Buena Vista | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

In 1872, some referred to it as “Missionary Street,” although the Missionary Period had ended about 10-years earlier (the Missionary Period was from 1820 – 1863.)

You might more accurately call it the home of the elite, and that is not limited to folks of the Caucasian persuasion – both Kauikeaouli and Emma had summer residences here and included in the list of successful business people who called it home were the Afongs and others.

But you can’t help concluding the strong demand to live there based on early descriptions – even Realtors, today, would be envious of the descriptors Ellis used in 1831: “The scenery is romantic and delightful.”

“Across this plain, immediately opposite the harbour of Honoruru, lies the valley of Anuanu (Nuʻuanu,) leading to a pass in the mountains, called by the natives Ka Pari (Pali,) the precipice, which is well worth the attention of every intelligent foreigner visiting Oahu.” (Ellis, 1831)

“The mouth of the valley, which opens immediately behind the town of Honoruru, is a complete garden, carefully kept by its respective proprietors in a state of high cultivation; and the ground, being irrigated by the water from a river that winds rapidly down the valley, is remarkably productive.” (Ellis, 1831)

Over sixty years later (1897,) Stoddard keeps the demand momentum going by adding, “The way lies through shady avenues, between residences that stand in the midst of broad lawns and among foliage of the most brilliant description. An infinite variety of palms and tropical plants, with leaves of enormous circumference, diversify the landscape.”

Today, the descriptors of the past hold true – and the place is high in the demand (and price,) just as it was nearly two centuries ago.

So, who were some of the people who called this place home?

As noted, an early resident of Nuʻuanu was Kauikeaouli, Kamehameha III. Consistent with tradition, his home had a name, Kaniakapūpū (sound or song of the land snail;) it was located back up into the valley at Luakaha.

Ruins today, the structure, modeled on an Irish stone cottage, was completed in 1845 and is reportedly built on top or in the vicinity of an ancient heiau. It was a simple cottage, a square with four straight walls.

Another royal, Queen Emma, had a “mountain” home, Hānaiakamālama (Lit., the foster child of the light (or moon,)) now known as the Queen Emma Summer Palace. In 1857, she inherited it from her uncle, John Young II, son of the famous advisor to Kamehameha I, John Young I.

The ‘Summer Palace’ was modeled in the Greek Revival style. It has a formal plan arrangement, wide central hall, high ceilings and floor-length hinged, in-swinging shuttered casement window. The Daughters of Hawaiʻi saved it from demolition and it is now operated as a museum and open to the public (a nominal admission fee is charged.)

On the private side, the following are only a few of the several notable residences (existing, or long gone,) in Nuʻuanu Valley.

A notable home is the “Walker Estate;” one of the few intact estates that were built in the upper Nuʻuanu Valley before and after the turn of the century (built in 1905,) it is a two story wood frame structure of Classical Revival style. (NPS)

The home on the 5.7-acre estate was initially built for the Rodiek family, a leading businessman in Honolulu. Due to war time pressures on the family, who were German citizens, the home was sold in 1918 to Wilcox who lived there into the 1930s, when it was taken over by Henry Alexander Walker, president and chairman of the Board of Amfac (one of the Hawaiʻi Big Five businesses.)

The grounds were originally used for orchards and vegetables, although the Japanese garden was put in shortly after the house was built and is thought to be the oldest formal Japanese garden in Hawaiʻi, the stones, lamps and images specially brought from Japan for it. (NPS)

Another notable home is former Governor George Carter’s “Lihiwai” (water’s edge.) In the late-1920s, Carter built his 26,000-square feet home; it is reportedly “the largest and finest private residence ever constructed in Hawaiʻi (with the exception of ʻIolani Palace.)” (NPS)

The entire building is built of shaped bluestone set in concrete and steel reinforced cement, and all the perimeter walls are 2 – 3-feet thick with the exception of the end walls, which are 6-feet thick. It is constructed entirely of bluestone, concrete, steel, copper, bronze and teak.

