Hawaii | Page 195 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

August 18, 2023 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Schofield Barracks

In 1872, Major General John M Schofield visited the Hawaiian Islands to determine the defense capabilities of the various ports. In his report to the Secretary of War, Schofield advocated securing the exclusive use of Pearl Harbor through a reciprocity treaty with the then Kingdom of Hawaiʻi.

In 1893, after the overthrow of the monarchy, it was Schofield who encouraged annexation of Hawaiʻi. He said, “if we do not hold these islands ourselves we cannot expect the neutrals in war to prevent other belligerents from occupying them; nor can the inhabitants themselves prevent such occupation.”

The site that would become Schofield Barracks was ceded to the US Government on July 26, 1899, less than a year after Hawaiʻi was annexed to the United States. The Waianae-Uka military reservation was part of the former Hawaiian Crown Lands and consisted of 14,400 acres. (Army)

In 1905, in an address to Congress, President Theodore Roosevelt declared Hawaiʻi to be, “the most important point in the Pacific to fortify in order to conserve the interests of this country.” (LOC)

Situated between the two major mountain ranges on Oʻahu, with central access to both the North Shore, Pearl Harbor and the City of Honolulu made it an excellent strategic location.

Schofield Barracks was established on December 4, 1908, with the arrival of Captain Joseph C Castner and his construction of a temporary cantonment (headquarters and quarters) on the Waianae-Uka military reservation – first, tents for officers and soldiers; then, temporary wooden barracks.

The temporary facility was informally referred to as Castner Village; some called it the Leilehua Barracks (after the Leilehua Plain on which it is located.)

In April, 1909, the War Department chose to name the post after the late General John M Schofield, former Commanding General of the US Army, who had originally called attention to Hawaiʻi’s strategic value.

In 1910, the United States Army District of Hawaiʻi was formed under the command of Colonel Walter Schuyler at Schofield Barracks. It originally fell under the jurisdiction of the Department of California and then became a department in the newly organized Western Division.

In late-1911, the Secretary of War approved recommendations for a seven-regiment post. This would rival the Army’s largest existing post at the time (Fort Russell in Cheyenne, Wyoming.) The number of troops continued to increase, and in 1913 the Hawaiian Department was formed as an independent command under the War Department.

Permanent facilities were urgently needed.

The configuration of three barracks and one administration building surrounding a central courtyard became known as a “quad” (quadrangle.)

The quads at first took their names from the troops residing in them, i.e. the 35th Infantry Barracks or the 4th Cavalry Barracks. The alphabetical designations currently used were assigned at a later date. Quarters for the officers and their families were constructed at the same time as the barracks.

In 1921, Schofield housed the only complete division in the US Army (the Hawaiian Division) and the Army’s largest single garrison. Population rose to 14,000 in 1938, making it the second largest “city” in Hawaiʻi.

The Hawaiian Department accounted for more than 10% of the Army’s forces during the ‘30s and ‘40s. (By 1948, the base had eight sets of quad barracks.)

On October 1, 1941, the transition by the War Department in operations restructured the Hawaiian Division to form two divisions at Schofield: 24th Infantry Division and the 25th Infantry Division. (Over the following decades, the 24th ID was inactivated, reactivated and subsequently deactivated in October 2006. Schofield remains the home of the 25th ID.)

The need for soldiers trained to fight under tropical conditions arose and the Jungle Training Center, later called the Ranger Combat Training School was formed in late-1942.

The Hawaiʻi Infantry Training Center (HITC) was opened on March 14, 1951. Almost one-million soldiers went through the training center at Schofield before being sent overseas.

With the construction of housing on the old training fields and in light of the greater range and fire power of the new weaponry, larger training areas were needed. Pōhakuloa on the island of Hawaii, Makua Valley, Helemano, Kahuku and Kawailoa were used. Most of these training areas are still actively used by the 25th Infantry Division today.

Today, the Schofield Barracks Area includes Wheeler Army Airfield and Helemano Military Reservation and consists of 16,600-acres. Two brigades of the 25th Infantry Division and other units that support them are housed there.

