Chinatown | Page 4 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

Honolulu, by the end of the 19th century, was densely populated. Overcrowding and unsanitary living conditions were of great concern.

In part because of the 1900 plague and the Chinatown fire, residents began moving away from the city and into the surrounding valleys, wanting to escape from the overcrowded city into the quiet and serene rural areas.

With the introduction of the railway, trolley system, and the construction of new roads into the Honolulu area, transportation and accessibility into the city was made easier, thus affording residents with an easier commute.

There was a trolley that traveled from Waikiki into Manoa Valley along Oahu Avenue, and another that traveled along Nu‘uanu Avenue from town into the Nuuanu Valley. The introduction of automobiles, and construction of finished roadways also made travel easier.

Before the construction of the Pali Road, residents living on the windward side of Oahu would travel over the Ko‘olau Mountains by foot, along a treacherous path, to reach Honolulu.

In 1876, improvements were made to the trail to allow horses access to the trail as well. Regardless of these improvements, the trail was still quite dangerous, and took time to travel.

In 1897, plans for the construction of Pali Road were initiated. Engineered by Johnny Wilson and Lou Whitehouse, after its completion, it was considered one of Oahu’s major roadways.

Pali Road, connecting with Nuʻuanu Avenue (the present Pali Highway), officially connected the windward side of the island with downtown Honolulu. The development of this road allowed for greater accessibility into the valley.

In order to support the growing populations in dense areas in Honolulu, reservoirs and sophisticated systems were developed to collect and transport water to these areas.

By 1890, there were already two reservoirs in place in Nuʻuanu Valley, and a third one was under construction. Plans for a fourth reservoir was underway after the 1891 drought, and construction on this reservoir began in 1905.

With the area’s water system development, it supported the lifestyles of those living in the valley area. This area was one of the first on O‘ahu to be developed as a residential subdivision. It was called the Dowsett Tract.

The Dowsett Tract was named after the family that once owned the land. James Isaac Dowsett was born to Samuel James Dowsett (born in Rochester, Kent, England 1794 – lost at sea in 1834) and Mary Bishop Dowsett (Rochester, Kent, England; 1808 – 1860) in Honolulu, December 15, 1829.

Samuel and Mary married in Australia. A ship captain, Samuel did shipping business in Australia and was into whaling. Samuel first arrived in Hawaiʻi in 1822 when he was first officer of the “Mermaid,” accompanying the “Prince Regent,” a gift-ship from King George IV of England to King Kamehameha I, promised to the King by George Vancouver.

Samuel returned with his wife on July 17, 1828, arriving on the brig Wellington; they set up their home in Hawaiʻi at that time. Samuel and Mary had 4 children, James, Samuel Henry, Elizabeth Jane and Deborah Melville. James Isaac Dowsett was the first non-missionary white child to be born in Hawai‘i.

With his father’s disappearance, James Dowsett started working from the young age of twelve, and had a strong work ethic that would help him become a successful businessman.

He was active in the whaling and lumber industry, owned a fleet of boats that operated between the islands, and had extensive ranching investments. In his youth, Dowsett was a playmate of Kamehameha IV, Kamehameha V and Lunalilo.

Dowsett married Annie Green Ragsdale of Honolulu, and together they had thirteen children. “He was a quick thinker and an excellent reasoner and while not a talkative man was always willing to supply any information from his great storehouse that might be useful to another or that might interest an inquirer.”

“He knew the town, the people and the country. He never left the Islands but once in his whole life and then four days in San Francisco was enough of life in foreign parts. He was a perfect encyclopedia of history and biography not only of Honolulu and Oahu, but of the entire group.”

“The common suggestion to one in search of obscure historical data was to go to Mr. Dowsett and he never failed. He could always supply day and date and all required details.” (Hawaiian Gazette, June 17, 1898)

Dowsett took on Chung Kun Ai as his protégé, allowing Ai to use a portion of his warehouse, and Ai started importing cigars, tea, peanut oil, shoe nails and other items. Ai and others later started City Mill, a rice milling and lumber importing business in Chinatown, Honolulu. The City Mill building on Nimitz was dedicated to Dowsett.

