Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Haʻikū

It’s melted away;
This Buddha of snow is now
Indeed a true one
(Yamazaki Sokan (1464-1553))

A traditional Haiku is a three-line poem with seventeen syllables, written in a 5/7/5 syllable count.

Wait … that’s not what this is about.  However, this is about a place (Haʻikū) at about the time the Haiku above was written.

According to oral tradition, Piʻilani unified the entire island of Maui, bringing together under one rule the formerly-competing eastern (Hāna) and western (Wailuku) multi-district kingdoms of the Island.   In the 1500s, Chief Piʻilani (“stairway to heaven”) ruled in peace and prosperity.

Among other accomplishments, Piʻilani built interconnecting trails.  His son, Kihapiʻilani laid the East Maui section and connected the island.  This trail was the only ancient pathway to encircle any Hawaiian island (not only along the coast, but also up the Kaupō Gap and through the summit area and crater of Haleakalā.)

“Hāmākua Poko (Short Hāmākua) and Hāmākua Loa (Long Hāmākua) are two coastal regions where gently sloping kula lands intersected by small gulches come down to the sea along the northern coast line of East Maui.”

“Stream taro was probably planted along the watercourses well up into the higher kula land and forest taro throughout the lower forest zone. The number of very narrow ahupuaʻa thus utilized along the whole of the Hāmākua coast indicates that there must have been a very considerable population.”

“This would be despite the fact that it is an area of only moderate precipitation because of being too low to draw rain out of trade winds flowing down the coast from the rugged and wet northeast Koʻolau area that lies beyond.”

“It was probably a favorable region for breadfruit, banana, sugar cane, arrowroot; and for yams and ʻawa in the interior. The slopes between gulches were covered with good soil, excellent for sweet-potato planting. The low coast is indented by a number of small bays offering good opportunity for fishing.”  (Handy)

At the boundary of Hāmākaupoko and Hāmākualoa (within the Hāmākualoa moku) is the ahupuaʻa of Haʻikū (lit. speak abruptly) and Haʻikū Uka (inland.)

At the time of Captain Cook’s arrival (1778-1779), the Hawaiian Islands were divided into four kingdoms: (1) the island of Hawaiʻi under the rule of Kalaniʻōpuʻu, who also had possession of the Hāna district of east Maui; (2) Maui (except the Hāna district,) Molokaʻi, Lānaʻi and Kahoʻolawe, ruled by Kahekili; (3) Oʻahu, under the rule of Kahahana; and (4) Kauaʻi and Niʻihau, Kamakahelei was ruler.

In the battles between Kalaniʻōpuʻu and Kahekili, “Kalaniʻōpuʻu decided to go on to Koʻolau, Maui, where food was abundant.  He went to Kāʻanapali and fed his soldiers upon the taro of Honokahua….”

“At Hāmākualoa Kalaniʻōpuʻu landed and engaged in battle, but Kahekili hastened to the aid of his men, and they put up such a fierce fight that Kalaniʻōpuʻu fled in his canoes. Landing at Koʻolau he slew the common people and maltreated the captives”.

Of the wars, it was noted, “Like the fiery petals of the lehua blossoms of Pi‘iholo were the soldiers of Kahekili, red among the leaves of the koa trees of Liliko‘i or as one glimpses them through the kukui trees of Ha‘ikū.”   (Kamakau)

During Kamehameha’s later conquest of Maui at Wailuku and ʻIao Valley, his canoe fleet landed at various places along the Hāmākua coast.

A notable feature along and through Haʻikū is Maliko Gulch; it apparently had a pre-contact canoe landing at the mouth of the gulch.  (Xamanek)

“Maliko is a place with a good stream, it is also an anchorage for seafaring boats, and there is a wharf on one side. The cliff is quite steep, but the flat lands below, are beautifully adorned with groves of kukui.”  (A Journey, 1868; Maly)

By 1858, The Haʻikū Sugar Plantation was formed, at the time, there were only ten sugar companies in the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi. Five of these sugar companies were on the island of Maui, but only two were in operation. The five were: East Maui Plantation at Kaluanui, Brewer Plantation at Hāliʻimaile, LL Torbert and Captain James Makee’s plantation at ʻUlupalakua, Hāna and Haʻikū Plantation.

