General | Page 97 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

January 11, 2023 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

‘She was a friend of John Brown.’

The words on the tombstone of Mary Ellen Pleasant only tell a part of her story.

Like Brown, she “was an ardent Abolitionist, and she determined to assist Brown. She met him at Chatham, Canada West, over the line, and gave him a purse of gold she had taken from California. Brown used the money in the cause.” (Tripp)

Some called her ‘Mammy’, but she asserted, “I am Mammy to no one.”

According to Pleasant, she was born free on August 19, 1814 in Philadelphia. She claimed her father was Louis Alexander Williams, a native Hawaiian (‘a Kanaka from the Pacific Islands’) and her mother, Mary (her namesake) was a “full blooded Negress from Louisiana.” (Ball etal)

Her father was a businessman who imported silk from India. While she believed he had some education, she knew her mother had none and was likely illiterate.

When she was 6-years old her parents sent her to Nantucket, MA, to work for a white family as a domestic servant. Pleasant also worked for a Quaker woman, ‘Grandma Hussey.’

Pleasant believed her father had given Hussey a considerable amount of money for her to get an education, but she never received one. Pleasant learned to read and write, and described herself as “a girl full of smartness.” (Ball et al)

Nantucket proved an ideal locale for an ambitions, headstrong girl to learn business, Indeed, Nantucket Town was overrun with woman-owned shops because of the abundance of so-called whaling wives who ran the town while the men were at sea. (Hudson)

When she ended her work on the island of Nantucket, the family who owned the store helped Pleasant become established in Boston. It was there that she met and married her first husband, Cuban planter and abolitionist Alexander Smith. He died in 1848 and left her with $45,000, a substantial legacy, to be used to support abolitionist causes.

Soon after, she married John Pleasant (or Pleasants), who had been an overseer on the Smith plantation. She reportedly was involved in the Underground Railroad, and was so successful in assisting escaping slaves that she had “a price on her head in the South.” (Encyclopedia)

Accounts relate that the Pleasants went to California in 1849, during the gold rush, but her husband apparently did not figure very significantly in her life after the journey.

Pleasant moved to San Francisco and put her business acumen and entrepreneurial skills, not to mention her reputation as a noteworthy cook, to work. There was much wealth circulating in the heady days of the gold rush, but few luxuries in the area to spend it on.

Miners and merchants were clamoring for services, and Pleasant, according to San Francisco newspapers, rejected many offers of employment as a cook from people with means. Instead, with her name now well known, she opened a boarding house that provided lodging and food, both of which were scarce.

She expanded her business dealings by lending money to businessmen and miners at an interest rate of 10%, while also investing wisely on the advice of her influential boarders and other associates. During this time, she gained a reputation as “The Fabulous Negro Madam,” acting as a procurer for her male associates. (Encyclopedia)

She invested her money wisely: Her businesses in San Francisco included laundries, dairies and exclusive restaurants — all of which were quite lucrative in a city filled with miners and single businessmen.

In the 1890 census she listed her occupation as ‘capitalist.’ (Curbed SFO) Beltane Ranch in Glen Ellen, once owned by Mary Ellen Pleasant, has been recognized as a Black historical site by the National Park Service. (Sonoma-Index-Tribune)

Between the years of 1830 and 1927, as the last generation of blacks born into slavery was reaching maturity, a small group of industrious, tenacious, and daring men and women broke new ground to attain the highest levels of financial success. (Wills)

Concerned about racial equality, she became increasingly involved in helping others and in civil-rights activities during the 1850s and 1860s. Mary Ellen Pleasant, used her Gold Rush wealth to provide financial assistance for these causes; she also sought out and rescued slaves being held illegally in the California countryside.

(California had entered the Union as a free state under the Compromise of 1850, but the legal status of slaves brought there by their owners from slave states was vague.)

Pleasant also found jobs in wealthy households for runaway slaves and developed an information network. One of the most widely circulated, albeit unsubstantiated, reports on Pleasant concerns her role in abolitionist John Brown’s raid on the U.S. arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia, in 1859.

She reportedly sailed to the East in 1858 and in Canada gave Brown $30,000 to finance his battle against slavery. Among Brown’s belongings when he was captured was a note that read: “The ax is laid at the foot of the tree. When the first blow is struck there will be more money to help. (signed) W.E.P.”

