Prominent People | Page 143 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

September 4, 2016 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Benjamin Franklin Dillingham

Benjamin Franklin (Frank) Dillingham was the son of Benjamin Clark Dillingham, a shipmaster, and Lydia Sears (Hows) Dillingham, born on September 4, 1844 in West Brewster, Massachusetts.

He left school at 14 and shipped on his uncle’s vessel for a voyage around the Horn to San Francisco. During the Civil War, on June 6, 1863, he was nineteen-year-old third mate on the clipper ship Southern Cross bound for New York with a cargo of ‘log wood.’

‘Florida’ was flying the British ensign, though as she steamed closer, she ran up the rebels’ ‘stars and bars.’ A squad of armed Confederate sailors boarded and took Dillingham and the rest of the clipper’s small crew prisoner.

Then, as the new prisoners watched from the deck of their captor, the Southern Cross was set ablaze and sunk. Eventually they were put ashore at Rio de Janeiro and worked their way back to the war-torn United States.

Dillingham headed west, determined to take up residence in San Francisco and find work ashore. An unsuccessful hunt for employment led him back to the sea, and in 1865 he was hired by Captain John Paty as first mate on the bark Whistler, on the San Francisco/Honolulu run.

“A brief sojourn in the city enabled me to realize that I had no training in any other vocation, save that of the sea, and learning that Capt. Paty of the bark Whistler plying between the coast and Honolulu was in need of officers, I applied and obtained the position of first mate without delay.” (Dillingham; Chiddix & Simpson))

Dillingham wrote that he felt at home the first time he came ashore in Honolulu: “After my tempstuous experiences in rounding Cape Horn and the Cape of Good Hope, the trip seemed to me like a pleasure excursion.”

“It felt as if I had anchored in a home port; the cordiality I experienced from all those whom I met removed at once the feeling of being in a foreign land though the streets were filled with several nationalities. The luxuriant foliage, the balmy breezes, the tropical fruits, all afforded such delights that I felt sure I should return.”

He did return, and ultimately stayed after an unfortunate encounter between his horse and a carriage; “The first officer of the bark Whistler, Mr. Dillingham, whose leg was broken last Friday night, by being thrown from a horse, in collision with a carriage, on the valley road …”

“(Dillingham) is now at the American Marine Hospital, where he receives every care and attention, and is in favorable condition for recover.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, July 29, 1865) Unfortunately for him, the Whistler left him in Honolulu and sailed away.

He accepted a job as a clerk in a hardware store called H. Dimond & Son for $40 per month. The store was owned by Henry Dimond, formerly a bookbinder in the 7th Missionary Company. In 1850 Dimond had been released from his duties at the Mission and had gone into business with his son.

Dillingham later bought the company with partner Alfred Castle (son of Samuel Northrup Castle, who was in the 8th Company of missionaries and ran the Mission business office;) they called the company Dillingham & Co (it was later known as Pacific Hardware, Co.)

On April 26, 1869, Dillingham married Emma Smith, daughter of 6th Company missionaries Reverend Lowell and Abigail Smith.

But hard times came on Dillingham with the collapse of whaling and the rise of sugar. Large suppliers pulled Dillingham’s credit lines, and his accounts were paid late. Then Dillingham was given the opportunity to buy the James Campbell lands in Ewa.

While he couldn’t raise the money to buy it, Campbell leased the land for 50-years. Dillingham realized that to be successful, he needed reliable transportation.

On September 4, 1888, Frank Dillingham’s 44th birthday, the legislature gave Dillingham an exclusive franchise “for construction and operation on the Island of O‘ahu a steam railroad … for the carriage of passengers and freight.”

Dillingham formed O‘ahu Railway and Land Company (OR&L,) a narrow gauge rail, whose economic being was founded on the belief that O‘ahu would soon host a major sugar industry.

“Among the most important works now in process of rapid construction, is the Oahu railway to Pearl Harbor, which is already approaching completion, so far as grading is concerned. Eleven miles of this line will have the grading completed in two weeks; and of this length ten miles are already finished.”