“Dowsett saw the grass hut replaced by the stone business block and the taro patch filled up for mansion site. He saw the little paths become fine streets and the broad and barren plains thickly populated districts. He saw the life of a nation change. … Through all this he was a close observer and always on the side of what was right and just.” (Hawaiian Gazette, June 17, 1898)

Dowsett died on June 14, 1898; “news of the death of Mr. Dowsett had been sent all over the Island and the Hawaiians in large numbers joined the throng of haoles calling to pay respects and offer consolation.”

“The older Hawaiians could not restrain themselves at all and gave vent to floods of tears and to strange wailings. They were overpowered and overcome by the thought that no more would they have the friendly greeting, the certain and reliable advice or the material assistance of the one who had been their reliance at all times and upon all occasions for so many years.” (Hawaiian Gazette, June 17, 1898)

After his death in 1899, James Dowsett’s heirs formed The Dowsett Company, Ltd. to help manage his extensive Hawaii property, including Dowsett Tract.

The Dowsett Tract was 273 acres of land in Nuʻuanu Valley. On October 4, 1912, the Dowsett Company subdivided the property into two lots (A and B). In June of 1916 – September 1916, the property was subdivided into 57 lots.

The Niniko ʻauwai runs through the development, providing fresh drinking water for virtually every land parcel contained within the triangular portion of land bounded by Nuʻuanu Avenue, Dowsett Avenue and Alika Avenue. Dowsett Avenue and Ragsdale Place in Dowsett Tract and Highlands in Nuʻuanu are named after James and Annie.

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Oahu_Country_Club-from_Alewa-(GaryWild)-1919-Dowsett Tract

Nuuanu_Emmert-No._6-Looking_Mauka-1854

Nuuanu Valley, Honolulu, Hawaii, circa 1900

Nuuanu_Valley_1929

Nuuanu_Valley-Aviation Day formation over Oahu-(hawaii-gov)-December 17, 1934

Nuuanu_Homes-Monsarrat-(portion)-1920

Captain Cook’s voyage of exploration and ‘contact’ with the Islands in 1778 opened Hawai‘i to the world – it also showed the world the possibilities of the fur trade via the North American Northwest Coast. (Quimby)

The maritime fur trade focused on acquiring furs of sea otters, seals and other animals from the Pacific Northwest Coast and Alaska. The furs were mostly sold in China in exchange for tea, silks, porcelain and other Chinese goods, which were then sold in Europe and the US.

American and British trading ships began plying between the American Northwest and South China, stopping at various ports in the Hawaiian Islands to replenish their supplies of food and water.

“In the month of January 1788, in conjunction with several British merchants resident in India, I purchased and fitted out two vessels, named the Felice and the Iphigenia … (each) built with sufficient strength to resist the tempestuous weather so much to be apprehended in the Northern Pacific Ocean, during the winter season.”

“The crews of these ships consisted of Europeans and China-men, with a larger proportion of the former. The Chinese were, on this occasion, shipped as an experiment: – they have been generally esteemed an hardy, and industrious, as well as ingenious race of people …”

“… they live on fish and rice, and, requiring but low wages, it was a matter also of economical consideration to employ them; and during the whole of the voyage there was every reason to be satisfied with their services.-If hereafter trading posts should be established on the American coast, a colony of these men would be a very important acquisition.” (Mears, 1790)

Shortly thereafter, in 1790, the American schooner Eleanora, with Simon Metcalf as master, reached Maui from Macao using a crew of 10-Americans and 45-Chinese. (Nordyke & Lee)

Crewmen from China were employed as cooks, carpenters and artisans, and Chinese businessmen sailed as passengers to America. Some of these men disembarked in Hawai‘i and remained as new settlers.

Sandalwood was first recognized as a commercial product in Hawai‘i in 1791 by Captain Kendrick (mainland merchants brought cotton, cloth and other goods for trade with the Hawaiians for their sandalwood – who would then trade the sandalwood in China.) Additional Chinese may have left their ships during the sandalwood trading.

Near the mouth of Nuʻuanu Stream, makai of King Street, is called Kapuʻukolo, a place “where white men and such dwelt.” At a nearby coral point was “where the first custom house stood.”

