Hawaii Kai | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

January 7, 2020 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Henry J Kaiser

In 1954, a bold, rotund tourist arrived on Hawaiʻi’s shores.

Vacationing with his second wife, he rented a Diamond House, rather than the scarce hotel accommodations. He made Hawaiʻi his home.

While, today, we look back at Henry J Kaiser for his developments such as Hawaiʻi Kai and the Hilton Hawaiian Village, these things are part of his later legacy.

Kaiser had a long successful career prior to coming to Hawaiʻi.

Before getting here, he had several successful enterprises as wartime shipbuilder, automaker, steelman and millionaire chief of a vast industrial empire.

Kaiser was born on May 9, 1882 in Sprout Brook, New York; at 13, he left school to work to help support his parents and three sisters, by working in a dry goods store.

He moved to the West in 1906, and his sales jobs led him into the construction business and the first company he formed in 1914.

Let’s fast-forward a bit through several of his endeavors.

Through the Kaiser Shipyard in Richmond, California during World War II, Kaiser built “Liberty Ships” and “Victory Ships” (cargo ships.)

His operations built more ships than any other during the war (now part of the Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front National Park.) (He formed Kaiser Steel to supply steel plate for the shipbuilding.

He also made automobiles (including jeeps,) and later formed Kaiser Aluminum (where the operations included mining, refining, aluminum production and fabricated aluminum parts.)

In addition to building medical hospitals, centers and school, he formed a foundation focusing on health care needs in the country and also founded Kaiser Permanente. (In 1958, he opened Kaiser Foundation Hospital in Honolulu.)

A consortium, called Six Companies, Inc., with Henry J. Kaiser as chairman of the executive committee, was formed to build Hoover (Boulder) Dam on the Colorado River.

This group, with Kaiser at the helm, also collaborated on the building of Bonneville, Grand Coulee and Shasta Dams, natural gas pipelines in the Southwest, Mississippi River levees, and the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge underwater foundations.

The two most notable Kaiser products in Hawaiʻi are the Kaiser Hawaiian Village Hotel (today known as the Hilton Hawaiian Village) and Hawaiʻi Kai.

Back in 1891, at Kālia, the ‘Old Waikiki’ opened as a bathhouse, one of the first places in Waikīkī to offer rooms for overnight guests. It was later redeveloped (1928) as the Niumalu Hotel. Kaiser bought it and adjoining property and started the Kaiser Hawaiian Village.

He sold to Hilton Hotels in 1961 and the property (now totaling 22-acres) continues to be known as the Hilton Hawaiian Village.

That year, Bishop Estate leased a 6,000-acre area, which included Kuapā Pond, to Kaiser Aetna for subdivision development. The development is now known as “Hawaiʻi Kai.”

Kaiser Aetna dredged and filled parts of Kuapā Pond, erected retaining walls and built bridges within the development to create the Hawaiʻi Kai Marina.

Henry J Kaiser died on August 24, 1967 at the age of 85 in Honolulu.

By the time of his death, Henry J. Kaiser had founded more than 100 companies, which operated 180 major plants in 32 states and 40 foreign countries, employing 90,000 people and making 300 products and services, with assets of $2.5 billion.

The Kaiser pink … it was reportedly the favorite color of his wife Alyce Chester Kaiser (his second wife.) Since Kaiser often wore pink, it was likely also a favorite of his.

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July 5, 2019 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Kuapā Pond

Kuapā Pond, also known as Keahupuaomaunalua (“the shrine of the baby mullet at Maunalua”) was once the largest loko kuapā on O‘ahu, estimated at approximately 523-acres.

Kuapā Pond was apparently created near the end of the ice age, when the rising sea level caused the shoreline to retreat and partial erosion of the headlands adjacent to the bay formed sediment that accreted to form a barrier beach at the mouth of the pond, creating a lagoon.

Early Hawaiians used the natural lagoon as a fishpond and reinforced the natural sandbar with stone walls.

Kuapā literally means “wall of a fish pond” and a loko kuapā is one type of fishpond made by building a wall on a reef. The wall at this fishpond was about 5,000 feet long.

One of the main harvests was mullet because the combination of freshwater and shallow sand or mud flats that the ponds created were ideal for growing the algae that mullet fed off of.

