Hackfeld | Page 2 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

April 20, 2016 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Walker Estate

Captain Heinrich Hackfeld was an adventurer born in Dalmenhorst, in Oldenberg, Germany. He was a sea captain on the China run when he sailed into Honolulu Harbor for provisions.

He stayed; he and his brother-in-law Johann Carl Pflueger founded a dry goods store called H Hackfeld and Company in 1849 in Honolulu. In 1881, Paul Isenberg became a partner.

George Rodiek was first vice president of H Hackfeld & Co; he also served as German consul in the Islands. In 1905, Rodiek built a two-story home with a series of garden featuring ferns, rocks and orchard in Nuʻuanu.

Then, WWI came (1914-1918.) In 1918, using the terms of the Trading with the Enemy Act and its amendments, the US government seized H Hackfeld & Company and ordered the sale of German-owned shares. (Jung)

The patriotic sounding “American Factors, Ltd,” the newly-formed Hawaiʻi-based corporation, whose largest shareholders included Alexander & Baldwin, C Brewer & Company, Castle & Cooke, HP Baldwin Ltd, Matson Navigation Company and Welch & Company, bought the H Hackfeld stock. (Jung)

The German-started H Hackfeld & Co became one of Hawaiʻi’s “Big Five.” (Hawaiʻi’s Big 5 were: Amfac – starting as Hackfeld & Company (1849;) Alexander & Baldwin (1870;) Theo H Davies (1845;) Castle & Cooke (1851) and C Brewer (1826.))

In 1918, Rodiek sold his Nuʻuanu home to Alan Wilcox who remained in it until the 1930s when it was taken over by Henry Alexander Walker (Walker became president of American Factors in the 1930s – American Factors shortened its name to “Amfac” in 1966.

The next year (1967,) Alexander’s son, Henry Alexander Walker became president and later Board Chairman. Over the next 15-years, Walker took Amfac from a company that largely depended on sugar production in Hawaiʻi to a broadly diversified conglomerate. After adding so many companies, Amfac sales were $1.3 billion by 1976, up from $575 million in 1971. (hbs-edu)

After subsequent sales of controlling interests in the company and liquidation of land and other assets, in 2002, the once dominant business in Hawaiʻi, the biggest of the Hawaiʻi Big Five, Amfac Hawaiʻi, LLC (Limited Liability Company) filed for federal bankruptcy protection. (TGI)

OK, back to the house … The nearly-6-acres of grounds were originally used for orchards and vegetables although the Japanese garden was put in shortly after the house was built (thought to be the oldest formal Japanese garden in Hawaiʻi,) the stones, lamps and images specially brought from Japan for it.

Wilcox expanded the gardens, but it was not until the Walkers took over the house that the grounds were made into a showplace. (NPS)

The Walkers turned the estate into world famous orchid gardens. Una Walker (Henry Sr’s wife) maintained the estate by making the grounds available for weddings and visitors and as a movie and television set.

The Walker residence is one of the few intact estates that were built in the upper Nuʻuanu Valley before and after the turn of the century. The Classical Revival style reflects an era of gracious living that for various reasons has passed from existence except in a few isolated cases. (NPS)

In 1973, the property was listed on the National Register of Historic Places; in addition more that 20 of its trees are listed as exceptional trees. (Being on the register doesn’t mean that a private landowner cannot demolish a historic site.)

In 1989, two years after Una’s death, the house and its grounds were sold by the Walker heirs to Masao Nangaku of Minami Group (USA) Inc. His intention was to restore the original house to be used as a corporate retreat; he renovated the house.

After Nangaku experienced financial problems, Richard Fried and partners took the property over and, in 1998, asked for planning permission to build a chapel to facilitate weddings on the site.

When this was refused, the estate was sold to Holy-eye (the Hawaii business arm of Forshang World Foundation and Forshang Buddhism World Center) the same day.

In 2005, Holy-Eye listed the estate for sale. In June 2006, real-estate developer TR Partners attempted to purchase the estate and planned to demolish the building and subdivide up to 20-home sites.

In 2006, Historic Hawaiʻi Foundation listed the Walker Estate to that year’s Most Endangered Historic Site (listing there calls attention to Historic resources that are often threatened by demolition, neglect, ignorance and/or apathy.)

The Taiwan and US flags are flown at the entrance to the property.

