Aloha Tower | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

December 10, 2025 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Honolulu Harbor Lights

Even in today’s high-tech environment with tools and toys with satellite support, the simple illumination from a known point continues to serve as a navigational aid, as well as warn mariners of hazardous areas.

In 1924, construction of the 10-story, 184-foot Aloha Tower (lighthouse) began; it was completed in a year and a half. For four decades the Aloha Tower was the tallest structure in Hawaiʻi. But that is getting ahead of ourselves.

The original Honolulu Harbor Light was built in 1826. (USCG) Some suggest the earliest light was a “crude oil lamp wrapped with red cloth.” (De Wire)

Some official action for more formal lighting was set in motion. The Kingdom’s ‘Second Act of Kamehameha III; An Act to Organize the Executive Ministry of the Hawaiian Islands,’ Chapter 3, Section 3, Article 3, notes:

“The respective governors shall, on receiving the king’s instructions from the Minister of the Interior, have power to cause to be erected at any designated points upon the coasts of their respective islands, lighthouses or beacons, for the guidance of vessels at night”. (April 27, 1846)

The House of Nobles had previously read and reviewed “Article III., of Chapter III., regarding to Lighthouses, Beacons and Channels. This was passed being very clearly worded.” (July 22, 1845)

However, it wasn’t until 1869 that “Harbor Wink” was built at the edge of the reef on the north side of the Honolulu Harbor entrance, near what is now Sand Island. It was a white wooden structure on piles, linked to a nearby dwelling by a pier.

Two bids were submitted for the harbor lighthouse. Honolulu Iron Works agreed to provide a lighthouse on iron pilings for $2,141, but a lower bid of $360, submitted by LL Gilbert for an all-wooden structure, was accepted.

Wooden pilings were driven into the reef that formed the small island, and atop these a keeper’s residence and a square pyramidal lighthouse topped by a lantern room were constructed. Keeper Captain McGregor first exhibited the light from whale oil lamps, concentrated by a fourth-order Fresnel lens, on August 2, 1869.

The facility didn’t go without its detractors. The Pacific Commercial Advertiser called it “an infantile structure which more resembles a birdcage than a lighthouse.” The lighthouse also served as a front range light. (Lighthouse Friends)

In 1906, plans were proposed for the transition from a simple, primitive light in Honolulu Harbor to a permanent, efficient light station. The following year, the harbor was dredged, providing a deeper port for large ships.

Material created from the dredging was added to the existing Quarantine Island (what is now called Sand Island.) It was on Sand Island that the Honolulu Harbor Light station was built. (Brown)

Plans were prepared for a concrete-block (subsequently changed to re-enforced concrete) structure, to include a combined light-keeper’s dwelling and tower, the building to rest upon twenty-four concrete foundation cylinders or piles 3 feet in diameter.

The structure was rectangular, one and a half stories high, and is surmounted by a square tower supporting a fourth-order cylindrical helical-bar lantern. The illuminating apparatus consisted of an occulting fourth-order lens, revolving on ball bearings.

The main floor contains quarters for two keepers, each provided with kitchen, living room, two bedrooms, and a bathroom. There are ample closets and pantries for each keeper. (Report of the Light-House Board, 1909)

The beacon went into service on February 15, 1910. After several years, the sturdy building, that had become the well-known Honolulu Harbor Lighthouse, almost resembled a home, complete with a gate and white picket fence.

The lower portion of the structure provided living accommodations for two light keepers. The 43-foot high illuminating apparatus above the dwelling housed the necessary guiding light for all ships entering the busy harbor. (Brown)

Sixteen years later, the iconic Aloha Tower was completed to replace the Sand Island facility. (The Honolulu Harbor Light was destroyed in 1934.)

The Aloha Tower navigational aid served until 1975, when the present Honolulu Harbor Light was established on a metal pole at the end of Pier 2.

May 9, 2025 by Peter T Young 3 Comments

Rock Silo to Bell Tower

Carl W Winstedt and the National Construction Company began construction on the Aloha Tower on 1924. The project took a year and a half to complete.

Aloha Tower opened in 1926; at 184-feet, 2-inches tall, it was the tallest building in the Territory (and remained such for the next forty years.) (LRB)

Winstedt was originally from Sweden. Life wasn’t always so tall for Winstedt; back in 1915, he and his wife Marie Camr Winstedt went through bankruptcy in Juneau, Alaska.

But things were looking up.