There are approximately 14,000 military personnel as well as 2,000-civilian employees who work and train at Schofield. 21,100-soldiers and their dependents live on the premises. (Lots of information here is from NPS and Army-mil.)

August 16, 2023 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Heinrich Zimmermann

In 1768, when Captain James Cook set sail on the Endeavour on the first of three voyages to the South Seas, the trip was mainly to record the transit of Venus in Tahiti in 1769. (Wall Street Journal)

However, on this voyage Cook carried with him secret orders from the British Admiralty to seek ‘a Continent or Land of great extent’ and to take possession of that country ‘in the Name of the King of Great Britain’. (State Library, New South Wales)

Cook’s second Pacific voyage (1772-1775) aboard Resolution and Adventure aimed to establish whether there was an inhabited southern continent, and make astronomical observations.

Cook’s third and final voyage (1776-1779) of discovery was an attempt to locate a North-West Passage, an ice-free sea route which linked the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. Cook commanded Resolution while Charles Clerke commanded Discovery. (State Library, New South Wales)

Cook had other foreigners on his ships in these voyages. On his third voyage, one, a German, was Heinrich Zimmermann.

Johann Heinrich Zimmermann was born on December 25, 1741 in Wiesloch, just south of Heidelberg in the Palatinate. (King)

“Johann Heinrich Zimmermann and Anna Maria von Beyerthal” are registering the birth of the child “Johann Heinrich”. The child’s sponsor (susciptor) is recorded as “Johann Heinrich Walthi von Maisbach”. The date of birth is written as: “1741 d. 25 te Xbris”. (Captain Cook Society)

Leaving home in 1770, Zimmermann had a variety of jobs around Europe. He had trained as a “Guertler,” the profession of a worker in precious and non-precious metals who made ornaments, jewelry, cutlery including swords, metal tools and implements.

He spent time working at this in Geneva, Lyons and Paris before he arrived in London in 1776 where, after a short period of working in a sugar refinery, he joined the Discovery as an able seaman on March 12 of that year for James Cook’s third voyage to the Pacific. He became the ship’s coxswain (steersman) in July 1776. (King)

As a sailor in the third voyage (1776 to 1779), Zimmermann kept a journal that later became the basis for his account Reise um die Welt, which was translated into English and later published as Account of the Third Voyage of Captain Cook.

Zimmermann’s descriptions of Hawaii sparked an interest in the Sandwich Islands, but he also offered some of the first descriptions of West Coast Indians. (BCBookworld)

Of that journal Zimmermann noted, “I have long been endeavouring to decide whether I should be doing a wrong in making public the observations made by me during our voyage.”

“Then it occurred to me that it was the duty of the crew to give up their papers: that Great Britain, having been at great expense in fitting out and keeping up this exploring expedition, alone had the right to publish the observations of her navigators …”

“… that we had been paid for our services, and that we were therefore bound to yield up to England any notes which we might have kept during our voyage.”

“To all these scruples I have a few remarks to make, and I wish to set forth the reasons which have nevertheless moved me to write down my personal observations.”

“Is it likely that this incomplete record, which comes from the pen of a simple sailor, will ever be compared with the properly accredited narratives to be published in England? And can it prejudice them in any way?”

“Is it not more likely that it is I who will have cause to fear that my book will be unsaleable, will be ignored and neglected, because the world is awaiting the more complete, the more correct narratives written by those who were able to see more than I? Therefore I alone will suffer.” (Zimmermann)

The fame generated by the book led to Zimmermann being appointed in August 1781 by the Prince Elector of Bavaria, Karl Theodor, to the position of “Churfürstlicher Leibschiffmeister” (Master of the Prince Elector’s Ships), where he was responsible for the fleet of hunting and excursion boats on Lake Starnberg. (King)

After returning from that voyage, Zimmermann and George Dixon were recruited for a voyage to the North West Coast of America and round the world on the Imperial and Royal Ship Cobenzell.

The voyage was to be undertaken for Emperor Joseph II by the Imperial Asiatic Society of Trieste, otherwise known as the Triestine Society, a company set up and run by William Bolts for the purpose of carrying out this voyage.

