Hawaii | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

October 22, 2026 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Kaumana Cave

Hilo is situated on lava flows from two of the five volcanoes that form the Island of Hawaiʻi. In the northern part of Hilo near the Wailuku River (that forms the approximate boundary between Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa Volcanoes,) Mauna Loa flows overlie much older ash deposits and flows from Mauna Kea.

Twenty-seven Mauna Loa flows (pāhoehoe and ʻaʻa) have been identified in and near Hilo. The youngest flow is from the historic Mauna Loa eruption of 1880-81, and the oldest flow yet found lies near Hoaka Road, with an age of more than 24,000 years. (USGS)

The 1881 lavas reached just north of the present University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo campus. After crossing the present Komohana and Kumukoa Streets, a very narrow section crossed what is now Mohouli Street, about 300 yards above the intersection with Kapiʻolani Street.

Several hundred homes are now built on pāhoehoe lavas of the 1881 flow and can easily be recognized by their ubiquitous “rock gardens” (no soils have yet formed on this flow). Kaumana Cave was formed at this time and was a major supply conduit for the lavas that threatened Hilo. (USGS)

Lava Caves (more commonly called lava tubes) are natural conduits through which lava travels beneath the surface of a lava flow. Tubes form by the crusting over of lava channels and pāhoehoe flows.

When the supply of lava stops at the end of an eruption or lava is diverted elsewhere, lava in the tube system drains downslope and leaves partially empty conduits beneath the ground. (USGS)

Kaumana Cave is located up the hill from the downtown area on Kaumana Drive (Saddle Road,) stretching for almost two miles. When you get to the Cave you can see a concrete stair case which leads through the old skylight down to the entrance to the Cave.

The Kaumana Cave, part of a 25-mile-long lava tube, is the centerpiece of a small park maintained by the County of Hawaiʻi. Above Hilo, near the 4-mile marker along Kaumana Drive, the cave’s entrance – actually a skylight formed when part of the lava tube collapsed – is open to curious visitors who want to explore the inside.

The roof of the tube is 20 to 25 feet thick in most places and most of the rubble on the floor fell during or shortly after the eruption, when the skylight entrance fell.

The tube was initially filled with fast-moving lava then the level dropped and a long period of flow along the floor took place and from time to time slopped over to the side creating the bench-like features seen near the cave entrance. Roof blocks fell and became embedded and coated with basalt. The lava stream later emptied leaving the evacuated tube. (Hostra)

A steep staircase leads into a collapse pit. Here the cave roof collapsed and allows entry into the lava tube. From here you can enter different sections of the cave, going mauka (uphill) or makai (downhill) paths.

Going makai, a short path leads to the entrance. There are a few boulders to step carefully through, after which sections of smooth and mostly level surfaces allow a bit easier access. About 50 yards into the downhill section you reach a choke point, a little scrambling and a bit of duck-walk is necessary to get through.

After the narrow, the cave opens back up again. After another hundred yards there are a series of ledges, old crusts left by cooling lava when it half-filled the cave. To continue from here requires crawling through another very low passage. (Cooper)

“Long ʻōhiʻa tree roots hang from overhead … Sides of Cave have dribbles of lava from above forming odd stalagmitelike objects on floor. (There is a) very noticeable slope which is quite easy to travel.”

“Another junction. This one has three branches. There are two shallow rimmed lava cones filled with water. Wedge-shaped overhang is off to one side.” (1953 Loins Club; DOI)

In periods of normal rainfall, running water sometimes is audible beneath the floor of the cave. Rainfalls of 8 to 12 inches produce waterfalls spouting from cracks high on the wall of one cave section.

They form a small stream that runs on or just beneath the floor for several hundred yads before finally sinking into cracks. Its flow is augmented by several small bubbling springs at or just above floor level and part of its flow also is lost into small floor-level cracks. (Halliday)

Kaumana Cave is an example of a lava tube cave that carries floodwater for over half-a-mile. The lower end of Kaumana Cave opens into a drainage ditch several yards below the roadway of Edita Street.