Following Aloha Tower, Winstedt built the Egholm Residence in the Diamond Head Terraces subdivision in 1926. It is one of the few examples of small cottages in the Spanish Colonial Revival style popular in Hawai‘i in the 1920s and early-1930s.

Both of those structures (Aloha Tower and Egholm residence) are still here. In fact, there is another structure attributed to Winstedt that is still around, although it is very unlike the prior two examples of his work.

Reportedly in 1926, Winstedt’s National Construction Company, Ltd was the lowest bidder for the construction of a portion of the Kamehameha highway, designated “Job 4057.”

Winstedt and National were awarded the contract for this work by the Territory of Hawaiʻi acting through Lyman H Bigelow, the territorial highway commissioner. (Court Records, March 8, 1933)

Winstedt was to build Kamehameha Highway from Waimea Bay to Kahuku. Reportedly, to support it, in 1930, he built a rock quarry on the North edge of Waimea Bay to produce gravel. (pupukea-waimea)

However, it appears Winstedt and his companies, National Construction Co and Realty Development Co, faced hard times related to the road project.

“(T)he aggregate of the claims filed against the construction company … is in excess of $100,000. It is also conceded that the construction company and the sureties on its bond are insolvent.” (Court Records, March 8, 1933)

The facility was abandoned in 1932; it’s not clear what happened with it for the next 20-years.

Then, St Michael’s Church was looking for a church facility. With changing demographics and land needs, they had given up their 1853 stone church in Waialua and were in a 1923 concrete building; they looked at Waimea, at the far end of the parish.

In April of 1953, the Catholic mission acquired the old rock crusher site and converted the buildings into Saint Michael Parish, Waialua with Mission of Saints Peter & Paul.

The concrete rock silo was converted into a 100-foot bell tower. The former construction company machine sheds were converted into a patio and chapel. (Clark & pupukea-waimea)

About that time, other changes were happening at Waimea Bay; sand was being removed to replenish the eroded Waikīkī Beach, across the island.

Reportedly, before sand mining operations removed over 200,000-tons of sand from Waimea Bay to fill beaches in Waikīkī and elsewhere, there was so much sand that if you would have tried to jump off Pōhaku Lele (Jump Rock,) you would have jumped about six feet down into the sand below.

Like Aloha Tower, the former silo for crushed rubble has become one of the most famous landmarks on Oʻahu.

Sts Peter and Paul Mission_St Michaels Church

Outside Silo

Silo/bell tower shaft

Sts Peter and Paul Mission_St Michaels Church

Waimea Bay – Gravel Tower-2616-1951-portion-zoom

Waimea Bay – Gravel Tower-Williams

Waimea Bay-Sts Peter and Paul Mission-St Michaels Church

Waimea-SOEST-C75_356

Sts Peter and Paul Mission-St Michaels Church

Looking up shaft

Lowere doors/gates

Waimea Bay – Gravel Tower-2616-1951-marks on beach appear to be part of sand mining

Shark_cove_three_tables-SOEST

Ruins of the first St. Michael’s Church

St. Michael’s Church, Waialua, built in 1853-SB

Ruins of the first St. Michael’s Church-SB

Honolulu_Harbor-Aloha_Tower-Toward_Manoa-Aerial-1940

Aloha_Tower,_Honolulu,_1959

Winstedt grave marker-Oahu Cemetery

September 28, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

William G Irwin

William G Irwin was born in England in 1843; he was the son of James and Mary Irwin. His father, a paymaster in the ordnance department of the British army, sailed with his family for California with a cargo of merchandise immediately after the discovery of gold in 1849. The family then came to Hawaiʻi.

Irwin attended Punahou School and as a young man was employed at different times by Aldrich, Walker & Co.; Lewers & Dickson; and Walker, Allen & Co.

In 1880, he and Claus Spreckels formed the firm WG Irwin & Co; for many years it was the leading sugar agency in the kingdom and the one originally used by the West Maui Sugar Association.

In 1884, the firm took over as agent for Olowalu Company. William G. Irwin and Claus Spreckels constituted the partnership in the firm, which maintained offices in Honolulu. The role of the agent had greatly expanded by this time.

William G Irwin and Company acted as a sales agent for Olowalu’s sugar crop as previous agents had done. It also was purchasing agent for plantation equipment and supplies and represented Olowalu with the Hawaiian Board of Immigration to bring in immigrant laborers.

In addition, Irwin and Company acted as an agent for the Spreckels-controlled Oceanic Steamship Company and required, for a time, that Olowalu’s sugar be shipped to the Spreckels-controlled Western Sugar Refinery in San Francisco by the Oceanic Line.