On July 24, 1782, Dixon wrote to Zimmermann from Vienna. “Dear Harry, Yours I Rec‘d, and am glad you have Resolution, like the Honest Sailor which I allways have taken you for, and are willing to be doing sum thing both for your self and the Country.”

“By this time I expect you will be in Trieste, and have seen Mr Walker… As you may be a little mistaking in Regard to the Voyage and its Nature, Mr Walker can give you sum Information and the Remainder, I shall Acquent you with, when I see you which I expect to be shortly. I am, Dear Harry, Yours &ca, Geo. Dixon.”

While the Emperor was initially enthusiastic, the venture eventually proved impossible to realize. The opposition of Bolts’s Belgian financial partners in the Imperial Asiatic Company of Trieste and Antwerp was a principal cause of its not going ahead.

The Emperor also refused to provide financing for it apart from the expenses of his naturalists: in the autumn of 1782 it was abandoned. (King)

Zimmermann had apparently used the time he had spent at Trieste to learn navigation and qualify as a ship’s officer. Likewise, in his account of Cook’s last voyage he had mentioned the willingness of the natives of the North West Coast to engage in trade, consisting mainly on their part of the furs of “beaver” (by which he meant sea otter), sable and seal.

He wrote in his journal: “My plan supposes fitting out two ships of 400 or 500 tons in Europe (with 18 months‘ provisions), which would cost around 8,000 louis d’or, declared ready for sea and to go out on the following System as though going on discovery, making their way around Cape Horn to the Marquesas Islands, there to take on water and refresh the crew.”

“From there they would make their way directly to Owhyee [Hawaii] where the second would stay and stock with provisions and water. From thence to the North West Coast to seek refit on that coast. …”

“In returning engage in trade, the article concerned being sea otter pelts, from my being convinced that it is not idle talk, collecting at least 2,000 in a space of 6 months, as in Kamchatka each would be worth from 30 roubles and the same items can be sent to Okhotsk and from thence to Kiachta on the Chinese border, which is 1,400 miles by land …”

“… from whence the Chinese can gain a good profit by transporting them to Peking which is 700 miles further, and from thence to Japan, which is now inclined to welcome those who go with goods of value to Japan.” (King) That plan was not implemented.

Zimmermann was asked in 1789 to plan a Russian expedition to the Pacific. Although he submitted plans, Russia was then engaged in wars with the Ottoman Empire and with Sweden, and the expedition didn’t happen. It’s not clear if Zimmermann made it back into the Pacific; he did, however, sail to India in the 1780s.

In 1791-1792 he again took a ship, the Edward, to India for Edouard de Walckiers. The advent of war with revolutionary France put an end to the trade with India from the Austrian Netherlands, and Zimmermann returned to Munich. He retired to Starnberg in 1804 and died there on May 3, 1805. (King)

August 15, 2023 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Ala Moana Beach Park and ʻĀina Moana (Magic Island)

In 1899, the coastal road from Honolulu Harbor to Waikīkī, formerly called the “Beach Road,” was renamed “Ala Moana.”

At the beginning of the twentieth-century, this stretch of coast makai of Ala Moana Boulevard was the site of the Honolulu garbage dump, which burned almost continually. The residue from burned rubbish was used to reclaim neighboring wetlands (which later were more commonly referred to as “swamp lands.”)

In the 1920s, Kewalo Basin was constructed and by the 1930s was the main berthing area for the sampan fleet and also the site of the tuna cannery, fish auction, shipyard, ice plant, fuel dock and other shore-side facilities.

In 1928, a channel was dredged through the coral reef to connect the Ala Wai Boat Harbor and the Kewalo Basin, so boats could travel between the two. Part of the dredge material helped to reclaim swampland that was filled in with dredged coral.

When the area became a very popular swimming beach, the channel was closed to boat traffic.

The City and County of Honolulu started cleaning up the Ala Moana area in 1931. They used funds provided by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal Project to create a city park in the Ala Moana area.

Back in the early twentieth century, most playgrounds consisted of large areas of pavement used to get children off of the street and had no aesthetic value.