The Haiku Mill, on the east bank of Maliko Gulch, was completed in 1861; 600-acres of cane the company had under cultivation yielded 260 tons of sugar and 32,015 gallons of molasses. Over the years the company procured new equipment for the mill.

(In 1853, the government of the Kingdom of Hawai‘i had set aside much of the adjoining Hāmākuapoko to the Board of Education. The Board of Education deeded the Hāmākuapoko acreage which was unencumbered by native claims to the Trustees of Oʻahu College (Punahou) in 1860, who then sold the land to the Haʻikū Sugar Company (Cultural Surveys))

In 1871 Samuel T Alexander became manager of the mill. Alexander and later his partner, Henry Perrine Baldwin, saw the need for a reliable source of water, and started construction of the Hāmākua ditch in 1876.

With the completion of the ditch, the majority of Haʻikū Plantation’s crops were grown on the west side of Maliko gulch. As a result in 1879 Haʻikū mill was abandoned and its operations were transferred to Hāmākuapoko where a new factory was erected, which had more convenient access to the new sugar fields.

Other ditches were later added to the system, with five ditches at different levels used to convey the water to the cane fields on the isthmus of Maui. In order of elevation they are Haʻikū, Lowrie, Old Hāmākua, New Hāmākua, and Kailuanui ditches.   (They became part of the East Maui Irrigation system.)

Although two missionaries (Richard Armstrong and Amos Cooke) established the Haʻikū Sugar Company in 1858, its commercial success was due to a second-generation missionary descendant, Henry Perrine Baldwin. In 1877, Baldwin constructed a sugar mill on the west side of Maliko Gulch, named the Hāmākuapoko Mill.

By 1880, the Haiku Sugar Company was milling and bagging raw sugar at Hāmākuapoko for shipment out of Kuau Landing. The Kuau Landing was abandoned in favor of the newly-completed Kahului Railroad line in 1881, with all regional sugar sent then by rail to the port of Kahului.

Brothers Henry Perrine and David Dwight Baldwin laid the foundation for the company in the late-1800s through the acquisition of land.  Experimentation with hala kahiki (pineapple) began in 1890, when the first fruit was planted in Haʻikū.

In 1903 the Baldwin brothers formed Haʻikū Fruit & Packing Company, launching the pineapple industry on Maui.  Maui’s first pineapple cannery began operations by 1904, with the construction of a can-making plant and a cannery in Haʻikū.

1,400 cases of pineapple were packed during the initial run. In time, the independent farmers for miles around brought their fruit there to be processed.

Haʻikū Plantation remained in operation until 1905 when it merged with Pāʻia Plantation, to form Maui Agricultural Company. (In 1948, Maui Agricultural Company merged with HC&S (Hawaiian Commercial and Sugar Company.))

At the outbreak of WWII, the Army rented 1,600-acres from various landowners in the Haʻikū area.  Buildings went up for offices, tents for living quarters; mess halls were constructed and roads carved out. Post Exchanges opened up; movie screens and stages were built and baseball diamonds were laid out.

The 4th Marine Division was deactivated November 28, 1945.  In April 1946, the Camp Maui land was returned to the owners.  Today, the grounds are now a public park named “Kalapukua Playground” (“magical playground”;) Giggle Hill has a large children’s playground (and some claim they can still hear the laughter of Marines and their girlfriends on dark nights.)  The centerpiece of the park is the memorial to the Fourth Marine Division.

© 2022 Hoʻokuleana LLC

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kukuiho‘olua

Kukuiho‘olua (which means “oven-baked candlenut”) islet is located in Lā‘ie Bay, just offshore from Laniloa (meaning “tall majesty”) Point. The calcareous islet is about 2 acres in size and reaches a height of about 20 ft. It is part of the Hawai‘i Offshore Islet Seabird Sanctuary System.