October 21, 2026 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kapaka

Hanohano ʻia home aʻo Kapaka
E kipa aʻe e nā pua a ka lehulehu
Ka nehe o ke kai lana mālie
Ke ʻala līpoa e moani nei
A ʻike i ka nani o Kaliʻuwaʻa
Ka beauty aʻo Sacred Falls aʻu i aloha
Hoʻi au i ka home o nā Makua
Nanea e hauʻoli me nā hoaloha
Puana kuʻu mele no Kapaka
E kipa aʻe e nā pua a ka lehulehu

Proud are we of our home, Kapaka
Where there is welcome for all
The lapping of the sea is gentle
The fragrance of seaweed is in the air
Behold the splendor of Kaliʻuwaʻa
The beauty of Sacred Falls, that I love
I go to the home of my parents
To relax and be happy with loved ones
My song is a story for Kapaka
Where there is welcome for all
(Home Kapaka – Mary Pukui, music by Maddy Lam (Huapala))

Kapaka is an ahupuaʻa in Koʻolauloa on the windward coast of Oʻahu. (23-ahupua‘a (traditional land division) make up the district of Koʻolauloa.) Kapaka (the tobacco) takes its name from the crop that was once grown there. (Huapala)

The Islands grew “four different kinds of tobacco … some of them are much better than others”. (Royal Hawaiian Agricultural Society, 1854)

First, native tobacco – when tobacco was first introduced into these islands, there were two kinds cultivated by the natives, one with a large round leaf, and the other with a smaller and more pointed one.

Second, there were some plants from seeds introduced from Havana by Robert C Wyllie. Both in appearance and flavor, the tobacco bears a strong resemblance to the broad-leafed native kind, and none but one well acquainted with tobacco, could distinguish them.

Third, there were a few plants from seed sent us by William L Lee, procured by him from the NYSA Society. It has a very small, round and fine leaf, and a superior tobacco.

Fourth, seed sent by John Montgomery; the plant is so different from any other we have seen, that it was suppose it was from Manila. (Royal Hawaiian Agricultural Society, 1854)

Later, “Cooperative experiments with tobacco have been conducted on the island of Hawaii with the object of producing a type of tobacco that is especially adapted to Hawaiian conditions.” (USDA; Pacific Commercial Advertiser, December 19. 1904)

Kapaka was an ahupuaʻa anomaly in that a ‘lele’ of Kapaka is situated in the adjoining ahupuaʻa of Kaluanui. Lele (’jumps’) are distinct sections of land in different parts of an ahupuaʻa (in this case, the Lele of Kapaka ‘jumped’ to a portion of the adjoining ahupuaʻa.)

“The district of Koʻolauloa is of considerable extent along the sea coast, but the arable land is generally embraced in a narrow strip between the mountains and the sea, varying in width from one half to two or three miles.”

“Several of the vallies are very fertile, and many tracts of considerable extent are watered by springs which burst out from the banks at a sufficient elevation to be conducted over large fields, and in a sufficient quantity to fill many fish ponds and taro patches.” (Hall, 1839; Maly)

“Lele o Kapaka” contained approximately 6.75 acres, and by its location on the kula of Kaluanui, it was presumably used for agricultural production, perhaps lo‘i kalo or lo‘i ‘ai (taro pond fields,) irrigated by the system of ʻauwai which early land accounts describe as being on the kula lands. (Maly)

On January 28, 1848, King Kamehameha III and William Charles Lunalilo agreed to their Māhele ‘Āina, and as a result, the ahupua‘a of Kapaka, including the Lele o Kapaka, was kept by Lunalilo.

In 1864 and 1894 various leases were granted that encumbered Kapaka and the lele o Kapaka. Those leases noted, a thatched “house standing on the land … likewise, the pa (wall or fence) surrounding the land (were to be maintained.)”