In 1933, Harry Sims Bent was chosen as the park architect for the City and County of Honolulu. Bent’s design went beyond the modern level and into the realm of art deco, allowing for play, as well as contact with nature. His works at Ala Moana include the canal bridge, entrance portals, sports pavilion, banyan courtyard and the lawn bowling green.

President Roosevelt participated in the dedication of the new 76-acre “Moana Park” in 1934 (it was later renamed Ala Moana Park in 1947.) During his visit to the islands, Roosevelt also planted a kukui tree on the grounds of the ʻIolani Palace.

Ala Moana Park was developed on a swamp and the Honolulu garbage dump.

In the mid-1950s, reef rubble was dredged to fill in the old navigation channel (between Kewalo and the Ala Wai); it was topped with sand brought from Keawaʻula Beach (Yokohama Beach) in Waianae.

At the same time, a new swimming channel was dredged parallel to the new beach, extending 400-feet offshore; in addition, the west end of the fronting channel was closed by a landfill project that was part of the Kewalo Basin State Park project. A large fringing reef remained off-shore protecting the beach area.

Reportedly, in 1955, Henry Kaiser was the first to propose building two artificial islands and six hotels over the fringing reef. His proposal included inlets for boats, walkways and bridges. He called it Magic Island and offered to pay the $50-million cost. (Sigall, Star-Advertiser)

In 1958, a 20-page booklet was sent to Congress to encourage them to turn back Ala Moana Reef to the Territory of Hawaiʻi for the construction of a “Magic Island.” Local businessmen and firms paid half the cost and the Territory paid half through the Economic Planning & Coordination Authority) (Dillingham interests were among contributors, Henry J. Kaiser interests were not.) (Honolulu Record, February 13, 1958)

The booklet puts forth the argument that “Tourist development is our most important immediate potential for economic expansion,” and displays pictures of the crowded Waikiki area to show the lack of room for expansion. Then it directs the reader’s attention to land that can be reclaimed from the sea by utilizing reefs, especially the 300-acre area of Ala Moana Reef. (Honolulu Record, February 13, 1958)

It was supposed to be part of a new high scale beachfront resort complex with a half-dozen hotels that would have included two islands built on the fringing reef, offshore of the Ala Moana Park.

The Interest of the Dillingham’s in developing off-shore areas is obvious, since Hawaiian Dredging is the only local company large enough to undertake such sizable dredging operations.

The Dillingham interest in the current “Magic Island” project is more obvious because of the immediate increase in value it would bring to Dillingham land mauka of Ala Moana Boulevard. (Honolulu Record, February 13, 1958)

The Dillinghams figure to do the dredging and construction of Magic Island, itself, of course, and it must be recalled that the original Dillingham idea was to use Ala Moana Park for hotels and apartments and build the reef island for a park. (Honolulu Record, May 15, 1958)

But now that Magic Island is being proposed as a hotel and apartment site, it doesn’t mean for a moment the first plan has necessarily been abandoned. There is good reason to fear Ala Moana Park may be wiped out entirely so far as the people of Oahu are concerned if they don’t keep alert and guard” against every effort to encroach upon it. (Honolulu Record, May 15, 1958)

Substantial changes were made from the more extensive original plan for the Ala Moana reef; rather than multiple islands for several resort hotels built on the reef flat off of the Ala Moana Park, in 1964 a 30-acre peninsula, with “inner” and “outer” beaches for protected swimming, was constructed adjoining the Ala Wai Small Boat Harbor and Ala Wai Canal outlet.

The project stopped after the development of “Magic Island,” leaving the State with a man-made peninsula, which they converted into a public park.

In 1972 the State officially renamed Magic Island to ‘Āina Moana (“land [from the] sea”) to recognize that the park is made from dredged coral fill. The peninsula was turned over the city in a land exchange and is formally known as the ‘Āina Moana Section of Ala Moana Beach Park, but many local residents still call it Magic Island.

Between 1955 and 1976 the beach eroded, and in 1976, more sand was brought in from Mokuleʻia on the north coast of Oʻahu.