Vegetation on the islet is made up of a single native species, akulikuli, which seems to be doing well on its own; it is was common on slopes where the ocean did not wash over too severely. Previously, ohelo kai and button mangrove were observed these plants likely come and go on this high energy islet. (HEAR)

In addition to Kukuiho‘olua, there are four other small islands in the vicinity of the point. To the north, the northernmost island is Kihewamoku, with Mokuaia Island (locally known as “Goat Island”) and Pulemoku Island lying between Kihewamoku and Kukuiho’olua. To the southeast of Kukuiho’olua and directly east of Laniloa Point is another islet named Mokualai Island.  (Jordan)

The offshore islets on O‘ahu’s eastern side are comprised of several small calcareous islands, tuff cones, and lava cones. These predator free isles, part of the Hawaii State Seabird Sanctuary, provide refuge for numerous seabirds and native coastal plants. The islets offer a unique opportunity for restoration due to their isolation, small size, and harsh oceanic conditions. (HEAR)

The O‘ahu Offshore Islets are a series of geological features off the windward coast of O‘ahu.   These islets are a lone refuge for many native seabirds, plants, and insects.   Because of their ecological importance, the islets are part of the Hawaii State Seabird Sanctuary system. (HEAR)

The islands and islets are refuge for many native seabirds, plants, and insects, as well as for Hawaiian Monk seals and other protected and endangered ocean species.

The O‘ahu Offshore Island Seabird Sanctuaries include Mokuauia, Popoia, Kapapa, the Mokulua Islands, Kihewamoku, Pulemoku, Kukuihoolua, Mokualai, Kekepa, Moku Manu, Mokulea, Manana, and Kaohikaipu.

The islands are under the jurisdiction of the DLNR Division of Forestry and Wildlife, which manages the State Seabird Sanctuary System for the protection and management of native Hawaiian coastal ecosystems.

What folks now call Lā’ie Point was originally called Laniloa Point, and the beach south of the point was called Laniloa Beach.  Locally, it has been called Clissold’s Beach for decades because one of the first beach estates along here was built by Edward LaVaun Clissold in about 1951.

Clissold had been a Mormon missionary to Hawai‘i and was fluent in the language; he was also the stake president, temple president, mission president, and manager of Zion’s Securities, the predecessor of Hawai‘i Reserves, thereby earning him the title of “second most powerful man in the Church.”  (BYUH)

In Hawaiian mythology, Laniloa Point and the nearby islands formed when a great warrior, named Kana, set out to kill a mo‘o or giant lizard (Laniloa), which had killed many people in the area.

Kana easily defeated the mo‘o and chopped it into five pieces and tossed them into the sea. Kukuiho’olua Island as considered the head because it had large sea caves on the north and south sides that resembled eye sockets.  (Rice, Jordan)

In the great epic told about Hi‘iaka’s journey from Hawai‘i Island to Kauai, she initially traveled along the windward side of O‘ahu. When she stopped in Lā‘ie, Hi‘iaka extolled the beauty of the place in a traditional chant.

This chapter of her journey is recalled by Ho‘oulumāhiehie in the Hawaiian language newspaper, Ka Na‘i Aupuni:

They did continue along, and Hi‘iaka eventually saw Laniloa, that long point of land extending out from Lā‘ie, at which time she offered this kau.

Laniloa soars, peacefully calm

A roaring sea below

I am cleansed by the salt spray.

They arrived at the places called Lā‘iemalo‘o and Lā‘iewai. When they had passed the ridged boundaries of these lands, they went on through the next district Mālaekahana, and on to Kahuku. (Ho‘oulumāhiehie 2006:156)

At the time of initial western contact, that is, during the period following Kamehameha I’s conquest of O‘ahu, the warrior chief from Hawai‘i Island placed Lā‘ie (Lā‘iewai and Lā‘iemalo‘o) in the hands of his half-brother Kalaimamahū.

This Kalaimamahū was “the grandfather of [future king] Lunalilo, who later formally received the land in the Māhele of 1848, under the rule of Kamehameha III.” (McElroy)

Before the tsunami of April 1, 1946, there was no ‘arch’ at Kukuiho‘olua; instead, there were two large, but shallow, sea caves on either side of Kukuiho‘olua.  The “April Fools Earthquake and Tsunami” punched through the caves.

