Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Portland and Oregon

A small article in the Honolulu Star (March 27, 1900) made the announcement … “Hibernia block will probably be the name of the new sky scraper to go on Hotel Street, between Union and the Elite building.”

“It is not stated that the building will be painted green though best authorities agree that it will be one of the handsomest In Honolulu. Several stores in the block have already been spoken for.”

The green paint reference was suggested since Hibernia is the Latin name for Ireland (with green its national color.)  It’s not clear what its original color was, but it dropped the Hibernia name and ended up being called the “Oregon.”  It had an odd notch where the “Portland” building was added.

Part of it eventually gave way to Bishop Street; but that is getting ahead of ourselves.  Let’s look back.

Almost every new building erected during the construction boom that followed the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom and the annexation of Hawaiʻi by the US was anticipated by the press to be the best, the finest or, as in this case, the handsomest structure yet to adorn the city.  (Papacostas)  The anticipated Hibernia was no exception.

Before they built, they needed to take down some of the existing structures on the property – among them, the old Bell Tower building on Union Street.

“When first erected, the buildings were used by the volunteer fire department and the hook and ladder and an engine were housed there. In the tall tower the fire bell was hung and a watchman gazed from its heights, during the night-time to detect the first signs of a fire.”  (Hawaiian Gazette, May 4, 1900)

Apparently, demolition was long overdue.  “The tumble-down structures, weatherbeaten and dilapidated, have been standing for the last thirty years, unoccupied of late except as a carpenter shop.”

“(W)hen the building began to show signs of age, the steeple became unsafe and was cut down to the proportions of a small-sized cupola and the bell was removed, fire signals being given by a deep-voiced siren along the waterfront.”

“As soon as the buildings are razed, excavation work will be commenced on the site. The residence cottage now standing on the Ewa side of the new Elite building, on Hotel Street, will be razed. The new Hibernia building, when erected, will thus have the advantage of two line frontages, one on Hotel Street and the other where the Bell Tower buildings now are.”

“The corner property will not be touched for the present. The Hibernia block will be a fitting companion to the artistic Elite block, just finished.”  (Hawaiian Gazette, May 4, 1900)

Before it was finished, the building name was changed to “Oregon Block.”  It was expected to be completed September 1, 1901; owners were AV Gear, J Lando, V Hoffman, JF Reiley and LA Rostin.  (The Independent, April 26, 1901)  Later, owners were identified as Sullivan and Buckley.

As built, it didn’t last long.  Just as the fire tower and other improvements stood in its way (that were later removed to allow construction,) the Oregon Block stood in the way of the extension of Bishop Street up to Beretania.

At the time, Bishop Street was not the road we see today.  It came into existence around the turn of the century (about 1900.)  Initially, it was only a couple of blocks long, between Queen and Hotel Streets.  Business and bankers wanted it extended, mauka and makai.  However, the mauka extension posed a problem for the Oregon Block.

“Bishop Street, extended mauka, will cut through the Oregon block just shaving the edge of Jim Quinn’s automobile stand, take in the shed in its rear, cut off the back building of Helen’s court and two or three old sheds adjoining on the Ewa side…”  (Hawaiian Gazette, June 21, 1910)

However, “(t)he proposition of Superintendent Campbell to extend Bishop street straight mauka going through a portion of the Oregon block property and closing up Union street is not meeting with approval generally by holders of real estate to be affected.”  (Hawaiian Gazette, November 25, 1910)

A year later, the Bishop Street Extension Commission completed its report to the Governor.  “The only feature not satisfactorily settled was in relation to the Oregon block property, owned by Sullivan & Buckley, for which the owners demand a price of $100,000”

“The commission tells the Governor that it believes this price to be too high, but that possibly it will be a saving in the long run, considering that several years may be required to secure the title by condemnation proceedings.”  (Hawaiian Star, September 26, 1911)

Negotiations went on and on, and they didn’t go well; the owners refused a land exchange and held out for more money.  Condemnation proceedings were started.

A couple years later (September 24, 1913,) the Honolulu Star-Bulletin reported, “Bishop Street will be extended … This is, in part, a revival of the undertaking of the territory two years ago, when proceedings were started to condemn property necessary for the Bishop Street extension.”

By 1923, Bishop Street extended makai to the harbor (absorbing (and realigning) the former Edinburgh Street) – with no further extension mauka.

