Hawaii | Page 291 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

May 28, 2019 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Fort Ruger

In January 1905, President Teddy Roosevelt instructed Secretary of War William H. Taft to convene the National Coast Defense Board (Taft Board) “to consider and report upon the coast defenses of the United States and the insular possessions (including Hawai‘i.)”

In 1906 the Taft Board recommended a system of Coast Artillery batteries to protect Pearl Harbor and Honolulu.

Between 1909-1921, the Hawaiian Coast Artillery Command had its headquarters at Fort Ruger and defenses included artillery regiments stationed at Fort Armstrong, Fort Barrette, Fort DeRussy, Diamond Head, Fort Kamehameha, Kuwa‘aohe Military Reservation (Fort Hase – later known as Marine Corps Base Hawaiʻi) and Fort Weaver.

The forts and battery emplacements batteries were dispersed for concealment and to insure that a projectile striking one would not thereby endanger a neighbor.

Fort Ruger Military Reservation was established at Diamond Head (Lēʻahi) in 1906. The Reservation was named in honor of Major General Thomas H. Ruger, who served from 1871 to 1876 as the superintendent of the United States Military Academy at West Point.

The fort included Battery Harlow (1910-1943); Battery Birkhimer (1916-1943); Battery Granger Adams (1935-1946); Battery Dodge (1915-1925); Battery Mills (1916-1925); Battery 407 (1944); Battery Hulings (1915-1925); and Battery Ruger (1937-1943).

According to the specifications called for by the Taft Board and subsequent updates, various guns and mortars were included at the various Batteries. These included 12″ Mortars, 8” on railway barbette carriages and other gun emplacements.

A network of tunnels was carved into the mountain and cannon emplacements were placed atop the crater rim along with observation posts and bunkers.

The fortifications within the Fort are all made of reinforced concrete and vary in size from the massive Battery Harlow and the four-story fire control station at the top of Leahi, to a dozen more modest six pound gun emplacements along the rim of the crater.

Battery Harlow is a massive reinforced concrete structure imbedded into the rear of Diamond Head. Built in 1910, it has three large bunkers which are separated by “courtyards” that served as platforms from which eight 12-inch mortars were fired.

Batteries Hulings and Dodge were completed in October 1915. These reinforced concrete structures tunnel through the wall of the crater and each contains one small room. The gun platforms with 4.7 inch guns are on the exterior wall of the crater.

Also dating from 1915 are a dozen 6 pound gun emplacements which are located along the rim of the crater. These are simple concrete slabs with eye rings which helped keep the weapons in place. These were installed to protect the batteries against ground attack.

Battery Birkhimer is located on the floor of the crater, near the rear. It also is made of reinforced concrete and primarily lies beneath the ground. Only its concrete portals are visible from the surface. Completed in 1916, this battery originally was armed with four 12-inch mortars.

Battery 407 was started in 1943 and completed near the end of World War II. Located on the front of Diamond Head, it has tunnels which go through the walls of the crater; it was armed with two 8-inch guns.

Battery Mills existed from 1916 to 1925 on the Kupikipikio Point Reservation on the lava point now known as Black Point and has long since been removed.

Battery Granger Adams (which replaced Battery Mills) was built there between 1933 and 1935, then decommissioned in 1946. Roads and houses now cover this area.

The four-story fire control tower located at the top of Leahi was built between 1908-1910. It is reached by a trail which terminates at the 560 foot elevation, then up a concrete stairway to a 225 foot long tunnel, finally a long concrete staircase of 99 steps leads to another tunnel which opens out on the south face of Diamond Head (with four levels of fire control stations.)

From this elaborate fire control station all the guns along the leeward coast could be commanded. The lowest level was for Battery Randolph at Fort DeRussy.

The next station above served both Randolph and Dudley at DeRussy. The third level commanded Battery Harlow at Fort Ruger and the top level was the battle commander’s station.

From this vantage point, 761 feet above sea level, the battle commander could view the coast from Koko Head to Waianae.

The conclusion of World War II and the advent of nuclear and missile warfare made the coastal batteries obsolete. Thus in December 1955 the majority of the land was turned over to the State of Hawai‘i.

Currently, Fort Ruger is down-scaled and part of the Diamond Head State Monument Park and is utilized for training and various administrative purposes by the Hawaii Army National Guard. Additionally, the installation is the presently home of the Joint Force Headquarters-Hawai‘i.