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March 8, 2016 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Koehnen

Passengers and cargo landed at Hilo in the surf along the beach until about 1863, when a wharf was constructed at the base of present day Waianuenue Street; the wooden wharf was replaced by an iron pile wharf in 1865.

The northern side of the bay became a focal point for the community’s trade and commerce. During this time, Hilo was ranked as the third most frequented port for whaling vessels in need of repair and re-provisioning.

By 1874, Hilo ranked as the second largest population center in the islands, and within a few years shortly thereafter Hilo with its fertile uplands, plentiful water supply, and good port became a major center for sugarcane production and export.

In 1910, H Hackfeld built a warehouse and related building, a reinforced concrete building, spanning the entire block along Kamehameha Avenue, the two-story Hackfeld Building was the most substantial building in downtown Hilo when completed.

William Hardy ‘Doc’ Hill opened the Hill Optical Co in 1917 and added his jewelry business in 1919, and both his optical and jewelry businesses were among the largest in the Territory.

When he was elected to the Territorial House of Representatives in 1928, Doc sold his optical and jewelry businesses to his bookkeeper, Friederich Koehnen. (Narimatsu)

Friederich Wilheim “Fritz” Koehnen came to Hilo from Germany in 1909 to work for H Hackfeld Company (which later went on to become Amfac, one of the “Big-Five” corporations in Hawaii.)

In 1929, Koehnen and his wife, German-born Katherine Bocker, bought Hill Optical. They shut down the optical operation and started selling silverware, fine china, crystal and giftware as F Koehnen Ltd. (Laitinen)

Their daughter, Helie, who worked at the store from a young age, starting in high school, and joined full time during World War II when she met and married Carl Rohner, a U.S. military officer stationed on the island who came back to join the business after the war.

Rohner opened the furniture business in 1946 as Fritz took ill with pneumonia. He handed over the reins to his son, Fred J. Koehnen, who left college after the war to take over the business.

Koehnen oversaw the jewelry and giftware division; Rohner oversaw furniture sales. After moving to the current location in 1955, which was purchased from Amfac, Fred left the day-to-day operations to Carl and Helie but remained on the firm’s board of directors. (Bishop)

“Normal business day for me was to open up, take a coffee break shortly thereafter at the old Hilo Drug Co. lunch counter. Great place to swap info and tall tales with your business contemporaries. … I was on “the floor” as a salesperson most of the day.”

“In a family business with a small work force, being a manager just meant doing double duty in both sales and administration. You did the office work whenever you could. If that involved taking work home, so be it.”

“My father had a bookkeeping/accounting background, so he made sure his family learned that aspect of business first. Our bookkeeping, including the tax returns, was all done in-house.”

“In the retail business back then you knew just about all of your customers by name. Good service and personal relationships were the things that kept you in business!”

“Business in those days was based on trust. A man’s word was his bond and a handshake every bit as binding as a written contract. Most retail stores, ours included, carried charge accounts for customers. While some banks offered “charge cards,” today’s credit and debit cards were unheard of and most people carried little cash.” (Koehnen)

In 1957, the company bought the Hackfield building at the corner of Kamehameha and Waianuenue avenues in downtown Hilo and the store has called the building home ever since.

In the late 1960s F. Koehnen Ltd spun off its retail operation, which was renamed Koehnen’s Inc., leaving F Koehnen Ltd in charge of real estate holdings. (Laitinen)

After 83-years and three generations in business, Koehnen’s closed at the end of 2012; “We’re closing now not because we have to, but because it’s an appropriate time. We ran out of family to take over.” (Koehnen; Bishop, HTH)

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Hilo Drug Co., Ltd. near left and American Factors across street-Hilo-PP-29-3-049-1928

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Waianuenue Street, Hilo, Hawaii from Hilo Landing-(HSA)-PPWD-5-2-007

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Hilo Landing, Hilo, Hawai‘i, early 1890s

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October 5, 2014 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Pūlaholaho

In former times, the area we now call downtown Honolulu was not called Honolulu; instead, each land section had its own name. (A map in the album notes many of the different areas and their respective place names. )

‘Kou’ was later used to describe the district roughly encompassing the present day area from Nuʻuanu to Alakea Streets and from Hotel to Queen Streets Street (Queen Street was, then, only a pathway along the water’s edge.)