“The depot itself will be of imposing size and made as ornamental in appearance as convenience and traffic requirements will allow. … The progress of this important work has been so rapid during the month of July that we give it first place among the works in progress during the past month.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, July 27, 1889)

“Mr BF Dillingham, promoter of the Oahu Railway and Land Company, on his birthday a year previous, was accosted by an acquaintance with the remark: ‘Well, Mr. Dillingham, you have got your franchise: when are you going to give us the railway?’”

“Mr. Dillingham replied that on his next birthday, that day one year, he hoped to treat his friends to a railway ride. … with a strong company now at his back, the originator of the enterprise, having taken the contract to build the road, resolutely pushed operations to their present advanced stage.”

“When the appointed day arrived Mr Dillingham was ready to celebrate. His engine had been set up some days. Two third class cars, the best passenger accommodation as yet on the ground, were put together. … With a shrill blast from the whistle and the bell clanging, the engine moved easily off with its load. Three rousing cheers were given by the passengers, and crowds assembled at the starting point responded.” (Daily Bulletin, September 5, 1889)

Ultimately OR&L sublet land, partnered on several sugar operations and/or hauled cane from Ewa Plantation Company, Honolulu Sugar Company in ‘Aiea, O‘ahu Sugar in Waipahu, Waianae Sugar Company, Waialua Agriculture Company and Kahuku Plantation Company, as well as pineapples for Dole.

By the early-1900s, the expanded railway cut across the island, serving several sugar and pineapple plantations, and the popular Haleʻiwa Hotel. They even included a “Kodak Camera Train” (associated with the Hula Show) for Sunday trips to Hale‘iwa for picture-taking.

When the hotel opened on August 5, 1899, guests were conveyed from the railway terminal over the Anahulu stream to fourteen luxurious suites, each had a bath with hot-and-cold running water.

Thrum’s ‘Hawaiian Annual’ (1900,) noted, “In providing so tempting an inn as an adjunct and special attraction for travel by the Oahu Railway – also of his (Dillingham’s) creation – the old maxim of ‘what is worth doing is worth doing well’ has been well observed, everything About the hotel is first class…”

The weekend getaway from Honolulu to the Haleʻiwa Hotel became hugely popular with the city affluent who enjoyed a retreat in ‘the country.’

In addition, OR&L (using another of its “land” components,) got into land development. It developed Hawai‘i’s first planned suburban development and held a contest, through the newspaper, to name this new city. The winner selected was “Pearl City” (the public also named the main street, Lehua.)

The railway owned 2,200-acres in fee simple in the peninsula. First they laid-out and constructed the improvements, then invited the public on a free ride to see the new residential community. The marketing went so well; ultimately, lots were auctioned off to the highest bidder.

“Mr. Dillingham, besides creating the O‘ahu Railway, a line for which he struggled twenty-seven years against a public prejudice that would not see its financial possibilities, established Olaʻa plantation on the Island of Hawai‘i and McBryde plantation on Kauai.”

“He retained active management of the Oahu Railway & Land Company until 1915, when he relinquished it to George P. Denison.” (Sugar, May 1918) Dillingham died April 7, 1918 (aged 73.) (Information in this post taken, in part, from ‘Next Stop Honolulu.’)

The Dillingham Transportation Building was built in 1929 for Walter F Dillingham of Honolulu, Hawaiʻi, who founded the Hawaiian Dredging Company (later Dillingham Construction) and ran the Oahu Railway and Land Company founded by his father, Benjamin Franklin Dillingham.

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Benjamin_Franklin_Dillingham_(1844–1918)

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OR&L Honolulu

OR&L Honolulu Harbor

OR&L Railroad 1891

OR&L Railroad Depot 1890

OR&L Station 325 N. King St. Honolulu, late 1940s

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Woodlawn, B. F. Dillingham home at the corner ofBeretania and Punahou streets-(centralunionchurch-org)

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Haleiwa_Hotel-(NextStopHonolulu)-1935

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Pearl City-(NextStopHonolulu)

September 3, 2016 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Lopaka

In 1790, two Western ships, Simon Metcalf (captaining the Eleanora) and his son Thomas Metcalf (captaining the Fair American) were trading in Hawaiian waters.