Supporters of this theory suggest that the “M” in Pleasant’s initials may have been misread as a “W.” Skeptics of her account of the Brown connection, however, say that Brown had already left Canada by the time of her visit there, and that she produced no evidence to prove she had given him any money.

Pleasant returned to San Francisco around 1859 and continued both her business activities and her activism. In 1863, she was integral in winning African-Americans the right to testify in court in California (previously, neither African-Americans nor Native Americans were allowed to speak in court in civil or criminal cases, even ones in which they were directly involved).

She also fought to win the right of African-Americans to use San Francisco’s streetcars. In 1868, she brought two railroads to court and successfully sued them for refusing her passage.

By mid-1899, however, claiming to be drained financially by her legal entanglements, Pleasant filed for bankruptcy, and requested food and other necessities from acquaintances. (It is thought, nonetheless, that she retained a considerable amount of money even at that time.)

She lived her last few months in the San Francisco home of a family named Sherwood who had befriended her, dying on January 11, 1904, and was buried in their burial plot in Napa, California. (Encyclopedia)

While the corner of Bush and Octavia Streets in San Francisco is home to the city’s smallest park (it’s just a small stretch of sidewalk without a patch of grass or spot for picnicking), it is dedicated to a larger-than-life figure: Mary Ellen Pleasant (1817-1904).

A round floor plaque in the park reads, “Mother of Civil Rights in California. She supported the western terminus of the underground railway for fugitive slaves 1850-1865. This legendary pioneer once lived on this site and planted these six trees.” (SF Heritage) (An image of Queen Emma is sometimes mistaken/ mislabeled as Mary Ellen Pleasant.)

January 10, 2023 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Status of Women

Defined by the men in their lives, women in ancient Rome were valued mainly as wives and mothers. Although some were allowed more freedom than others, there was always a limit, even for the daughter of an emperor. (PBS)

Pre-contact Hawaiians lived their lives according to a strictly enforced system of responsibility and duty, regulation, restriction, and resource management called kapu.

In precontact Hawai’i, the majority of women were not chiefly, but commoners, the maka’āinana, literally the people that attend the land.

Women lived and worked in their own domains and labored at traditional tasks suited to their own domestic requirements, weaving mats, beating kapa for clothing, twisting cordage for nets, fishing and collecting food.

The women’s domestic labor produced finished mats, and yards of kapa cloth, necessary contributions towards maintaining their place on the land in a reciprocal arrangement between their family household and the chiefly land managers. (Connors)

Pukui and Handy note, “The division of labor in the kauhale was very definite in old Hawaiian times. Under the system of strict kapu where the sanctity of the male was concerned, it was necessary that men of the household be guarded against contamination of their food and working gear by women, who were periodically ‘unclean.’”

“Hence, the production and preparation of food devolved upon men (as did likewise the offerings to the family gods in the mua), not upon women as later came to be the custom after the formal overthrow of the old religious system.”

“This basic principle led to an infinitude of restrictions upon what could or could not be done by whom, in connection with the simplest activities of daily living.” (Pukui and Handy)

As noted in an article by U’ilani Dasalla, The Mana Wahine of Hawai’i:

“It was a religious law called ‘aikapu that then separated male and females from eating with one another.”

“Males became la’a [sacred] and females were haumia [defiling] because of menstruation.”

“The Kahuna also decided that there should be four nights of worship dedicated to the four major gods, Kāne, Lono, Kū, and Kanaloa, all of whom were male. On these nights, men could not sleep with women.”

“Furthermore, ancient Hawai’i had many other rules that separated men and women. Not only were they eating separately, but their food was even cooked in a different imu.”

“Additionally, women could only eat certain foods. It was kapu to consume pork, banana, coconut, and certain types of fish.”

“If a woman was found in her husband’s sanctuary or at another man’s eating house, she suffered the death penalty. However, a husband could enter his wife’s eating house with no penalty.”

“This shows the status that men held over women. Although there were eating taboos, the family did have a house in which, if not eating or worshipping, they could interact freely with each other.”

“Women did stay in different housing while menstruating, called the hale pe’a. Men thought women were dirty because of menstruation, so it became kapu to sleep in the same hale [house] during her monthly cycle.”

“Additionally, it was recognized that their society was dominated by males, in both the ‘akua [gods] and the kanaka realm.”

