Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

A Building Tells Stories About Buildings

This story is one of the unhappy stories I had while at DLNR.  We were dealing with the last of its kind – so losing it had a different, and more permanent, meaning.  I hope telling the story will help keep the memory alive.

This is not only of personal concern, at the time I was also the State Historic Preservation Officer.

Anyway, on December 27, 1850, the Honolulu Fire Department was established, by signature of King Kamehameha III, and was the first of its kind in the Hawaiian Islands, and the only Fire Department in the United States established by a ruling monarch.

Back in those early days, firefighting equipment was primarily buckets and portable water supplies.  As the department grew, several hand-drawn engine companies were added.

In 1870, the tallest structure in Honolulu was the bell tower of Central Fire Station, then-located on Union Street.  Spotters would sit in the tower, ready to sound the alarm.  Central Fire Station was later relocated to its present site at Beretania and Fort Streets.

Until 1901, most business buildings in downtown were 2-3 floors, that year the 6-floor Stangenwald Building was completed; it remained the tallest building until 1950, when the seven-story Edgewater Hotel in Waikīkī took over that title.

So, for a very long time, firefighting in Honolulu was handled pretty close to the ground, with buildings essentially accessible via hand-raised ladders.

Also, back then, with all the buildings relatively similar in scale, spotting was easy from the towers adjoining the stations and firefighting equipment was pretty consistent to deal with the similar building heights.

The old Kakaʻako Fire Station was occupied on October 1, 1929, by Engine Company Number 9.  In 1930, a hook and ladder building was constructed.  It housed a ladder truck for 20 years.

It housed the equipment that transported ladders to the downtown fires.  Its size and shape showed the scale of Honolulu’s buildings.

The lengths of the ladders on the ladder trucks were tall enough to effectively fight downtown structure fires.  Taller ladders were not needed, because Honolulu, then, did not have taller structures.

And that’s the point of this story.

When the Fire Department was going through its consultation with DLNR’s Historic Preservation Division, I got involved in the discussions when I heard they wanted to get rid of the ladder building.

It was the last of its kind (all other ladder buildings (typically attached to the various fire stations) had been removed from the other older fire stations.)  Kakaʻako had the last one.

I suspect some may wonder what the big deal was – that’s the position the Fire Department took.  What is so important about a rotting wood attachment to an historic Fire Station? (The Kakaʻako Station was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.)

And, with a brand spanking new Administration building going up next door, this old building was an eyesore and in the way.

We had a meeting with the top brass from the Fire Department – the Chief and his Assistant Chiefs.

I tried to convince them that simply looking at the ladder building (that they wanted to remove) helped tell the story of what Downtown Honolulu used to look like (especially in the present context of predominantly high-rise and relatively few low-rise structures.)

That building helped tell the story of the other buildings in the area and the look of Honolulu at the time.

Well, after several discussions (several of them not pleasant,) we compromised on retaining the facades of the front and rear of the ladder building, with trellising forming the height of the building (trying to give the sense of scale of the ladder building) and tiles on the ground noting the perimeter walls.

Unfortunately, during the course of construction, we were belatedly-told that the facades could not be saved and there was nothing anyone could do about that.

I’ve been back to the Station and was happy to see the tiled outline of the old ladder building in the connecting walkway between the Old Kakaʻako Station and the Administration building.

It’s difficult to imagine that Honolulu was once a low-rise central business district – and was that way for such a long time.  Fortunately, we have some representation of what it looked like, told through the tiles on the ground.

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by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Kakaʻako Pumping Station

The word “Sewer” is derived from the term “seaward” in Old English, as in ditches and ravines slightly sloped to run waste water from land to sea.

From an 1857 story in the Commercial Pacific Advertiser it appears that the first sewer facility to be constructed on Oʻahu was a storm drain located at Queen Street at the foot of Kaʻahumanu Street opposite Pier 11.  (ASCE)

Despite three outbreaks of smallpox, a typhus epidemic and two cholera epidemics between 1853 and 1895, no other serious actions were taken to improve conditions.