Over subsequent decades, continued erosion of the caves led to collapse and a joining of the caves to form a sea arch, with a boulder in the middle of the arch. (Jordan)

During February 24-26, 2016 storm, large storm waves, resulting from the unique El Niño conditions washed out the large boulder that had lain within the arch since its initial formation, significantly increasing the open area beneath the arch.

The large boulder, consisting of the same cemented dune material as the Kukuiho‘olua Island sea arch and lying beneath it had been moved from beneath the arch and had fallen into the sea. (Jordan)

DLNR rules close or restrict access to the Offshore Islets for the protection of the biological, geological, or cultural resources of the area or the safety and welfare of persons or property.  Online rules indicate public access to Kukuiho‘olua is closed.

© 2022 Ho‘okuleana LLC

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

“Once upon a time, only the other day …”

“Hawaii is the home of shanghaied men and women, and of the descendants of shanghaied men and women. They never intended to be here at all.” (London)

“Come with your invitations, or letters of introduction, and you will find yourself immediately instated in the high seat of abundance.”

“Or, come uninvited, without credentials, merely stay a real, decent while, and yourself be ‘good,’ and make good the good in you- but, oh, softly, and gently, and sweetly, and manly, and womanly – and you will slowly steal into the Hawaiian heart …”

“… which is all of softness, and gentleness, and sweetness, and manliness, and womanliness, and one day, to your own vast surprise, you will find yourself seated in a high place of hospitableness than which there is none higher on this earth’s surface.”

“You will have loved your way there, and you will find it the abode of love.” (Jack London)

“I remember a dear friend who resolved to come to Hawaii and make it his home forever. He packed up his wife, all his belongings including his garden hose and rake and hoe, said ‘’Goodbye, proud California,’ and departed.”

“Now he was a poet, with an eye and soul for beauty, and it was only to be expected that he would lose his heart to Hawaii as Mark Twain and Stevenson and Stoddard had before him.”

“So he came, with his wife and garden hose and rake and hoe.”

“Heaven alone knows what preconceptions he must have entertained. But the fact remains that he found naught of beauty and charm and delight.”

“His stay in Hawaii, brief as it was, was a hideous nightmare. In no time he was back in California. To this day he speaks with plaintive bitterness of his experience”.

“Otherwise was it with Mark Twain, who wrote of Hawaii long after his visit: ‘No alien land in all the world has any deep, strong charm for me but that one; no other land could so longingly and beseechingly haunt me sleeping and waking, through half a lifetime, as that one has done.”

“Other things leave me, but it abides; other things change, but it remains the same. For me its balmy airs are always blowing, its summer seas flashing in the sun; the pulsing of its surf-beat is in my ears; I can see its garlanded crags, its leaping cascades, its plumy palms drowsing by the shore, its remote summits floating like islands above the cloudrack …”

“… I can feel the spirit of its woodland solitudes; I can hear the plash of its brooks; in my nostrils still lives the breath of flowers that perished twenty years ago.’”

“I doubt that not even the missionaries, windjamming around the Horn from New England a century ago, had the remotest thought of living out all their days in Hawaii. This is not the way of missionaries over the world.”

“They have always gone forth to far places with the resolve to devote their lives to the glory of God and the redemption of the heathen, but with the determination, at the end of it all, to return to spend their declining years in their own country.”

“But Hawaii can seduce missionaries just as readily as she can seduce sailor boys and bank cashiers, and this particular lot of missionaries was so enamored of her charms that they did not return when old age came upon them.”

“But to return. Hawaii is the home of shanghaied men and women, who were induced to remain, not by a blow with a club over the head or a doped bottle of whisky, but by love.”

“Hawaii and the Hawaiians are a land and a people loving and lovable. By their Ianguage may ye know them, and in what other land save this one is the commonest form of greeting, not ‘Good day,’ nor ‘How d’ye do,’ but ‘Love?’”

“That greeting is Aloha – love, I love you, my love to you.”

“Good day – what is it more than an impersonal remark about the weather? How do you do- it is personal in a merely casual interrogative sort of a way.”

“But Aloha! It is a positive affirmation of the warmth of one’s own heart-giving. My love to you ! I love you! Aloha!”