Hawaiian Historian Kamakau writes of Kamehameha I participating in the restoration of the Maunalua fishpond., “While he (Kamehameha) lived on Oahu he encouraged the chiefs and commoners to raise food and he went fishing and would work himself at carrying rock or timber … He worked at the fishponds at Ka-wai-nui, Ka‘ele-pulu, Uko‘a (in Waialui,) Mauna-lua, and all about O’ahu. (Kamakau 1961:192)

In 1900, the island of Oahu had a total of 100 documented, working fishponds, providing thousands of pounds of fish for the community throughout the year.

Missionary Levi Chamberlain, during his Trip Around Oahu on June 21, 1826, noted: “I descended with my attendant, and near the shares of a large pond containing a surface of many hundred acres I came to a little settlement called Keawaawa and stopped e few moments to enquire the way & to allow my attendant the luxury of a whif of tobacco.”

“Thence I walked on by the side of the pond in a southerly direction about a mile having the eminences Mounalua (Maunalua) on my left- I then came to a narrow strip of land resembling a causeway partly natural and partly constructed extending in a Northwest direction across what appeared to be considerable of a bay forming a barrier between the sea and the pond.”

“At the further end of this causeway sluices are constructed & the waters of the sea unite with the pond and at every flood tide replenish it with a fresh supply of water. Near the middle of this causeway there is a settlement of 18 houses belonging to Kalola called Mounalua (Maunalua.)”

It is said that the pond was partially constructed by Menehune, a legendary race of small people and was connected through an underground tunnel to Kaʻelepulu fishpond in Kailua.

In J. Gilbert McAllister’s 1933 Archaeology of Oahu, he notes: “Keahupua-o-Maunalua Fishpond—The pond is said to connect by means of an underground tunnel with Kaelepulu pond in Kailua.”

“From time to time great schools of mullet disappear from the Maunalua pond and are to be found in the Kailua pond. At the same time the awa, which were in the Kailua pond, appear in the Maunalua pond. When the mullet reappear in the Maunalua pond the awa disappear. Kanane, the fish warden, tells me that this occurs even today, but cannot be explained by the Japanese who leases the pond.”

The ownership of the ‘ili of Maunalua passed to Bernice Pauahi Bishop and thus to the Kamehameha Schools.

To a lot of people, Kuapā is now referred to as “Koko Marina,” the result of development in the 1960s by Henry J Kaiser.

In 1961, Bishop Estate leased a 6,000-acre area, which included Kuapa Pond, to Kaiser Aetna for subdivision development. The development is now known as “Hawaii Kai.”

Kaiser Aetna dredged and filled parts of Kuapa Pond, erected retaining walls and built bridges within the development to create the Hawaii Kai Marina.

They increased the average depth of the channel from two to six feet and also created accommodations for pleasure boats and eliminated the sluice gates.

The East Honolulu region (including Hawaii Kai,) has a population of approximately 49,100 people (2010,) 5.2% of O‘ahu’s population. Hawai‘i Kai is one of O‘ahu’s larger bedroom communities. The pond now serves as a marina for small boats, and is open space in this growing community.

Lots of good stuff is going on to protect and restore the nearshore waters and bring attention to the region by Mālama Maunalua and Maunalua Fishpond Heritage Center.

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Hawaii Kai in a 1960 photo as Henry Kaiser was beginning development of the area

April 17, 2018 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Pahua Heiau

“The ships were very light, having such a quantity of water expended, and our rigging fore and aft stood much in need of repairing and overhauling …”

“… so that we thought it prudent to quit our present situation and proceed for King George’s Bay (Maunalua Bay,) Woahoo, where we could lie well sheltered from the prevailing winds, and do every thing necessary both to the hulls and rigging of the ships …” (Portlock)

Accounts of early western visitors to the southeast coast of O‘ahu suggest that the area from Waikīkī to Maunalua Bay, including Wai‘alae, Wailupe, Niu and Kuliʻouʻou was well-populated and that food resources were more than sufficient. Anchoring his ship, the King George, in Maunalua Bay in 1786, Captain Nathaniel Portlock reported:

“Soon after our arrival, several canoes came off and brought a few cocoa-nuts and plantains, some sugar-cane and sweet root; in return for which we gave them small pieces of iron and a few trinkets.” (Portlock)

