Images of Old Hawaiʻi

  • Home
  • About
  • Categories
    • Ali’i / Chiefs / Governance
    • American Protestant Mission
    • Buildings
    • Collections
    • Economy
    • Missionaries / Churches / Religious Buildings
    • General
    • Hawaiian Traditions
    • Other Summaries
    • Mayflower Summaries
    • Mayflower Full Summaries
    • Military
    • Place Names
    • Prominent People
    • Schools
    • Sailing, Shipping & Shipwrecks
    • Voyage of the Thaddeus
  • Collections
  • Contact
  • Follow
You are here: Home / General / Shangri La

June 24, 2019 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Shangri La

Doris Duke was the only child of tobacco and electric energy tycoon James Buchanan Duke.

She received large bequests from her father’s will when she turned 21, 25, and 30; she was sometimes referred to as the “world’s richest girl.”

She also acquired a number of homes. Her principal residence was Duke Farms, her father’s 2,700-acre estate in Hillsborough Township, New Jersey. Here she created Duke Gardens, 60,000-square-foot public indoor botanical display that were among the largest in America.

She spent summer weekends working on her Newport Restoration Foundation projects while staying at Rough Point, the 49-room English manor-style mansion that she inherited in Newport, Rhode Island; she also had a home at “Falcon’s Lair” in Beverly Hills, California, once the home of Rudolph Valentino.

She also maintained two apartments in Manhattan: a 9-room penthouse with a 1,000-square-foot veranda at 475 Park Avenue and another apartment near Times Square that she used exclusively as an office for the management of her financial affairs.

In the late 1930s, Doris Duke built her Honolulu home, Shangri La, on five acres overlooking the Pacific Ocean and Diamond Head. Shangri La incorporates architectural features from the Islamic world and houses Duke’s extensive collection of Islamic art, which she assembled for nearly 60 years.

It was a retreat and sanctuary for a woman who greatly valued her privacy; she typically spent winters there.

From its inception, Doris Duke’s estate was envisioned by its founder as a home of Islamic art and architecture. As early as 1936, Shangri La was shaped by a symbiotic relationship between the built environment and the collection.

For nearly 60 years, Doris Duke commissioned and collected artifacts for Shangri La, ultimately forming a collection of about 3,500 objects, the majority of which were made in the Islamic world.

In the same manner that her father transformed Duke Farms from flat New Jersey farmland into his ideal of a magnificently landscaped country estate, Doris Duke transformed her own private Shangri La into a haven from the unwanted publicity that came with being one of the wealthiest women in the world.

Through an Exchange Deed dated December 8, 1938 between the Territorial Land Board of Hawai‘i and Ms. Duke, two underwater parcels (totaling approximately 0.6 acres) were added to the Duke property.

The transfer gave the Territory a perpetual easement of a four-foot right-of-way for a pedestrian causeway along the coastline.

At water’s edge below the estate, Duke then dynamited a small-boat harbor and a seventy-five-foot salt-water swimming pool into the rock. The harbor was built to protect Duke’s fleet of yachts, including Kailani Lahilahi, an ocean-going, 58-foot motor yacht and Kimo, the 26-foot mahogany runabout that Duke sometimes used to commute into Honolulu.

Doris Duke died at her Falcon’s Lair home on October 28, 1993, at the age of 80. In her will, Duke set in motion plans to open Shangri La to the public as a place for the study of Islamic art and culture.

Doris Duke’s philanthropic work extended throughout her lifetime; her estimated $1.3-billion fortune was largely left to charity. Duke’s legacy is now administered by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, dedicated to medical research, prevention of cruelty to children and animals, the performing arts, wildlife and ecology.

Today, Shangri La is open for guided, small group tours and educational programs. In partnership with the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art – which owns and supports Shangri La – the Honolulu Museum of Art serves as the orientation center for Shangri La tours.

Education programs such as residencies, lectures, performances, panel discussions, among other special events with a focus on Muslim arts and culture are offered. The estate can also be visited by public tour and by virtual tour.