Negotiations opened, again; “property owners did not consider the city’s offer sufficient, for in 1924 the City and County of Honolulu filed a condemnation petition for the entire area, naming fifteen owners in the suit.”  (Ames; Papacostas)  The actual extension of Bishop Street mauka of Hotel to Beretania did not materialize until 1927 (Papacostas)

Oh, the “Skyscraper,” as noted by the newspaper, was (and still is) a two story brick building.  A series of eight arched windows were on the second floor facing Hotel Street; a remnant of the Oregon remains on the mauka side of Hotel Street, between Union Mall and Bishop Street.

It initially had an odd shape, with a notch left open at what would be the corner of Union and Hotel (look in the album for an image.)

This was filled in, as noted by Thrum in 1902, “A neat two-story cement-faced brick store, termed The Portland, is just finished at the corner of Hotel and Union streets, which fills out the jog of the Oregon block at that point.”  Both buildings carry their names in lettering near each top, seen from Hotel Street.

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kahuna Kuni

“The ancient Hawaiians were a very religious people. Almost every important undertaking was accompanied by prayer. These prayers were addressed to a great number and diversity of gods and covered a wide range of subjects.”

The kahuna has been a tremendous power in this land. Praying to death has long been recognized as a potent agent in swelling the mortality list in the past, and has not yet ceased to act with its blighting influence on people so long subject to its deadly power. (JS Emerson)

“When a person dies under suspicious circumstances, it becomes the duty of one of his family, or a near relative, to consult a ‘kahuna kuni’ to determine the cause of his death.”

“There are five classes of ‘kahuna kuni,’ characterized by the number of pebbles (iliili) used in their incantations. These numbers are 25, 28, 36 and 42 respectively. These iliili are carefully kept by the kahuna wrapped up in a ‘kapa kahuna,’ such as the ‘ouholowai,’ ‘ekahaloa,’ ‘puakai’ and others, in a place of safety where they will not become ceremonially defiled (haumia).”

“Generally they are put in a coconut shell (puniu), or gourd (hokeo), and suspended to the side of the house, for if they were put in a trunk it would defile them for any one to sit on the trunk.”

“The kahuna takes the iliili and kapa out of the hokeo or puniu, which he leaves behind and goes to the house where the sick person or corpse is.”

“He places the iliili on a clean new mat, covers them with the kapa and offers a prayer to Uli, stating the facts of the case and asking Uli to take vengeance on the guilty person who caused the death or sickness of the victim. He then takes something, known as a ‘maunu,’ from the person of the deceased …”

“… a lock of hair, a tooth, a pairing of finger nail, or some vomit or other excreta, positively assuring his client that during one of the following nights, namely ‘Ku-kahi,’ ‘Ku-lua,’ ‘Ku-kolu,’ or ‘Ku-pau,’ that is either the 3d, 4th, 5th or 6th night of the lunar month, when the moon is in the west …”

“… or during one of the following nights, namely: ‘Kaloa-ku-kahi,’ ‘Kaloa-ku-lua’ or ‘Kaloa-pau,’ that is either the 24th, 25th or 26th night of the month, when the moon is in the east, the guilty one would die.

The class of kahunas using 42 pebbles have an advantage over those using a lesser number, from the fact that their iliili cause death on the night known as ‘Kane,’ the 27th of the month; and that of ‘Lono,’ the 28th of the month, in addition to the seven nights mentioned above.

On leaving his client the kahuna takes the ‘maunu,’ secured from the deceased, as already described, and hides it in the water that his victim is to drink, in his food, in his pipe, with his tobacco, or buried in the road where his victim will travel.

This is followed by a ‘pule anaana,’ or prayer, addressed to Uli, Kane, Kanaloa, Pele or Kamohoalii, in which the death of the victim is invoked in a horrible, sometimes in a bloodcurdling fashion.’

It is “a prayer by a ‘kahuna kuni,’ addressed to Pele, who is his ‘aumakua,’ or ancestral god. Its object is to destroy the evil-doer, the rival kahuna, who by his black art has caused the death of a well-known person by whom, it is claimed, no offence justifying such a fate has been committed.”

“‘Slain by a god,’ the prayer says, yet the punishment falls on the kahuna who was the party responsible for inciting the god to commit the murder. This god had no option in the matter. He simply had to obey the command of his master, the kahuna.”