The harbor was known as Kuloloia. It was entered by the first foreigner, Captain William Brown of the English ship Butterworth, in 1794. He named the harbor “Fair Haven.” The name Honolulu (meaning “sheltered bay” – with numerous variations in spelling) soon came into use.

Kamehameha I, who had been living at Waikīkī since 1804, moved his court here in 1809. His immediate court consisted of high-ranking chiefs and their retainers.

In 1815, Kamehameha I granted Russian representatives permission to build a storehouse near Honolulu Harbor. Instead, directed by the German adventurer Georg Schaffer (1779-1836,) they began building a fort and raised the Russian flag. When Kamehameha learned of this, he sent several chiefs to remove the Russians.

The partially built blockhouse was finished by Hawaiians; they mounted guns protected the fort. Its original purpose was to protect Honolulu by keeping enemy or otherwise undesirable ships out.

By 1830, the fort had 40 guns mounted on the parapets; it was called Fort Kekuanohu (literally, ‘the back of the scorpion fish,’ as in ‘thorny back,’) because of the rising guns on the walls. (Fort Street is so named, because of the fort on the waterfront.)

One of the areas nearby was called Pūlaholaho (it is down near the old waterfront, ʻEwa side of where the fort was. (In today’s perspective, it runs from Merchant, Nuʻuanu, Queen Streets and up through the breezeway of the Harbor Court project (this used to be the location of Kaʻahumanu Street.)

April 25, 1825, Richard Charlton arrived in the Islands to serve as the first British consul. A former sea captain and trader, he was already familiar with the islands of the Pacific and had promoted them in England for their commercial potential (he worked for the East India Company in the Pacific as early as 1821.)

Charlton had been in London during Kamehameha II’s visit in 1824 and secured an introduction to the king and his entourage. By the time he arrived in Hawai‘i in 1825, instructions had already arrived from Kamehameha II that Charlton was to be allowed to build a house, or houses, any place he wished and should be made comfortable. This apparently was due to favors Charlton had done for the royal party. (Hawaiʻi State Archives)

Charlton didn’t play well with others. A report by Thrum noted, “July 13th (1827) – Last evening the English consul, in conversation with Boki told him he would cut Kaahumanu’s head off and all the residents were ready to join in it. Guards were ordered out in all parts of the village. Mr. Charlton may be ready to take up arms against the chief but few, if any, I believe would follow or join with him.” (Thrum)

In spite of that, Charlton did receive land for his home and for Consular offices. The records suggest that the land under the present Washington Place premises were part of a grant from the chiefs to Charlton in 1825-26 to provide a permanent location for a British Consulate. (HABS)

(Charlton later sold that property to Captain John Dominis (December 26, 1840,) who later built Washington Place. … By the way, Beretania Street was so named because of the British Consulate there.)

Charlton claimed this and other lands as his personal property. He also claimed land down by the waterfront. There was no disagreement over a small parcel, Wailele, but the larger adjoining parcel he claimed (Pūlaholaho) had been occupied since 1826 by retainers and heirs of Kaʻahumanu.

In making his claim for Pūlaholaho, Charlton showed a 299-lease dated October 5, 1826 issued to him by Kalanimōku. That claim, made in 1840, however, was made after Kalanimōku and Kaʻahumanu had died.

Following Charlton’s presentation of his claim to rights of the entire land section of Pūlaholaho, Kamehameha III sought a means of providing security for the native residents on the land, and claimed that Pūlaholaho belonged to the crown. (Maly)

In rejecting Charlton’s claim, Kamehameha III cited the fact that Kalanimōku did not have the authority to grant the lease. At the time the lease was made, Kaʻahumanu was Kuhina Nui, and only she and the king could make such grants. The land was Kaʻahumanu’s in the first place, and Kalanimōku certainly could not give it away. (Hawaiʻi State Archives) The dispute dragged on for years.

This, and other grievances purported by Charlton and the British community in Hawai‘i, led to the landing of George Paulet on February 11, 1843 “for the purpose of affording protection to British subjects, as likewise to support the position of Her Britannic Majesty’s representative here”.

Following this, King Kamehameha III ceded the Islands and Paulet took control. After five months of British rule, Queen Victoria, on learning the injustice done, immediately sent Rear Admiral Richard Darton Thomas to the islands to restore sovereignty to its rightful rulers.

On July 31, 1843 the Hawaiian flag was raised. The ceremony was held in area known as Kulaokahuʻa; the site of the ceremony was turned into a park, Thomas Square.