Likewise, the tenant may “cut and collect the mikinolia, guava, and hau trees for fire-wood and fencing, and the hau bark to be used as cordage, from places pointed out (and) may also release six animals upon the Kula, under the direction of the Luna Paniolo.” The latter lease allowed cultivation of rice on the Lele land. (Ulukau)

Lunalilo followed Kamehameha V as King of Hawai‘i; when he died in 1874, income from the sale of his lands was used to fund development and operation of the Lunalilo Home for elderly Hawaiians.

October 20, 2026 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Moʻokini Heiau

“Ancient Hawaiians had many types of heiau, each with their own distinct function and use by particular segments of society. Heiau ranged in size from single upright stones to massive and complex structures.”

“Larger heiau were built by ali’i (chiefs), but the largest and most complex, the luakini heiau (sacrificial temple), could only be constructed and dedicated by an ali‘i ‘ai moku.”

“Luakini heiau were reserved for rituals involving human or animal sacrifice and were generally dedicated to the war god Ku. Rituals performed at a luakini heiau highlighted the ali‘i ‘ai moku’s spiritual, economic, political, and social control over his lands and his authority over the life and death of his people. (NPS)

“According to her genealogical chant, passed down orally from generation to generation of kahuna nui in her family, [Mo‘okini Heiau in Kohala] as built in the year 480 by her ancestor, Kuamo’o Mo’okini.”

“The ancient chant reveals that her people came to Hawaii from the shores of Kapakapauaakane in the Persian Gulf. Wherever the migrating Mo‘okini priests stopped, they built a temple to house their god, then continued on.” (Momi Lum; Pitzer, Kahuna)

Kuamo’o Mo’okini accompanied the high chief Mo‘ikeha, famous for his trip and sojourn to another Polynesian island group in the South Pacific and who returned to Hawai‘i to become the ruling chief of Kauai Island and whose numerous descendants became famous in their own rights. (NPS, National Register)

“’We have two bloodlines in the family, the priestly line and the kingly line,’ she says. ‘The kingly line is secondary to the kahuna line.’”

“‘We belong to the highest order of the priesthood, the order of Ku. We have to be masters of everything.’” (Momi Lum; Pitzer, Kahuna)

“Mo‘okini Luakini, located near the northernmost tip of the Big Island, is the largest ancient temple of its type in Hawaii – a war heiau, dedicated to the god Ku. Here the kings and ruling chiefs fasted, prayed and offered human sacrifices.” (Pitzer, Kahuna)

“The well-preserved walls and interior paving and platforms, built without mortar, testify to skills of ancient Hawaiian stonemasons and their ability to assemble unworked basalt rocks into massive and complex structures.”

“Hawaiian oral literature and Western historical accounts indicate Mo‘okini was the principal temple for centuries in the Big Island district of Kohala; associated with ruling chiefs and their high priests; and was of the class of temples called luakini, the highest class, and which required regular human sacrifices.” (NPS, National Register)

“This masonry structure is an irregular parallelogram in plan, about 267 feet (8l meters) on the west side; 250 feet (76 m) on the east side; 135 feet (41 m) on the north side; and 112 feet (34 m) on the south.”

“This ancient Hawaiian temple features an open paved stone court that is enclosed on four sides “by stone walls, which in 1977 vary in height from about seven feet (2 meters) to l4 feet (4 m). The original walls may have been as high as 20 feet (6 meters).”

“The walls are of basalt boulders; stacked and without mortar; with bases as thick as ten feet (almost 3 meters). The enclosing walls have tapered sides, both exterior and interior.”

“Hawaiian oral tradition says that the boulders were passed hand to hand from Niuli‘i, about 10 miles (l6 kilometers) distant for the construction, possibly involving as many as 15,000 men standing in line.”

“The ground-level entrance, wide enough to pass one person at a time, is in the middle of the west wall. Inside and across the northerly end is a raised stone platform, three or four stones high, which once held images, fires, the altar and perhaps wooden towers.”

