Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kailua, Oʻahu

 

About 6,000 years ago and before the arrival of the Hawaiians, Kawainui (the large [flow of] fresh water) and Ka‘elepulu (the moist blackness) were bays connected to the ocean and extended a mile inland of the present coastline (as indicated by inland deposits of sand and coral.)

A sand bar began forming across Kawainui Bay around 2,500 years ago creating Kawainui Lagoon filled with coral, fish and shellfish.  The Hawaiians probably first settled along the fringes of this lagoon.   Gradually, erosion of the hillsides surrounding Kawainui began to fill in the lagoon with sediments.

About 500 years ago, early Hawaiians maintained a freshwater fishpond in Kawainui; the fishpond was surrounded on all sides by a system of ʻauwai (canals) bringing water from Maunawili Stream (winding/twisted mountain) and springs to walled taro lo‘i (irrigated fields.)

In 1750, Kailua (two seas (probably two currents)) was the Royal Center of power for the district of Koʻolaupoko and a favored place of the O‘ahu chiefs for its abundance of fish and good canoe landings (and probably enjoyed the surf, as well.)  Kawainui was once the largest cultivated freshwater fishpond on Oʻahu.

Farmers grew kalo (taro) in the irrigated lo‘i along the streams from Maunawili and along the edges of the fishponds.  Crops of dryland kalo, banana, sweet potato and sugarcane marked the fringes of the marsh. Fishermen harvested fish from the fishponds and the sea.

In 1845 the first road was built over the Nuʻuanu Pali (cool height – cliff) to connect Windward Oʻahu with Honolulu.  It was jointly financed by the government and sugar planters who wanted easy access to the fertile lands on the windward side of Oʻahu.  Kamehameha III and two of his attendants were the first to cross on horseback.

(In 1898 this road was developed into a highway and was later replaced by the Pali Highway.  When the current Pali Highway and its tunnels opened (1959,) the original roadway was closed and is now used by hikers.)

Lili‘uokalani wrote “Aloha ‘Oe” (farewell to thee) after an 1878 visit to an estate in Maunawili.  She and her brother King David Kalākaua were regular guests and attended parties or simply came there to rest.  Guests would walk between two parallel rows of royal palms, farewells would be exchanged; then, they would ride away on horseback or in their carriages.

In the 1880s, Chinese farmers converted the Kawainui taro fields to rice; they later abandoned their farms by 1920. Cattle grazed throughout much of Kawainui.  The marsh drains into the ocean at the north end of Kailua Beach through Kawainui Canal (Oneawa Channel – built in the late-1940s.)

In 1923, planning began for the Coconut Grove subdivision.  That year, Elsie’s Store, the site of the existing Kalapawai Market (the rippling water or the shining water,) opened for business. Lanikai Store (heavenly sea,) currently Kailua Beach Center, was across the street.  (Kāneʻohe Ranch)

Shortly after that, Kailua’s first real estate subdivision was built, called Lanikai Crescent.  In 1926, Kailua Country Club opened; it was later named Mid-Pacific Country Club.  (Kāneʻohe Ranch)

In 1939, the Oʻahu Jockey Club built the Kailua Race Track – the place was nicknamed the ‘Pineapple Derby.’  In a day and age when Seabiscuit and War Admiral were stealing continental sports headlines, more than 6,000 fans turned out for 10 races at the brand new Kailua Race Track.  (Hogue, MidWeek)  Races reportedly continued there into 1952.

It’s not clear when it opened, but in the 1940s and ‘50s, there is clear evidence of the “Kailua Airport” (apparently, gravel/grass runway) – where ʻAikahi Park is situated today (reportedly, privately-owned and operated by Bob Whittinghill.)  (When work was started in 1948 on the new airport in Kailua, Kona, to avoid confusion with the Kailua Airport on Oʻahu, the Big Island’s airport was named “Kona Airport.”)