“The ‘kuni’ prayer is only used after the ‘kuni’ fire is lighted which must be made of uhaloa wood. Upon it is thrown some ‘pupu-awa’ and ‘opihi-awa,’ and, inclosed in a wrapping of ki leaves, are put some ‘pupu makaloa,’ ‘kua-paa,’ ‘limu-kala’ and ‘kalolau-loa,’ which are roasted in the fire as a preliminary to the prayer.”

“This ceremony is limited to no particular night. It may even be performed in the daytime. The word ‘Ku,’ to stand, is applied to any dry land where one may stand, and thus becomes an appellation of Pele, who made the dry land.”

“This name for Pele should not be confused with that of Ku, one of the four principal gods.” (All here is from JS Emerson)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Maluhia

Following the annexation of Hawaiʻi to the United States in 1898, plans evolved for the coastal defense of the island and the Naval station at Pearl Harbor.

The Artillery District of Honolulu was established in 1909 and consisted of Forts Ruger, DeRussy, Kamehameha and Armstrong.  The District was renamed Headquarters Coast Defenses of Oahu sometime between 1911 – 1913.

In 1906, the US War Department acquired more than 70-acres in the Kālia portion of Waikīkī for the establishment of a military reservation; it was designated Kālia Military Reservation, but in 1909 was renamed Fort DeRussy in honor of Brevet Brigadier General Rene Edward DeRussy, a veteran of the War of 1812 and the Civil War.

Back then, nearly 85% of present Waikīkī was in wetland agriculture or aquaculture.  The Army started filling in the fishponds which covered most of the Fort – thus, the Army began the transformation of Waikīkī from wetlands to solid ground.

The post was used almost exclusively as a seacoast defense for Honolulu Harbor during World War I. During World War II it was used for seacoast and antiaircraft defense, as a garrison for troops, headquarters for the Military Police, as a camouflage school, and as Headquarters for the US Armed Forces Institute.

The area also served as a rest and recreation area for personnel in the middle Pacific Area. Fort DeRussy was the biggest recreation center on Oʻahu, providing clubs and overnight accommodations for enlisted men and officers.  In 1949, the post was officially designated an Armed Forces Recreation area.

And, that, in part, is what this summary is about … the Maluhia Recreation Center.

The area contained a gymnasium, bowling alley, bathhouses and dressing rooms, a snack bar, surfboard lockers, a fully equipped dark room, a studio for making recordings, a library, a hobby shop, a pistol range within the coastal battery, an officers’ club, hotel facilities, and bars and restaurants.  A tram shuttle service ran between Maluhia and the bathhouses on the beach.

Before WWII, six different agencies were providing recreation, entertainment, and support services for the US Armed Forces, in addition to their regular services.  These were the Salvation Army, the YMCA, the YWCA, the National Catholic Community Service, the National Jewish Welfare Board and the Travelers’ Aid Association.

In early-1941, the groups decided to pool their efforts, and a single group was formed – the United Service Organizations, or USO. The six agencies continued with their other charity efforts, and the USO managed the US Armed Forces work.  The USO was entirely a civilian volunteer operation.

During WWII, the USO used what buildings they could, such as churches, private homes, beach and yacht clubs, commercial businesses, and even railroad cars. Services provided included dances, food, facilities for pressing clothes, showers, reading rooms, games, among others. The most publicized was the live entertainment for the military personnel stationed throughout the world.

It was provided by Camp Shows, Inc., which was a separate organization of professional entertainers and managers set up and supported by the USO.

Maluhia, which means “haven of rest,” was opened on April 27, 1943 as a recreation center for enlisted men.  Although built by the Army on Army land, the building was constructed to serve as a recreation center for the men and women of all of the armed forces, including those stationed in Hawaiʻi and those passing through Hawaii while returning home from the warfront. It was one of the largest of its kind in the world.

The restaurant and terrace provided seating for 1,200 men and women (although on busy days many more were able to pack in.) It also contained the longest bar in the Hawaiian Islands.  The 1944 wing addition on the west side added a hostess office, hostess consultation room, enlisted men’s quarters room, an office for the officer in charge and a store room.

“Broad lanais, spaciousness and a feeling of the ‘outdoors brought inside’ (were) some of the elements that (made) the building characteristically Hawaiian in atmosphere”.

During WWII, Maluhia was open seven days a week, from 11 am to 5 pm; typically 1,000 to 2,000 people a day visited Maluhia during the week, with often over 4,000 a day on the weekends.