“Detached stone platforms, one or two stones high, are scattered within the courtyard and once held thatched temple buildings.” (NPS, National Register)

“It was typical of ancient Hawaiian settlement patterns for a ruling chief’s housing complex to be near and associated with a Luakini class heiau. This is one of the few cases in Hawai’i when the exact locations of the temple and its associated housing complex are known.”

“Over the centuries, Kapakai as a royal housing complex served as the residence of ruling chiefs and their associates when ceremonies were conducted in Mo‘okini Heiau. Nothing would have been permitted to intrude visually between these two associated areas of sacred land.”

“Temple ceremonies lasted several nights and days. During this time, ruling chiefs and high priests would leave the temple for short periods to return to their housing complexes, still under some restrictions as to their behavior.” (NPS, National Register)

“Alapa‘i probably conducted pre-war ceremonies in Mo‘okini before his invasion of Maui ca. 1753. It was during this ceremonial period that Kamehameha was born in the Kapakai housing complex. Later, Kamehameha, and still later his son Liholiho, probably stayed at Kapakai while they led rituals in Mo‘okini.:

“Mo‘okini temple was last active as a war temple for Kamehameha the Great in the last two decades of the 18th century. It is said to have housed the Kamehameha family war god, Ku-ka-‘ili-moku, and this feathered god transferred to Pu’ukohola Heiau, Kawaihae, Kohala District, Hawai’i Island, in 1791, when Kamehameha the Great built this new war temple to assure his conquest of all the Hawaiian Islands.”

“Mo‘okini Heiau was one of the luakini and other state temples used regularly by Kamehameha the Great’s son and heir, Liholiho, in the second decade of the 19th century.”

“It was Liholiho, who as Kamehameha II, abolished in 1819 that part of the ancient religion that depended on such temples as Mo‘okini. He ordered the destruction of the temples. The walls and platforms of Mo‘okini were not destroyed.”

“On all islands, platforms of a number of temples as important as Mo‘okini were not disturbed in spite of royal orders. Mo‘okini and the others had acquired a spiritual significance (mana) which protected them against human destruction, a significance which has been retained, in part, through today. (NPS, National Register)

“Throughout the centuries, Mo‘okini descendants have continuously acted as its guardian / priests . Currently, Oliver Lum and his daughter, Mealani are the guardians and before them Oliver’s mother Leimomi Lum, her father Dewey Lum and her uncle Heloke.” (Wizinowich)

“My father Dewey Oliver Mookini was the assistant chief of police, my husband Alexis Theodore Lum was the state adjutant general, and I was the first policewoman in Hawaii.”

“Growing up with the Sacred Hearts sisters in Catholic school helped form me in my faith. Going to church with my parents and receiving the Holy Eucharist every Sunday and on holy days is important to me. Being brought up a Catholic is something no one can take from me.” (Momi Lum, Hawaii Catholic Herald)

“Some question how I can be the kahuna nui of the Mookini heiau and also a Catholic? As a kahuna, I respect what the kahunas believe in. I respect Kuamo‘o Mo‘okini from the year 480 A.D. I respect my uncle’s beliefs in his religion, the Hawaiian religion.”

“If not for my bloodline, I would not be here. However, I was raised by the nuns and love my parents for the way they brought me up. I don’t think I would be as strong as I am today, otherwise.” (Momi Lum, Hawaii Catholic Herald)

October 17, 2026 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

The Artist and the Architect

The artist, known as ‘Palani’ among his Hawaiian friends, was named a ‘Living Treasure’ for his paintings and murals showing Hawai‘i’s culture; the architect was identified as “the man who changed the face of the Pacific”. They got together in 1956.

Let’s look back …

The artist, Louis Henri Jean Charlot, descended from “sundry exotic ancestors,” was born in Paris. His father, Henri, was a French businessman; Anna, his mother, an artist and a devout Catholic, was the daughter of Louis Goupil, a native of Mexico City.