“… as the people now brought us plenty of water, I determined to keep my present situation, it being in many respects an eligible one; for we hitherto had been favoured with a most refreshing sea breeze, which blows over the low land at the head of the bay …”

“… and the bay all around has a beautiful appearance, the low land and vallies being in a high state of cultivation, and crowded with plantations of taro, sweet potatoes, sugar cane, &c, interspersed with a great number of cocoa-nut trees, which renders the prospect truly delightful. (Portlock)

The name Maunalua (two mountains) is said to have been attributed to Ka Lae o Koko, also known as Kuamo‘okāne (today known as Koko Head), and Kohelepelepe (today known as Koko Crater.) (Coleman)

Pahua Heiau is one of dozens of recorded archaeological sites and one of four confirmed heiau sites in Maunalua and is one of the most significant sacred sites remaining in Maunalua (now known as Hawai‘i Kai) on the southeastern shore of the island of O‘ahu.

Consisting of stacked stone terraces arranged in a rectangular shape, Pahua is a heiau (temple or shrine, place of worship.) It measures 68 by 40 feet and is set against the base of the ridge dividing the Kamilonui and Kamiloiki Valleys. (Coleman)

“The heiau sits high on the hillside above the far inland head of Kua-pā Pond, also known as Keahupua–o–Maunalua Fishpond… In former times one could look out from this vantage point over the broad plain surrounding the pond below and stretching eastward across the “saddle” behind Koko Crater to Kalama and Wāwāmalu beyond.” (Bertell Davis; Coleman)

Archaeologists suggest that Pahua was once an agricultural heiau, constructed between the fifteenth and eighteenth century, although there are many theories surrounding its traditional usage and function. (Coleman) Some suggest I may be a ko‘a (fishing shrine.)

The interpretation of the word pā–hua as “an enclosure of fruits” has been used as a support the thought that it was an agricultural heiau.

The word hua not only has meanings associated with fruit, ovum and seeds, but also with general fertility and fruitfulness (particularly as applied to a high agricultural yield; the verb hua means to sprout. (Coleman)

When the archaeologist J Gilbert McAllister first documented Pahua as a field site in the 1930s, the heiau had been abandoned for some time; he was unable to definitively ascertain its function and significance, either from previously published works or from interviews with kamaʻāina living in the area.

If Pahua was an agricultural heiau, it is likely that the kapu surrounding it were not exceedingly strict, and it is possible that low-ranking ali‘i of the area may have constructed the site and worshiped there.

Pahua was the only name recorded for the heiau as given by a native Hawaiian informant to McAllister in the early 1930s. Despite the possibility that Pahua was not the original or proper name for the site, limited historical evidence suggests that it was.

For example, Pahua is also documented as a name for the area in nūpepa (Hawaiian language newspapers) during the early and mid-1800s.

Reference to Pahua as a place is found in one of the first kanikau (chant of mourning) ever printed in the nūpepa. In the August 8, 1834 issue of Ka Lama Hawai‘i, David Malo used the phrase “noho anea kula wela la o Pahua,” (tarrying in the vibrating heat of the hot plains of Pahua.) (Coleman)

One meaning of the word pahua is “down–trodden,” which can be used to describe grass that has been flattened. Although rare, this understanding of pahua correlates to the description of Pahua as a kula (plain) that is found in the kanikau (laments) printed in the nūpepa.

Maunalua was also known for cattle in the 1880s. Other variations of pahua also suggest a link to cattle; the meaning of the word pāhu‘a is similar to that of kīpuka (a clearing, an oasis, a change in form.)

And it especially refers to an area that is free of brush and vegetation, such as a pasture where it was easy to rope cows. The word pahu‘ā, (pahu, to push; ‘ā, to drive, as in cattle) also suggests a strong association with cattle. (Coleman)

Pahua Heiau was excavated and restored during a volunteer community service project directed by Bertell D Davis with the Outdoor Circle and others in 1985.

Excavation uncovered evidence that the heiau was constructed in several stages, but Davis was not able to determine the chronology of the construction sequence. (Jordan)

Pahua heiau sits on land gifted to Office of Hawaiian Affairs by Kamehameha Schools in 1988, OHA’s first land holding. The site is located on the slope at the south end of the ridge between Kamilo Nui and Kamilo Iki Valleys, overlooking the top end of Makahuena Place.