The Eleanora arrived in the islands first; after a brief confrontation with local chief Kameʻeiamoku in Kohala, she sailed to the neighboring island of Maui to trade along the coast.

Kame‘eiamoku vowed revenge on whatever ship next came his way. By coincidence, the Fair American was the next ship to visit the territory of chief Kameʻeiamoku, who was eager for revenge. Isaac Davis was a crew member of the Fair American.

On March 16, 1790, the Fair American was attacked by Kameʻeiamoku’s warriors at Puako, near Kawaihae, Hawaii. The schooner was manned by only four sailors, plus its relatively inexperienced captain. It was easily captured by the Hawaiians (Davis was spared.)

Unaware of the events and fate of the Fair American, the Eleanora returned from Maui and arrived at the Big Island; Captain Simon Metcalf sent John Young ashore to see the country.

That evening, as Young attempted to return to his ship, Kamehameha’s forces detained him (Kamehameha had placed a kapu on anyone going on the ship.)

Young was captured and Metcalf, unaware, was puzzled why Young did not return. Metcalf waited two days for Young to return, firing guns in hope that the sound would guide Young back and sending a letter to foreigners ashore.

Finally, sensing danger or becoming frustrated, Metcalf departed and set sail for China (abandoning Young,) not knowing that his son had been killed not far away.

A number of muskets, swords, axes, powder and clothing, as well as a brass cannon, were recovered from the Fair American, which Kamehameha kept as part of his arsenal. Kamehameha made Young and Davis his advisors. (Rechtman)

Kamehameha gave the name ‘Lopaka’ to the powerful pū kuniahi (cannon) that was captured from the British ship Fair American.

Later described as “ka puʻuhonua o ko Kamehameha aoao” (the sanctuary of Kamehameha’s side), Lopaka would gain fame at the decisive battles of Kapaniwai on Maui and Paʻauhau on Oʻahu. (Bishop Museum)

The famous cannon, Lopaka, was dragged and set up at a place called Kawelowelo, and from there it was fired into the ‘Iao Valley, and turned to fire at the cliffs where the Maui people were attempting to flee.

The thundering sound of the Lopaka cannon caused absolute terror amongst the Maui warriors, and some of them met their death by the weapons of the foreigners. They were slaughtered below the pali.

While the Lopaka cannon was being fired by John Young, Maui warriors gathered together some men and sprang to seize the Lopaka cannon.

That cannon fell into the hands of Keoua’s men (for a time,) and John Young ran for his life arriving before Isaac Davis at the place now called Honoka‘a.

At this place a very hot battle was fought between the two sides. If John Young had not run, he would have died at the hands of Ka‘ie‘iea, Keoua’s fearless warrior. (Desha) But the damage had been done.

Had they fought face-to-face and hand-to-hand, as the custom was, they would have been equally matched. But the defensive was drawn up in a narrow pass in ʻIao, and the offensive advanced.

Kamehameha’s warriors pursued them and slew the vanquished as they scrambled up the cliffs. The battle was called “Clawed off the cliff” (Kaʻuwaʻupali) and “The damming of the waters.”

During the fight Kalanikupule and other chiefs escaped to Oʻahu; others went over the pass in ʻIao Valley into Olowalu, then they sailed to Molokai. (Kamakau)

Because of their knowledge of European warfare, Young and Davis are said to have trained Kamehameha and his men in the use of muskets and cannons. In addition, both Young and Davis fought alongside Kamehameha in his many battles.

Kamehameha appointed John Young as Governor of Kamehameha’s home island, Hawai‘i Island, and gave him a seat next to himself in the ruling council of chiefs. In 1819, Young was one of the few present at the death of Kamehameha I.