“Men were considered very sacred and, as mentioned previously, even the four primary gods are male. Although there was much segregation overall and the gods were all male, women were allowed to participate in religion and worship, giving them a bit of autonomy.”

“However, many rules applied to women and breaking any of the kapu was punishable by death.” (Dasalla)

Malo affirms this when he said, “During the days of religious tabu, when the gods were specially worshipped, many women were put to death by reason of infraction of some tabu.”

“According to the tabu a woman must live entirely apart from her husband, during the period of her infirmity; she always ate in her own house, and the man ate in the house called mua.”

“As a result of this custom, the mutual love of the man and his wife was not kept warm; the man might use the opportunity to associate with another woman, likewise the woman with another man.”

“It has not been stated who was the author of this tabu that prohibited the mingling of the sexes while partaking of food. It was no doubt a very ancient practice; possibly it dates from the time of Wakea; but it may be subsequent to that.” (Malo)

“The house in which the men ate was called the mua; the sanctuary where they worshipped was called heiau, and it was a very tabu place. The house in which the women ate was called the hale ai’na. These houses were the ones to which the restrictions and tabu applied, but in the common dwelling house, hale noa, the man and his wife met freely together.”

“The house in which the wife and husband slept together was also called hale-moe. It was there they met and lived and worked together and associated with their children.”

“The man, however, was permitted to enter his wife’s eating house, but the woman was forbidden to enter her husband’s mua.” (Malo)

History of Gender and Education on the Continent

There was nothing unique about segregating the sexes in the American schools on the continent.

Hamilton University provides an excellent historical perspective in their syllabus for a class, Government 375: Educational Reform and Ideology, that highlights the historical context of gender segregation in education in the US,

“Early education in the American colonies had a religious purpose. Schools existed to train boys to be clergymen. Consequently, the education of women was not a priority.”

“Most colonial town schools did not admit women until the nineteenth century, although Boston public schools admitted some girls in 1789. When girls were finally permitted to attend town schools, they attended at different times of the day than boys.”

“The rise of the common school, with tax supported, free, compulsory education for all, occurred in the early nineteenth century. Both boys and girls had the opportunity to attend the common school.”

“Although these schools were coeducational in name, segregation by sex was de facto: girls and boys entered through separate doors, went to different sides of the building, and often learned only from instructors of the same sex.”

“True coeducation with social and recreational interaction between boys and girls existed only in those communities that could not afford to house students separately. Most towns could not afford to build and support one school for boys and one for girls, thus coeducation began to develop.”

“The first coeducational high school opened in Lowell, Massachusetts in 1840. Up until the Civil War, the spread of coeducational high schools was slow.”

“At the end of the nineteenth century, girls had the opportunity to attend public elementary schools, most of which were coeducational. Some, however, remained segregated by sex.”

“By 1882, 90 percent of urban high schools claimed to be coeducational. At this time, wealthy families often chose to send their children to single-sex religious and private schools.”

“Occurring simultaneously with the development of the public high school was the academy movement, which proposed to teach students more classical and fewer practical subjects. The academy movement significantly impacted the development of higher education for women.”

“The curriculum grew to include teacher training programs along with such courses as chemistry and languages. These academies became firmly associated with women and gradually began to refer to themselves as ‘colleges.’ Georgia Female College was the first to do so in 1836.”

“While women’s colleges received renewed support following the Civil War, men’s colleges were also growing in stature and number. For financial reasons, colleges in the west were mostly coeducational, while colleges in the east could afford to remain single-sex.”

“In 1837, Oberlin became the first coeducational college. At the turn of the century, coeducation began its sharp rise. By 1900, 98 percent of public high schools were coeducational, and by 1910, 58 percent of colleges and universities were coeducational.”

“In the 1960s, approximately 62 percent of non-religious independent schools were single-sex. Originally, 100 percent of Catholic schools were single-sex; now almost 60 percent are coeducational. There were almost 300 single-sex colleges and universities in the 1960s.”

“In one six month period in 1968, almost one quarter of all women’s colleges either closed or merged with men’s institutions. As of 1996, only 83 all-female colleges remained in operation. These statistics demonstrate the rapid spread of coeducation.”

“Thus, education in the U.S. began as exclusionary of women, progressed to including women but keeping them separate from men, and finally progressed to widespread coeducation. At this point, the American public views coeducation as the norm.”