Honolulu was a growing city and needed a better way of disposing its wastewater.

At that time, the city had grown to approximately 30,000-people, and it was estimated that about 1.8-million gallons of sewage was being disposed of in the City septic systems daily.  This was much more than septic tank excavators could keep up with – which caused sanitation and odor concerns.

In 1897, Rudolph Hering, a New York Sanitary Engineer, was hired to prepare specifications for a Honolulu sewerage system, pumping station and ocean outfall (Hering had previously designed the New York and other large city sewage systems.)

Hering recommended a “separate system” whereby separate networks of conduits would carry sewage and storm waters, a system still used today in Honolulu.

Work on the system began in 1899 and sewer lines were laid out in a gravity flow pattern in a rectangular fashion and ran along Alapaʻi, River and South Streets, past Thomas Square, and ended in the Punahou area.

The system was extended to the remaining portion of what was then considered to be “town,” between Liliha on the ʻEwa side, Artesian Street, beyond Punahou to Judd Street, and including the Kewalo District.

The expansion was later delayed, due to a lack of funding. Much of the extension work thereafter was performed by property owners who were furnished piping and sewer components by the government.

The collection lines terminated at a main reservoir (the underground reservoir was dubbed the Hering Reservoir) at the low point at the intersection of Keawe Street and Ala Moana Boulevard in Kakaʻako.  (Darnell)  The sewage would then be pumped out to sea.

In addition, OG Traphagen (designer of the Moana Hotel) was hired to design the steam-powered sewer pumping station at this low spot.

The cost was tremendous for the construction of the lines, and construction was stopped several times due to lack of funding. The sewer outfall to the ocean was built in 1899. The outfall ran some 3,800-feet out to sea at a depth of 40-feet of water, rather than farther out to a 100-foot depth (again, due to funding constraints.)  (Darnell)

In 1900, the Kakaʻako Pumping Station was constructed; with features such as large arched windows, exterior walls of local lava rock, roofs of green tile and a smokestack 76-feet tall.

The architectural style is Industrial Romanesque with the walls constructed of locally-cut bluestone and concrete with plaster finished interior walls.

The first sewer system connections (to the Department of Health building on Punchbowl and Queen Streets, and to the Post Office building on Bethel and Merchant) were completed in 1900. This was followed by the slow conversion of other properties from cesspools to sewers.

Two additions were built to support the Pumping Station facility. In 1925, an additional “Pump” building of brick to house a high-speed, electric powered pump was added and the original plant was turned into a machine shop, storeroom and office. In 1939 a second “New” Pump House was constructed on the southwestern side of the existing structures.

The use of the Kakaʻako Pumping Station was abandoned by the City and County of Honolulu when it built a new pumping station on the southwest portion of the block, adjacent to the Historic Ala Moana Pumping Station in 1955.

Now under the jurisdiction of the Hawaiʻi Community Development Authority, it is restored by the nonprofit Hawaiʻi Architectural Foundation.

Today, the interior of the 1900 Pumping Station does not contain any historic equipment or utilities.  (Lots of information here from HCDA, HHF, ASCE and Darnell.)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Halekoa

Halekoa was a part of the ambitious building program undertaken by the Hawaiian monarchy in the 1860s and ‘70s. The buildings which remain today, besides Halekoa, are Aliiolani Hale (the judiciary building), the Royal Mausoleum, the old post office at the corner of Merchant and Bethel Streets, and Iolani Palace.

The site occupied by the barracks is doubly interesting, for it first accommodated the Chiefs’ Children’s School, which was begun in 1839 by Mr. and Mrs. A. S. Cooke, and which was moved in 1851 to the lower slopes of Punchbowl.

Theodore C. Heuck, a Honolulu merchant and gifted amateur architect from Germany, submitted his original plans on March 14, 1866, to John O. Dominis, then Governor of Oahu. The sketches provided for a structure with a frontage of 70 feet and a depth of 80 feet, built around a 30×40-foot open central court.

