Hawaii | Page 270 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

September 18, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Lēʻahi Hospital

In the early-1900s, tuberculosis was called “consumption” or “black lung disease;” at that time, a tuberculosis outbreak hit Honolulu.

The “destitute and incurables” were transported to Kakaʻako for a while until a new place could be found. A temporary hospital, Victoria Hospital (also known as “home for incurables” and the “old kerosene warehouse,”) was set up on Queen and South streets.

Victoria Hospital (named in commemoration of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee in 1897) had the responsibility to receive as in-patients “persons suffering from consumption or other so-called incurable diseases excepting leprosy.”

Shortly thereafter, Victoria Hospital was renamed the ‘Honolulu Home for Incurables’ (with the establishment of the Territorial Government and new burst of Americanism, there was criticism over the “British-sounding” name of the hospital.)

However, a better and bigger hospital was needed to take care of the overflowing masses of people coming in, and people wanted it in a dry location.

Subscribers were solicited for a new hospital; Kaimuki was selected. At about that time, Kaimuki was destined for growing development.

Gear, Lansing & Co. was proposing a 400-acre development with the intention “to divide the property into over 1,000 building lots, reserving suitable lands for parks, beer-gardens, hotels, churches, school-houses and saloons. The suburb will at some future day become an important ward in Honolulu.” (“A New Suburb,” an article from The Independent (Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii) July 18, 1898))

Originally charted in 1901 as the Honolulu Home for Incurables, its name was changed to the “Lēʻahi Home” in 1906. In 1942 the word “Hospital” was substituted for the word “Home.”

From 1900 to 1909 Dr. Archibald Neil Sinclair was city physician of Honolulu and from 1900 to 1919 was also associated with the United States Public Health Service as acting assistant surgeon.

Sinclair was made a director of Lēʻahi Home in 1900, and from 1911 to 1916 was physician in charge of the tuberculosis bureau and bacteriological department of the Territorial Board of Health.

By September 1902, the buildings that became Lēʻahi Hospital contained an administration building and four wards on a six acre site.

In the 1940s, Lēʻahi Hospital grew from a four ward building into a modern hospital. It served as the safeguard of the tuberculosis control in the Territory of Hawai‘i.

It initially took patients with all types of chronic and incurable diseases, then in the early 1950s began accepting only diagnosed and suspected cases of tuberculosis.

The hospital has been expanded and modernized over the years with skilled nursing, rehabilitative services and outpatient services, including an adult day health program, geriatric clinic and elder-law counseling for elderly residents in the community.

Lēʻahi Hospital transitioned to providing nursing home and adult day health services, in addition to continuing the provision of institutional tuberculosis care.

The facility is located on Kilauea Avenue, across from the Kapiʻolani Community College.

Lēʻahi is one of 12 public health facilities managed by the Hawaii Health Systems Corporation, a semi-autonomous state agency that administers twelve State hospitals.

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Leahi Nurses Quarters and Staff Dining Building-under construction in 1950

Nursing and Clinical building for Leahi Hospital-PP-40-8-037

September 17, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

“Dream City”

In 1843, as kids, Samuel Thomas Alexander and Henry Perrine Baldwin, sons of pioneer missionaries, met in Lahainā, Maui. They grew up together, became close friends and went on to develop a sugar-growing partnership that spanned generations and left an indelible mark on Hawaiʻi.

Fast forward 100-years to 1949, Alexander & Baldwin formed Kahului Development Co., Ltd. (KDCo) (the predecessor of A&B Properties, Inc.) to serve as a development arm of the agricultural-based entity.

This timing coincided with the sugar company’s plan to close down some plantation camps. To provide for housing for its sugar workers, as well as meet post-WWII housing demand, KDCo announced a new residential development in Central Maui, in the area we now refer to as Kahului.

“Dream City,” a planned residential community was launched and over the next couple decades 3,500+ fee simple homes were offered for sale in 14-increments of the new development.

While the community originally was planned to house the company’s workers from Hawai‘i Commercial and Sugar (mills and plantations) and Kahului Railroad Co., the company decided to not limit ownership to their own employees.

Part of the prior plantation philosophy was to house imported laborers in camps, usually segregated by ethnic groups. However, one goal of Dream City was to bring together the then-existing 25 plantation communities into a single planned modern urban setting.

Planning for the project took 2-years, under the services of Harland Bartholomew of Harland Bartholomew & Associates, St. Louis – a nationally recognized planning firm.

The first task was to identify the housing and living problems in central Maui, then develop a master plan on how best a new community could be designed.