The 1950s saw expanded development and growing population in Kailua.  Kāneʻohe Ranch Company, Paul Trousdale and Hawaiian Housing Corporation joined together with several housing developments, including developments in ʻAikahi (to eat all,) Kaimalino (calm or peaceful sea,) Kalāheo (the proud day,) Mōkapu (sacred district,) Olomana (forked hill) and Pōhakupu (growing rock.)  (Kāneʻohe Ranch)  Kailua’s population growth took a giant leap from 1,540 (in 1940,) to 7,740 (in 1950) – then another giant leap to over 25,600 people in 1960.

Homes were generally priced from $9,250 to $13,500.  The first increment of homes in the Kalāheo subdivision, built by QC Lum, was selling for $9,250 on lots of 7,500-square feet. The annual land lease was $125, regardless of size. Later developments in Olomana, Pōhakupu and Kūkanono (stand strike) were priced at about $17,000.  (Windward Rotary)  The Pali Golf Course opened in 1953.

The first traffic signal in Kailua was installed at the intersection of Kuʻulei and Kailua Roads in 1954. That year, Foodland opened Windward Oʻahu’s first modern supermarket across from Kailua Beach Park.  A couple years later (1957,) Times Supermarket opened in the new Kailua Shopping Center.  (Kāneʻohe Ranch)

In 1956, the YMCA moved from its log cabin in Coconut Groove to the present site on Kailua Road. In 1957, Kailua High School graduated its first class.  Prior to this time, mail delivery was directed to ‘Lanikai;’ at the end of the decade, the post office name was changed to Kailua.

Other subdivisions were developed at ʻAikahi Park, Keolu Hills (pleasant,) Olomana and Maunawili Estates.   Homes in ʻAikahi Park sold for about $25,000. Shopping centers sprouted in ʻAikahi Park and Enchanted Lake to serve the incoming residents.  (Windward Rotary)

Harold KL Castle donated land and Hawaiʻi Loa College (now known as Hawaiʻi Pacific University) opened in 1962.  The SH Kress building was built near Liberty House (now Macy’s) in 1962, then closed its doors after a few years, and Long’s Drug later occupied the building.

In 1963, after another Castle land donation, Castle Hospital opened its doors.  That year, Kailua High School moved into its own campus (its present site,) having separated from what is now only Kailua Intermediate School.

In 1964, Kailua Professional Center erected the first “high-rise” (six-story) building in Kailua. It was followed shortly by the 10-story Meridian East apartment building across the street.  Campos Dairy farms gave way to apartment complexes and Holiday Mart (soon to be Target) in the late-1960s.

By the end of the 1970s, Kailua opened its community center with tennis courts and a swimming pool.  Thaliana Hotel, later Pali Palms Hotel (1957-1980) gave way to the Pali Palms Professional Plaza.

From 1960 to 1970, Kailua’s population grew from 25,600 to almost 33,800.  After that, growth was comparatively slow; the 2010 Census estimate Kailua’s population at just over 38,600.

Today is Lani-Kailua Outdoor Circle’s “I Love Kailua” Town Party held in the center of town.  All of the proceeds from the “I Love Kailua” Town Party pay for major plantings in Kailua and their upkeep.  (Come see how the town has changed … and stayed the same.)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kāʻanapali

When chief Kekaulike died, his younger son Kamehamehanui (uncle to Kamehameha I) was named heir to rule Maui. In 1738, Kauhi‘aimokuakama (Kauhi,) his older brother, began to wage war to win the title of ruling chief.

Battles were fought across West Maui, from Ukumehame to Honokowai.  Kamehamehanui engaged the forces of his uncle from Hawai‘i to fight with him, whose troops numbered over 8,000, and Kauhi brought troops of warriors from O‘ahu.

The war ended with the battle Koko O Nā Moku (“Bloodshed of the Islands.”) Over several days, the blood of fallen warriors from both sides flowed from a stream into the shorebreak and caused the ocean to turn red.  (Kamehamehanui won.) (Kāʻanapali Historical Trail)

This occurred in the moku (district) of Kāʻanapali (“divided cliffs.”)  A prominent feature noted at the beach is Pu‘u Kekaʻa (“the rolling hill”) – the outcrop that separates portions of the beach (commonly known as “Black Rock.”)