This was early in the reign of Kamehameha V. Years passed. Finally, early in 1870, the project began to move, although slowly. The post office was being built at the same time, and a shortage of proper workmen delayed both jobs.

Halekoa did not appear in the appropriations bills passed by the various legislatures. It was financed by the War Department as a part of military expenses, an cash as needed was deposited with the banking firm of Bishop and Company.

Foundations were being laid in May, 1870. J. G. Osborne was the builder. Participating suppliers included, among others, such well-known Honolulu houses as E. O. Hall and Son, Dowsett and Co., AS Cleghorn, Lewers and Dickson (predecessors of Lewers and Cooke, the Honolulu Iron Works, JT Waterhouse, H. Hackfeld and Co. (American Factors, AmFac) and Oahu Prison.

Halekoa was made of the ever-useful coral blocks hewn from the Honolulu reef. As often happened, many blocks were cannibalized from other structures, rather than chopped from the reef.

Most of the second-hand building blocks came from the wall fronting the old post office, and from the old printing office. But the reef had to yield up its treasures, too, and Marshal WC Parke received credit for 204 man-days of prison labor, at fifty cents a day, for the hauling of blocks therefrom.

By mid-February, 1871, both the barracks and the post office were nearing completion. Finishing touches on the former, however, required several more months.

An exotic example of this, among the accounts to be found today in the Archives of Hawaii, is a bill dated May 20, levying a charge of $12.50 for painting spittoons.

Even before it was completed, Halekoa was rushed into service. At the end of February a considerable number of soldiers were sick, and the new barracks was requisitioned as an infirmary.

Originally it was some 48 feet long. The size of the inner court was increased to approximately 34×54 feet, also. The side galleries were built longer than Heuck at first specified, because of the lengthening of the court, and about two feet narrower, because of the widening of the court, making them 18 feet rather than 20 feet in width.

Iolani Barracks displays a service record almost as complicated as its building alterations. The barracks was made originally to house the regular standing army of the Kingdom of Hawaii, the small force known in the early 1870s and before as the Household Troops.

Their function was to guard the palace, the prison, and the treasury, and to appear at various parades and ceremonies.

In September, 1873, the Household Troops mutinied. They barricaded themselves in Halekoa. After the mutiny the troops were disbanded, then later reorganized, and under one title or another they continued to occupy Halekoa throughout the remaining period of the monarchy.

Liliuokalani’s Household Guards, Captain Samuel Nowlein commanding, surrendered to the revolutionary Provisional Government about five o’clock on the afternoon of January 18, 1893.

The Guards were paid off and disbanded; the Provisional Government took over munitions stored in the barracks and at once occupied the building with a strong force. This government and the succeeding Republic of Hawaii used Halekoa to house their military.

After Hawaii was annexed to the US, President McKinley issued an executive order (December 19, 1899) transferring the barracks and the barracks lot to the control of the US War Department.

Thereupon, Halekoa was occupied by the Quartermaster Corps of the US Army and used for office and warehouse space. Quartermaster use continued until late in 1917, when the Corps moved out.

At that time the War Department planned to preserve Halekoa as a historic structure. For the first time in its long and colorful history, the old barracks ceased to be a station for soldiers.

In the summer of 1920 an elaborate remodeling job was in progress and it then served as a service club, with a dormitory added on the Waikiki side for visiting service personnel. The service club phase lasted about a decade.

November, 1929, found Governor Lawrence Judd trying to get President Hoover to issue an executive order returning the barracks to the Territory. The Hawaii National Guard wanted Halekoa for its headquarters.

Judd was successful, and the transfer took place officially on March 16, 1931. But the Hawaii National Guard did not benefit from it. Instead the barracks became the offices of the supervising school principals for Honolulu and Rural Oahu.

World War II came, and the Guard continued to use the aging barracks. Midway in that war (October, 1943) an imaginative postwar plan for Halekoa was announced. It was to become a military museum. Interested civic groups and individuals pledged to participate in planning and financing the project.

But the plans never materialized. The pressure for office space doomed Halekoa to a series of repairs, renovations, and remodelings as various government agencies succeeded one another in their occupancy of the barracks.