Battery Birkhimer has been recycled and presently serves as office space for the State Department of Defense. The other Batteries are generally used for storage.

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Encampment of the 3rd Balloon Company at Fort Ruger on back side of Diamond Head.

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Mortar Courtyard Battery Harlow-(NPS)-1982

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Fort Ruger, Kaimuki, Oahu-Wilhelmina Rise in background-(HSA)-PPWD-11-7-023-1914

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Leahi Summit-Fire Control-(NPS)-1982

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Battery 407-(NPS)-1982

12-inch-Mortars-(not Fort Ruger)

12-inch-Mortar-(not Fort Ruger)

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May 26, 2019 by Peter T Young 3 Comments

Uncle George

George Lycurgus (1858–1960) was a Greek American businessman who played an influential role in the early visitor industry of Hawaiʻi.

He was instrumental in the development of the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory and Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park.

In 1893, Lycurgus leased a small guest house on Waikīkī Beach. He expanded it and renamed it the “Sans Souci” (French for “without care” and named after the palace of Frederick the Great in Germany.)

It became one of the first Waikīkī beach resorts (that end of Waikīkī is still called “Sans-Souci Beach.”) Among its guests was Robert Louis Stevenson.

Stevenson wrote in the guest book: “If anyone desires such old-fashioned things as lovely scenery, quiet, pure air, clean sea water, good food, and heavenly sunsets hung out before their eyes over the Pacific and the distant hills of Waianae, I recommend him cordially to the Sans Souci.”

“In 1893 Sans Souci was a rambling hostelry, nestled among the coconut and palm trees of Waikiki Beach. The guests occupied small bungalows, thatched-roof affairs about ten by twelve, the bed being the principal article of furniture.”

“It was in one of these bungalows that Stevenson had established himself, propped up with pillows on the bed in his shirt-sleeves.” Scribner’s Magazine, August, 1926.

By 1898, the Spanish American War had increased American interest in the Pacific. Hawaiʻi was annexed as a territory of the United States and Lycurgus applied for American citizenship.

He opened a restaurant called the Union Grill in Honolulu in 1901. He later invested in a logging venture in 1907 and also bought the Hilo Hotel in 1908.

In 1903, when he returned to Greece to visit his mother, he met and married Athena Geracimos from Sparta. She was probably the first Greek woman in Hawaiʻi.

In December 1904, George and his nephew (Demosthenes Lycurgus) became principal stockholders of the Volcano House Company and took over the management of the Volcano House hotel on the Big Island of Hawaiʻi.

His nephew always introduced him as “Uncle George” to the guests, which earned him his new nickname.

He worked with Lorrin Thurston and others for ten years, starting in 1906, to have the volcano area made into Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park.

In January 1912, geologist Thomas Jaggar arrived to investigate the volcano. A building for scientific instruments was built in a small building next to the hotel. Jaggar stayed in Volcano for the next 28 years.

In 1921, George Lycurgus sold the Volcano House to the Inter-Island Steam Navigation Company and moved to Hilo. During the Great Depression the company was going bankrupt and Lycurgus bought it back.

A fire destroyed the hotel in 1940, ironically from a kitchen oil burner, not volcanic activity. Only a few artifacts, such as a koa wood piano, were saved.

At the age of 81, he traveled to Washington, DC to have the construction of the new park headquarters building farther back from the lip of the crater.

That allowed him, in 1941, to build a more modern hotel at the former Hawaiian Volcano Observatory site. He reopened the new Volcano House (designed by notable architect Charles William Dickey.)

After another eruption in 1952, at the age of 93, he arranged a publicity stunt involving riding a horse to the rim of the erupting vent and tossing in his ceremonial bottle of gin. (The offering of gin became a regular at Volcano after that.)

Uncle George died in 1960 at the age of 101.

The National Park recently announced that Hawaiʻi Volcanoes Lodge Company has been selected to operate the Volcano House Hotel, Nāmakanipaio cabins and campground and other commercial services within Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park. The facility is scheduled to reopen in late-2012.

Volcano has been a special place for me.

As a kid, our family often visited Volcano and regularly stayed at the Volcano House. I remember seeing and meeting Uncle George while he was sitting before the continuously-burning fireplace at the Volcano House.