Originally, the building was connected to two smaller structures — by a breezeway on the eastern side and by the porte-cochere on the western side (these structures were separated in 1957.) The property was originally 10-acres, but portions were subdivided and sold in 1945 after the death of Helen Strong Carter. Today, the property includes the original house on a little over 1-acre. (The home is undergoing restoration.)

A home long gone, but we are repeatedly reminded of it in on-the-air marketing for senior living in Nuʻuanu, is “Craigside.” This was the home of Theophilus Harris Davies. Not only was Davies’ firm, Theo H Davies, one of the Hawaiʻi Big Five, he personally served as guardian to Princess Kaʻiulani while she was studying in England (Davies had another home there – “Sundown.”)

Likewise, just up the hill, was the Paty house “Buena Vista;” it’s now gone and part of the Wyllie Street interchange with Pali Highway. (Look for the parallel palms in the yard of the immediately-makai ‘Community Church of Honolulu.’ They used to line the Paty driveway, with the house off to the left (mauka.)

During the Spanish American War, the military took over Buena Vista and turned it into the Nuʻuanu Valley Military Hospital (also known as “Buena Vista Hospital.”)

Just mauka of Buena Vista (now also part of the Wyllie-Nuʻuanu interchange) was Robert Crichton Wyllie’ “Rosebank.” Wyllie first worked as acting British Consul. Attracted by Wyllie’s devotion to the affairs of Hawaiʻi, in 1845, King Kamehameha III appointed him the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Kamehameha IV reappointed all the ministers who were in office when Kamehameha III died, including Robert C Wyllie as Minister of Foreign Relations (he was in Hawaiʻi from 1844 until his death in 1865.) Wyllie served as Minister of Foreign Relations from 1845 until his death in 1865, serving under Kamehameha III, Kamehameha IV and Kamehameha V.

Finally, a home of a missionary, Dr. Gerrit Parmele Judd, “Sweet Home” was located at the intersection of Nuʻuanu and Judd. Judd was in the 3rd company of missionaries from the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (he was in Hawaiʻi from 1828 until his death in 1873.) After serving the mission for 15-years, Judd was translator and later Minister of Foreign Affairs, member of the House of Nobles and Privy Council, and Minister of Finance under Kamehameha III.

Wife Laura Judd once noted, “we were supposed to be rich,” but insisted they had never been so poor, being obliged to borrow money to pay for carpenters and masons. (Scott, Saga) The house was torn down in 1911 and the property became part of what is now Oʻahu Cemetery.

“Resolved, That, in consideration of the long and meritorious services of Capt John Paty, as a ship master out of Honolulu, and the valuable assistance rendered by him in the furtherance of commercial intercourse between the Hawaiian Islands and adjacent ports in foreign countries, as evidenced by the accomplishment of his one hundredth passage across the Pacific,”

“We, American residents and others, in Honolulu, in meeting assembled deem him entitled to be hailed as the Commodore of the Merchant Marine, at the Sandwich Islands, and as such to fly some ensign, emblematical of the rank thus bestowed upon him … on his arrival from San Francisco, and that on its presentation, he shall be saluted with the customary salute of 13 guns.” (The Friend, November 1, 1860)

“Capt. Paty is a native of good old Plymouth, Mass., and for aught we know, the blood of the master of the May Flower runs in his veins. (He) is one of those Cape Cod boys, of whom it has been eloquently said, ‘They leap from the cradle to the shrouds without holding on to their mother’s apron strings.’” (The Friend, November 1, 1860)

They presented him with a commodore’s broad pennant of blue silk, with the figure 100, encircled by ten white stars representing the ten Hawaiian Islands, and with a chronometer; tokens of the community’s appreciation of his years of reliable service. (Hackler)

Let’s look back.