It was “ka leina a ka ‘uhane” – the place where a person’s soul left the earthly realm for the afterlife (these were usually at the westernmost point of the island.)

It was also a place for “lele kawa” (cliff jumping;) Kahekili gained respect from many warriors for his leaps from Pu‘u Kekaʻa, as most were frightened of the spirits who were in the area.  (Kāʻanapali Historical Trail)

The island of Maui is divided into twelve moku; Kāʻanapali, Lāhainā, Wailuku, Hāmākuapoko, Hāmākualoa, Koʻolau, Hāna, Kīpahulu, Kaupō, Kahikinui, Honuaʻula and Kula.

An area in the moku of Kāʻanapali is referred to as Nā Hono A Piʻilani (The Bays of Piʻilani (aka Honoapiʻilani.))  In the 1500s, Chief Piʻilani (“stairway to heaven”) unified West Maui and ruled in peace and prosperity.  His territory included the West Maui bays, a place he frequented.

From South to North, six of the identified bays are Honokōwai (bay drawing fresh water), Honokeana (cave bay), Honokahua (sites bay,) Honolua (two bays), Honokōhau (bay drawing dew) and Hononana (animated bay).

In the late-1800s and early-1900s there was a horse racing track (Koko O Na Moku Horse Racing Track) at Kāʻanapali Beach that stretched from the present day Kāʻanapali Beach Hotel to the present day Westin Maui Resort. Horse races ended in 1918.

In 1860, James Campbell started the Pioneer Mill Company; sugar cultivation proved to be very profitable.  He later sold his interest in the Mill and, after subsequent transfers, in 1960, Pioneer Mill Company became a wholly owned subsidiary of American Factors (Amfac – one of Hawaiʻi’s Big 5.)

Kāʻanapali was the terminus for the plantation railroad; a landing on the northerly side of Puʻu Kekaʻa with a wharf and off-shore moorings served as the primary loading spot for shipping processed sugar from the island and bringing in supplies for the plantation camps.

After the sugar industry’s peak in 1930, production, acreage in sugar and profits declined.  Seeing hard times ahead, Amfac took 1,200-acres of Pioneer Mill Company land out of cane to develop as a visitor resort destination (in 1999, Pioneer Mill closed its sugar operations.)

Then, a few years before Hawaiʻi became a state, before Maui County even had a mayor, in 1956, Pioneer Mill’s board of directors got together for a lūʻau on the beach near Puʻu Kekaʻa. There, they sketched out the whole Kāʻanapali Beach Resort master planning venture.  (mauitime-com)

Seven years later, the grand opening for the Sheraton (the second, following the Royal Lāhianā completed the year before) put Kāʻanapali on the map as a resort area and featured celebrities like Bing Crosby, golfer Sam Snead and then-California Governor Pat Brown. It was a groundbreaking place, in more ways than one.  (mauitime-com)

The land set-aside by Amfac became Hawaiʻi’s first master-planned resort.  When it opened in 1962, it became known as the Kāʻanapali Beach Resort.

Today, along its 3-mile coastline, this self-contained resort has over 5,000 hotel rooms, condominium suites, timeshares and villas; 2-championship golf courses (in 1962, Bing Crosby took the inaugural shot on the Royal Kāʻanapali Course) and 35-tennis courts.  It accommodates over half-a-million visitors each year.

Kāʻanapali Beach was ranked “Best Beach in America” in 2003 (Dr. Beach.)  A beach walk runs parallel with the sand the entire length of Kāʻanapali interconnecting the five major resort hotels and six condominiums and timeshares, as well as the numerous recreational, shopping, dining and other activities in the area.

Twenty-five years after it started, the Urban Land Institute recognized Kāʻanapali Beach Resort with an Award of Excellence for Large-Scale Recreational Development.

In the early years, Kāʻanapali Airport, built on an old coastal road in 1961, serviced the resort first by transporting workers and materials for the new development and then it brought guests in/out.