Decades later, I purposefully went to Volcano to plan the formation of my first business; the initial planning was on cocktail napkins at the Volcano House bar (the business succeeded.)

Today, the Young siblings own a house at Volcano our mother built; I used to visit there once a month, but now get back to it less frequently.

The Volcano Art Center Gallery is located in the 1877 Volcano House Hotel (now adjacent to the Volcano Visitor Center) under a cooperative agreement with the National Park Service.

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Uncle George Lycurgus

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Uncle_George_Lycurgus-1958

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San Souci Beach Area – large house (Mitchell) is where Natatorium is now located-1886

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May 25, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kawainui Marsh

Ko‘olau volcano started its life as a seamount above the Hawaiian hotspot around 4-million years ago. It broke sea level some time prior to 2.9-million years ago.

About 2-million years ago, much of the northeast flank of Ko‘olau volcano was sheared off and material was swept more than 140-miles north of O‘ahu and Moloka‘i onto the ocean floor (named the Nu‘uanu Avalanche) – one of the largest landslides on Earth.

Following a period of dormancy, Ko‘olau eruptions about 1-million years ago (known as the Honolulu Volcanic Series) created landmarks such as Diamond Head, Hanauma Bay and Punchbowl Crater. Ko‘olau’s eroded remnants make up the Ko‘olau Mountain Range.

About 6,000 years ago and before the arrival of the Hawaiians, Kawainui (“the large [flow of] fresh water”) and Ka‘elepulu (“the moist blackness”) were bays connected to the ocean and extended a mile inland of the present coastline. This saltwater environment is indicated by inland deposits of sand and coral.

A sand bar began forming across Kawainui Bay around 2,500 years ago creating Kawainui Lagoon filled with coral, fish and shellfish. The Hawaiians probably first settled along the fringes of this lagoon.

Gradually, erosion of the hillsides surrounding Kawainui began to fill in the lagoon with sediments.

About 500 years ago, early Hawaiians maintained the freshwater fishpond in Kawainui; the fishpond was surrounded on all sides by a system of canals (‘auwai) bringing water from Maunawili Stream and springs to walled taro lo‘i.

In 1750, Kailua was the political seat of power for the district of Ko‘olaupoko and a favored place of the O‘ahu chiefs for its abundance of fish and good canoe landings.

Kawainui was once the largest cultivated freshwater fishpond on Oahu. Rimming the wetland are numerous heiau (temples.)

Farmers grew kalo (taro) in the irrigated lo‘i (fields) along the streams from Maunawili and along the edges of the fishponds. Crops of dryland kalo, banana, sweet potato and sugarcane marked the fringes of the marsh. Fishermen harvested fish from the fishponds and the sea.

In the 1880s, Chinese farmers converted the taro fields of Kawainui to rice, but abandoned their farms by 1920. Cattle grazed throughout much of Kawainui.

The marsh drains into the ocean at the north end of Kailua Beach through Kawainui Canal (Oneawa Channel.)

The marsh attracts migratory seabirds and is home to four species of endangered waterbirds: the Hawaiian stilt (aeʻo), the Hawaiian coot (ʻalae keʻokeʻo), the Hawaiian gallinule (ʻalaeʻula) and the Hawaiian duck (kōloa maoli).

In 1979, the US National Registrar for Historic Places issued a “Determination of Eligibility Notification” finding that Kawainui Marsh area is eligible for listing in the National Register for Historic Places.

According to the determination, “Kawainui Marsh is important as a major component of a larger cultural district which would include … the ponding/wet agricultural area … remains of extensive terracing systems, ceremonial sites, burial sites, and habitation areas associated with this agricultural complex”.

In 2005, the Kawainui and Hāmākua Marsh Complex was designated as a Wetlands of International Importance and added to the Ramsar List (Ramsar site no. 1460.)

The Convention on Wetlands (Ramsar, Iran, 1971) – called the “Ramsar Convention” – is an intergovernmental treaty that embodies the commitments of its member countries to maintain the ecological character of their Wetlands of International Importance and to plan for the “wise use”, or sustainable use, of all of the wetlands in their territories.

Kawainui Marsh also functions as a flood storage basin to protect Kailua. As part of flood control measures, the Oneawa Canal and levee started in 1950 and were completed a few years later. When flood waters over-topped the levee and flooded Coconut Grove in the December 31, 1987-January 1, 1988 flood, the levee was raised and floodwall added.