Also living in Paris was Jean Charlot’s great-uncle, Eugène Goupil, a collector of Mexican works of art. Jean, who began to draw around age two, grew up surrounded by pre-Hispanic antiquities. (Thompson)

In his teens, Charlot had become one of a Catholic group that called itself Gilde Notre-Dame (“Parisian adolescents (who) used to gather in a crypt”) made up of sculptors, stained glass makers, embroiderers and decorators.

“My life in France was on the whole rational, national, obeying this often heard dictum that a Frenchman is a man who ignores geography. There were though, simultaneously, un-French elements at work. Russian, sephardim, Aztec ancestors, warmed my blood to adventure.” (Charlot; Thompson)

After a Mexican trip, in 1928, Charlot and his mother moved to New York where he rented a small apartment on the top floor of 42 Union Square from the artist Morris Kantor. The apartment was unheated, which probably contributed to the death of his mother from pneumonia in January, 1929.

On a brief trip to Mexico in 1931, Charlot met his future wife, Dorothy Zohmah Day. During a visit to Zohmah in Los Angeles in 1933, Charlot met the printer Lynton R Kistler and produced Picture Book, “a repertory of motifs I had used up to then.” Returning to New York, teaching and lecturing occupied much of Charlot’s time.

In May 1939, Jean Charlot and Zohmah Day were married in San Francisco. “It was a long courtship,” commented Charlot. “Eight years. We were always in different places”.

The years from 1941-44 were spent as artist-in-residence at the University of Georgia, Athens, and instructor in art history at the University of California, Berkeley and artist-in-residence at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. (Thompson)

Then he had a chance to come to Hawaiʻi – and he stayed. An invitation to create a fresco at the University of Hawai’i, Manoa, brought Charlot to Honolulu in 1949 where he painted Relation of Man and Nature in Old Hawai’i at Bachman Hall.

He accepted a position as professor of art at the University, and Hawai’i became the Charlot family’s permanent home. Attracted to the culture of the native Hawaiian, just as he had been interested in the folk aspects of the residents of rural France and the indigenous peoples of Mexico, he studied Hawaiian history, customs and religion, and learned the Hawaiian language.

From 1949 to 1979 Charlot created almost six hundred easel paintings, several hundred prints, and thirty-six works of art in public places in fresco, ceramic tile and sculpture. He taught summer sessions at several schools. (Thompson)

The architect, George James ‘Pete’ Wimberly, was born on January 16, 1915 in Ellensburg, Washington. He earned a bachelor’s degree in architecture in 1937 from the University of Washington.

He served as a draftsman/designer in Seattle, Los Angeles and Phoenix, and in 1940 was in a civil service position as “journeyman architect doing naval work at Pearl Harbor.”

“At the end of World War II, there was a great backlog demand for buildings of all sorts. During the four years of war, only essential or defense-oriented projects were allowed.”

“Most of the architects at the time were not hurting because they were all doing defense work, either as private practitioners or as direct employees of the Armed Forces. (W)hen V-J Day was announced, I left the Navy Yard and never went back, except to pick up my pay check.” (Wimberly; WATG)

“I had an agreement with Howard (Loren) Cook (who was working on Tripler Hospital) that I would set up an office and we would split the take, his salary and my fees 50/50.”

“Fortunately, there was a great deal of work out there. Furthermore, I had the fortune to know Gardner Dailey on the mainland. He selected me as the local architect for the remodelling of the Royal Hawaiian Hotel. (1946) … With this prestigious commission, we suddenly had credentials and were able to pick up other worthy jobs.” (Wimberly; WATG)

The artist and the architect got together in the design and construction of Charlot’s ‘dream house.’

It was part of the expansion of KahaIa in the 1950s. Before the expansion, Kahala was used mostly for beach homes along the shore, with another row of houses on the mauka side of Kahala Avenue. Bishop Estate opened up the balance of the area for residential and related development.