Take-offs and landings were a thrill for pilots and passengers; the Airport’s runway (01-19) started just 30-feet from the shoreline and extended north a short 2,615-feet.  Kahekili Beach Park now sits on the former Airport site.

The Airport was used exclusively by the commuter aircraft of Royal Hawaiian, initially using Cessna 402 aircraft.  In 1987, Hawaiian Airlines built the nearby Kapalua Airport; the State took over that facility in 1993.

They must be doing something right, Maui and the visitor destinations of Lāhainā-Kāʻanapali-Kapalua continue to lead the neighbor islands in room occupancy and they lead the state in average daily room (ADR) rates and revenue per available room (ADR x occupancy rate.)

At the same time properties like the Kāʻanapali Beach Hotel are recognized as Hawaii’s Most Hawaiian Hotel for demonstrating an ongoing responsibility, commitment and dedication to honoring and perpetuating the Hawaiian culture for generations to come.

© 2022 Hoʻokuleana LLC

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Ho‘olehua Airport

When Emory Bronte and Ernest Smith made history on July 15, 1927 with the first successful trans-Pacific flight by civilians, there was no airport on Molokai.

They were expected to land at Wheeler Field on Oahu, but ran out of fuel over Molokai and crashed into kiawe trees on the southeast coast of Molokai.

Later that year, the Territorial Governor signed Executive Order No. 307 setting aside an area of 204.8 acres of Territorial land at Ho‘olehua, Molokai; the Territorial Legislature appropriated funds for an airport.

On December 15, 1927, what was then called Ho‘olehua Airport was placed under the control and management of the Territorial Aeronautical Commission. It was effectively a level grassy field that was marked and cleared so that take offs and landings could be made.

It was proposed to eventually fully-improve the field for all commercial and military purposes.  The field could be used by the large and heavy trans-Pacific land planes expected to pass through the Territory.

Inter-Island Airways inaugurated interisland air service from Honolulu to Molokai on November 11, 1929 in Sikorsky S-38 amphibians.  The fare was $17.50.

By the end of 1929, a small waiting room and telephone booth were added and a pole and windsock were erected. In 1930, it was renamed Molokai Airport.

The Army got interested in the airport in 1931 and by 1937 Molokai Airport consisted of three runways—1,000, 2,600 and 2,600 feet long, 300 feet wide with 100 feet of grading on each side.  The Army called it Homestead Field Military Reservation.

Molokai Airport was one of the principal airports of the Territory during the pre-war development of aviation in the Islands.   The Army maintained a radio station and Inter-Island Airways, Ltd. had a Station House at the field.

On December 7, 1941 the airport was taken over by the Army and Navy and the services remained in possession until 1947.  During this period the U.S. Army made extensive improvements (two paved runways, one 4,400 feet in length and the other 3,200 feet in length, each with a width of 200 feet; taxiways, plane parking areas and runway lighting.

By agreement with the Army, the Territory assumed responsibility for the operation and maintenance of the airport in 1947 under the management of the Hawaii Aeronautics Commission.

In addition to its peace-time function, the airport had continuing importance to the Army and Navy.  The extension of the North-South Runway was particularly important because the runway was not adequate for large aircraft except with restricted loading.

Location of this field was such that during heavy rains excess mud and water flowed onto the operating area, sometimes necessitating closing the field until an emergency crew was able to clean up.  A system of drainage ditches was designed and completed in September 1953 to alleviate this.

Hawaiian Airlines, Ltd. and Trans-Pacific Airlines, Ltd., provided scheduled service to Molokai, and Andrew Flying Service flew on a non-scheduled basis.

A new Molokai Airport Terminal was officially dedicated on June 15, 1957 with pioneer aviator Emory Bronte in attendance.

In the mid-1970s, there were preliminary planning for moving the site of Molokai Airport.  The engineering analysis to be used in the site selection for a new airport for Molokai continued.  Construction of new hotel facilities on Molokai accounted for the increase in passengers served at Molokai Airport. 

The site study for a new Molokai Airport was completed in 1978 with a recommendation that 500 to 600 acres of land be set aside in the northwest corner of the island.