Under this 25-year plan, Kahului quickly became one of the first and most successful planned towns west of the Rockies – and the first in Hawai‘i.

The homes were concrete and hollow-tile construction and thoroughly modern. There are 17 different designs available. Each had three bedrooms and a floor space of 1,090 square feet, plus a garage.

The price (generally $6,000 to $9,200 – with terms of $600 down and payments of $50 per month) included all the bathroom fixtures, the kitchen sink, laundry trays, clothesline, all the fixtures, including switches and floor plugs.

The price did not include the landscape or furniture or kitchen appliances. The landscape work was to be done under the direction of the University of Hawaiʻi agricultural extension service, Maui branch.

The plan for Kahului included spaces for modern business and shopping centers, schools, churches, playgrounds and recreation facilities. In 1951, the company built and opened the Kahului Shopping Center – Hawaiʻi’s third shopping center (behind Aloha (in Waipahu) and ʻĀina Haina.)

In January of 1948, Franklin D Richards, Director of the Federal Housing Administration described the new Kahului town housing project as the Nation’s “outstanding” development.

Mr. Richards said, “That house in Kahului is absolutely the best of its kind I have seen in 15 years’ experience as head of the FHA. I sincerely believe the Kahului home to represent the maximum in low-cost housing. There is nothing better in my experience in the continental United States, Alaska, Puerto Rico, or Hawaii.”

Reportedly, on July 25, 1950, Masaru Omuri carried his wife Evelyn over the threshold of their new home. It made the headlines in the local paper. The Omuris were the first of many residents to move into the Dream City (the “new Kahului.”)

As the development proceeded, the plantation villages were closed down, one by one, according to a schedule that gave the workers and the workers unions ten years’ advance notice.

It was announced that the plantation planned to be out of the housing business within ten years of the start of the project, and February 1, 1963, was the date it was all supposed to shut down. It took a little longer than that, but the schedule was implemented pretty much as planned.

The first homes were built along each side of Puʻunene Avenue on lots between 9,000 and 10,000 square feet. The average price of these homes, as announced in July, 1949, was $7,250 each.

The development outpaced all of the planners’ expectations. At its peak, it was reported, houses and lots were being sold every two minutes.

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Kahului-Dream_City-Master_Plan-(co-maui-hi-us)-1947

Puunene Store (left) and Kahului Railroad Station and post office (right). Kahului, Maui (KatsugoMiho)

Waialeale, Inter-Island Steamship. Pier 2. Kahului, Maui. Pre-World War II-(KatsugoMiho)

Mr. and Mrs. Gilbert Amaral and Son, “'Dream City,' Maui, 1958

Kahului_Town_Development-1st_Increment-1949

Kahului_Town_Development-2nd_Increment-1951

Kahului_Town_Development-3rd_Increment-1952

Kahului_Town_Development-4th_Increment-1953

Kahului_Town_Development-5th_Increment-1955

Kahului_Town_Development-6th_Increment-1960

September 16, 2019 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Historic Curbs and Sidewalks

As early as 1838, sidewalks along Honolulu streets were constructed, usually of wood. Paved streets were unknown until 1881; in that year, the first, Fort Street, was paved.

The first sidewalk made of brick was laid down in 1857 fronting a shop on Merchant Street; Hawaii’s first concrete sidewalk was poured in front of a store on Queen Street in 1886.

Here are a couple stories about some ‘historic’ curbs and sidewalks in Honolulu. (Remember, State law, §6E-2 says “Historic property” means any building, structure, object, district, area, or site, including heiau and underwater site, which is over fifty years old.)

As a UH graduate, I am very familiar with the area known as “the Quarry” on the UH campus. We still go down to that area of the campus to watch UH athletics.

From 1889 to 1949, Mōʻiliʻili Quarry provided the stone that was used to build Honolulu’s streets, sidewalks and curbstones, as well as some of its prominent buildings.

Holes were cut into the rock wall, using pneumatic drills. Dynamite was fitted into the holes, and its detonation would bring the entire face of the wall down, then they took the rock to the crushing plant within the Quarry site.

The University wanted the Quarry site for campus expansion and the Hawaiʻi legislature authorized the purchase in 1945

The first major and permanent construction of facilities in the Quarry began in 1956; and in 1957 Klum Gym, Team Lockers-Varsity Building, Locker Building, classrooms and an indoor enclosed boxing room were completed.

As you walk along Honolulu streets, look at the old lava rock curbs; it’s very likely these came from the Mōʻiliʻili Quarry. These curbs are historic and serve as examples of the distinctive method of street construction in Honolulu during the late-1800s and the early-1900s.