In 1885, Irwin and Spreckels opened the bank of Claus Spreckels & Co., later incorporated under the name of Bank of Honolulu, Ltd., that later merged with the Bank of Bishop & Co.

In 1886, Mr. Irwin married Mrs. Fannie Holladay. Their only child, Hélène Irwin, was married to industrialist Paul Fagan of San Francisco.

A close friend of King Kalākaua, Irwin was decorated by the King and was a member of the Privy Council of Hawaiʻi in 1887.

In 1896, the Legislature of the Republic of Hawaiʻi put Kapiʻolani Park and its management under the Honolulu Park Commission; William G Irwin was the first chair of the commission.

In 1901 he was made a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor by the French government in recognition of his services as Hawaiʻi’s representative to the Paris Exposition.

By 1909, William G Irwin and Company’s fortunes had declined and, reaching retirement age, Irwin reluctantly decided to close the business. In January 1910, the firm of William G. Irwin and Company merged with its former rival C. Brewer and Company.

Irwin moved to San Francisco in 1909 and served as president and chairman of the board of the Mercantile Trust Company, which eventually merged with Wells Fargo Bank.

In 1913, Mr. Irwin incorporated his estate in San Francisco under the name of the William G. Irwin Estate Co., which maintained large holdings in Hawaiian plantations. He had extensive business interests in California, as well as in Hawaiʻi, and was actively associated with the Mercantile National Bank of San Francisco in later years.

William G Irwin died in San Francisco, January 28, 1914.

Irwin had a CW Dickey-designed home makai of Kapiʻolani Park. In 1921, the Territorial Legislature authorized the issuance of bonds for the construction, on the former Irwin property, of a memorial dedicated to the men and women of Hawaiʻi who served in World War I. It’s where the Waikīkī Natatorium War Memorial now sits.

The Honolulu Waterfront Development Project, introduced by Governor Lucius E Pinkham and the Board of Harbor Commissioners in 1916, was declared to be the “most important project ever handled in Honolulu Harbor.”

The project began in 1916 with the construction of new docks; it continued in 1924 with the construction of Aloha Tower as a gateway landmark heralding ship arrivals.

On September 3, 1930, the Territory of Hawaiʻi entered into an agreement with Hélène Irwin Fagan and Honolulu Construction and Draying, Ltd. (HC&D), whereby HC&D sold some property to Fagan, who then donated it to the Territory with the stipulation that the property honor her father and that it be maintained as a “public park to beautify the entrance to Honolulu Harbor.”

The Honolulu Waterfront Development Project was completed in 1934 with the creation of a 2-acre oasis shaded by the canopies of monkeypod trees (shading a parking lot;) Irwin Memorial Park is located mauka of the Aloha Tower Marketplace bounded by North Nimitz Highway, Fort Street, Bishop Street and Aloha Tower Drive.

The William G Irwin Charity Foundation was founded in 1919 by the will of his wife to support “charitable uses, including medical research and other scientific uses, designed to promote or improve the physical condition of mankind in the Hawaiian Islands or the State of California.” The 2010 Foundation report for the Foundation indicated its value at over $100-million.

Among other activities, it funds the William G Irwin Professorship in Cardiovascular Medicine, which was created with gifts from the William G Irwin Charity Foundation of San Francisco, and, with a transfer of funds in 2003, the Hélène Irwin Fagan Chair in Cardiology at the Stanford School of Medicine.

September 3, 2023 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Irwin Park

The project began in 1916 with the construction of new docks; it continued in 1924 with the construction of Aloha Tower as a gateway landmark heralding ship arrivals.

The Territory of Hawai‘i agreed to accept the donation from Hélène Irwin Fagan. The deed restrictions and conditions stated that if any portion of the Property was ever abandoned as a public park, the Property would revert back to Fagan and “her heirs and assigns”.

On March 13, 1931, through Executive Order No. 472, the Territory set aside the Property as a public park and noted that the Territory owned the Property subject to the restrictions and conditions set forth in the deed from Fagan to the Territory.

The Honolulu Waterfront Development Project was completed in 1934 with the creation of a 2-acre oasis shaded by the canopies of monkeypod trees; Irwin Memorial Park is located mauka of the Aloha Tower Marketplace bounded by North Nimitz Highway, Fort Street, Bishop Street and Aloha Tower Drive.