Projects are underway to restore waterbird habitat, as well as care for some of the historic sites. DLNR has plans for visitor center and trails around the wetland – they have been on the books for a long time, it would be nice to see those community visions come to fruition.

Lots of good work is being done by lots of dedicated folks in helping to restore Kawainui Marsh, including ‘Ahahui Mālama I Ka Lōkahi (led by Doc Burrows,) Kailua Hawaiian Civic Club and others.

When I was a kid, we referred to this area as the “swamp” – many of the old maps referred to it as such. Auto parts shops lined the road at its edge; the dump was nearby. Times have changed.

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Kailua-Aerial-(2667)-UH_Manoa-USGS-1951

Kailua-(Levee_and_Oneawa_Channel-under_Construction)-Aerial-(2442)-UH_Manoa-USGS-1952

Kawainui_Marsh_(Forest & Kim Starr)

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Kawainui_(Forest & Kim Starr)

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May 24, 2019 by Peter T Young 3 Comments

Downtown Honolulu In 1950

A picture is worth a thousand words; they (and maps) tell stories. This map tells lots of stories … and brings back some great memories.

OK, I wasn’t even born when the map was printed. But a few years later, when I was a kid, there are a lot of familiar places (and associated stories) depicted on this map.

Take some time looking at the ownership and operations up and down the streets. There have been lots of changes since then – but the memories are still here.

Back then, Bishop only went to Beretania – with no further mauka extension (it finally popped through and extended/ connected to the Pali Highway and became the windward gateway into “Town.”)
Bishop Street was the home of the Big 5. Bishop Street was and continues to be the center of Hawai‘i commerce and banking (in the center of the map, running up/down.)

Did you notice their placement on Bishop Street (and to each other) back then (as well as the battling banks across Bishop Street from each other?)

Five major companies emerged to provide operations, marketing, supplies and other services for the plantations and eventually came to own and manage most of them. They became known as the Big 5:

Amfac (1849) – Hackfeld & Company – a German firm that later became American Factors Ltd (Amfac.) It was started by a young German selling goods to whalers and grew to manage and control various sugar operations.
Alexander & Baldwin (1870) – started by Samuel Thomas Alexander and Henry Perrine Baldwin, sons of missionaries. It was the only Big 5 that started in sugar. Their irrigation project sent water 17-miles from Haleakala to 3,000-dry sugar cane acres in central Maui.
Theo H. Davies (1845) – a British firm that started as a small isle trading company and expanded into other businesses including sugar, transportation and insurance.
Castle & Cooke (1851) – founded by missionaries (Samuel Northrup Castle and Amos Starr Cooke,) which originally sold sewing machines, farm tools and medicine in Hawaii. It later bought stock in sugar plantations and focused on sugar companies.
C. Brewer – (1826) founded by James Hunnewell, an officer on the Thaddeus that brought the original missionaries to Hawai‘i in 1820. He returned in 1826 to set up a trading company specialized in supplying whaling ships but then moved into sugar and molasses. The firm’s namesake, Capt. Charles Brewer, became a partner in 1836.

Another Hawai‘i family and company, Dillingham, started in the late-1800s, although not a “Big Five,” deserves some attention – it’s offices were down there, too (next to the Big 5.)

They played a critical role in agricultural operations through leasing land and controlling some operations, but mostly moved the various goods on OR&L.

Back in the ‘50s, Fort Street was “it” for shopping (to the left of Bishop Street, also running mauka/makai – now, it’s mostly a pedestrian mall.)

You can read the names of old Honolulu retail iconic institutions – Liberty House, McInerny, Watumull and Andrade – along with Kress, Woolworths, National Dollar and Longs Drugs.

I remember the “moving windows” during Christmas season; we’d pile in the station wagon and take a special trip over the Pali to downtown to Christmas shop (the Pali Tunnels and Ala Moana Center weren’t open until 1959.)

We’d walk up and down Fort Street and look at all the animated window displays, then stop in at a restaurant for dinner (one of our favorites was Fisherman’s Wharf at Kewalo Basin.)

‘Iolani Palace is on the site labeled Territorial Executive Grounds (we’re still nine years away from statehood;) mauka of it had different uses – it’s now the State Capitol and Hotel Street walkway.

The YWCA (just to the left of ‘Iolani Palace) is still going strong and nearby was the YMCA, now converted to the Hawai‘i State Art Museum and state offices.