“Well, then, try to imagine a land that is as lovely and loving as such a people.”

“Hawaii is all of this.”

“Not strictly tropical, but sub-tropical, rather, in the heel of the Northeast Trades (which is a very wine of wind), with altitudes rising from palm-fronded coral beaches to snow-capped summits fourteen thousand feet in the air; there was never so much climate gathered together in one place on earth.”

“The custom of the dwellers is as it was of old time, only better, namely: to have a town house, a seaside house, and a mountain house. All three homes, by automobile, can be within half an hour’s run of one another …”

“… yet, in difference of climate and scenery, they are the equivalent of a house on Fifth Avenue or the Riverside Drive, of an Adirondack camp, and of a Florida winter bungalow, plus a twelve-months’ cycle of seasons crammed into each and every day.”

“Indeed, Hawaii is a loving land.”

“Hawaii has been most generous in her hospitality, most promiscuous in her loving. Her welcome has been impartial.” (This is Jack London’s view of the Islands.)

© 2022 Ho‘okuleana LLC

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Hāmākua

In very ancient times, the lands were not divided and an island was left without divisions such as ahupuaʻa and ʻili, but in the time when the lands became filled with people, the lands were divided, with the proper names for this place and that place so that they could be known.  (Kamakau)
 
Prior to European contact, each of the major islands or independent chiefdoms in the Hawaiian chain comprised a mokupuni (island.) Over the centuries, as the ancient Hawaiian population grew, land use and resource management also evolved.
 
Each island was divided into several moku or districts, of which there are six in the island of Hawaiʻi, and the same number in Oʻahu. There is a district called Kona on the lee side and one called Koʻolau on the windward side of almost every island.  (Alexander)  The moku of Hawaiʻi Island are: Kona, Kohala, Hāmākua, Hilo, Puna and Kaʻū.
 
Initial settlement of the Hawaiian Islands is believed to have occurred along the wetter windward sides of the Islands, along the fertile coastline.    On Hawaiʻi Island, that included Hāmākua.
 
Waipi‘o (“curved water”) is one of several coastal valleys on the north part of the Hāmākua side of the Island of Hawaiʻi. A black sand beach, three-quarters of a mile long, fronts the valley, the longest on the Big Island.
 
For two hundred years or more, Waipiʻo Valley was the Royal Center to many of the rulers on the Island of Hawaiʻi, including Pili lineage rulers – the ancestors of Kamehameha – and continued to play an important role as one of many royal residences until the era of Kamehameha.  (UH DURP)
 
Royal Centers were where the aliʻi resided; aliʻi often moved between several residences throughout the year. The Royal Centers were selected for their abundance of resources and recreation opportunities, with good surfing and canoe-landing sites being favored.
 
In 1872, Isabella Bird traveled by horseback along the Hāmākua coast from Onomea to the Waipiʻo Valley and described the landscape she travelled through. The journey was over very rough and steep trails and took five days.  Bird noted, “this is the most severe road on horses on Hawaiʻi, and it takes a really good animal to come to Waipiʻo and go back to Hilo.”
 
The Isabella Bird description that follows helps give a perspective of what Hāmākua was like about 150-years ago:
 
“The unique beauty of this coast is what is called gulches – narrow, deep ravines or gorges, from one hundred to two thousand feet in depth, each with a series of cascades from ten to eight hundred feet in height.”
 
“I dislike reducing their glories to the baldness of figures, but the depth of these clefts cut and worn by the fierce streams fed by the snows of Mauna Kea, and the rains of the forest belt, cannot otherwise be expressed.”
 
“The cascades are most truly beautiful, gleaming white among the dark depths of foliage far away, and falling into deep limpid basins, festooned and overhung with the richest and greenest vegetation of this prolific climate, from the huge-leaved banana and shining breadfruit to the most feathery of ferns.”
 
“Each gulch opens on a velvet lawn close to the sea, and most of them have space for a few grass houses, with cocoanut trees, bananas and kalo patches. There are sixty-nine of these extraordinary chasms within a distance of thirty miles!”
 
