The beginning of the original Dole Street was just below the Punahou School campus and was part of a small subdivision of lots the school developed to raise money for the school’s endowment.
“In 1880 the ‘lower pasture,’ containing 31.3 acres, was divided into building lots, and streets laid out in it. The sale of these lots has added twenty-one thousand four hundred ($21,400.00) to the endowment.” (Alexander, 1907)
The Punahou Lots development was surveyed in 1880 by SE Bishop (Reg 848) – streets within the subdivision were named for prior leaders of the school.
Dole, Beckwith, Alexander and Bingham Streets, were named for prominent men associated with Punahou School.
Rev. Daniel Dole (1841-1854), Rev. Edward Griffin Beckwith (1854-1859) and William DeWitt Alexander (1864-1871), were initial and early leaders of the school.
Another street within the Punahou Lots development, Bingham, was named for Rev. Hiram Bingham, the initial recipient of the land grant, on behalf of the American Protestant mission, that eventually became Punahou School.
Apparently, some at the University of Hawaiʻi are trying “to restore Dole Street to its Hawaiian name” – suggesting Dole Street was originally named Kapaʻakea Street. (HNN)
“University of Hawaiʻi graduate student Kepoo Keliipaakaua found it on an 1882 survey map of the Mānoa area. Kapaʻakea means coral bedrock or limestone.” (HNN) The students also suggest the street was named for Sanford Dole.
That is not true. The history is clear; Dole Street was formed in 1880 by Punahou School and was named for Rev. Daniel Dole, the first teacher/administrator of Punahou (it was not named for Dole’s son, Sanford).
Regional maps from 1887, 1893, 1912 and 1923 (and others) show Dole Street and its subsequent extensions in the direction of where the University of Hawaiʻi is presently situated.
None of those early maps show any roads around or below where the UH is today (keep in mind the University didn’t make it to Mānoa until 1912); and none of these maps show a Kapaʻakea Street at all.
There is a 1934 map noting a short street as part of the St Louis Heights that Dole Street was proposed to extend to – however, that street in St Louis Heights was not named Kapaʻakea Street.
The ‘1882’ map noted by the UH students shows a notation for a road segment noted as Kapaʻakea Street – suggesting the road was there in 1882 (although all other mapping clearly note otherwise).
In addition, that ‘1882’ map also includes references on it dated in 1927, 1928 and 1930, suggesting edits made to the map over time.
Those edits relate to executive orders and other actions for the University – again, the UH campus wasn’t built until 1912 (well after the ‘date’ of the map).
Even an untrained, casual observer will see that the delineation of the ‘Kapaʻakea Street’, the printing of its name and the surrounding notations are in a different style than most of the other writing on the map.
So that map, over time, was obviously updated, although some suggest it carries only the 1882 time-reference.
And, it’s not clear when that text and portion of the map were put on the map; it is also not clear if Kapaʻakea Street was ever built.
In the broader area, there is a short road segment below King Street, generally running mauka-makai, called Kapaʻakea Lane; it is well removed from the University campus area and is (was) not possibly interconnected with Dole Street.
Some of the old maps note wetland area identified as Kapaʻakea. Kapaʻakea Spring was originally known as Kumulae Spring (later Hausten Spring/Pond). In 1944, the Willows Restaurant opened there.
As noted, starting in 1880, Dole Street in Mānoa was named for Rev. Daniel Dole, the initial teacher/administrator at Punahou School – other nearby streets in the Punahou Lots subdivision (below the existing Punahou campus) are named for other early school leaders.
Suggestions that the ‘original’ name of Dole Street was Kapaʻakea Street are simply wrong and not consistent with the clear history of the road and its subsequent extensions.
The image is a portion of an 1892 map of the area. It notes Dole Street and the Punahou Lots subdivision (on the left); note that there are no roads on the right, and definitely nothing labeled Kapaʻakea, other than the wetland. Check out the full story and multiple maps that show the same – Dole Street, but no Kapaʻakea Street below UH.
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