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Pahua_Heiau-OHA

Pahua heiau in Hawaii Kai, Honolulu, Oahu

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Pahua_Heiau-OHA

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Pahua heiau in Hawaii Kai, Honolulu, Oahu

Pahua_Heiau-OHA

February 3, 2016 by Peter T Young 3 Comments

Joseph Atherton Richards

“’Who is this A. Richards?’”

“The players themselves, as well as others who usually know tennis players and tennis form as intimately as the average small boy knows the record of Babe Ruth, were asking each other the question at the clubhouse during the progress of this astonishing match.”

Richards, an unknown, beat favorite Watson Washburn in two straight sets and won the championship at the New York Tennis Club Tournament. (HMCS)

“Atherton Richards was the youth who thus confounded the prophets and tore the dope and the traditions into things of shreds and patches.” (NY Times, June 22, 1921)

He was called AR or Atherton Richards; however his full name was Joseph Atherton Richards. (Giles)

Richards was born in the Islands on September 29, 1894 (he died in 1974.) His father, Theodore Richards, came to Hawaiʻi in 1888 to become teacher of the first class to graduate at the Kamehameha Schools and, in 1894, principal of the Kamehameha Schools for five years. Atherton’s paternal grandfather was Joseph H Richards.

Theodore Richards founded Kokokahi on the windward side of Oʻahu (now a YWCA facility,) which means “of one blood”, which he meant as a place for people of different races to live together as people of one blood. (Star-Advertiser)

Theodore Richards married Mary Cushing Atherton, daughter of Juliette Cooke Atherton and Joseph Ballard Atherton. Joseph Atherton’ Richards maternal great grandparents were missionaries Amos Starr and Juliette Montague Cooke (Amos Starr Cooke and Samuel Northrup Castle formed Castle and Cooke.)

After graduating from Wesleyan University in 1915 (where he was captain of the tennis team,) Atherton served as a First Lieutenant in the US Army in 1917 and as a Lieutenant Colonel in 1942. (HICattle)

During WWII, Richards was one of the top officials serving under General William J “Wild Bill” Donovan, then-chief of the CIA’s Office of Strategic Services (OSS.)

Richards was tasked in the “Economics Branch” and was authorized to conduct research bearing on “the economic problems of the United States during and following the termination of the war emergency”. They also discussed “the possibilities of economic warfare organization.” (CIA)

In his business career, Richards served as an officer or director of Castle and Cooke Co, Hawaiian Pineapple Company, Bank of Hawaii, Ewa Plantation Co, Hawaiian Electric Co, and was a Kamehameha Schools, Bishop Estate (KSBE) trustee (1952-1974.)

In 1931, Hawaiian Pineapple accounted for about 38% of the Islands’ production (measured by cases of pineapples produced.) However, the Great Depression was on and Hawaiian Pineapple was facing bankruptcy.

In October 1932, Hawaiian Pineapple (what we call Dole) was reorganized to avoid catastrophe and founder James Dole was removed from management and Atherton Richards replaced him as general manager. (Cooper & Daws)

In late-1939, Richards tried to establish a new pineapple plantation on Molokai, in order to reduce their dependency on Waialua Agricultural Co, but the Molokai plantation plan was rejected by the board the next year. Richards left in 1941. (Hawkins)

As Bishop Estate trustee, Richards planted the idea of development of KSBE’s East Oʻahu property with Henry J Kaiser. They took a drive out to Kuapa Pond where Richards challenged Kaiser to make the development a success.

Kaiser accepted and proposed a $350-million dream city of 11,000 single family homes. Initially dubbed ‘Kaiser’s Folly,’ Hawaiʻi Kai became a success for Kaiser and Bishop Estate. (Hawaii Business)

Another lasting legacy of Richards is Kahua Ranch in Kohala, Hawaii Island, which he formed with Ronald Von Holt in 1928. The pair pooled their money and bought the property from Frank Woods.

Richards’ nephew, Herbert Montague “Monty” Richards, Jr, carries on his legacy today as Manager of Kahua Ranch. (Pono Von Holt runs the adjoining Ponoholo Ranch that had been split off from the original holdings.)

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Joseph Atherton Richards-HICattle