sept 10, 1906”.

Thayer married Rhoda Green in Honolulu, June 30, 1908. He died June 4, 1959, in Honolulu.

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Thayer’s Piano

Wade W Thayer (L) presents John F Creedon with Steinway Concert grand piano for new Waikiki Shell

Wade_Warren_Thayer-gravestone

July 20, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Redwood Trail

By the 1830s, forested lands in the Islands were in decline. The sandalwood trade had reduced sandalwood populations to such an extent that in 1839, Hawaii’s first forestry law restricted the harvest of sandalwood.

Cattle (which had been introduced in the late-1700s) continued to cause widespread destruction of native forests. (Idol) For many years, cattle were allowed an unrestricted range in the forests so that in many sections the forest is either dead or dying. (Griffith)

The almost total destruction of the undergrowth has allowed the soil to bake and harden thus causing the rainfall to run off rapidly with the resultant effect of very low water during the dry season. (Griffith)

It reached a maximum by the late 1800s/early-twentieth century owing to burning of the forests to locate the fragrant sandalwood trees, demand for firewood, commercial logging operations, conversion to agricultural and pastureland, the effects of grazing and browsing ungulates (including cattle, goats, and pigs) and increased fire frequency. (Woodcock)

The sugar industry, still concerned about water shortages due to forest decline, sought and succeeded in establishing the forest reserve system, which instituted partnerships between public and private landowners to protect forests.

On March 5, 1902 US Forester EM Griffith presented a report “General Description of the Hawaiian Forests;” it documented 3 key issues …

1) the most important ecosystem service of Hawaiian forests is water, 2) destruction of Hawaiian forests by feral ungulates and 3) wildfire, previously unknown in forested ecosystems, rapidly converting forested ecosystems to fire-dominated ecosystems. (DLNR)

Due to the cooperation between public and private landowners, and another tax break for conservation of forests on private land in 1909, large scale reforestation, fencing and feral ungulate eradication efforts occurred across the islands.

The forests were transformed during this time, as millions of fast-growing nonnative trees were planted throughout the islands to quickly re-establish watersheds denuded by logging and ungulates.

They planted 130,000-redwood trees from 1927 to 1959 in many Forest Reserves on Kauai, Maui, Lanaʻi, Molokai, O‘ahu and Hawai‘i Island.

The tree may be seen at Kokeʻe State Park on Kauai, Waihou Spring Forest Reserve on Maui, and near Volcano Village on Hawaii, as well as Hilo and Honaunau. Maui has more than 280-acres with about 7-million board feet in the Kula Forest Reserve at 5,500-feet.

In order to save the little remaining forest in Kula, “the cattle must be absolutely excluded. It is far easier and a much better policy to save the existing forests than to certainly destroy them by grazing and attempt to realize by planting a forest in some other locality.”

“Planting is extremely expensive, especially if the trees are set out very close together as must be done if a dense forest is to be secured which will act as a sponge and hold the water supply. Then too, a small amount of planting here and there does very little good and such expensive work will seldom be necessary in the islands if a common sense forest policy is pursued.” (Griffith)

The ‘Redwood Trail” at Polipoli Springs State Recreation Area takes you to and through some of the remnants of the tree planting of almost 100-years ago.

Trail starts at at 6,200-foot elevation, winds through stands of redwood and other conifers, past Tie Trail junction and down to the old ranger’s cabin at 5,300-feet.

At the trail’s end is the old Civilian Conservation Corps camp and a three-way junction, the beginning point for both the Plum Trail and the Boundary Trail. Several plum and other fruit trees can be found in this old camp area.

To get there, take Highway 37 past Pukalani to the second junction of Highway 377. Turn left on 377 for about 0.3 mile, then right on Waipoli Road.

This becomes Polipoli Access Road at the first cattle guard and climbs up the mountain through a long series of switchbacks until it enters the forest at 6,400′ elevation, where the pavement ends.

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