In November, 1960, Halekoa was embarrassed to find itself encumbering the site of a proposed multi-million-dollar state capitol. Although regarded in some quarters as an antiquarian nuisance, the barracks managed to cling to existence as officials delayed their decision regarding its disposition.

The above is taken from Richard Greer’s article on Halekoa in the October 1962 Hawaii Historical Review. It was written before Halekoa was relocated to make way for the State Capitol.

Click the link for Greer full article in the Hawaii Historical Review:
https://imagesofoldhawaii.com/wp-content/uploads/Halekoa-HHR-Revival-Greer.pdf

Here is the rest of the story …

Following Statehood, there were plans for the State’s new capitol building being considered. Architect John Carl Warnecke, son of a German-born father, was influential in the design and construction of the new capitol. (Warnecke also designed John F Kennedy’s grave site at Arlington National Cemetery, and lots of other things.)

Halekoa was in the way; the Barracks was condemned and, in 1962, abandoned. In 1964-65, to make room for the new capitol building, the coral shell of the old building was removed to a corner of the ʻIolani Palace grounds for eventual reconstruction.

This was accomplished by breaking out large sections of the walls. Then stone masons chipped out the original coral blocks and re-set them. Many were so badly deteriorated that they were unstable.

However, the stone in the ʻEwa wing (an addition to the original Barracks) was salvageable (they left that part out of the reconstruction, but used the material from it.) Today’s reconstruction bears only a general resemblance to the original structure. (NPS)

Several other older buildings in the area, including the large vaulted-roofed Armory and the remnant of the older Central Union Church on Beretania Street, facing the Queen’s former residence at Washington Place, were also demolished to make way for the capitol building.

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Music Hall – Opera House

Opera was born circa 1600 from the desire of Renaissance Italians to recreate Greek drama, pointing to various less-elevated national theatrical traditions as important contributors to the art form.  (Abbate)

Although Hawai‘i is hardly known as an international opera powerhouse, a number of native Hawaiians have been among the art form’s stars.  Most notable was tenor Tandy Ka‘ohu MacKenzie, who was born in Hāna in 1892 and went on to become a star of the international opera stage star after he was discovered by an Irish singer who happened to drop in on a performance by MacKenzie’s Kamehameha School glee club.  (Ferrar)

In 1881, a Music Hall was built across the street from ʻIolani Palace, where Ali‘i regularly joined the audiences at performances. Queen Lili‘uokalani is even said to have written her own opera.  (Ferrar)  It was built by the Hawaiian Music Hall Association.

The Wells troupe from California opened the music hall.  “Since then many companies and individual artists from abroad have trod its boards, and given more or less delight to the inhabitants.”  (Daily Bulletin, February 12, 1895)

The building was first called the Music Hall, but shortly after its transfer to new owners, the name was changed to the Royal Hawaiian Opera House.  (Daily Bulletin, February 12, 1895)

Despite its name, the Opera House was not primarily a venue for classical entertainment. Many of its bookings were melodramas and minstrel shows, two very popular forms of theater at the time.  Then, it was the first house to show moving pictures in Hawaiʻi.

The building was of brick 120 by 60 feet on the ground floor and walls forty feet high and twenty inches thick. The front door was ten feet wide, opening into a vestibule 16 by 27 feet. The seating capacity of the house was 671 persons. The stage was forty feet deep and provided with a complete set of scenery, traps and all necessary paraphernalia. (Hawaiian Star, February 12, 1895)

On July 28, 1883, the property was sold at auction to satisfy a claim. It was purchased by Mr. WG Irwin for $21,000, John D Spreckels being a partner in the deal.  (Hawaiian Star, February 12, 1895)

“Originally there were two (private) boxes. One on the right of the stage looking out was regarded as the property of the late King Kalākaua, who had subscribed liberally to the stock of the Association.  The box on the opposite side was owned by the present proprietors, Messrs. Irwin & Spreckels. About two years ago two boxes wore opened above those mentioned for letting to whomever first applied for thorn on any occasion.”  (Daily Bulletin, February 12, 1895)