Click Here for a prior summary on those events.

On November 26, 1845, legal title to Charlton’s land claim was secured and was sold to British businessman, Robert C Janion (of Starkey, Janion and Co – that company later became Theo H. Davies & Co and one of Hawaiʻi’s ‘Big 5.’) (Liber 3:221; Maly) Charlton stayed in Honolulu until February 19, 1846, when he left Hawai’i for the last time.

Pūlaholaho was subdivided and Janion auctioned off the properties in 1846. Captain Heinrich (Henry) Hackfeld opened a store on one of them in October 1849. His company, H Hackfeld & Co, later became American Factors, Amfac, another Hawaiʻi ‘Big 5’ company.

A lasting legacy is the Melchers Building, the oldest commercial building in Honolulu, erected in 1854, at 51 Merchant Street, built for the retail firm of Melchers and Reiner. Its original coral stone walls are no longer visible on most sides, under its layers of stucco and paint (check the makai side of the building to see the coral blocks.)

The image shows the 299-year lease for the Pūlaholaho property to Charlton, signed by Kalanimōku. (HAS) 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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August 13, 2014 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Līhuʻe

Līhuʻe, Kauaʻi (literally translated as ‘cold chill’) dates from the late-1830s when Kaikioʻewa, governor of Kauaʻi, moved his home from the traditional seat of government, Waimea, to the hilly lands overlooking Nawiliwili Bay on the southeastern side of Kauaʻi in the ahupuaʻa of Kalapaki.

He named this area Līhuʻe in memory of his earlier home on Oʻahu. The name, Līhuʻe, was unknown on Kauaʻi before then; the ancient name for this area was Kalaʻiamea, “calm reddish brown place.” (Līhuʻe on Oʻahu is in the uplands on the Waianae side of Wahiawa; Kūkaniloko is situated in Līhuʻe.) (Fornander)

In 1849, Henry A Peirce & Co, a partnership between Charles Reed Bishop, Judge William L Lee, and Henry A Pierce established a suar plantation (on the site Kaikioʻewa chose for it on the Nawiliwili stream (water power was used to drive the mill rollers.)) (In 1859, a new partnership was formed and the name was changed to the Līhuʻe Plantation Company.) (HSPA)

The Plantation had several innovations. “(T)he first important (irrigation) ditch was dug at Līhuʻe, Kauaʻi, in 1851 … other ditches on Maui soon followed.” (Louisiana Planter) In 1859, the first steam engine used to power a sugar mill in Hawaiʻi was installed at Līhuʻe. (LOC)

In 1851, a frame courthouse was built on a site just above Kalapaki Bay and Nāwiliwili Harbor. The Lihue Plantation Store was built in the 1860s on the grounds of the plantation manager’s residence and moved in 1876 to a hill across the mill valley (where the present County Executive Offices are situated.) The store later served as the area’s mail distribution hub.

A cluster of homes and stores around it was the start of the town of Līhuʻe. During most of the nineteenth century, Līhuʻe served as the center of island government. Sugar planting to feed the plantation and mill changed the landscape.

“The country was undergoing the process of denudation. Non-resident landlords, large landholders, have in most cases leased out their lands by long leases to vandal-like tenants, who are making the most of their time and their bargain by cutting down the forests, and supplying the sugar mills, shipping, and even Honolulu with wood.”

“Sixteen years ago, where beautiful kukui groves gladdened the scene, is now a barren plain.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, July 27, 1867)

Līhuʻe Plantation expanded in 1910 with the purchase of controlling interest in Makee Sugar Company. Expansion again occurred in 1916 when Līhuʻe Plantation and WF Sanborn purchased the 6,000 acre Princeville Plantation.

In 1922, American Factors, Ltd (AmFac,) successor company to H Hackfield & Co, acquired control of Līhuʻe Plantation Company. The Līhuʻe Mill was one of the longest sugar mills in service in the Islands (1849-2000.)

The Fairview Hotel (initially opened by Charles W Spitz in 1890) was the first full-fledged hotel on Kaua‘i providing rooms and a restaurant. William Hyde Rice’s oldest son William Henry Rice took over the operation in 1894 and eventually changed the name to Lihue Hotel; it grew over the years to 68-rooms.