In 1939, the Territory and Fagan entered into a Supplemental Agreement “to permit the parking of vehicles of whatsoever nature, whether with or without the payment of a fee or fees on that portion of (Irwin Park) now set aside for the parking of vehicles”. A later (1951,) agreement allowed for widening of Nimitz Highway. (Hawaii ICA)

In 1981, the Legislature enacted Hawai‘i Revised Statutes (HRS) Chapter 206J, which created Aloha Tower Development Corporation (ATDC) as an agency of the State, and which provides that “Irwin Memorial Park shall be retained as a public park subject to the reservations and conditions set forth in the deed”. In 1999, Irwin Park was placed on the Hawai‘i Register of Historic Places. (Hawaii ICA)

Irwin attended Punahou School and as a young man was employed at different times by Aldrich, Walker & Co.; Lewers & Dickson; and Walker, Allen & Co.

In 1880, he and Claus Spreckels formed the firm WG Irwin & Co; for many years it was the leading sugar agency in the kingdom and the one originally used by the West Maui Sugar Association.

In 1884, the firm took over as agent for Olowalu Company. William G Irwin and Company acted as a sales agent for Olowalu’s sugar crop as previous agents had done. It also was purchasing agent for plantation equipment and supplies and represented Olowalu with the Hawaiian Board of Immigration to bring in immigrant laborers.

In 1885, Irwin and Spreckels opened the bank of Claus Spreckels & Co., later incorporated under the name of Bank of Honolulu, Ltd., that later merged with the Bank of Bishop & Co.

In 1886, Mr. Irwin married Mrs. Fannie Holladay. Their only child, Hélène Irwin, was married to industrialist Paul Fagan of San Francisco.

A close friend of King Kalākaua, Irwin was decorated by the King and was a member of the Privy Council of Hawaiʻi in 1887.

In 1896, the Legislature of the Republic of Hawaiʻi put Kapiʻolani Park and its management under the Honolulu Park Commission; William G Irwin was the first chair of the commission.

In 1901 he was made a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor by the French government in recognition of his services as Hawaiʻi’s representative to the Paris Exposition.

Irwin moved to San Francisco in 1909 and served as president and chairman of the board of the Mercantile Trust Company, which eventually merged with Wells Fargo Bank.

William G Irwin died in San Francisco, January 28, 1914.

Aloha_Tower-Irwin_Park-PP-40-5-028-1932-Park noted

Fort St. and Irwin Park from Aloha Tower, Honolulu.PP-39-4-001-1937

Audience at fashion parade to select the best dressed lei seller in Honolulu-at Irwin_Park-PP-33-9-019-1936

Fort St. from Aloha Tower, Honolulu-before Irwin Park-PP-38-9-003-1928

Fort St. Irwin Park and Honolulu from Aloha Tower-PP-39-5-002-1940

Honolulu from Aloha Tower-over Irwin Park-PP-39-7-025-1953

Aloha_Tower-Irwin_Park-PP-40-4-020-1930

Aloha_Tower-Irwin_Park-PP-40-4-022-1930

Aloha Tower under construction-before Irwin Park-PP-38-9-011-1925

Oahu_Honolulu_IrwinMemorialPark_photo_byIanClagstone

Irwin-Park

Irwin-Park-(honoluluadvertiser)

Irwin_Park-(historichawaii)

May 22, 2020 by Peter T Young 3 Comments

Evolution of Honolulu Harbor

Coral doesn’t grow in freshwater. So, where a stream enters a coastal area, there is typically no coral growth at that point – and, as the freshwater runs out into the ocean, a coral-less channel is created.

In its natural state, thanks to Nuʻuanu Stream, Honolulu Harbor originally was a deep embayment formed by the outflow of Nuʻuanu Stream creating an opening in the shallow coral reef along the south shore of Oʻahu.

Honolulu Harbor (it was earlier known as Kuloloia) was entered by the first foreigner, Captain William Brown of the English ship Butterworth, in 1794.

They called the harbor “Fair Haven” which may be a rough translation of the Hawaiian name Honolulu (it was also sometimes called Brown’s Harbor.) The name Honolulu (meaning “sheltered bay” – with numerous variations in spelling) soon came into use.

Tradewinds blow from the Northeast; the channel into Honolulu Harbor has a northeasterly alignment. Early ships calling to Honolulu were powered only by sails. The entrance to the harbor was narrow and lined on either side with reefs. Ships don’t sail into the wind. Given all of this, Honolulu Harbor was difficult to enter.