The Music Hall played a role in the Wilcox Rebellion, when it was occupied by Government sharpshooters in suppressing the insurrection of Robert Wilcox in 1889.  (Daily Bulletin, February 12, 1895)

“Wilcox and I then marched towards the gate and came by Boyd’s cannon; he told us to get out of the way he wanted to fire then, because he saw some one in the Music Hall pulling down a window; Wilcox  stopped him; we walked on toward the gate when a gun fired from the Music Hall.”  (Kauhane, Hawaiian Gazette, October 29, 1889)

“Wilcox sung out to Music Hall to “stop firing! stop firing!” three or four more shots were fired from there and then Wilcox gave order to fire; cannons were then fired; think Wilcox knew that Government were gathering forces to drive us out; not my place to surrender.”  (Kauhane, Hawaiian Gazette, October 29, 1889)

It later hosted the complimentary farewell reception and ball for Captain Wiltse, commander of the USS Boston in 1893, under the auspices of the provisional Government.

The Music Hall’s “exterior was built of red brick and the facade on King street was of a modest but presentable and harmonious style. Internally it was fitted and furnished in modern fashion, with seats on a sloping floor in semi-circular rows. There were a balcony and a gallery in the second story.”  (Daily Bulletin, February 12, 1895)

Fire nearly destroyed the building.  Irwin, owner of the property, surveyed the sodden, smoking ashes from his curtained carriage. “I have had enough of music halls,” he told a questioning newsman.

He was later persuaded to rebuild, however, when it was pointed out that the only other theatrical accommodations in the city were inadequate facilities at the YMCA and the hall in Independence Park.

A commission was appointed to inquire into the strength of the walls left standing.  After a careful inspection, it was decided that three of the walls were in sound condition, and could be built upon with perfect safety.  The rear wall had to be rebuilt.  The work began.

The opening of the New Hawaiian Opera House tonight begins another epoch in the history of Honolulu and the public finds that through the action of William G. Irwin of this city and John D. and Adolph Spreckels, of San Francisco, it has a theater equal to the leading places of amusement in the United States.  (Hawaiian Gazette, November 10, 1896)

A commission was appointed to inquire into the strength of the walls left standing.  After a careful inspection, it was decided that three of the walls were in sound condition, and could be built upon with perfect safety.  The rear wall had to be rebuilt.  The work began.

The seating capacity of the New Hawaiian was about 900, but the seats were placed so far apart, in order to make it more comfortable for the patrons, that if it were necessary, two or three hundred more chairs could be placed in the auditorium without crowding. In the rear of the orchestra are two loges, each containing six chairs.  (Hawaiian Gazette, November 10, 1896)

On February 5, 1897, the Opera House displayed Edison’s Veriscope which promised to be one of the most interesting sights ever seen in Honolulu.   One of the first projections was of a fire department response to a fire.  “The crowds gather, people run hither and thither, teams pass, some block the way, the police appear, and there are seen all the usual incidents of a street lire drill.”

“It is a wonderful advance in the stereoscopic art. It projects pictures upon a white screen, in which all the figures are in motion with life-like detail. … The exhibition of the wonderful veriscope is alone worth the evening’s attendance.”  (Hawaiian Star, February 4, 1897)

The building was demolished in 1917 to make way for the Federal Building.  One of the many eulogies for the building said:  “It is historical. It is ugly. It is like a box with a few touches of ornament to make it look unlike a box. So much for the outside. On the inside, it is as cozy and comfortable as anyone could desire.”  (Gereben)

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by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Fort Street Mall

In 1815, Kamehameha I granted Russian representatives permission to build a storehouse near Honolulu Harbor.  But, instead, directed by the German adventurer Georg Schaffer (1779-1836,) they began building a fort and raised the Russian flag.