“We had a perfect day until the middle of the afternoon.  The dimpling Pacific was never more than a mile from us as we kept the narrow track in the long green grass, and on our left the blunt, snow-patched peaks of Mauna Kea rose from the girdle of forest, looking so delusively near that I fancied a two hours climb would take us to his lofty summit.”
 
“The track for twenty-six miles is just in and out of gulches, from one hundred to eight hundred feet in depth, all opening on the sea, which sweeps into them in three booming rollers. The candlenut or kukui tree, which on the whole predominates, has leaves of a rich, deep green when mature, which contrast beautifully with the flaky, silvery look of the younger foliage.”
 
“Some of the shallower gulches are filled exclusively with this tree, which in growing up to the light to within one hundred feet of the top, presents a mass and density of leafage quite unique, giving the gulch the appearance as if billows of green had rolled in and solidified there.”
 
“The descent into the gulches is always solemn. You canter along a bright breezy upland, and are suddenly arrested by a precipice, and from the depths of a forest-draped abyss a low plash or murmur arises, or a deep bass sound, significant of water which must be crossed, and one reluctantly leaves the upper air to plunge into heavy shadow, and each experience increases one’s apprehensions concerning the next.”
 
“It is wonderful that people should have thought of crossing these gulches on anything with four legs, formerly, that is, within the last thirty years, the precipices could only be ascended by climbing with the utmost care, and descended by being lowered with ropes from crag to crag, and from tree to tree, when hanging on by the hands became impracticable to even the most experienced mountaineer.”
 
“In this last fashion Mr. Coan and Mr. Lyons (missionaries from Hilo and Waimea) were let down to preach the gospel to the people of the then populous valleys. But within recent years, narrow tracks, allowing one horse to pass another, have been cut along the sides of these precipices, without any windings to make them easier, and only deviating enough from the perpendicular to allow of their descent by the sure-footed native-born animals.”
 
“All the gulches for the first twenty-four miles contain running water. The great Hakalau gulch which we crossed early yesterday, has a river with a smooth bed as wide as the Thames at Eton. Some have only small quiet streams, which pass gently through ferny grottoes.”
 
“The path by which we descended looked a mere thread on the side of the precipice. I don’t know what the word beetling means, but if it means anything bad, I will certainly apply it to that pali.”  (Byrd)
 
In more modern times, sugar defined the landscape.  Production started with initial smaller plantations that later merged into larger facilities.
 
The Hāmākua Mill Company was first established in 1877 by Theo Davies and his partner Charles Notley, Sr.  In 1878, the first sugarcane was planted at the plantation and Hilo Iron Works was hired to build a mill. The mill was located at Paʻauilo.
 
By 1910, it had 4,800-acres planted in sugarcane and employed more than 600 people. The company ran three locomotives on nine miles of light gauge rail. There was a warehouse and landing below the cliff at Koholālole where ships were loaded by crane.
 
In 1914, the Kūkaʻiau Mill Company became a part of the Hāmākua Mill Company. In 1917, the Kūkaʻiau mill was sold and moved to Formosa (Taiwan.)
 
In 1917, the Hāmākua Mill Company was renamed the Hāmākua Sugar Company. The Kaiwiki Sugar Company was merged with the Theo H Davies Company-owned Laupāhoehoe Sugar Company on May 1, 1956 and operations were merged with the latter beginning January 3. 1957.
 
In 1978, the Hāmākua Sugar Company, Honokaʻa Sugar Company and the Laupāhoehoe Sugar Company were merged to form the Davies Hāmākua Sugar Company. 
 
In 1984 the Davies Hāmākua Sugar Company was bought by Francis Morgan and renamed the Hāmākua Sugar Company (1984-1994). The Hāmākua Sugar Company operated until October of 1994, and its closing marked the end of the sugar industry at Hāmākua, as well as the Island of Hawaiʻi.
 

by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Fort Street Mall

In 1815, Kamehameha I granted Russian representatives permission to build a storehouse near Honolulu Harbor.  But, instead, directed by the German adventurer Georg Schaffer (1779-1836,) they began building a fort and raised the Russian flag.