Davis became a respected translator and military advisor for Kamehameha. Davis brought western military knowledge to Hawai‘i and played a big role during Hawaii’s first contacts with the European powers. His skill in gunnery, as well as Lopaka from the Fair American, helped Kamehameha win many battles.

Davis had the King’s “most perfect confidence” and he attended to Kamehameha’s needs on all travels of business or pleasure – and ventured with him during times of war. Davis earned Kamehameha’s “greatest respect and the highest degree of esteem and regard.”

When Captain George Vancouver visited Hawai‘i Island in 1793, he observed that both Young and Davis “are in his (Kamehameha’s) most perfect confidence, attend him in all his excursions of business or pleasure, or expeditions of war or enterprise; and are in the habit of daily experiencing from him the greatest respect, and the highest degree of esteem and regard.”

Reportedly, Lopaka was lashed to a sled and pulled by ropes; in more difficult terrain, it was removed from its carriage and slung from long poles. (The image shows Lopaka, John Young and Isaac Davis at ʻIao, as drawn by Brook Parker.)

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August 29, 2016 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Henry Perrine Baldwin

Henry Perrine Baldwin, the most successful sugar producer of the Hawaiian Islands (Mid Pacific, February 1912,) was born on August 29, 1842 in Lahaina, Maui.

His father was American missionary Dwight Baldwin (1798–1886), and his mother was Charlotte Fowler Baldwin. (He was named after Matthew LaRue Perrine (1777-1836), a professor at Auburn Theological Seminary, from which his father had graduated shortly before his departure to the Hawaiian Islands.) (Davis)

After receiving his education at Punahou School, HP Baldwin undertook the management of a rice plantation, but the venture was not successful and in 1863 he turned his attention to the cultivation of sugar cane, working first for his brother, Dwight Baldwin, Jr, who was engaged in planting at Lahaina.

Christopher H Lewers founded Waiheʻe sugar plantation on Maui. It the mid-1860s it was managed by Samuel Thomas Alexander. Henry Perrin Baldwin took a ‘Luna’ (foreman) job with Alexander. (HP Baldwin and Alexander grew up together as kids in Lāhainā and became close friends.)

It was Mr. Baldwin’s intention – he was then but 21 years of age – to earn enough money to enable him to go to Williams College to take a medical course. (His father was a physician.) His youthful ambition to be a doctor was never realized.

Once launched in the sugar industry he continued in it, an increasingly important figure, for the remainder of his life. Baldwin was particularly successful as an agriculturist, a developer of plantations.

He left to his associates the office and administrative details of his widespread interests but almost to the day of his death continued to take a personal and active interest in the basic level of the sugar industry, the cultivation and production of sugar. (Orr)

In 1869, Baldwin and Alexander became business partners and bought 12-acres in Hāmākuapoko (an eastern Maui ahupuaʻa (land division.)) (They later formed Alexander & Baldwin, one of Hawai‘i’s ‘Big Five’ companies – and the only Big Five still in Hawai‘i.)

“The early years of the partnership of Alexander & Baldwin, represented a continual struggle against heavy odds. Haiku plantation had to have water.”

“Straining their financial resources almost to the breaking point, the young partners succeeded in bringing to completion the Hāmākua-Haiku ditch, the first important irrigation project in the islands.”

“The eventual enormous success of this enterprise made possible the great future of Alexander and Baldwin. Pā‘ia plantation was started and other extensive acreages were added to the partners’ holdings.” (Orr)

“As a pioneer in the construction of big irrigation ditches, Mr. Baldwin laid the foundation for his great fortune. In the latter 70s he caused other planters to gasp by his daring ventures in ditch construction, risking sums of money that were considered very large in those days in enterprises that were believed to be impossible to consummate because of the great gulches and ravines that had to be crossed in the irrigation projects.”

Then tragedy happened … “In 1876, while engaged in adjusting machinery at the sugar mill at the Pā‘ia plantation. Mr. Baldwin almost lost his life by being drawn between the rolls.”