Music was provided by various service bands throughout the islands. Free entertainment was provided each afternoon, including music, variety shows, movies and sketches. Dances were held at least three to four days a week.

At the end of the war, the troops stationed throughout the Pacific gradually were taken home. The number of military personnel in the Pacific increased due to the Korean Conflict in 1950-53 and the Vietnam Conflict in 1963-73.  Later, demand waned and the Maluhia Hall was eventually torn down.

The Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies opened new “Maluhia Hall,” a new state-of-the-art learning center at Fort DeRussy. The learning center brings more than 10,000-sq ft of additional classroom space to support the US Department of Defense institute’s security cooperation and executive education programs  (Lots of information here is from Maluhia-HABS-NPS.)

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by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Jean François de Galaup, comte de LaPérouse

“… the island of Mowhee (Maui) looked delightful …. We could see waterfalls tumbling down the mountainside into the sea …  the trees crowning the mountains, the greenery, the banana trees we could see around the houses, all this gave rise to a feeling of inexpressible delight.”

“… the waves were breaking wildly against the rocks and, like new Tantaluses, we were reduced to yearning, devouring with our eyes what was beyond our reach.”  (The first sight of Maui, as described by LaPérouse, May 30, 1786)

What LaPérouse saw, sailing down the coast from Hāna, and where he eventually landed, was known to the ancients as Keoneʻōʻio (“bonefish sand.”)

In this area, permanent Hawaiian occupation was based on use of marine resources and dryland crops (primarily ʻuala (sweet potato)) in mauka areas. Fish and other marine resources were important staples – as the name suggests, ʻōʻio (bonefish) were once abundant.  (DLNR)

In 1786, La Perouse noted as many as five villages in the area, each with 10 to 12 thatched houses. Those living at the shore focused primarily on fishing and had comparatively easy access to potable water at shoreline springs. The residents traveled between the uplands and the coast to trade products.

By the mid-1840s land use in Honuaʻula transitioned from primarily traditional subsistence to agricultural business activities.  An estimated 150-people were living at Keoneʻōʻio in 1853.  (DLNR)

The Bay is now more commonly called LaPérouse Bay, named after the first foreign visitor to the island of Maui.

Jean François de Galaup, comte de LaPérouse was born August 22, 1741, the eldest son of a well-to-do middle-class family of landowners from Albi in Southern France (Lapérouse was the name of a family property that he added to his name.)  (Dunmore)

After an early education at the Jesuit College in Albi, at the age of 15, he joined the French Navy.  Almost immediately, he was engaged in the struggle between France and England in Canada and was taken prisoner by the British at the disastrous naval battle of Quiberon Bay; he spent two-years in captivity.

Repatriated from England, he was posted again to sea duties; for five years he was engaged in defense of the French possessions in the Indian Ocean – again, in the rivalry between France and England.

Then, the American Revolutionary War began (1775–1783.)  In 1778, the French, through Treaty of Alliance, entered on the side of the Americans and provided military support to the Colonies.

As part of this support, in 1782, LaPérouse was given a commission to destroy British installations in the Hudson Bay compounds in Canada.  He captured three ships and conquered the forts.  However, in doing so, as a sign of his benevolent intentions, he did not destroy their food supply (providing the means for the conquered British to survive the Canadian winter.)

After the signing of the Treaty of Versailles (ending the American Revolutionary War for the foreign allies,) France’s King Louis XVI supported a French expedition around the world.  Interested in geography, and eagerly following the voyages of Captain Cook, he decided to send an exhibition on a voyage of discovery that would rival the achievements of Cook.  (LaPerouse Museum)

LaPérouse left the French port of Brest in August 1785 and headed south.  In the next 2 ½-years, his ships L’Astrolabe and La Boussole would sail many thousands of miles and cross the Indian, Atlantic and Pacific Oceans several times.

Two of the King’s personal instruction read as follows:
“On all occasions, Sieur de LaPérouse will act with great gentleness and humanity towards the different peoples whom he will visit during the course of the voyage.”

“His majesty will consider it as one of the happiest events of the expedition if it should end without costing the life of a single man.”

LaPerouse’s journal while at Maui notes he honored the first instruction: “Although the French are the first to have stepped onto the island of Mowee (Maui) in recent times, I did not take possession of it in the King’s name.”