John Paty was born February 22, 1807 in Plymouth, Massachusetts. His father was a seaman and his mother came of a seafaring family; his father died when John as 7 and his mother, when he was 11.

His first sea-voyage was made in 1821 (at the age of 15,) in the Brig Gov. Winslow, from Boston to Amsterdam with his uncle, Captain Ephraim Paty. He quickly learned the rigors of life aboard ship, for his relative showed him no favors.

Looking back on his early days at sea, “But when I got on board ship with a hard old shell-back, I found the contrast very great, and my feelings were such, at times, as to induce me to commit almost any deed of violence for the sake of revenge. At other times I wished that I had never been born.” (Paty; Day)

“His earlier voyages were to the Mediterranean and West Indies, and, it is said, young as he then was, the owners for whom he sailed reposed so much Confidence in his integrity, good judgment, and nautical skill, that they were in the habit of giving him no instructions other than the general and verbal one, to act according to his own discretion.” (Daily Alta California, February 3, 1869)

He was married in the year 1831 (to his childhood sweetheart, Mary Ann Jefferson of Salem, Massachusetts;) they made their home in Plymouth. Two years later John’s younger brother Henry returned from the Sandwich Islands. He persuaded John to buy a part interest in the brig Avon and sail in it to Hawai’i.

In 1834, John and Mary Ann sailed for the Sandwich Islands, in the brig Avon, of which he was master and part owner, accompanied by his wife and brother, and arrived at Honolulu in June of that year. (They had three children while in Hawaiʻi, John Henry Paty (1840,) Mary Francesca Paty (1844) and Emma Theodora Paty (1850.)

He took various voyages back and forth to the continent; on one, he landed in San Francisco in December, 1837 (it was part of Mexico at the time.) The only buildings in San Francisco were an unfinished adobe belonging to Capt. Wm. Richardson (an Englishman,) and a board shanty near it owned by Jacob P. Leese (an American.) These two were the only foreign residents there. (Day; Hesperian)

“Since that time, with the exception of one or two voyages to Atlantic ports previous to 1839, he had been constantly employed in the Pacific, and, principally, between the Hawaiian Islands and parts of Mexico and California.” (Daily Alta California, February 3, 1869)

In 1857 King Kamehameha IV asked Paty to take the Manuokawai on a voyage of exploration, in the course of which he took possession of Laysan, Necker, Gardener’s Islands and Lysiansky Islands for the Hawaiian Kingdom. He also corrected old charts, “… a considerable portion of my time has been consumed by calms and looking for banks and islands which do not exist, or are erroneously marked ….” (Paty; Hackler)

After 168 crossings, in command of the Don Quixote, the Frances Palmer, the Yankee, the Speedwell, the Young Hector, and the Comet, Paty could assert with pride that he never lost a passenger or a seaman, never lost a ship, and never had a serious accident at sea. (Hackler)

“Old salt,” Capt. John Paty, so long and favorably known throughout the Pacific as one of the most obliging and successful shipmasters that ever commanded a vessel … He has been employed in almost every kind of sea service, in nearly every part of the world, and has universally given most unqualified satisfaction.” (Polynesian, October 13, 1860)

“Those sailing with him always considered themselves fortunate and secure; and his quiet, amiable disposition, unalloyed good-nature, and uniform courtesy and kindness of manner, made it a pleasure to be a passenger and guest on board the vessel where he was master and host.” (Daily Alta California, February 3, 1869)

Paty had his home, ‘Buena Vista,’ in Nuʻuanu (on the east side of Nuʻuanu Avenue at Wyllie Street. (That site is now covered by the Nuʻuanu-Pali Highway interchange. Look for the parallel palms in the yard of the immediately-makai ‘Community Church of Honolulu;’ they used to line the Paty driveway, with the house off to the left (mauka.))

John Paty continued to ply the Pacific until four months before his death from cancer, on November 11, 1868.

The image shows John Paty. In addition, I have added other images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

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