“The engineer fortunately witnessed the accident and reversed the engine, but not before the right arm had been fearfully mangled almost up to the shoulder blade. The amputation was not followed by any serious results, but the handicap was a severe one to so energetic a worker as was Mr. Baldwin all his life.” (Mid Pacific, February 1912)

“When Mr. Alexander removed to Oakland, Calif., in 1883, because of failing health, Mr. Baldwin assumed full direction of their affairs in Hawaii, and for almost thirty years thereafter he was a leading figure in the industrial expansion of the islands.” (Orr)

“A heavy expansion of Alexander and Baldwin came with the acquisition of control of the Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Co. of Puʻunene, Maui, formerly operated by the late Claus Spreckels.”

“Mr. Baldwin took personal charge of this plantation in 1902 and made it one of the most successful and productive estates in Hawaii. Today it ranks as one of the world’s finest and most modern sugar plantations.” (Orr)

“As manager of the Hawaiian Commercial and Sugar Company, Mr. Baldwin had the satisfaction of seeing it become one of the greatest sugar plantations of the world, with other plantations under the control of his company ranking very high according to their size.” (Mid Pacific, February 1912)

“During its early years the firm operated a fleet of sailing vessels between Hawaii and the mainland, carrying sugar to California and returning with merchandise. These ships later were replaced by the steamers of the American-Hawaiian line and still later by the freighters of the Matson Navigation Co.” (Orr)

“It has been said that no man was ever more deserving of success, for he worked hard when manual labor was necessary, rising as early as four o’clock in the morning and working late into the night to make his enterprises what they have since become.”

“The benefactions of Mr. Baldwin were innumerable. His life in every way was an example to the white boy born in Hawaii. He was of the second generation to the islands born and behind him left eight children of the third generation and several of the fourth.”

“Mr. Baldwin married Emily W. Alexander, daughter of Rev. and Mrs. William Patterson Alexander, early missionaries, and a sister of Mr. Baldwin’s partner, S. T. Alexander, at Wailuku, Maui, on April 5, 1870.”

“Eight children were born to them, Harry A Baldwin, Frank F Baldwin, Mrs. Maud (Baldwin) Cooke, Arthur D Baldwin, Dr WD Baldwin, Mrs Charlotte (Baldwin) Rice, Fred Baldwin and AS Baldwin.” (Orr)

“His sons were and are all athletes, mental and physical, worthy successors to their father, and sons of Hawaii that demonstrate that the islands produce men of brain and brawn throughout the succeeding generations.” (Mid Pacific, February 1912)

In January 1909, HP had an operation for appendicitis. Just as the incident with his arm, he recovered quickly and by the summer of 1911 he was healthy enough to make the voyage to California, but sadly, he died a few days after returning on July 8, 1911. (Davis)

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Henry Perrine Baldwin scanned from a page from “The Story of Hawaii and its Builders” Hawaii

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Henry Perrine Baldwin High School-plaque

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Makawao_Union_Church_also known as the Henry Perrine Baldwin Memorial Church was built in 1917-(WC)

August 26, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Confederate Flag

In the 1840s, Captain John Dominis, an Italian-American ship captain and merchant from New York, purchased property on Beretania Street and built a home for his family, Mary Lambert Dominis (his wife) and John Owen Dominis (his son.)

In 1847, on a voyage to the China Sea, Captain Dominis was lost at sea. To make ends meet, Mary Dominis rented out spare bedrooms in the house.

One such was to American Commissioner Anthony Ten Eyck. Ten Eyck said the house reminded him of Mount Vernon, George Washington’s mansion and that it should be named “Washington Place.”

King Kamehameha III, who concurred, Proclaimed as ‘Official Notice,’ “It has pleased His Majesty the King to approve of the name of Washington Place given this day by the Commissioner of the United States, to the House and Premises of Mrs. Dominis and to command that they retain that name in all time coming.” (February 22, 1848)

Twenty-four year-old Curtis Perry Ward (whom some called a ‘lonely Southern bachelor,’ while others say he was an ‘aloof, aristocratic Southerner’) arrived in the islands in 1853 and rented a room at Mary Dominis’ Washington Place.

