Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Four Miles

Nā pana keia ō Keaukaha
Mai Ka Palekai ā I Leleiwi
P`̄ mau I ka meheu ā nā Kūpuna …

Au aʻe ʻoe e pa mokumoku
ʻO Peiwe pili me Lokowaka
Kapaʻia o Kealoha Paka, Mile Eha

These are the famous places of Keaukaha
From the Breakwater all the way to Leleiwi,
Resounding to the footsteps of our ancestor …

You walk along the seashore and see the islets.
This is Peiwe, close to Lokowaka
Called today ‘Kealoha Park’ and ‘4-Miles’

(Edith Kanaka’ole; translation Kalani Meinecke; noted in Downey)

The shoreline lands of the Waiakea peninsula and Keaukaha contain fourteen fishponds, the largest of which is Lokowaka (at 60 acres in area), located directly across Kalaniana’ole Ave from a beach park.  (John Clark)

Then, a tsunami hit the area … “In 1946, there was no tsunami warning system. In Hawaii, no one saw or felt anything that presaged the coming disaster. The tsunami was caused by a M8.6 earthquake centered in the Aleutian Islands more than 2,300 miles from Hilo. Needless to say, no one in Hawaii felt the shaking.”

“There were seismographs in 1946. The University of California at Berkeley had a network in Northern and Central California, including a station in Ferndale. Caltech had stations that covered the southern part of the State.”

“There were instruments elsewhere in the world including a pair in Hawaii, but earthquake investigations of that era relied on analyzing data after the event. It was often weeks until magnitude and location had been hammered down.”

“The 1946 tsunami killed 96 in Hilo, 158 throughout the Hawaiian Islands, five in Alaska, one in Santa Cruz and three elsewhere in the Pacific.”  (Dengler, Times Standard)

During the tsunami of 1946 … “in the Keaukaha area east of Hilo, witnesses described the arrival of a wave from the north simultaneously with one from the northeast, which built up a very high crest at the place of juncture.” (Macdonald etal)

“A drive along the Keaukaha coast beyond Hilo today will leave you with a terribly depressed feeling. The tidal wave of April 1 in a few short minutes wiped the shoreline bare of once swanky homes and destroyed hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of property.”

“As soon las the road was repaired sufficiently to make the trip, Lorrin Thurston and your correspondent drove out with Police Lieutenant De Mello to view the damage. What was once the show place of the district was the home of the Wendell Carlsmiths.”

“Today nothing remains but the chimney of the house and the tennis court. Redwood beams from the house have been found miles away down the coast.  Attorney Carlsmith was viewing his loss as we drove by. He told of the miraculous escape of himself and his family.”

“‘When I built this home,’ [Carlsmith] said, ‘I had a possible tidal wave in mind and constructed the foundation accordingly.  As you can see it is 11 feet above sea level and I figured any wave coming in this far (the home was about 200 yards from the coastline) would not be above the level of this foundation.’”

“‘On the morning of the fatal wave I happened to look out my bedroom window and saw the first one coming.  It wasn’t very big but it must have been traveling in about 40 miles an hour.’”

“‘I grabbed a robe and put it on and then ran down and released one of our dogs. Mrs Carlsmith in the meantime got the children out and into the car. I ran around the house with the water lapping at my heels. The dog refused to follow and that’s the last I saw of her.’”

“‘I dashed up the steps and into the garage and we started the car out. We got down as far as the tennis court and saw the water receding. We then walked back to see if any damage had been done.’”

“‘While we were examining the premises,  we saw another wave coming and ran back to the tennis court. This wave was higher and washed up over the foundation of the house and into the pond in front but didn’t come up to the tennis court. We made our way then to the Laura Kennedy home which is on high ground and from there saw another wave coming from an opposite direction.’”

“‘This wave collided with another wave rolling in a different direction causing a huge water spout and then both of them rolled in over our house and across the highway. An old Japanese who had climbed a coconut palm when the first wave came had gotten down on the ground. He tried to shinny up again and was about 15 feet up the tree when the big wave got him. He disappeared.’”

“‘When the wave subsided, we could not see anything of our house except the naked chimney. There wasn’t even a stick of furniture. I lost the collection of a lifetime. And as you can see the grounds have been completely destroyed.’”

“‘Several thousand yards of dirt l had had hauled in have been washed completely away. I also have a valuable stock of liquor and wines and most of this is being salvaged. It had washed into the pond in front of the house. The children are digging it out now.’” (Advertiser, Coll; April 9, 1946)

Then, again … on May 22, 1960, a 9.5 earthquake – the largest ever recorded – hit southwest Chile, generating a tsunami that struck the Hawaiian Island in about 15 hours.