August 12, 2023 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Oldest Wood Frame Structure in Hawaii

The wood-framed Mission House, built in 1821, was one of the first wood-framed buildings built in Hawai‘i; it is now the oldest in Hawai‘i. It recently celebrated its 200^th birthday.

The frame house stands on the grounds of the Hawaiian Mission Houses Historic Site and Archives, near Kawaiahaʻo Church on the makai side of King Street.

The timbers of Maine white pine were cut and fitted in Boston in 1819 and came around the Horn on the brig Thaddeus with the first mission company in April 1820, arriving first in Kona. The frame of the house arrived in Honolulu on Christmas morning of that year on board the ship Tartar.

Since the lumber for this New England plan type was actually pre-cut prior to shipment, it could also be considered in a broad sense a very early example of prefabrication.

Architecturally, it has a simple and straight-forward design; the relatively low ceilings, and basement are strong evidence of its New England concept, foreign to the temperate climate of Honolulu.

It has two stories plus a basement and measures about 40-feet in length and 24-feet in width, excluding the kitchen wing (which extends the basic rectangular plan on the right rear (Ewa-makai) by about 20-feet.) The overall height is just over 23½ feet.

The first floor (which has been altered by both additions and demolition) consists of two rooms across the front. A smaller room and hall are located behind the front room on the left. The second floor consists essentially of two large rooms separated by a stair-hall.

The foundation wall is about a foot thick, except on the Waikīkī side where it becomes an average of almost 2-feet (where a now-demolished wing once stood.)

The basement walls are adobe brick set in a mud mortar. The basement consists of one room on the left (Waikīkī) and a larger space on the right.

Basement access is by an exterior coral stair on both the front and rear and an interior concrete stair leading down from the kitchen. All walls are plastered, the floors are brick and the ceiling exposed wood.

The Frame House was used as a communal home by many missionary families who shared it with island visitors and boarders.

It served as a residence for various missionaries, including Hiram Bingham, Gerrit Parmele Judd and Elisha Loomis.

In 1904, several contractors were called in to examine the building which was found to be so badly eaten by insects it was considered beyond repair. After considerable study extensive repairs were undertaken to restore the house to its original appearance.

In 1925, the premises were again inspected and again extensive insect damage was found. By 1935, the house was completely renovated and restored.

Since 1935, various minor repairs such as repainting and some plastering have been undertaken.

Today the frame house is maintained by the Hawaiian Mission Children’s Society as a memorial to the early missionary effort in the Hawaiian Islands.

Furniture and other articles of the first mission families are displayed in the house, together with photographs of the men and women who lived and worked there.

Guided tours of the house and other parts of the historic site are offered Tuesday through Saturday, starting on the hour every hour from 11 am with the last tour beginning at 3 pm.

Nominal fees include: $20 General; $15 Kama‘aina, Senior Citizens (55+) & Military; $10 and Students (age 6 to College w/ID). Kama‘aina Saturday (last Saturday of the Month) 50% off admission for residents. (Reservations for groups of 10 or more are required.)

August 11, 2023 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Sea Bathing

Even the most rudimentary plumbing was unknown before Captain Cook’s arrival. The ancient Hawaiians depended on streams and springs for their water supply, sometimes carrying calabashes of water great distances over rugged terrain. They bathed in streams, mountain pools, ʻauwai (irrigation ditches,) shore pools and the sea. (Schmitt)

In the late-19th Century, Waikīkī’s shoreline was mostly a day-use beach; overnight accommodations were scarce. Visitors, usually residents of Honolulu, would arrive via horse-drawn carriage, on horseback or in a canoe. (White)

“The most popular resort of the people of Oʻahu is the famous Waikīkī … Waikīkī is the seaside and pleasure-resort of the island. … There are a number of private residences, picturesque-looking bungalows and cottages, but all airy, comfortable, and close to the murmuring sea. A beautiful grove of towering coconut-trees adds to the tropical charm of the place.” (Musick, 1898)