“However, gender inequity in the classroom has sparked a drive to return to single-sex education, as a way to truly educate males and females equally.”

Another reminder of the discrimination against women … women didn’t get the right to vote in the US until 1920.

January 8, 2023 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Ni‘ihau Lei Pūpū

Privately-owned by the Robinsons, with strict limited access, Ni‘ihau is the island that is least known and visited, and as such has the most intrigue (and thus referred to as the Forbidden Isle.)

In 1863, King Kamehameha IV put Ni‘ihau up for sale. A purchase price of $10,000 was agreed to with buyers James and Francis Sinclair. But Kamehameha IV died on November 30 before the closing, so Royal Patent No. 2944 shows his brother, Kamehameha V, completed the transaction in 1864. Ownership was subsequently passed down through the family.

The 70-square-mile island (about half the size of Lāna‘i and twice as large as Kaho‘olawe) is the smallest inhabited island in Hawai‘i with 84 residents (mostly Native Hawaiian) and 35 houses (DBEDT & Census.)

The island lacks basic municipal infrastructure. There are no paved roads (walking, horseback or bicycle are the only transportation options on Ni‘ihau.) No water and wastewater systems. No stores. No restaurants. No doctors. No police. No fire department. (Ni‘ihau Cultural Heritage Foundation)

“‘Ni‘ihau shells’ means seashells harvested from the island of Ni‘ihau, its waters, or its beaches. [N]o person shall offer, display, expose for sale, or solicit for sale any product or jewelry item fabricated, processed, or manufactured with seashells …”

“… that is described, labeled, or identified using the term ‘Ni‘ihau’ or ‘Niihau’, either alone or in conjunction with other words, or in a trade or brand name …”

“… unless: (1) One hundred per cent of all shells in the product or jewelry item are Ni‘ihau shells; and (2) The product or jewelry item is fabricated, processed, or manufactured entirely within this State.” (Hawai‘i Revised Statutes, §486-118.5)

Pu‘uwai village, on the western (leeward) side of the island, is the population center of Ni‘ihau. On this side of the island are the main beaches where Ni‘ihau shells are collected that make the famous and collectible Ni‘ihau lei pūpū.

The origin of the Ni‘ihau shell lei is lost in antiquity, but it is clear that at the time of Captain James Cook first contact in 1778, shell lei were in existence.

A Ni‘ihau shell lei is in the British Museum and was most likely collected by Cook during one of his several visits to the island of Ni‘ihau.

Although ‘shell ornaments’ described by early visitors were primarily made of seashells, some were also made of land shells which were once common throughout the Islands. In the mid-1800s, hula dancers were described as wearing necklaces of shells as well as flower garlands and feather ornamentation.

There are three different shells primarily used to make Ni‘ihau shell lei: kahelelani, momi and laiki. The color of the shells range from bright pink to pale yellow, and can have various types of markings on them.

Fabricating shell lei was not limited to Ni‘ihau, but it was there that this Hawaiian art flourished, most likely due to the abundance of shells available on the island’s beaches and the scarcity of flowers because of the arid climate.

In 1887, Queen Kapi‘olani had a formal portrait taken in New York on her way to attend Queen Victoria’s Jubilee. In the portrait, she wore a multi-strand lei of ivory-colored Ni‘ihau shells which complemented her formal Victorian dress.

Queen Emma, who showed more appreciation of Hawaiian crafts than any other of the Hawaiian royalty, also wore Ni‘ihau shell lei for formal portraits as well as when she was presented to Her Britannic Majesty.

It should be noted that during this time the shell lei was adapted to Victorian jewelry styles which included adding a clasp, thus elevating the traditional lei to the status of a piece of fine jewelry which was worn with the most elegant Western dress.

It is also interesting to note that later, particularly during the early- and mid-1900s, shell lei were more commonly reserved for occasions when Hawaiian attire was worn.

January 7, 2023 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Pono Pineapple

Kapa‘a was the final home of the legendary chief Mō‘īkeha. Born at Waipi‘o on the island of Hawai‘i, Mō‘īkeha sailed to Kahiki (Tahiti), the home of his grandfather, Maweke, after a disastrous flood. On his return to Hawai‘i, he settled at Kapa‘a, Kauai.