These curb stones are rough-hewn below grade, but squared at their exposed surfaces. The width and height of the exposed surfaces are typically about 6 inches, but the buried depth is several feet. They are of varying lengths, from 2′ to over 5′. Some curbs at intersections exhibit a slight curvature to follow the contour of the street corner.

In the mid- to late-19th century, sailing vessels from China or the continent bound for Honolulu to pick up sandalwood or sugar cane would fill their holds with granite as ballast (it added stability to the sailing vessels and weren’t needed when loaded with heavy cargo.)

As more and more ships dumped their granite ballast on the docks, someone came up with the idea to use them for sidewalks. These blocks are scattered throughout Chinatown, and many were used in the construction of a few buildings.

The original stones were several inches thick and were placed side by side with no gap between them – many of these are still around. However, today, there are reproductions of these sidewalks on Maunakea Street

In the early 1900s, the city of Honolulu was engaged in modernizing its streets and replacing dusty footpaths with broad sidewalks. The following appeared in the Hawaiian Annual of 1900:

“Official notice had been published requiring property owners to construct concrete sidewalks throughout the city, as far out as Thomas Square, according to specifications. This public improvement is in progress, to be followed by the re-macadamizing (paving) of many streets.”

John Walker (later, the firm Walker-Moody) pursued this business and soon his sidewalks proliferated throughout the city. Unlike modern sidewalks, his were a very dark gray due to the addition of charcoal, and were given a smooth, almost polished finish, many of them labeled with the name John Walker etched in the curbstones (few remain.)

Back then, the name John Walker was virtually synonymous with sidewalks. So well known was the name the unemployed men, when asked, “Who are you working for”, often answered, “John Walker”. In other words, they were pounding the sidewalks looking for work.

Again, historic property is generally defined as something that is over 50-years old. In addition to criminal penalties, State law may impose Civil Penalties on any person who violates the law with fines up to $10,000 for each separate violation (each day of each violation constitutes a separate violation.)

Rather than remove the stones, when contractors are making repairs to City streets, they are required to reinstall the curbing after the completion of the work. If reinstallation isn’t possible, contractors are required to salvage the stones and hand them over to the city for storage and later reuse on other city road projects.

When I was at DLNR, we were involved with a case where historic curb stones were being used as part of a decorative walkway in a private garden. (They were ultimately returned.)

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Sidewalk Stamp Downtown Honolulu-John_Walker-(walker-moody-com)

Sidewalk Stamp Downtown Honolulu-John_Walker-(walker-moody-com)-1971

Moiliili Quarry (C&C-Honolulu-hawaii-edu)-1923

Moiliili Quarry site-Tantalus is in the background-(star-bulletin)

September 15, 2019 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Hanalei Bay Pier

Hanalei … Taro … Pier –> you’d expect these are all associated and the reason for the picturesque pier in Hanalei Bay. … Kinda.

The Hanalei Bay Pier was originally built to serve the region’s thriving rice industry (recall that as taro production declined in the mid- to late-1800s, many of the loʻi were converted to rice cultivation.)

The Chinese were growing rice at Hanalei at least by 1882, and by 1892, Hanalei and Waioli, with 750 acres of land devoted to rice farming, were the largest rice producing areas in Hawaii.

At this time, rice was the number two agricultural product of the Hawaiian kingdom (behind sugar,) having developed as a major crop in the 1860s when numerous Chinese farmers left the sugar cane plantations following the expiration of their five-year contracts.

Occupying taro patches vacated by a declining Hawaiian population, these rice farmers found a ready market for their product in Honolulu and California, as more and more Chinese immigrated to these areas.

At the time of annexation (1898,) Hawaii was third in rice production in the United States, behind Louisiana and South Carolina.

Annexation, with the removal of all tariffs boomed the sugar industry, however spelled the downfall of Hawaiian rice production. This caused agricultural land costs to rise from $10-20/acre to $30-35/acre, forcing rice land to be converted to cane use.

Annexation also brought with it Chinese exclusion policies which led to a decreased market for rice. In a matter of five years Hawaii’s Chinese population dropped by 6,000, which was a significant factor in the Honolulu market (the Japanese did not purchase the local rice, preferring to use rice imported from their homeland.)

Other difficulties confronting the rice farmer included an increased need to fertilize (the well-used lands began to show signs of exhaustion;) in addition, a labor shortage caused by many Chinese leaving their farms in hopes of earning more elsewhere.