The report recommended against immediate construction at the new site in view of the high cost for a new airport compared to the relatively low air traffic to Molokai.  The estimated cost was $25.8 million in 1978.

The report recommended continued improvements to the existing airport at Hoolehua until such time that traffic warranted the construction of the new airport.

A renovated passenger terminal and support facilities were dedicated on October 19, 1994. The 24,000 square foot terminal had an upgraded passenger waiting area, ticket lobby, air cargo handling facilities and tenant lease area.  (Information here is from Hawai‘i DOT Airports.)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Volcano School

In early nineteenth-century France, Château de Fontainebleau, the Forest of Fontainebleau, became a sanctuary for the growing leisure classes, for whom a train ride from Paris was an easy jaunt.

Called “the branch-office of Italy”, the Forest of Fontainebleau spread across 42,000 acres of dense woods with meadows, marshes, gorges, and sandy clearings.  Quiet hamlets ringed the forest.

It was to one of those villages, Barbizon, that artists journeyed beginning in the 1820s, with a promise of room and board at the newly established inn Auberge Ganne. The Auberge provided lodging for these pioneering painters of nature came to be called the Barbizon School and they collectively shared a recognition of landscape as an independent subject. (Met Museum)

In America, the Hudson River School was America’s first true artistic fraternity. Its name was coined to identify a group of New York City-based landscape painters that emerged about 1850 under the influence of the English émigré Thomas Cole (1801–1848) and flourished until about the time of the Centennial.

Several of the artists built homes on the Hudson River.  The term “Hudson River School” in the 1870s fairly characterizes the artistic body, its New York headquarters, its landscape subject matter, and often literally its subject. (Met Museum)

In the Islands, there was the Volcano School.

The Volcano School was a generation of mostly non-native Hawaiian painters who portrayed Hawaiʻi Island’s volcanoes in dramatic fashion during the late 19th century. (NPS HAVO)

In the 1880s and 1890s, Mauna Loa kicked off an eruption that brought lava closer to the town of Hilo than ever before.  Hawai‘i residents and tourists alike flocked to the Big Island for a chance to see the orange and red glow over the city of Hilo.

This was in the days before color photography – painters were among the most eager to witness and recreate the explosive lava plumes and vibrant flows. (HuffPost)

A distinctive and recognizable school of Hawaiian painting developed; it is perhaps best exemplified by Jules Tavernier’s depictions of craters and eruptions. Other artists, fresh from exposure to the current trends in Europe and America, reinterpreted the lush light and varied landscape of Hawai‘i to create a distinctive body of work.

With the dawning of the twentieth century, art in Hawai‘i reflected the diminishing isolation of the islands and the emergence of a multicultural modernist tradition. (Forbes)

Author and humorist Mark Twain, on assignment for the Sacramento Daily Union, described seeing Kīlauea at night: “…the vast floor of the desert under us was as black as ink, and apparently smooth and level …”

“… but over a mile square of it was ringed and streaked and striped with a thousand branching streams of liquid and gorgeously brilliant fire! Imagine it— imagine a coal-black sky shivered into a tangled network of angry fire!”

Kīlauea was such a popular subject for painters that a group emerged called “the Volcano School,” which included well-known Hawai‘i painters Charles Furneaux, Joseph Dwight Strong, and D. Howard Hitchcock.

Jules Tavernier (French 1844–1889) was arguably the most important Volcano School painter; he arrived in Hawai‘i in December of 1884. He created paintings that came to characterize the genre with dramatic scenes of molten lava bubbling under diffused moonlight, jagged black cliffs, and fiery glows, as seen in his nocturnal view of Kīlauea.  (HoMA)

Tavernier had lived in San Francisco with roommate Joseph Dwight Strong.  In October 1882 Joseph Dwight Strong, born in Connecticut and at age two came to the Islands with his New England missionary father (American 1852–1899), returned to the Islands with his wife Isobel on a commission to paint landscapes for shipping magnate John D Spreckels, son of the Sugar King Claus Spreckels. (Theroux) (Strong’s step-father-in-law was Robert Louis Stevenson.)