They built their blockhouse near the harbor, against the ancient heiau of Pākākā and close to the King’s complex.  There are reports that the Russians used stones from Pākākā in building their facility.  (Pākākā was the site of Kaua‘i’s King Kaumuali‘i’s negotiations relinquishing power to Kamehameha I, instead of going to war, and pledged allegiance to Kamehameha, a few years earlier in 1810.)

When Kamehameha discovered the Russians were building a fort (rather than storehouses) and had raised the Russian flag, he sent several chiefs (including Kalanimōku and John Young (his advisor,)) to remove the Russians from Oʻahu by force, if necessary.

The Russian personnel judiciously chose to sail for Kaua‘i instead of risking bloodshed.  On Kaua‘i, there they were given land by Kaua‘i’s King Kaumuali‘i; the Russian Fort Elizabeth was built soon after on Kaua‘i.

The partially built blockhouse at Honolulu was finished by Hawaiians under the direction of John Young and mounted guns protected the fort.  Its original purpose was to protect Honolulu by keeping enemy or otherwise undesirable ships out.  But, it was also used to keep things in (it also served as a prison.)

By 1830, the fort had 40 guns mounted on the parapets all of various calibers (6, 8, 12 and probably a few 32 pounders.)  Fort Kekuanohu literally means ‘the back of the scorpion fish,’ as in ‘thorny back,’ because of the rising guns on the walls.  In 1838 there were 52 guns reported.

Fort Street is named after this fort; it is one of the oldest streets in Honolulu.  Today, the site of the old fort is the open space called Walker Park, a small park at the corner of Queen and Fort streets (also fronting Ala Moana/Nimitz.)

Fort Street gradually became the retail and business center of the Island throughout the 1800s and into the 1950s; it hosted several of the largest department stores in Hawaii including Kress, Liberty House and Woolworth’s.  Other stores were located along its streets.

However, by the 1940s, some foresaw the decline of downtown.  Traffic congestion, inadequate parking and competition from suburban shopping centers drained business from downtown.

In 1949, the Hawaiʻi Chapter of the American Institute of Architects made the first proposal to close Fort Street to vehicular traffic.  Nothing happened; then, with the announcement of the planned Ala Moana Shopping Center, many feared a mass exodus from downtown.

In response, the Downtown Improvement Association was formed in 1958.  It developed a master plan for downtown.  Little happened, for another 6-years.  Then, a pilot project closed Fort Street, in conjunction with the Golden Harvest Celebration.

While downtown business declined with the opening of Ala Moana Center, more studies and plans were prepared, until, finally, the City Planning Commission hired Gruen to develop a plan.

The plan called for downtown super blocks, with a system of pedestrian malls.  In January 1968, the City Council approved Gruen mall plan, after 75% of adjoining owners indicated their consent.

Fort Street Mall is 5-blocks in length (1,738-feet,) extending from Queen Street up to Beretania Street.  Construction began in June 1968 and was completed in February 1969, at a cost of $27-millon.

The architect of the Mall was Victor Gruen Associates.  The project was funded by the City & County (55%,) private owners (44%) and Board of Water Supply (1%.)

Its average width is 50-feet, at the King Street Plaza it widens to 83-feet and at Father Damien Plaza on Beretania Street it becomes 93-feet.  There are cross streets at Merchant, King and Hotel with a pedestrian underpass (and Satellite City Hall) on King Street.

Today, the Fort Street Mall Business Improvement District Association, a nonprofit corporation consisting of property owners and ground lessees adjacent to the Mall, manages the Mall by supplementing the services (primarily maintenance and security) currently provided by the City and County of Honolulu.

Like most urban settings, Fort Street Mall’s character changes block by block.  As you walk along the Mall, the businesses and the patrons indicate changes in the Mall’s identity.

Across from the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace at the mauka end of the Mall, the Hawaii Pacific University presence gives the Mall a college feel.  Students periodically fill the Mall when classes let out and they stroll to one of the many buildings that HPU occupies on the Mall.

(Information here if from Pedestrian Malls, Streetscapes, and Urban Spaces, Harvey M. Rubenstein and The Fort Street Mall Business Improvement District Association.)

© 2022 Hoʻokuleana LLC