The decline in the Chinese population, the requirements for fertilizer, competition from California rice growers and the introduction of a rice-borer insect all served as contributing factors to the decline of rice farming.

Since the islands of Hawaiʻi are separated from one another and the rest of the world by the Pacific Ocean, ships and boats have been the major means of transporting goods between the islands and frequently to different areas of the same island.

On Kauaʻi, in the early twentieth century, Port Alien was the major port with Nawiliwili and Hanalei serving as local shipping centers.

Large-scale development of Nawiliwili harbor commenced in 1926 and, with its completion in 1930, Nawiliwili became Kauaʻi’s primary harbor.

As a result of its expansion, the tonnage handled by Nawiliwili jumped from 3,766 tons in 1929 to 56,439 tons in 1931. Much of this increased tonnage reflected an improved highway system which led to a decreased use of smaller ports on the island.

As a result of little use, Hanalei pier was abandoned in 1933, marking the end of an era of inter-island transportation.

Originally, a pier there was constructed out of timber, prior to 1882. The pier was reconstructed with reinforced concrete piles and beams and a wooden deck in 1912.

The structure was used seasonally, primarily to transport rice from Hanalei to Honolulu.

The Hanalei River is adjacent to Hanalei Pier, much of the valley’s rice “arrived at the pier area on the black barges of the rice plantations up the river.” At the foot of Hanalei Pier was a freight storage warehouse connected to the pier by railroad tracks.

From the mauka landing, the rice was shuttled to the end of the pier on a set of iron railroad tracks and then loaded onto boats. Small whale boats known as “lighters” carried rice to steamers anchored out in Hanalei Bay.

Interisland steamers docked in the deeper waters of Hanalei Bay while cargo was rowed to and from the pier.

Due to the difficulty in maintaining the wooden deck, the Territorial Legislature in 1921 appropriated funds for the construction of a concrete deck. The wooden decking was subsequently replaced with reinforced concrete in 1922.

The Hanalei Pier is a steel reinforced concrete finger pier which extends from the beach out into Hanalei Bay. It is 340-feet long and has a 32 x 72 terminus with a shed on it. (The shed at the end of the pier was originally built in 1940.)

From the 1940s until the present, the pier has been primarily a recreational resource for fishing, picnicking, etc. Located adjacent to a beach park, it is a highly scenic attraction to visitor and resident alike.

The pier was featured in the 1957 classic film “South Pacific”. Kauaʻi may not be in the South Pacific, but the 1958 movie musical “South Pacific” put it on the map as a premiere film location.

On the east side of Hanalei Pier is Black Pot Beach Park, named after a big iron pot that was used to cook fish caught during a hukilau, a traditional fishing practice in which everyone cooperates to spot, net, and gather fish.

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AERIAL VIEW OF PIER Photographer-unknown. Date-June 20, 1978-(LOC)-058525pv

AERIAL VIEW OF PIER, LOOKING SOUTHWEST Photographer-unknown. Date-unknown-(LOC)-058522pv

DISTANT VIEW OF PIER, LOOKING SOUTHWEST Photographer-Augie Salbosa. Date-February 22, 1991-(LOC)-058526pv

Hanalei_Pier,_Hanalei_Bay_off_Weke_Road,_Hanalei_(Kauai_County,_Hawaii)-(WC)-1978

VIEW OF PIER, LOOKING NORTHWEST Photographer-Augie Salbosa. Date-February 22, 1991-(LOC)-058528pv

September 14, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Ancient Agricultural Production Intensification

According the research and reporting by noted archaeologists, there were three main technological advances resulting in food production intensification in pre-contact Hawai‘i: (a) walled fishponds, (b) terraced pondfields with their irrigation systems and (c) systematic dry-land field cultivation organized by vegetation zones.

Walled Fishponds

The Hawaiian walled fishpond stands as a technological achievement unmatched elsewhere in island Oceania. Hawaiians built rock-walled enclosures in near shore waters, to raise fish for their communities and families. It is believed these were first built around the fifteenth century.

Only in Hawaiʻi was there such an intensive effort to utilize practically every body of water, from seashore to upland forests, as a source of food, for either agriculture or aquaculture.

The ancient Hawaiian fishpond is a sophisticated land and ocean resource management technique. Utilizing raw materials such as rocks, corals, vines and woods, the Hawaiians created great walls (kuapā) and gates (mākāhā) for these fishponds.

The general term for a fishpond is loko (pond), or more specifically, loko iʻa (fishpond). Loko iʻa were used for the fattening and storing of fish for food and also as a source for kapu (forbidden) fish.