David Howard Hitchcock, grandson of American missionaries (American 1861–1943), is perhaps one of the most important and loved artists from Hawaiʻi. Although born and raised in Hawaiʻi, he left the islands to study art in San Francisco and Paris.

Before his formal training abroad, Hitchcock was inspired by other Volcano School painters and was encouraged by Jules Tavernier to endeavor life as an artist. Hitchcock admits to following Tavernier and Joseph Strong around, ‘like a parasite.’  (NPS HAVO)

“Hitchcock was early hailed as ‘our island painter’ and his early canvases met an enthusiastic reception in Hilo and Honolulu. The Honolulu press commented on them at length. His early work, up to his European trip in 1890, shows great indebtedness to (Jules) Tavernier…” (Forbes)

Charles Furneaux (American 1835–1913), showcased the fiery Hawai‘i volcano scenes that have intrigued viewers since he began painting them in the late 19th century.  Furneaux’s paintings are described as “among the most sublime depictions of smoldering lava pools, lightning bolts over the ocean, steaming vents and heavy clouds signaling the active presence of the volcano.” (HoMA)

Painter and printmaker Ambrose McCarthy Patterson (Australian 1877–1966) arrived in Hawai‘i on a stopover in 1916 and remained for the next 18 months. Patterson was described as having particular interest in Kīlauea, incorporating the subject into many of the paintings and block prints he produced during his time here. (HoMA)

Other Volcano School artists include Ernst William Christmas (Australian 1863–1918), Constance Frederica Gordon-Cumming (Scottish 1837–1924), Ogura Yonesuke Itoh (Japanese 1870–1940), Titian Ramsey Peale (American 1799–1885), Louis Pohl (American 1915–1999), Eduardo Lefebvre Scovell (British 1864–1918), William Pinkney Toler (American 1826–1899), William Twigg-Smith (New Zealander 1883–1950) and Lionel Walden (American 1861–1933).

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by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Kaluaokau

Kaluaokau, an ʻili in Waikīkī, has been interpreted with several possible meanings.  Henry Kekahuna, a Hawaiian ethnologist, pronounced Kaluaokau as ka-lu‘a-o-ka‘u, which translates as “the grave of Ka‘u” (lu‘a means “heap, pile or grave.”)

The term Kaluaokau can also be divided as ka-lua-o-Kau, which literally translates as ka (the) lua (pit) o (of) Kau (a personal name), or “the pit of Kau.”  There are others.

Whatever the purpose of the prior naming and its meaning, this portion of Waikīkī (including Helumoa, Kaluaokau and adjacent ‘ili) was important in the lives of the Hawaiian Ali’i.

The ‘ili of Kaluaokau was eventually granted to William Lunalilo (the first democratically elected King, who defeated Kalākaua in 1873.)

The first structure on the property was a simple grass hut; Lunalilo later built and referred to his Waikīkī home as the “Marine Residence;” it consisted of a residence, a detached cottage and outbuildings, surrounded by a fence. The estate included a small section that extended makai to the sea and included several small outbuildings and a canoe shed.

Following Lunalilo’s death in 1874, his Kaluaokau home and land were bequeathed to Queen Emma, the widow of Kamehameha IV (Alexander Liholiho – who had died in 1863.)

Queen Emma had Papaʻenaʻena Heiau on the slopes of Diamond Head dismantled, and she used the rocks to build a fence to surround her Waikīkī estate.

Later litigation confirmed that the Queen Emma parcel included access to the water (ʻĀpuakēhau Stream) and the taro growing on the ‘Marine Residence” property.  Queen Emma is known to have resided occasionally on the Waikīkī property before her death.

Her will stated that her lands be put in trust with the proceeds to benefit the Queen’s Hospital in Honolulu, which Queen Emma, along with her husband, Kamehameha IV, had helped to found.

Records indicate Henry Macfarlane, an entrepreneur from New Zealand who had settled on O‘ahu owned and/or leased property within the Kaluaokau ʻili.