“This European practice is too utterly ridiculous, and philosophers must reflect with some sadness that, because one has muskets and canons, one looks upon 60,000 inhabitants as worth northing, ignoring their rights over a land where for centuries their ancestors have been buried, which they have watered with their sweat, and whose fruits they pick to bring them as offerings to the so-called new landlords.”

“Modern navigators have no other purpose when they describe the customs of newly discovered people than to complete the story of mankind. Their navigation must round off our knowledge of the globe, and the enlightenment which they try to spread has no other aim than to increase the happiness of the islanders they meet”.  (LaPérouse)

LaPérouse stayed at Maui for only two days. He then sailed westward passing between Kahoʻolawe and Lānaʻi and into the channel between Molokaʻi and Oʻahu.

The places the expedition visited between 1785 and 1788 included Alaska, California, Hawaiʻi, Korea, Japan, Russia, Tahiti, Samoa and finally the east coast of Australia.

Unfortunately, the King Louis XVI’s second instruction was not met.

The last official sighting of the LaPérouse expedition was in March 1788 when British lookouts stationed at the South Head of Port Jackson saw the expedition sail from Botany Bay. The expedition was wrecked on the reefs of Vanikoro in the Solomon Islands during a cyclone sometime during April or May 1788.

A monument to LaPérouse stands at Keoneʻōʻio reads:
On May 30th, 1786
French Admiral Jean-Francois Galaup Comte De LaPérouse,
Commanding The Two Frigates La Boussole And L’astrolabe,
Was The First Known European Navigator To Land
At Keoneʻoʻio Also Called LaPérouse Bay On The Island Of Maui.
Donated By The Friends Of LaPérouse On May 30th 1994

Other memorials in other parts of the Pacific also honor LaPérouse; in addition, there are many places named for LaPérouse, including LaPérouse Bay, Maui, and two other LaPérouse Bays in Canada and the Easter Islands – and, even a crater on the moon.

The area near Keoneʻōʻio is now the ʻAhihi-Kinaʻu Natural Area Reserve, the first designated Natural Area Reserve in Hawaiʻi in 1973. The 1,238 acres contain marine ecosystems (807-submerged acres – the only NAR that includes the ocean,) anchialine ponds and lava fields from the last eruption of Haleakala 200-500-years ago.

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Nu‘uanu Valley

“Within the famous valley of that name
Now twice or thrice the high wind blows each year,
In spiteful gusts: sometimes it comes with bursts
Until you hear it pulsing through the gorge
Of rain, in fiercer squalls; and, howling down the glen,
It breaks great tropic fronds like stems of clay.
Lo! then, unbending palms and rugged dates,
Loud-whistling, strain in each recurrent blast.
Like things alive! -or fall, with roots up-torn,
The feathered Algarobas, as the gale
Treads out its wasteful pathway to the sea!”
(Robert Louis Stevenson, 1889; Overland 1909)

“The first object that arrests the attention on approaching the shore, is the beautiful valley of Nuuanu situated just in the rear of the city and extending inland between two spurs of the Mountain. It is clothed with perpetual green and with its numerous cottages whose white walls peep forth from amid the shrubery has a cool and inviting appearance.” (Gorham D. Gilman, 1841)

“The scenery of Nuanau [Nu‘uanu] is strikingly picturesque and romantic.”

“I accompanied my friend Mr. Pelly to his rural retreat in the valley of Nuanau. The change of temperature within a distance of four miles of gentle ascent was very remarkable, so that, at our journey’s end, we found a change from light grass clothing to warm pea-jackets highly acceptable.”

“Mr. Pelly’s residence was a snug little cottage, surrounded by a great variety of tropical plants, particularly by beds of pine-apples and miniature plantations of coffee.”

“At the head of the valley, distant but a few miles from the house, a pali of 1,100 feet in height overhangs the windward side of the island. I had intended to ride to this precipice in the course of the afternoon, but was prevented by the heavy rain …”

“… our time, however, was spent very agreeably in receiving visits from many of the neighboring natives. Next morning, though the rain continued to fall as heavily as ever, and the clouds and mist were driving down the gorge before the trade-wind, I was trotting away at dawn in the very teeth of the storm.”