The cultivation of fish took place in Hawaiian agricultural pondfields as well as in specialized fresh and brackish water fishponds. Walled, brackish-water fishponds were usually constructed on the reef along the shore and one or more mākāhā.

Samuel M. Kamakau points out that “one can see that they were built as government projects by chiefs, for it was a very big task to build one, (and) commoners could not have done it (singly, or without co-ordination.)” Chiefs had the power to command a labor force large enough to transport the tons of rock required and to construct such great walls.

In 1848, when King Kamehameha III pronounced the Great Māhele, or land distribution, Hawaiian fishponds were considered private property. This was confirmed in subsequent Court cases that noted “titles to fishponds are recognized to the same extent and in the same manner as rights recognized in fast land.”

Lo‘i Kalo (terraced pondfields)

A second technological invention by Hawaiian Polynesians was the development of their extended stone-faced, terraced pondfields (lo‘i) and their accompanying irrigation systems (‘auwai) for the intensive cultivation of wetland taro (kalo.)

The terraces were irrigated with water brought in ditches from springs and streams high in the valleys, allowing extensive areas of the valleys to be cultivated. The irrigation ditches and pondfields were engineered to allow the cool water to circulate among the taro plants and from terrace to terrace, avoiding stagnation and overheating by the sun, which would rot the taro tubers.

An acre of irrigated pondfields produced as much as five times the amount of taro as an acre of dryland cultivation. Over a period of several years, irrigated pondfields could be as much as 10 or 15 times more productive than unirrigated taro gardens, as dryland gardens need to lie fallow for greater lengths of time thin irrigated gardens.

In addition, walled pondfields not only produce taro, but were also used to raise an additional source of food, freshwater fish: primarily the Hawaiian goby (‘o‘opu nakea) and certain kinds of shrimp (‘opae.)

Captain George Vancouver visited O‘ahu in 1792 and wrote about the taro gardens in tine Waikīkī-Kapahulu-Mo‘ili‘ili-Manana complex that he observed:

“Our guides led us to the northward through the village [Waikiki], to an exceedingly well-made causeway, about twelve feet broad, with a ditch on each side. This opened to our view a spacious plain…the major part appeared divided into fields of irregular shape and figure, which were separated from each other by low stone walls, and were in a very high state of cultivation.”

In 1815, the explorer Kotzebue added to these descriptions by writing about the gardens and the artificial ponds that were scattered throughout the area:

“The luxuriant taro-fields, which might be properly called taro-lake, attracted my attention. Each of these consisted of about one hundred and sixty square feet, forms a regular square, and walled round with stones, like our basins. This field or tank contained two feet of water, in whose slimy bottom the taro was planted, as it only grows in moist places. Each had two sluices. One to receive, and the other to let out, the water into the next field, whence it was carried farther.”

Dryland Field System

The third form of subsistence intensification involved the systematic cultivation of dryland crops in their appropriate vegetation zones as exemplified by the Field Systems in Kona, Kohala, Kaupō and Kalaupapa (Ka‘ū reportedly also has a field system.)

Cultivation of the soil in Kona was characterized by a variety of non-irrigated root and tree crops grown for subsistence, each farmer having gardens in one or more vegetation zones. Each crop was cultivated in the zone in which it grew best.

Reverend William Ellis described the area behind Kailua town in Kona above the breadfruit and mountain apple trees as, “The path now lay through a beautiful part of the country, quite a garden compared with that through which they had passed on first leaving the town.”

“It was generally divided into small fields, about fifteen rods square fenced with low stone walls, built with fragments of lava gathered from the surface of the enclosures. These fields were planted with bananas, sweet potatoes, mountain taro, paper mulberry plants, melons, and sugar-cane, which flourished luxuriantly in every direction.”

Farmers found, farmed and intensified production on lands that were poised between being too wet and too dry. Archaeological evidence of intensive cultivation of sweet potato and other dryland crops is extensive, including walls, terraces, mounds and other features.

The fields were typically oriented parallel to the elevation contours and the walls; sometimes these were made up of a grid of rain-fed plots, defined by low stone field walls built, in part, to shelter sweet potatoes and other crops from the wind.

Since the dryland technique was away from supplemental water sources, this was truly dryland agriculture. There was no evidence to level terraces as in irrigated pondfield systems (taro lo‘i,) and there was no evidence of water control features or channels; so the conclusion was the system was strictly rainfed.

The inspiration (and much of the information) for this post came from research from Dr. Marion Kelly.

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