The public shoreline access and small basin is a popular swimming hole (which the State recently took over); in addition, the harbor’s jetty serves as a jump-off point to get to two nearby surf breaks, Cromwells and Browns.

Follow Peter T Young on Facebook 

Follow Peter T Young on Google+ 

Follow Peter T Young on LinkedIn  

Follow Peter T Young on Blogger

© 2019 Hoʻokuleana LLC

Shangri_La-Life-1937
Doris Duke and husband James Cromwell vacationing in Hawaii (wsj-com) 1935
James_H._R._and_Doris_Cromwell
photograph by Cory Lum/Civil Beat
photograph by Cory Lum/Civil Beat
Sawing paving stones from sand stone taken from the yacht harbor (©Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. All rights reserved) -1937
French_Garden_at_Duke_Gardens-(Note-this is not at Shagri La)
IMG_1937
IMG_1938
IMG_1939
IMG_1941
IMG_1942
IMG_1944
IMG_1951
IMG_1957
IMG_1960
IMG_1961
IMG_1966
IMG_1980
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
IMG_1958
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
Shangri_La_Boat_Basin
IMG_1955
IMG_1967

Share this:

  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email
  • Click to print (Opens in new window) Print
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook
  • Click to share on X (Opens in new window) X
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window) LinkedIn
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window) Tumblr
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window) Pocket
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window) Pinterest

Like this:

Like Loading...

Related

Filed Under: General, Buildings, Prominent People Tagged With: Hawaii, Shangri La, Doris Duke

Comments

  1. Louise Barr says

    June 24, 2019 at 7:52 am

    Thank you for this interesting article, Peter. This year, 15 printmakers of the “Honolulu Printmakers” (I am one of them) will exhibit their prints inspired by Shangri-La, and, as far as I know, at Shangri-La itself. We did this also about 10 years ago so it will be interesting to see how we all experienced it the second time around.

    Reply

Leave your comment here:Cancel reply

Images of Old Hawaiʻi

People, places, and events in Hawaiʻi’s past come alive through text and media in “Images of Old Hawaiʻi.” These posts are informal historic summaries presented for personal, non-commercial, and educational purposes.

Info@Hookuleana.com

Connect with Us

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Recent Posts

  • Women Warriors
  • Rainbow Plan
  • “Pele’s Grandson”
  • Bahá’í
  • Carriage to Horseless Carriage
  • Fire
  • Ka‘anapali Out Station

Categories

  • Hawaiian Traditions
  • Military
  • Place Names
  • Prominent People
  • Schools
  • Sailing, Shipping & Shipwrecks
  • Economy
  • Voyage of the Thaddeus
  • Mayflower Summaries
  • American Revolution
  • General
  • Ali'i / Chiefs / Governance
  • Buildings
  • Missionaries / Churches / Religious Buildings

Tags

Albatross Al Capone Ane Keohokalole Archibald Campbell Bernice Pauahi Bishop Charles Reed Bishop Downtown Honolulu Eruption Founder's Day George Patton Great Wall of Kuakini Green Sea Turtle Hawaii Hawaii Island Hermes Hilo Holoikauaua Honolulu Isaac Davis James Robinson Kamae Kamaeokalani Kamanawa Kameeiamoku Kamehameha Schools Lalani Village Lava Flow Lelia Byrd Liliuokalani Mao Math Mauna Loa Midway Monk Seal Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Oahu Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument Pearl Pualani Mossman Queen Liliuokalani Thomas Jaggar Volcano Waikiki Wake Wisdom

Hoʻokuleana LLC

Hoʻokuleana LLC is a Planning and Consulting firm assisting property owners with Land Use Planning efforts, including Environmental Review, Entitlement Process, Permitting, Community Outreach, etc. We are uniquely positioned to assist you in a variety of needs.

Info@Hookuleana.com

Copyright © 2012-2024 Peter T Young, Hoʻokuleana LLC

 

Loading Comments...
 

    %d