They built their blockhouse near the harbor, against the ancient heiau of Pākākā and close to the King’s complex.  There are reports that the Russians used stones from Pākākā in building their facility.  (Pākākā was the site of Kaua‘i’s King Kaumuali‘i’s negotiations relinquishing power to Kamehameha I, instead of going to war, and pledged allegiance to Kamehameha, a few years earlier in 1810.)

When Kamehameha discovered the Russians were building a fort (rather than storehouses) and had raised the Russian flag, he sent several chiefs (including Kalanimōku and John Young (his advisor,)) to remove the Russians from Oʻahu by force, if necessary.

The Russian personnel judiciously chose to sail for Kaua‘i instead of risking bloodshed.  On Kaua‘i, there they were given land by Kaua‘i’s King Kaumuali‘i; the Russian Fort Elizabeth was built soon after on Kaua‘i.

The partially built blockhouse at Honolulu was finished by Hawaiians under the direction of John Young and mounted guns protected the fort.  Its original purpose was to protect Honolulu by keeping enemy or otherwise undesirable ships out.  But, it was also used to keep things in (it also served as a prison.)

By 1830, the fort had 40 guns mounted on the parapets all of various calibers (6, 8, 12 and probably a few 32 pounders.)  Fort Kekuanohu literally means ‘the back of the scorpion fish,’ as in ‘thorny back,’ because of the rising guns on the walls.  In 1838 there were 52 guns reported.

Fort Street is named after this fort; it is one of the oldest streets in Honolulu.  Today, the site of the old fort is the open space called Walker Park, a small park at the corner of Queen and Fort streets (also fronting Ala Moana/Nimitz.)

Fort Street gradually became the retail and business center of the Island throughout the 1800s and into the 1950s; it hosted several of the largest department stores in Hawaii including Kress, Liberty House and Woolworth’s.  Other stores were located along its streets.

However, by the 1940s, some foresaw the decline of downtown.  Traffic congestion, inadequate parking and competition from suburban shopping centers drained business from downtown.

In 1949, the Hawaiʻi Chapter of the American Institute of Architects made the first proposal to close Fort Street to vehicular traffic.  Nothing happened; then, with the announcement of the planned Ala Moana Shopping Center, many feared a mass exodus from downtown.

In response, the Downtown Improvement Association was formed in 1958.  It developed a master plan for downtown.  Little happened, for another 6-years.  Then, a pilot project closed Fort Street, in conjunction with the Golden Harvest Celebration.

While downtown business declined with the opening of Ala Moana Center, more studies and plans were prepared, until, finally, the City Planning Commission hired Gruen to develop a plan.

The plan called for downtown super blocks, with a system of pedestrian malls.  In January 1968, the City Council approved Gruen mall plan, after 75% of adjoining owners indicated their consent.

Fort Street Mall is 5-blocks in length (1,738-feet,) extending from Queen Street up to Beretania Street.  Construction began in June 1968 and was completed in February 1969, at a cost of $27-millon.

The architect of the Mall was Victor Gruen Associates.  The project was funded by the City & County (55%,) private owners (44%) and Board of Water Supply (1%.)

Its average width is 50-feet, at the King Street Plaza it widens to 83-feet and at Father Damien Plaza on Beretania Street it becomes 93-feet.  There are cross streets at Merchant, King and Hotel with a pedestrian underpass (and Satellite City Hall) on King Street.

Today, the Fort Street Mall Business Improvement District Association, a nonprofit corporation consisting of property owners and ground lessees adjacent to the Mall, manages the Mall by supplementing the services (primarily maintenance and security) currently provided by the City and County of Honolulu.

Like most urban settings, Fort Street Mall’s character changes block by block.  As you walk along the Mall, the businesses and the patrons indicate changes in the Mall’s identity.

Across from the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace at the mauka end of the Mall, the Hawaii Pacific University presence gives the Mall a college feel.  Students periodically fill the Mall when classes let out and they stroll to one of the many buildings that HPU occupies on the Mall.

(Information here if from Pedestrian Malls, Streetscapes, and Urban Spaces, Harvey M. Rubenstein and The Fort Street Mall Business Improvement District Association.)

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