Hilo Bay area on island of Hawai‘i was hit hard by the 35-foot wave, which destroyed or damaged more than 500 homes and businesses. Sixty-one people died. Damage was estimated at $75 million.

In the vicinity of the Carlsmith property was a beach park; with several additions, the park properties in this area fell under different names. In 1963, Leleiwi Beach Park was renamed James Kealoha Beach Park, in honor of the former County Chairman who became Hawai‘i’s first elected Lieutenant Governor.

In 1972, Hawai‘i County Council adopted resolutions to acquire property for park expansion.  Part of that package was the 1.92-acre ‘Carlsmith’ property. By that time Carlsmith had sold and San Francisco financier owned it and was planning an 8-story condominium. (Hawaii Tribune Herald, Jan 14, 1972)

By the end of the year the County had acquired the ‘Carlsmith’ (~2-acres) and ‘Richardson’ (~1-acre) properties for $2.42-million; the Parks Director, Robert Fukuda, said the additional acquisitions “would greatly enhance our program for providing recreational and regional park facilities in the Keaukaha area.” (HTH, Nov 12, 1972)

The park area makai of Lokowaka became known as Carlsmith Beach Park (in and around the Leleiwi/James Kealoha parks).  More informally, it is known as Four Miles – it’s four miles away from downtown Hilo. Richardson’s Beach Park is just down the way.

An interesting side note, Carl and Nelle Smith, married in Atlantic, Iowa, left aboard the ‘Martha Davis’ from San Francisco and arrived in the Islands on December 27, 1897; Carl was 27 and his new bride was 26.

In Hilo he was associated in the practice of law with various partners, including DH Hitchcock (father of artist D Howard Hitchcock) and Charles F Parsons. In 1911, Carl sought to change his name.

Notices for “the Matter of the Petition of Carl Schurz Smith for Change of Name” were published in the newspaper Dec. 12, 19, 26 (1911), Jan. 2, 12 (1912).  Those notices stated that Governor Walter F Frear “ordered and decreed that the name of Carl Schurz Smith hereby is changed to Carl Schurz Carlsmith”. (Hawaiian Star, December 19, 1911)

Carlsmith inherited the firm upon Hitchcock’s death in 1890. The firm was renamed to Carlsmith in 1911; his two sons Wendell and Merrill joining him in 1920, and his grandson, Donn, joined the staff in 1953. The Carlsmith law firm has had several names; it is now named Carlsmith Ball LLP.

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Waiwelawela

Paʻu o keahi o Waiwelawela o ka lua e
Aloha na poʻe la o

The pit of Waiwelawela is encircled by fire
Greetings to the people of the upland pit

(From the chant “A popoʻi haki kaikoʻo” – it describes how Pele got established in Puna; it compares the movement of the lava to the movement of water.)

There are indications that the ancient Hawaiians made use of natural hot springs for recreation and therapy. Oral history relates that the ancient chieftain, Kumukahi, frequented hot springs in Puna to relieve his aches and pains.  (Woodruff/Takahashi)

“The fame of the waters of the warm springs of the Puna districts has been great during many years. In fact, it is a legend … that when the ailments of the body overcame the aliʻi of old they betook themselves to the spring known as Waiwelawela … and there they were healed of rheumatic affections through bathing, and their systemic ills cured by drinking of the waters.”

“This legend has come down to the Hawaiians of today and even now there is a fame attached to the waters of the springs, which draws to the side of the stream scores of the native residents of nearby districts.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, January 28, 1902)

Waiwelawela “is a warm spring, crescent shaped, and of a vivid ultramarine in color …. The spring, named the Blue Lake, is 90-deg in temperature and 900-feet above the level of the sea.  The water is wonderfully clear and, strange to relate, at this elevation, it has a regular rise and fall which is said to correspond to the tide of the ocean.”  (Daily Bulletin, August 28, 1882)

The Kapoho Warm Springs was formed when the downthrown block of the Kapoho fault slipped below the water table and exposed the warm waters, probably heated by a magmatic body intruded in 1840.  (USGS)

“At present no practical use is made of them, but were there a proper access a small hotel would be built and many invalids would be able to make use of these springs.”  (Hawaiian Gazette, September 17, 1889)

“The famous warm spring is to be found near the residence of Mr RA Lyman (Kapoho’s largest landowner) and is one of the finest bathing places on the islands.  Natives formerly flocked to the place from all over the islands believing that it was possessed of great healing powers.”