In recognition of his work in Hawaiian culture, Bishop Estate gave Charlot one of the first choices of the new lots. He picked the end lot of the three on the little appendix to Kahala Avenue, fronting the Wai‘alae Golf Course, the house sits on a flat lot bordered by the golf course on the north and a canal on the west.

The house was completed in 1958 as a true collaboration between Charlot and Wimberly. Charlot’s art and therefore his dream house had to fit its site. Wimberly also emphasized a ‘sense of place’ in his architecture and went on to build many structures that exuded this appropriateness to the lifestyle and climate of Hawai‘i.

Fitting into Hawai‘i’s lifestyle and climate is demonstrated in its open plan (the master bedroom overlooking the living room, only bedrooms and bathrooms are fully walled in,) blurred definition between the interior and exterior (the built-in dining table that connects to the exterior …

… the two story height glazed sections that connect to the lanai area, and the lanai with the same flooring material as the drawing room), incorporation of native arts (mural, petroglyph tiles), use of native materials (hapu’u) and siting by tradewinds. The house is an intensely personal one, yet a characteristic of Charlot’s art is its emphasis on appropriateness. (NPS)

It had a uniquely artistic flair, incorporating the openness and lanais of island homes with the vertical emphasis of traditional French rural ‘architecture and the brick floors and back courtyards of Mexican houses. (NPS)

Here, Charlot conducted most of his work in this house and more particularly in his 2nd floor studio. This was the final period of Charlot’s life, when he reached the peak of his artistic powers and was able to synthesize the esthetics of Europe, Mexico and Pacific Islands, the places he lived and influenced his art. His career spanned these places. Charlot remained active as an artist and a scholar until his death on March 20, 1979.

Wimberly also went on the great things. He invented a style of resort architecture that was creative, exotic and imaginative. His landmark projects helped define Hawai‘i tourism and created a Hawai‘i-based business designing resorts around the world.

Wimberly “established himself as perhaps the most successful resort architect in the world” and that his “Honolulu-based firm of Wimberly Allison Tong & Goo (also known as WATG) designed many of the Pacific Rim’s pace-setting hotels and is the world’s largest ‘niche’ architecture firm, specializing in the $4-trillion-dollar travel industry.” (Honolulu Weekly) Wimberly died December 30, 1995.

Follow Peter T Young on Facebook

Follow Peter T Young on Google+

Follow Peter T Young on LinkedIn

Follow Peter T Young on Blogger

October 16, 2026 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Ka‘iulani

Victoria (named after Queen Victoria) Kaʻiulani Kawekiu I Lunalilo Kalaninuiahilapalapa Cleghorn was born on October 16, 1875, the only child of Princess Miriam Likelike (the sister to King Kalākaua and Queen Liliʻuokalani) and Archibald Scott Cleghorn, a Scottish businessman.

Miriam Kapili Kekāuluohi Likelike was born on January 13, 1851. Unlike her brothers and sister, Princess Likelike’s early years were spent on the Island of Hawaiʻi.

On returning to Honolulu, “Her first course of instruction was at the school of the Sisters of the Sacred Heart, and she finished her education at Kawaiahaʻo Seminary.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, February 4, 1887)

Then her musical endeavors began in earnest; encouraged by her siblings she wrote music. With her sister, she led one of the three royal music clubs that held regular friendly competitions to outdo each other in song and poetry.

Like her sister, Princess Likelike sponsored many concerts and musical pageants in and around Honolulu, and played an important role in the development and perpetuation of Hawaiian music by the encouragement and patronage she gave to young musicians and composers. (HMHOF)

On September 22, 1870, Princess Likelike was married to Honolulu businessman Archibald Scott Cleghorn. The wedding was held at Washington Place, the residence of Governor Dominis and Princess Liliʻuokalani.

Cleghorn, born November 15th 1835 in Edinburgh, Scotland, was brought to Hawaii by his parents, Mr and Mrs Thomas Cleghorn by way of New Zealand.