Boats either anchored off-shore, or they were pulled into the harbor (this was done with canoes; or, it meant men and/or oxen pulled them in.)

It might take eight double canoes with 16-20 men each, working in the pre-dawn calm when winds and currents were slow. In 1816 (as stories suggest,) Richards Street alignment was the straight path used by groups of men, and later oxen, to pull ships through the narrow channel into the harbor. (Richards Street was named for a man selling luggage to tourists in his shop on that street.)

A few years after, in 1825, the first pier in the harbor was improvised by sinking a ship’s hull near the present Pier 12 site. As Honolulu developed and grew, lots of changes happened, including along its waterfront. What is now known as Queen Street used to be the water’s edge.

The first efforts to deepen Honolulu Harbor were made in the 1840s. The idea to use the dredged material, composed of sand and crushed coral, to fill in low-lying lands was quickly adopted.

In 1854 the first steam tug was used to pull sail-powered ships into dock against the prevailing tradewinds.

The old prison was built in 1856-57 at Iwilei; it took the place of the old Fort Kekuanohu (that also previously served as a prison.) The new custom-house was completed in 1860. The water-works were much enlarged, and a system of pipes laid down in 1861.

Between 1857 and 1870, the coral block walls of the dismantled Fort edged and filled about 22-acres of reef and tideland, forming the “Esplanade” or “Ainahou,” between Fort and Merchant Streets (where Aloha Tower is now located.) At that time, the harbor was dredged to a depth from 20 to 25-feet took place.

By the 1880s, filling-in of the mud flats, marshes and salt ponds in the Kakaʻako and Kewalo areas had begun. This filling-in was pushed by three separate but overlapping improvement justifications.

The first directive or justification was for the construction of new roads and the improvement of older roads by raising the grade so the improvements would not be washed away by flooding during heavy rains.

Although public health and safety were prominently cited as the main desire (and third justification) to fill in Honolulu, Kewalo, and then Waikīkī lands, the fill ultimately provided more room for residential subdivisions, industrial areas and finally tourist resorts.

In the early part of the twentieth century, Kakaʻako was becoming a prime spot for large industrial complexes, such as iron works, lumber yards, and hauling companies, which needed large spaces for their stables, feed lots and wagon sheds.

An 1887 Hawaiian Government Survey map of Honolulu shows continued urban expansion of the Downtown Honolulu area.

In 1889, the Honolulu Harbor was described as “nothing but a channel kept open by the flow of the Nuʻuanu River;” a sand bar restricted entry of the larger ocean vessels. In 1890-92, a channel 200-feet wide by 30-feet deep was dredged for about 1,000-feet through the sand bar.

Piers were constructed at the base of Richards Street in 1896, at the site of Piers 17 and 18 in 1901 to accommodate sugar loading and at Piers 7 and 12 in 1907.

After annexation in 1898, the harbor was dredged using US federal funds. The dredged material was used to create a small island in the harbor in order to calm the harbor and avoid constructing a breakwater. This island became what is now known as Sand Island.

In 1904, the area around South Street from King to Queen Streets was filled in. The Hawaiʻi Department of Public Works reported that “considerable filling (was) required” for the extension of Queen Street, from South Street to Ward Avenue, which would “greatly relieve the district of Kewalo in the wet season.”

A series of new piers were constructed at the base of Richards Street in 1896, at the site of Piers 17 and 18 in 1901 (to accommodate sugar loading) and then at Piers 7 and 12 in 1907. Further dredging was conducted at the base of Alakea Street in 1906.

With the opening of the Panama Canal in 1914 and anticipated increased trans-Pacific shipping, government and business planned to further enlarge Honolulu Harbor by dredging Kalihi Channel and Kapālama Basin.

However, because of military concerns, the Reserved Channel connecting Honolulu Harbor to Kapālama Basin was dredged instead. This is known as the Kapālama Channel. Honolulu Harbor expanded into the Kapālama Basin and by the early 1930s Piers 34 had been constructed. Pier 35 was constructed in 1931 to provide dedicated facilities for inter-island pineapple shipments.

On September 11, 1926, after five years of construction, Aloha Tower was officially dedicated at Pier 9; at the time, the tallest building in Hawaiʻi.

Today, Honolulu Harbor continues to serve as Hawai‘i’s commercial lifeline for goods to/from Hawaiʻi and the rest of the world.

The image shows Honolulu in 1854, in a drawing done by Paul Emmert. It shows Honolulu just before these changes and the expansion of land in the downtown area (you can see people standing on the reef on the right.)

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