The Alexander Young Hotel, opened in 1903 (on Bishop between Hotel and King,) was later converted hold offices and was demolished in 1981.

You can see some roads have changed or have been consolidated into adjoining properties. Did you notice, back then, Ala Moana/Nimitz on the map was called Queen Street?

In my early years in real estate (while still a student at UH, I used to do research in the Tax Office and Bureau of Conveyances (lower right of map.) Fifty-years later, I directed DLNR which now has the Bureau of Conveyances under its management umbrella.

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Bishop Street ended at Beretania in 1959

American Factors Building was demolishe

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Theo H Davies Building-1920s

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Schuman Carriage-corner of Beretania and Richards-the entire block was torn down to build the State Capitol Building-1950s

McInerny

Alexander Young Building

Honolulu Iron Works 1960. Today it is the location of Restaurant Row.

Honolulu Harbor-1950s

Fort Street looking mauka from King street-11-08-59

Downtown Honolulu in 1956. McInerny on the left, and the overhead lines are for trolley buses

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May 23, 2019 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Holokū and Mu‘umu‘u

In pre-contact Hawaii, the predominant form of dress for women was the pā‘ū.

This consisted of a rectangular piece of kapa (or tapa, which was fabricated from the inner bark of wauke (paper mulberry) trees) that was wrapped several times around the waist and extended from beneath the bust (for royalty) or the waistline (for commoners) to the knee (it looked like a hula skirt.)

After contact (and particularly in the early-1800s with the start of the sandalwood trade in 1810 and then the whaling industry,) fabrics made of silk, satin and gingham began to replace the kapa fabric for the pa‘u. This was especially true among the Ali’i.

An even more important change in dress began in the 1820s with the coming of the New England missionaries, who sought to cover the bodies of Hawaiian women, who traditionally wore nothing more than the skirt.

The missionary wives modified their New England-style dresses to adapt to the hot, humid environment. They replaced the high waistline of Western fashion with a yoke.

The end result was a basic design (referred to as a “Mother Hubbard”) which was simply a full, straight skirt attached to a yoke with a high neck and tight sleeves.

The missionaries established women’s societies that advanced the notion of modesty.

The diaries of missionary women report that Hawaiian women who had been Christianized adopted the holokū as daily dress by 1822 and it became standard dress of all Hawaiian women as early as 1838.

“All the women wore the native dress, the sack or holokū, many of which were black, blue, green, or bright rose color, some were bright yellow, a few were pure white, and others were a mixture of orange and scarlet.” Isabella Bird 1894

“At first the holokū, which is only a full, yoke nightgown, is not attractive, but I admire it heartily now, and the sagacity of those who devised it.”

“It conceals awkwardness, and befits grace of movement; it is fit for the climate, is equally adapted for walking and riding, and has that general appropriateness which is desirable in costume.” (Isabella Bird, 1894)

Various stories place the naming of the garment very early in its creation. According to one, the term holokū was created from two Hawaiian words, holo meaning to go, and kū meaning to stop.

Wearing the garment for the first time, the Hawaiian women are reported to have said “Holo! Kū!” Very roughly translated, this means “We can run in it – we can stand!”

The more commonly cited explanation for the term, holokū, suggest native seamstresses, when sewing their dresses, would say “holo!”(run) as they turned the wheel to operate the sewing machine, and “kū” (stop) when they wished to stop at the end of a seam. Consequently, these two words were connected and the term is explained.

The holokū was worn with a loose-fitting undergarment, the mu‘umu‘u (meaning cut-off, shortened.) Eventually, the mu‘umu‘u came to be worn as an outer garment, as well.

The muʻumuʻu in the early days was a dress for home wear. It was made full and unfitted with high or low neck and long or short sleeves

It is the more comfortable muʻumuʻu that has challenged the present day designers to create many variations for home, street and party wear.

Although it originated in Hawaii in the 1820s as a loose gown without a waistline or train and was worn for everyday wear, the holokū today is a long formal gown with a train.

For formal events, and other celebrations related to Hawaiian culture and ethnicity, the holokū is the quintessential Hawaiian gown.

While both holokū and mu‘umu‘u continue to be very important in Hawai‘i, it is the mu‘umu‘u that is regarded by most of the world as Hawaiian dress and the holokū that is practically unknown outside of Hawai’i.

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