He later opened a livery stable, started a small feed company and a draying business, all of which made money for Ward. In 1858, Ward rented a residential block now occupied by Davies Pacific Center as a home and location for his livery business. He named the property “Dixie”.

When tensions began to rise between the American North and South, the first shot of the American Civil War was fired at Fort Sumter off the coast of South Carolina on April 12, 1861, nearly six thousand miles away.

On August 26, 1861, five months after the outbreak of hostilities and four months after the news of Civil War arrived in Honolulu, Kamehameha IV issued a Proclamation that, in part, stated …

… “hostilities are now unhappily pending between the Government of the United States, and certain States thereof styling themselves ‘The Confederate States of America.’”

With the Proclamation, the King also stated “Our neutrality between said contending parties.” The discussion of neutrality versus partisanship had to include the reality that the Hawaiian kingdom had no standing army …

… and most importantly, no navy to protect its harbors if supporting either the Union or Confederacy brought the other side’s vessels to threaten the principal cities of Honolulu or Lāhainā. (Illinois-edu)

Likewise, while the majority of foreigners in Hawaiʻi were Americans from New England who supported the Union cause with great fervor, leadership and advisors to the King included European ties who believed that the Confederacy would succeed in securing its independence.

In 1862, John Owen Dominis married Lydia Kamakaʻeha (also known as Lydia Kamakaʻeha Pākī – later, Queen Lili‘uokalani.) Lydia Dominis described Washington Place “as comfortable in its appointments as it is inviting in its aspect.”

“Lili‘uokalani liked young Ward and felt sympathy for him as a passionate upholder of Confederate rights.” (Taylor) “(A)ccording to a family story, some members of the court privately expressed sympathy for Ward’s Southern allegiance during the War Between the States.”

“Lydia Lili‘u Pākī is said to have worked quietly at night, in the privacy of her chambers, sewing a Confederate flag for Ward.”

“He accepted her gift with pleasure and promptly attached it to the canopy of his four-poster bed, declaring it was his wish to die under the flag.” (Hustace)

In 1865, Ward married Victoria Robinson, Hawai‘i-born daughter of English shipbuilder James Robinson and his wife Rebecca, a woman of Hawaiian ancestry whose chiefly lineage had roots in Kaʻū, Hilo and Honokōwai, Maui.

For many years they made their home at ‘Dixie;’ later Ward Homes were ‘Sunny South’ and ‘Old Plantation. The Wards had seven daughters.

It was said that all of them were born in the bed under the Confederate flag. The flag is a “treasured relic of the Ward family to this very day.” (Taylor) In 1882, Curtis Ward died at age 53.

Victoria rallied against the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom in 1893; and, reportedly, after promulgation of the law forbidding the public display of the Hawaiian flag, Victoria Ward replaced the Confederate flag with a Hawaiian flag bed-quilt with the words Ku‘u Hae Aloha (My Beloved Flag.)

It is said Victoria made the remark, “I was born under the Hawaiian flag and I shall die under it.” (Allen; Karpiel) (The image shows the Confederate ‘Stars and Bars’ flag, captured by soldiers of the Union Army at Columbia, South Carolina – the flag later had 13-stars.)

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August 24, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Memorial Park

Memorials are an important way of remembering. They are not just part of the past; they help shape attitudes in the present and thus act as a guide for the future. (Ireland)

According to statistician Robert Schmitt, of the 9,800 Hawai‘i residents who served in World War I: 102 died – 14 overseas during the war, 61 in Hawai‘i or North America or after the armistice, and 27 in unknown circumstances.

Twenty-two of the 102 recorded deaths occurred among Island residents serving with the British. Actual battle deaths of persons in the US armed forces whose preservice residence was Hawai’i numbered six: seven others were wounded.
(Ireland)

As early as March, 1918, the Daughters and Sons of Hawaiian Warriors proposed the erection of a shaft of Hawaiian lava with polished sides, on which would be carved the names of all the island boys who gave up their lives in their country’s cause during the Great War.