Reportedly, it was Macfarlane and his wife who planted the banyan tree currently growing in the center of the property. They lived on this property for a while, eventually raising six children, some of who became financiers for sugar plantations and for the early tourist industry in Waikīkī.

The site was also used by immigrant Japanese workers.  During the construction of hotels (Moana Hotel, Royal Hawaiian Hotel) in the early twentieth century (and later the Surfrider in 1952) by the Matson Navigation Company, cottages were built for housing the mostly Japanese immigrant workers and their families, and called “Japanese Camps.”  More buildings were built.

By the mid-1950s, there were more than fifty hotels and apartments from the Kālia area to the Diamond Head end of Kapiʻolani Park. The Waikīkī population by the mid-1950s was not limited to transient tourists; it included 11,000 permanent residents, living in 4,000 single dwellings and apartment buildings.

On January 16, 1955, entrepreneur Donn Beach (Don the Beachcomber) announced plans for a “Waikīkī Village” that was to be called “The International Market Place.”

The International Market Place first opened in 1957. Envisioned as a commercial center with the Dagger Bar and Bazaar Buildings, and featuring the arts, crafts, entertainment and foods of Hawaiʻi’s multicultural people, it may have been one of the earliest cultural tourist attractions in the Islands.

Designed originally to encompass 14-acres between the Waikīkī Theater and the Princess Kaʻiulani Hotel, extending from Kalākaua Avenue halfway to Kūhiō Avenue, the International Market Place was to be a “casual, tropical village with arts, crafts, entertainment, and foods of Hawai‘i’s truly diverse people … including Hawaiian, South Sea islander, Japanese, Chinese, Indian, and Filipino…” (Queen Emma Foundation)

By the late-1950s, a row of retail shops had been constructed along Kalākaua Avenue.  Other elements of the International Market Place included the Hawaiian Halau, Japanese Tea House and Esplanade buildings. The banyan tree, which still remains to this day, was also once home to Don’s tree house.

Matson sold all of its Waikīkī hotel properties to the Sheraton Company in 1959 and no longer required housing for its hotel staff. Additionally, properties were likely cleared in anticipation of the extensive development that occurred throughout Waikīkī in the 1960s and 1970s.

In 1964, Waikīkī’s entertainment hub was International Market Place; and it’s where the first Crazy Shirts shop was born (initially known as Ricky’s Crazy Shirts.) T-shirts with a message sold. Some were silly (“Suck ’em Up!”), some were logos (“Surfboards Hawaii”), and some were political (“Draft Beer Not Students”). (Crazy Shirts)

The famous Duke Kahanamoku’s (Duke’s,) where Don Ho gained fame, was once housed there. Don the Beachcomber, one of Waikīkī’s long-gone landmark restaurants, as well as Trader Vic’s also called it home.

Hawaiʻi radio icon, Hal Lewis (the self-named “J Akuhead Pupule,” best known to Island radio listeners as “Aku,”) once broadcast his popular morning talk show from the tree house in the Banyan tree.

However, over the last half-century, as the rest of Waikīkī evolved, the Market Place kept its 1960s look, as visitors wind through the carts and kiosks, hawking T-shirts, plastic hula skirts, volcano-shaped candles, and other tiki and tacky souvenirs.

Landowner Queen Emma Foundation changed that. Working with the Taubman Company, the International Market Place, Waikīkī Town Center and Miramar Hotel were demolished, and new structures took their place.

Aiming to restore “a sense of Hawaiianness,” the new International Market Place features low-rise structures, open-air shops and restaurants, paths, gardens, a storytelling hearth, a performance amphitheater and, yes, parking. And the banyan tree stays.

Today, as successor to The Queen’s Hospital, The Queen’s Medical Center is the largest private nonprofit hospital in Hawaiʻi, licensed to operate with 505 acute care beds and 28 sub-acute beds. As the leading medical referral center in the Pacific Basin, Queen’s has more than 3,500 employees and over 1,100 physicians on staff.

The royal mission and vision of The Queen’s Health Systems is directly supported through revenues generated by the lands bequeathed by Queen Emma when she passed away in 1885, including the International Market Place.

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