After arriving to Honolulu in 1851, Thomas set up a dry goods store in Chinatown, but within the year, at the age of 54, Thomas suffered a fatal heart attack while on his way home from church. Archibald took over his father’s business and turned it into one of the most successful mercantile chains in the islands. (Kaʻiulani Project)

He first married Elizabeth Pauahi Lapeka and they had three daughters: Rose Kaipuala Cleghorn (married James William Robertson,) Helen Manuʻailehua Cleghorn (married James Boyd) and Annie Pauahi Cleghorn (married James Hay Wodehouse.) (Geer, Fahrni)

Continuing his father’s love of horticulture, Archie also became known as Hawaiʻi’s Father of Parks and served as Oʻahu Parks Commissioner; he was landscaper for ʻIolani Palace.

Archibald is also responsible for the spectacular gardens of the ‘ʻĀinahau estate, where he planted several varieties of plants, shrubs and trees, including Hawaiʻi’s first banyan, which became known as ‘The Kaʻiulani Banyan’. (Fahrni)

In addition he was the lead landscaper for Kapiʻolani Park. Kapiʻolani Park was dedicated on June 11, 1877 and named by King Kalākaua to honor his wife, Queen Kapiʻolani. It was the first public park in the Hawaiian Islands.

Characterized from the beginning as “swamp land in a desert,” Kapiʻolani Park became a park specifically because it wasn’t considered suitable for anything else, and because of its peculiar climate – it’s one of the few places on Oahu where rain almost never falls.

Archibald and Likelike deeded land at Kaʻawaloa to Major James Hay Wodehouse, Her Britannic Majesty’s Commissioner and Consul General for the said Kingdom of the Hawaiian Islands, for a monument in memory of Captain Cook. (Thrum)

Ka‘iulani inherited 10-acres of land in Waikīkī from her godmother, Princess Ruth Keʻelikōlani. Originally called Auaukai, her mother named it ʻĀinahau. The family built a two-story home on the estate.

At first the home was used only as a country estate, but Princess Kaʻiulani’s family loved it so much, it soon became their full-time residence. She spent most of her life there.

At the age of 13, Princess Kaʻiulani sailed to Europe to begin her education abroad; she spent the next eight years studying and traveling in Europe.

At the age of 15, Kaʻiulani was proclaimed Crown Princess of Hawaiʻi by Queen Liliʻuokalani and was a future ruler of Hawaiʻi. (KSBE)

“Princess Kaiulani was a thoughtful young lady, but always frank and candid. She was intensely devoted to the out of doors. It was the same from the time she was a little girl up to a few days before her death.”

“She was a skillful horsewoman. She liked both riding and driving. For driving she had a double rig and a single rig and generally handled the lines herself.”

“As a little girl she was a splendid swimmer and the old natives along the Waikiki beach will willingly tell you how the young alii would always go further out into the breakers than any one else. …”

“The Princess had at Ainahau a tribe of peafowls and everyone of the birds would eat from her hands. She admired them very much, made a study of them.” (PCA, March 13, 1899)

In 1899, Kaʻiulani had gone to Waimea on the Big Island to visit Helen and Eva Parker, daughters of Samuel “Kamuela” Parker (1853–1920,) grandson of John Parker (founder of the Parker Ranch.) (When his grandfather died, in 1868, Samuel (at the age of 15) inherited half the Parker Ranch, with his uncle John Palmer Parker II (1827–1891) inheriting the other half.)

While attending a wedding at the ranch, Princess Kaʻiulani and the girls had gone out riding horseback on Parker Ranch; they encountered a rainstorm. Kaʻiulani became ill; she and her family returned to O‘ahu. Tragically, after a two-month illness, Kaʻiulani died on March 6, 1899 at ʻĀinahau, at age 23.

Ka‘iulani once said, “Well, it has been a strange life, really, and a very romantic one. Still I have been happy. I have seen a great deal and everybody has been most kind to me.” (Independent, November 11, 1897)