“On looking downwards, the placid ocean breaking on the coral reefs that gird the island, the white houses of the town glancing in the sun, the ships lying at anchor in the harbor, while canoes and boats are flitting …”

“… as if in play, among them, form together a view which, in addition to its physical beauty, overwhelms one who looks back to the past, with a flood of moral associations.”

“In the opposite direction you discover a rugged glen, with blackened and broken mountains on either side, which are partially covered with low trees, while from crag to crag there leaps and bubbles many a stream, as if glad and eager to drop its fatness through its dependent aqueducts, on the parched plain below.”

“On arriving at the pali, I saw, as it were, at my feet a champagne country, prettily dotted with villages, groves and plantations, while in the distance there lay, screened, however, by a curtain of vapors, the same ocean which I had so lately left behind me.”

“Though the wind, as it entered the gorge, blew in such gusts as almost prevented me from standing, yet I resolved to attempt the descent, which was known to be practicable for those who had not Kamehameha to hurry them.”

“I accordingly scrambled down, having, of course, dismounted, for some distance; but as the path was slippery from the wet, I was fain to retrace my steps before reaching the bottom.”

“In all weathers, however, the natives, when they are coming to market with pigs, vegetables, &c., are in the habit of safely ascending and descending the precipice with their loads.”

“While I was drenched on this excursion, the good folks of Honolulu were as dry and dusty as usual, the showers having merely peeped out of the valley to tantalize them.”  (Sir George Simpson, 1842)

The first foreigner to descend the Pali and record his trip was Hiram Bingham (my great-great-great grandfather.)  His zeal for spreading the word of God led him to take a group of missionaries over the Pali to the Koʻolaupoko area in 1821.

There was no road then.  The current Pali Highway is actually the third roadway to be built there.  A large portion of the highway was built over the ancient Hawaiian foot paths that traversed the famous Pali pass.

In 1845 the first road was built over the Nuʻuanu Pali to connect Windward Oʻahu with Honolulu.  It was jointly by the government and sugar planters who wanted easy access to the fertile lands on the windward side of Oʻahu.  Kamehameha III and two of his attendants were the first to cross on horseback.

A legislative appropriation in 1857 facilitated road improvements that allowed the passage of carriages.  The Rev. E. Corwin and Dr. G. P. Judd were the first to descend in this manner on September 12, 1861.

In 1897, Johnny Wilson and fellow Stanford student Louis Whitehouse won the bid to expand and construct a ‘carriage road’ over the Pali.  Ground was broken on May 26, 1897 and the road was opened for carriages on January 19, 1898.

When the current Pali Highway and its tunnels opened (1959,) the original roadway up and over the Pali was closed and is now used by hikers.

In 1872, some referred to road into the valley as “Missionary Street,” although the Missionary Period had ended about 10-years earlier (the Missionary Period was from 1820 – 1863.)

You might more accurately call it the home of the elite, and that is not limited to folks of the Caucasian persuasion – both Kauikeaouli and Emma had summer residences here and included in the list of successful business people who called it home were the Afongs and others.

But you can’t help concluding the strong demand to live there based on early descriptions – even Realtors, today, would be envious of the descriptors Ellis used in 1831: “The scenery is romantic and delightful.”

“Across this plain, immediately opposite the harbour of Honoruru, lies the valley of Anuanu (Nuʻuanu,) leading to a pass in the mountains, called by the natives Ka Pari (Pali,) the precipice, which is well worth the attention of every intelligent foreigner visiting Oahu.”  (Ellis, 1831)

“The mouth of the valley, which opens immediately behind the town of Honoruru, is a complete garden, carefully kept by its respective proprietors in a state of high cultivation; and the ground, being irrigated by the water from a river that winds rapidly down the valley, is remarkably productive.”  (Ellis, 1831)

If you’re driving up the Pali Highway from town you can see two notches cut in the narrow ridgeline.  The notches are man-made.  Many believe they were cannon emplacements, used especially during the Battle of Nuʻuanu between Oʻahu’s Kalanikupule and Hawaiʻi Island’s Kamehameha.

However, per Herb Kane, “Kalanikupule had some arms bigger than muskets, but they were probably just swivel guns.  Besides, the Battle of Nu‘uanu Pali started as a skirmish by Diamond Head, and no one knew where the battle would end up.  Kalanikupule could not have planned it that way.”

“Hawaiians, like everyone else, understood the value of high ground.  These are certainly (pre-Cook) lookout stations, and that’s why you see them all over the islands – if you look out for them.”

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