“In the vicinity of the custom house at the beach was a house for the first Chinese ever seen here. There were two or three of them, and they prepared food for the captains of the ship which took sandalwood to China.” (‘I‘i, Barrere & Rockwood)

“Because the faces of these people were unusual and their speech – which is not commonly heard – strange, a great number of persons went to look at them.” (I‘i; Kai)

Robert C Wyllie noted that by 1844 some Chinese had opened shops near the waterfront: “There are three stores kept by Chinamen, viz: Samping & Co, Ahung & Co and Tyhune.” (Wyllie, The Friend August 1, 1844)

In the mid-1840s, following defeat by Britain in the first Opium War, a series of natural catastrophes occurred across China resulting in famine, peasant uprisings and rebellions; many Chinese seized the opportunity to go elsewhere. (PBS) Some came to the Islands.

The region now known as Chinatown was established during the 1840s and 1850s, in an area along Honolulu Harbor southwest of Nuʻuanu Stream. (NPS) It is reportedly the oldest Chinese quarter in the US. (SunSentinel)

Starting in the 1850s, when the Hawaiian Legislature passed “An Act for the Governance of Masters and Servants,” a section of which provided the legal basis for contract-labor system, labor shortages at Island sugar plantations were eased by bringing in contract workers from Asia, Europe and North America. The first to arrive were the Chinese (1852.)

The sugar industry grew, so did the Chinese population in Hawaiʻi. (Between 1852 and 1884, the population of Chinese in Hawai‘i increased from 364 to 18,254, to become almost a quarter of the population of the Kingdom (almost 30% of them were living in Honolulu.)) (Young – Nordyke & Lee)

By the early-1860s extensive tracts of irrigated taro land were being turned over to the cultivation of rice, and at various outlying locations, large sugar plantations were emerging on the island scene. As a result, programs of Chinese immigration for the workforce were implemented.

In 1862, the first rice mill in the Hawaiian Islands was constructed in Honolulu (prior to that it was sent unhulled and uncleaned to be milled in San Francisco.) (By 1887, over 13-million pounds of rice were exported. In 1899, Hawaiʻi’s rice production had expanded so that it placed third in production of rice behind Louisiana and South Carolina.)

By 1884 the area in the vicinity of Honolulu’s Mauna Kea, Nuʻuanu, King and Beretania Streets was heavily devoted to Chinese businesses and residences. The 1886 fire burned most of “Chinatown” to the ground. The Chinese residents quickly rebuilt, but by the early-1890s, sanitary conditions and a “slum-like” environment brought about renewed fears of cholera and other diseases.

In December 1899, the first case of bubonic plague was confirmed in Chinatown, and events following identification of the case, and subsequent deaths, led to relocating hundreds of people from Chinatown to Kaka‘ako on January 5, 1900.

Schools were closed, and Chinatown, with its 7,000 inhabitants, was placed under quarantine. In hopes of containing the plague only within Honolulu, the Board of Health closed the port of Honolulu to both incoming and outgoing vessels.

On January 6, 1900, “controlled fires” began to be set at buildings where victims had resided, and additional quarantine facilities capable of housing 2,000 people were being set up in Kalihi.

As cases of the plague continued to increase, “controlled burns,” were used in larger areas in an effort to remove the threat. On January 20, 1900, the fire between Beretania, Kukui, River and Nuʻuanu Streets went wild, and the entire area, including Kaumakapili Church, was destroyed.

From there, the flames spread, and a day later, on January 21, 1900 nearly all the buildings between Kukui, Queen, River and Nuʻuanu Streets were burned to the ground. (Kepa Maly)

Because the fire displaced the residential population of Chinatown, as the area was rebuilt, the Chinese only rebuilt their businesses in the neighborhood – not their homes.

Chinatown reached its peak in the 1930s. In the days before air travel, visitors arrived in the Islands by cruise ship; it was just a block up the street was the pier where they disembarked – and they often headed straight for the shops and restaurants of Chinatown, which visitors considered an exotic treat.

Today, Chinatown Historic District is the largest area in the city that still recalls a historic sense of time and place. (NPS) (SunSentinel)

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