In those days, an operation had to be self-sufficient and a farm behind the hotel raised cattle, pigs and chickens along with fruits and vegetable grown for the restaurant. After Rice’s death in 1946, the family sold the hotel to Inter-Island Steam Navigation Company; the name was changed to Kauai Inn. (Kauaʻi Museum)

Following annexation (1898,) the Territorial government passed the County Act (1905,) establishing county governments. Līhuʻe became the county seat of Kauaʻi and the County Commissioners held monthly meetings in the 1851 courthouse.

In 1913, the present County Building was erected, the first structure in the territory built expressly to house a county government. Its Chambers have served the Kauaʻi County Council ever since.

That year, a new Līhuʻe Store replaced the old. The County Building and Līhuʻe Store were the earliest buildings on Kauaʻi constructed of concrete and presaged a new era in the development of Lihue. With the completion of the County Building, the 1851 courthouse was razed and a school built on its site.

The school was interchangeably referred to as Līhuʻe High School and Kauaʻi High School. It was the fifth high school in the Territory of Hawaiʻi and the first high school on the island of Kauaʻi. Kauaʻi High sits on a hill often referred to as “Ke Kuhiau” (meaning “high point” – it’s also the name of the school yearbook.) (KHS)

The partially-rock-faced Albert Spencer Wilcox Memorial Library, the island’s first library, was dedicated on May 24, 1924 (Albert’s birthday – it was funded by Emma Mahelona Wilcox in memory of her husband.) (A new library was built in Līhuʻe in 1969 – the Wilcox Building is now the Kauaʻi Museum and home to the Kauaʻi Historical Society.)

Down the hill, construction of the Nawiliwili breakwater began in 1920. This was the first step in creating Nawiliwili Harbor, not completed until 1930. Air fields at Līhuʻe and Hanapepe were constructed and the first airplanes actually flew to Kaua‘i in 1920. By 1929 Hawaiian Airlines established regular flight service. (Strazar)

Kaua‘i made history at this time when it sent the first woman in Hawai‘i to the Territorial House in 1924, Rosalie Keliʻinoi, and the first to the Territorial Senate in 1932, Elsie Wilcox. (Strazar)

During the Depression Era and 1930s, public improvement projects dominated the construction scene in Līhuʻe. Roads were paved and several significant buildings were built.

The area surrounding the County Building developed as the hub of government activities with the construction of the Territorial Office Building (County Building Annex) in 1930 and the County Courthouse in 1938.

Originally the County Courthouse was to be built in the park in front of the County Building; however, public outcry against that location resulted in the construction of Umi Street and the Courthouse on its present site.

Līhuʻe Theater was built in 1931. The Līhuʻe Post Office (1938) was the first and only federally-constructed post office on the island of Kauai (it was expanded in the late-1970s.)

Daily flights led to airmail in 1934 complementing long distance telephone service begun in 1931. During the 1920s and 1930s a belt road connecting main towns was paved, as well. (Strazar)

The image shows the Līhuʻe Mill and Town In addition, I have included more related images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

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July 28, 2014 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

H Hackfeld

On September 26, 1849, sea captain Heinrich (Henry) Hackfeld arrived in Honolulu with his wife, Marie, her 16-year-old brother Johann Carl Pflueger and a nephew BF Ehlers.

Having purchased an assorted cargo at Hamburg, Germany, Hackfeld opened a general merchandise business (dry goods, crockery, hardware and stationery,) wholesale, as well as retail store on Queen Street.

In 1850 he moved to a larger location on Fort Street. This store was so popular, it became known as “Hale Kilika” – the House of Silk (because it sold the finest goods available.) As business grew, the nephew took over management of the store while Hackfeld traveled the world for merchandise. The company took BF Ehlers’ name in 1862.

Hackfeld developed a business of importing machinery and supplies for the spreading sugar plantations and exported raw sugar. H Hackfeld & Co became a prominent factor – business agent and shipper – for the plantations.

Its shipping interest, manufacturing and jobbing lines developed a web of commercial relationships with Europe, England and the eastern seaboard of the US. German whalers were still sailing the Pacific in the 1850s and Hackfeld bought and outfitted several whalers, brought in Pacific Coast lumber beginning in 1855 and engaged in the trans-shipment trade.