In November, just after the signing of the armistice, a similar suggestion was made by Colonel Howard Hathaway, his idea being that a monument should be raised by public subscription and be made a feature of the civic center in Honolulu.

The suggestion was taken up by the Honolulu Ad Club, which on November 20, 1918, appointed a committee consisting of Colonel Hathaway, Ned Loomis, and WD Westervelt to make an investigation and confer with other organizations in the city on the subject. (Kuykendall, 1928)

A bill passed with practical unanimity by the legislature for the acquisition, for park and other public purposes, of the William G Irwin Waikiki beach property using Territorial bonds. It received the approval of the governor on April 29, 1919. The act provided that the name of any park created out of the property should be ‘Memorial Park.’

Governor McCarthy, at the suggestion of the American Legion, appointed A. Lester Marks, John R. Gait, and A. L. C. Atkinson as members of the Territorial War Memorial Commission (when Atkinson left the Islands 2-3 years later, JK Butler was named to the Commission.)

“This Commission shall serve without pay and shall make arrangements for and conduct an architectural competition for the design of the memorial provided for in this Act, and shall decide upon and designate the scheme of memorial to be adopted.”

“These plans shall include a swimming course at least 100 meters in length, and such other features as the Commission may designate.” (Senate Committee Report, March 3, 1921)

The competition was held under the general rules of the American Institute of Architects. Three architects, Bernard Maybeck of San Francisco, Ellis F Lawrence of Portland and WRB Willcox of Seattle, were selected to judge the competition.

“In the competitive designs for Hawai‘i’s War Memorial to be erected at Kapiʻolani Park, of the seven submitted by local and mainland architects, the award of first choice and prize went to Mr Louis P Hobart, of San Francisco.” (Thrum, 1922)

“The design was approved and highly commended by architects of national and international standing. They considered it to be most appropriate, and especially in keeping with the tropical and architectural atmosphere of Hawaii.”

“We should not at this time hesitate to establish in enduring form our tribute to the self-sacrifice, courage and patriotism of those who answered the call to service in the day of national emergency.”

“It has been a source of regret that interest in this enterprise has seemingly lagged. I trust that the construction of the first unit will be a signal for renewed enthusiasm to guarantee the completing of the whole project.” (Governor Farrington, 1927)

The construction contract was awarded to JL Cliff; an incentive to speedy completion of the project for the Hawaiian Association of the Amateur Athletic Union featuring the National Senior Men’s Outdoor Championships for 1927 and at which thirteen mainland and nine Hawaiian clubs, as well as a team from Japan, competed.

While the entire contract was not completed by the day set for the opening of the meet (August 24, 1927) it was far enough along so that the swimming pool could be used. In the evening of that day, the natatorium, constituting the first unit of Hawaii’s war memorial, was formally dedicated with a program arranged by the American Legion.

Duke Kahanamoku, Hawai‘i’s greatest swimming champion, gave a 100-meter freestyle exhibition swim (it was Duke’s 37th birthday.) The national swimming championships then started and during this and the three following evenings the best swimmers of the United States and Japan tested the quality of the swimming pool. (Kuykendall, 1928)

Tickets for the swim meet were expensive ($1.10 for reserved seating and 25-50¢ for general admission), but 6,000 spectators created a massive traffic jam in Waikiki the first night of competition.

The big draw was a race pitting the world sprint champion Johnny Weissmuller, who beat Duke Kahanamoku in the 1924 Paris Olympics, against Japan’s Katsuo “Flying Fish” Takaishi (Weissmuller won with a new world record of 58 seconds.)

The star of the evening, however, turned out to be Hawai‘i’s Clarence ‘Buster’ Crabbe who won the one-mile swim in 21 minutes 52.25 seconds. (HawaiiHistory)

Due to lack of maintenance and care, the Natatorium is effectively off limits and is in unsafe condition. A final Environmental Assessment and EIS Preparation Notice were published on July 23, 2014. The status quo will result in demolition by neglect.

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