“The sea bathing is simply perfection. The water is never chilly; and yet it is most healthful and invigorating. The bottom is of nice smooth sand, always warm and pleasant to the feet. There is no fear of undertow or of any finny monsters. Not only is it pleasant to bathe here during the day, but moonlight bathing is indulged in. … It is a novelty, worth seeing, if not worth trying. (Whitney, 1895)

Just as “sea bathing” were gaining popularity on the American and European continents, private bathhouses, like the Long Branch Baths, Ilaniwai Baths and Wright’s Villa, began to appear in Waikīkī. (White)

“Bath-houses that equal those in Long Branch (New Jersey) are found here, and sea-bathing in January is as pleasant as in July. There is no clearer water, no finer beach, no smoother bottom in any of the many famous watering-places than are found at Waikīkī.” (Musick, 1898)

Bathhouses served customers with bathing suits and towel rentals, dressing rooms and each access to the beach. Initially, bathhouses served only day-use recreation of visitors, but eventually some of them began to offer overnight rooms.

One of the first of these bathhouses was the “Long Branch Baths,” named after a popular New Jersey resort. This long wooden shed was built near the edge of ‘Āpuakēhau Stream by James Dodd in 1881 at the former residence of Kākuhihewa. (CulturalSurveys)

“There are now forty two dressing rooms for gentlemen and eighteen boudoirs for ladies. To these accommodations will be added a bathing platform 100-feet along the beach by 80-feet wide and a trapeze and spring board attached. There will also be a restaurant and when the whole is finished we may expect to have occasionally to report aquatic feats of considerable magnitude.” (Hawaiian Gazette, May 28, 1889)

At that time, the Waikīkī beach area in Ulukou and Kahaloa was dotted with small cottages and some bathing houses. These “bathing houses,” placed strategically near the beach, were places where people could change into their bathing suits, rent towels, and walk directly into the ocean. (CulturalSurveys)

“At “Long Branch Baths” the bather may find deep water and at a temperature which will surprise him, permitting a two or more, hours enjoyment in plunging and bathing in the pure waters. Here sun and sand baths may be indulged in.” (Godfrey, 1898)

Dodd, who also ran a livery station, also offered round trip ‘omnibus’ mule-drawn bus service from Honolulu to Waikīkī, which included the use of the Long Branch.

Another attraction was a 200-foot long marine toboggan, where “for a nickel, riders could climb a ladder to the top of the run, mount a ‘star oval board’, zip down the chute and ricochet across the water …, skipping along like a flat pebble.” This toboggan was built on the west side of the bathhouse in 1889 by Jim Sherwood, a later owner of the Long Branch Bathhouse.

“The toboggan itself is a wooden frame with a turn up end upon which the bather reclines and the pleasure is in the swiftness of motion over the chute. When the bather reaches the water his toboggan skips on the surface for some distance from fifty to one hundred feet in proportion to the momentum acquired in the descent and then he has to swim ashore and propel his toboggan to a landing.” (Hawaiian Gazette, May 28, 1889)

During the 1870s and 1880s, Honolulu residents in growing numbers went out to enjoy the sea bathing at Waikīkī. Local writers spoke of it as the Long Branch, Newport, Brighton or Trouville of Hawaiʻi. (Kuykendall)

In 1875 or earlier, Allen Herbert proprietor of the Hawaiian Hotel in Honolulu, “provided a cottage at the sea-shore at Waikīkī … where guests can go and spend the day, or merely enjoy a morning or evening bath in the ocean.”

Apparently this was only a beach house and not a hotel for overnight accommodation of guests; it is uncertain how long the arrangement continued. (Kuykendall)

The first hotels in Waikīkī were bathhouses, such as the Long Branch Baths, began to offer rooms for overnight stays in the 1880s. The first beachside hotel, the Park Beach, was a converted home which offered 10 rooms, each equipped with a bath and telephone.

As time passed, more found their way into the district, at first as visitors to enjoy the beach and the sea bathing, and then as residents, especially when access was made easier by the construction of a road (sometime in the 1860s.)

Toward the end of that decade an omnibus began running to Waikīkī, providing the only public transportation to that resort until the tramcar line reached there at the beginning of 1889. (Kuykendall)