By 1855, Hackfeld operated two stores, served as agent for two sugar plantations, and represented the governments of Russia, Sweden and Norway. (Later the firm or its principals also represented Austro-Hungary, Belgium and Germany.) When Hackfeld left on a two-year business trip to Germany and Pflueger took charge in his absence. (Greaney)

In 1871 Hackfeld and Pflueger both went back to Europe to launch a German affiliate in Bremen. There they placed into service a line of ships sailing under the Hawaiian flag between Bremen and Honolulu with wheat, oil, wool and hides for the Islands and sugar shipments on the way back.

The old Honolulu Courthouse site was advertised for sale at auction in the Pacific Commercial Advertiser of May 9, 1874; H Hackfeld & Co bought it at the upset price of $20,000. As reported by the Hawaiian Gazette, “It is the best business stand in Honolulu.”

Then, the Treaty of Reciprocity (1875) between the US and the Kingdom of Hawai‘i eliminated the major trade barrier to Hawai‘i’s closest and major market. Through the treaty, the US gained Pearl Harbor and Hawai‘i’s sugar planters received duty-free entry into US markets. Sugar boomed.

In 1881, Hackfeld and Paul Isenberg became partners. Isenberg, who had arrived in Hawaiʻi in 1858, had extensive experience in the sugar industry, previously working under Judge Duncan McBryde and Rev. William Harrison Rice in Kōloa and Lihuʻe.

From that time on Mr. Isenberg was a factor in the development of the Hackfeld business, which became one of the largest in Hawaiʻi.

Hackfeld became the first Swedish and Norwegian Consul in the Islands. In 1862, he returned to Hamburg, and afterwards to Bremen, where he settled and managed the business of H. Hackfeld & Co. there until 1886, when he retired from the firm. In 1886 Hackfeld sold his interest in the company and returned to Germany; he died there on October 20, 1887.

When the partnership was incorporated in 1897, a new building was erected at the corner of Fort and Queen Streets; it stood there for 70-years.

After the US annexation of Hawaii in 1898, Isenberg returned to Germany to live; however, he retained the role of president, with Hackfeld’s son, Johan (John) Friedrich Hackfeld serving as 1st vice president and Isenberg’s son, Alexander Isenberg as 2nd vice president.

John later took over; however, he, too, returned to Germany in 1900. His cousin, George F Rodiek, became the executive in charge of H Hackfeld & Co. (Weiner) In 1905, Rodiek built an estate in Nuʻuanu.

A few years later, with the advent of the US involvement in World War I, things changed significantly for the worst for the folks at H Hackfeld & Co.

In 1918, using the terms of the Trading with the Enemy Act and its amendments, the US government seized H Hackfeld & Company and ordered the sale of German-owned shares. (Jung)

The Alien Property Custodian’s Office noted, “The powerful German hold on the sugar industry of the Hawaiian islands has been crushed. The control of Hawaii’s most important industry has been restored to its people.”

“This is the effect of the announcement of A Mitchell Palmer, alien property custodian, that he had completed the Americanization of the H Hackfeld Co, the threat German owned corporation which for years has played so important a part in the sugar situation of the Hawaiian islands.”

“Mr. Palmer Americanized this German concern by … selling the entire assets and business of the German Hackfeld Co to (an) American company, whose stockholders are all loyal American citizens, most of them residents of the Hawaiian islands.” (Alien Property Custodian’s Office; Daily News Almanac, 1919)

(Hawaiʻi’s Big 5 were: Amfac – starting as Hackfeld & Company (1849;) Alexander & Baldwin (1870;) Theo H. Davies (1845;) Castle & Cooke (1851) and C. Brewer (1826.))

At that same time, the BF Ehlers dry goods store also took the patriotic “Liberty House” name. In 1937 a second store was opened in the Waikiki area. Eventually there would be seven stores on Oahu, and several more on the other islands.

During the 1970s, Liberty House expanded into California, Nevada and Washington, but the Washington stores were sold in 1979 and the California and Nevada locations were sold in 1984. In 2001, Federated Department Stores Inc bought Liberty House, Hawaiʻi’s oldest and largest department store chain, and turned it into Macy’s.

American Factors shortened its name to “Amfac” in 1966. The next year (1967,) Henry Alexander Walker became president and later Board Chairman. Walker bought the former Rodiek estate.

Over the next 15-years, Walker took Amfac from a company that largely depended on sugar production in Hawaiʻi to a broadly diversified conglomerate. After adding so many companies, Amfac sales were $1.3 billion by 1976, up from $575 million in 1971. (hbs-edu)

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