Kila, Mō‘īkeha’s favorite of three sons by the Kauai chiefess Ho‘oipoikamalanai, was born at Kapa‘a and was considered the most handsome man on the island. It was Kila who was sent by his father back to Kahiki to slay his old enemies and retrieve a foster son, the high chief La‘amaikahiki.

Mō‘īkeha’s love for Kapa‘a is recalled in the ‘olelo no‘eau: Ka lulu o Mo‘ikeha i ka laulã o Kapa‘a “The calm of Mō‘īkeha in the breadth of Kapa‘a ” (Pukui 1983: 157) (McMahon)

The sugar industry came to the Kapa‘a region in 1877 with the establishment of the Makee Sugar Company and subsequent construction of a mill near the north end of the present town. Cane was cultivated mainly in the upland areas on former kula lands

The first crop was planted by the Hui Kawaihau, a group composed of associates of King Exploration Associates Ltd. David Kalākaua. The king threw much of his political and economic power behind the project to ensure its success.

The Hui Kawaihau was originally a choral society begun in Honolulu whose membership consisted of many prominent names, both Hawaiian and haole.

It was Kalākaua’s thought that the Hui members could join forces with Makee, who had previous sugar plantation experience on Maui, to establish a successful sugar corporation on the east side of Kauai. Captain Makee was given land in Kapa‘a to build a mill and he agreed to grind cane grown by Hui members.

Kalākaua declared the land between Wailua and Moloa‘a, the Kawaihau District, a fifth district and for four years the Hui attempted to grow sugar cane at Kapahi, on the plateau lands above Kapa‘a.

Kapa‘a town was founded by immigrant sugar workers who left their sugar mill towns and set up small private businesses. It is one of only two towns on Kauai that sprang up independent of sugar production.

Pineapple became the next largest commercial enterprise in the region. In the early 1900s, to help with the growing plantation population, government lands were auctioned off as town lots in Kapa‘a.

The first pineapple company on the island of Kauai was established in 1906. In 1913, Hawaiian Canneries Company, Ltd opened in Kapa‘a. Through the Hawaiian Organic Act, Hawaiian Canneries purchased land they were leasing, approximately 8.75 acres, in 1923.

Hawaiian Canneries Co. cultivated pineapple scattered over 35 miles from Hanamaulu to Hanalei and processed and canned its pineapple at Kapa‘a canneries (now the site of Pono Kai Resort). (McMahon)

The Kapa‘a Cannery provided employment for many Kapa‘a residents. By 1960, 3400 acres were in pineapple and there were 250 full time employees and 1000 seasonal employees for the Kapa‘a Cannery.

On August 21, 1929, a US trademark registration was filed for ‘Pono’ by Hawaiian Canneries. The description provided to the trademark for Pono is ‘canned sliced and crushed pineapple and pineapple juice used for food-flavoring purposes’. (Trademarkia) By 1956, the cannery was producing 1.5 million cases of pineapple.

Factory by-products – the crowns & skins from the processed pineapples – were loaded onto train carts and hauled up the coast to a pier. The pineapple rubbish was then dumped into the ocean from the end of the pier. (Kauai Path)

As canned pineapple from other countries began filling the market, Hawaiian canneries began to close and plantations, once located on Maui, Oahu, Molokai, Lanai, and Kauai, began to shrink.

In 1962, Hawaiian Canneries went out of business due to foreign competition. (Exploration) Other smaller Kauai and Maui pineapple companies closed in the late-1960s.

In 1969, Hawaiian Fruit Packers (which was formed in 1937 by the reorganization of a company initially started by a group of ethnic Japanese growers) on Kauai, the last cannery remaining there, announced plans to cease planting. The cannery was closed in October 1973. (Bartholomew etal)

Del Monte cannery closed in 1985, and Dole cannery in Iwilei closed in 1991. The Kahului cannery of Maui Land and Pineapple Company was the last remaining pineapple cannery in Hawai‘i.

The Hawaiian pineapple industry has gone from its early days as a primarily fresh product, through most of the 20th century as principally a canned product and a major supplier of the worlds canned pineapple market, to the 21st century when it is once again grown mostly for fresh consumption. (HAER)

January 3, 2023 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Palolo Municipal Golf Course

The first public golf course in the US was the Van Cortlandt Golf Course in the Bronx, New York in 1895. Since that time many other cities developed their own facilities both for local use and the tourist industry.

Honolulu’s first golf course was a private course built by Samuel Damon in 1898 at Moanalua Valley. Built four miles beyond the nearest trolley line (which ended at Pālama), it was too far outside of town to use for those without private transportation.

Another private course, located in Manoa Valley, was begun in 1904, as well as O‘ahu Country Club opened in 1906 and Waialae in 1928.

Planning for a Honolulu municipal golf course was underway in 1925. The City Planning Commission wanted a location that was not too far away from the center of the population that had access from the transit system.

They decided to concentrate their efforts for a site in Kalihi, but the price was unmanageable. “In March 1926 Palolo Valley landowners CF Wright and CA Long approach the [Planning] Commission with a proposal to sell their land to the City for a golf course site at 8 cents per square foot”.

“The Commission decided to recommend that the Board of Supervisors [equivalent to what we call the City Council] take advantage of the Palolo Valley site for an eighteen hole golf course.” (Stephenson)

“[T]he City Planning Commission on May 13, 1926, decided to formally endorse the Palolo Valley golf course site to the City Board of Supervisors. … On December 6, 1931, the Palolo Municipal Golf Course was officially opened.” (Stephenson)

“Honolulu’s new municipal golf course, a nine-hole layout off Palolo avenue, will be thrown open to the public today with a team match bringing together the best golfers on this island as the attractions.”

“The match begins promptly at 8 am, and the players will start off in fivesomes, representing teams of Haoles, Hawaiians, Japanese, Chines and the Braves.” (Honolulu Advertiser, December 6, 1931) “Senator Francis Brown, one of Hawaii’s best golfers, will shoot the first ball”. (Star Bulletin, Dec 5, 1931)

“You turn off Waialae road onto the Palolo belt road which branches off Waialae opposite the King’s Daughter’s home. You then drive straight up the valley on the Palolo road, the links being on the right hand side of the road about a mile from Waialae.” (Star Bulletin, Dec 5, 1931)

“Eventually the Palolo course should be extended to 18 holes. As it is now Honolulu has a regulation nine hole municipal course.”

“This is a fine start and it won’t be long before the links start bringing money into the revolving fund, even with the low fees that are to be charged.” (Star Bulletin, Deb 9, 1931)

“The demise of the Palolo Municipal Golf Course began during World War II. On September 22, 1944, the Honolulu City Planning Commission granted variances from existing zoning regulations to allow construction of temporary prefabricated houses on 2400 to 2500 square foot plots on the golf course.”

“This was done to help alleviate the existing wartime housing shortage. The continued shortage of housing precluded reopening the golf course.” (Stephenson)

Interest then went to the Territorial Fair Grounds, just mauka of the Ala Wai Canal, and the ultimate expansion of the Ala Wai Golf Course as the municipal course.

The first Territorial Fair was held during June 10-15, 1918; over a six-day period, one hundred and eighteen thousand tickets of admission were sold. With that initial success, the Chamber sought “A Bigger and Better Fair.”

A second fair was held June 9-14, 1919. “Help Win the War!” was the slogan that made the first Fair a success and it was based on common sense and a real need.

In 1921, the Territorial legislature appropriated funds from the “general revenues of the Territory of Hawaii for the purpose of purchasing and improving land to be used for territorial fair and amusement park purposes.”

A site was selected and “set aside for territorial fair and amusement park purposes that portion of the government lands lying mauka of the proposed Waikiki drainage canal (Ala Wai) and adjacent to Kapahulu road.”

Then field work was undertaken for the Fair Commission in connection with improvements of the fairgrounds and amusement park: polo field and race track; grandstand site was surveyed; two baseball diamonds and two indoor baseball diamonds were staked out.

The Territorial fair continued for a number of years. However, it’s not clear why the use of the site transitioned from a Fair Grounds to something else – but a transition appears apparent, starting in 1923.

Reportedly, golf started at the Fair Grounds in 1923, when someone placed a salmon can down as its first hole. A year later, three more holes were built for a total of four. By 1931 five more holes were designed and it became a nine-hole course. It was renamed the Ala Wai Golf Course.

The second nine was added in 1937, and the original clubhouse followed in 1948. In the 1980s, a new water feature was added and the course was also fitted with a new sprinkler system. The driving range was relocated to make room for expansion of the Honolulu Zoo in 1989 and, finally, a new clubhouse was built in 1990.