“The water is a pleasant temperature for bathing and is clear as crystal, small objects can be readily distinguished twenty feet below the surface. There is a mineral taste to the water.”  (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, March 22, 1892)

“The railway now goes so close to them that it is believed if a few cottages were built, and attendance provided, many afflicted people would be glad to go there and be healed.  Even those who need no physician would find at these springs a place for rest and contemplation, far from the maddening crowd.”  (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, October 12, 1908)

“It is the most marvelously beautiful place in all these beautiful islands. There is not a doubt of it. The pool, at the base of a small peak that is like what Diamond Head would be if that had sugar cane growing to its very summit, lies shaded by a dense growth of ʻōhiʻa and koa and lehua trees and guava bushes, the sun glistening upon it through the leaves of these.”

“The waters, not steaming, but of perceptibly higher temperature than the air, by some strange law of refraction are shot through with dazzling gleams of a blue that is like the blue depths of the sky. Yet the rocks in the pool are not blue. They are of rather reddish cast.”  (Mid-Pacific Magazine, 1912)

“The exposed basin where the spring comes to the surface is something like five by six yards, and the water rises from no one knows where and departs no one sees how.  The water is warm and is very full of mineral salts.”  (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, January 28, 1902)

“This spot is unquestionably one of the loveliest in all Hawaiʻi, and its charm is typical of Hawaiʻi.  It is close against the face of a volcanic cliff.  Here there is a shady grotto, and in this grotto a pool almost as it hewed out of the rocks for the bathing place of some giant of the forest.”

“The water is in spots 20-feet deep, but so translucent that it seems much less than 10.  It holds many lights and shadows, many hues and colors, varying from the deep indigo blue to a transparent jade-green and in spots a golden brown.  There are seats here and the shade is grateful.”  (Honolulu Star-bulletin, September 6, 1916)

At Warm Springs, where portions of ‘Bird of Paradise’ (1951) and other motion pictures had been filmed, stone steps led to a spring-fed, naturally heated pool fringed by ferns, cattleya orchids and lau hala trees.

The grounds and a half-mile drive were landscaped with plumeria, thousands of ti plants, crotons and ginger. Picnic tables and barbecue pits dotted a smooth lawn shaded by mango trees.  Slim Holt, who leased the property from Lyman, had labored for years to create this beauty, assisted by interested individuals and organizations.  (Flanders)

Then, “Something was amiss.”  An eruption at Kilauea had ended on December 21, 1959.

“(B)ut the shallow reservoir beneath the summit of Kilauea volcano was gorged with magma, far more than before the eruption started. Rather than removing pressure, the eruption had, for all intents and purposes, created more.”

“The uncertainty ended at 1935 January 13, (1960,) when red glow in the night sky above Kapoho announced the 1960 eruption.”  (USGS)

Bulldozers erected a quarter-mile line of dikes designed to prevent the lava from reaching Warm Springs.  Despite this effort, toward midnight the flow surmounted the embankments.

Barbecue pits exploded; trees, shrubbery, tables and benches burst into flame. Lava poured down stone steps in a cherry-red stream.  Still water, reflecting the infernal scene, disappeared under the flow. The new cinder cone was dubbed Puʻu Laimanu.  … Today, buried beneath this primeval landscape, under 50-feet of lava, lays Warm Springs.  (Flanders)

“Estimates of damage from the six-day eruption of Kilauea volcano rose into the millions today.  State Senator Richard F Lyman estimated damage to his land, blanketed by the lava as $2,000,000.”

“He owns 80-acres of sugar land and the Warm Springs resort area, now buried by the flow on Hawaiʻi Island.  Other landowners reported 3,500-acres of farmland destroyed.”  (The Spokesman, January 20, 1960)

“Waiwelawela (meaning ‘warm water’) was a warm spring pool near Kapoho which was covered in the 1960 eruption. … It is said by people of the area that Pele covered the springs because people were charging others, namely Hawaiians, for use of the warm springs. In former days these warm springs were available to everyone.”  (Pukui; DOE)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Breakwater

It is called Breakwater (or Breakwaters), not because it served as a breakwater – it actually was a quarry site that produced some of the boulders that helped form the Hilo Bay breakwater. It’s below Kukuihaele, just before you get to the Waipi‘o Valley lookout  and the road down to Waipi‘o.

It’s a place name noted by John Clak in his Hawaiʻi Place Names: Shores, Beaches, and Surf Sites as, “Breakwater. Fishing site, Kukuihaele, Hawai’i. Small peninsula at the base of the sea cliffs between Kukuihaele Light and Waipi’o Valley.”

“The name is linked to the construction of the 2-mile long breakwater in Hilo Bay, which was started in 1908 and completed in 1929. Boulders from the peninsula were loaded on barges and towed to Hilo Bay, where they were used in the construction of the second phase of the breakwater.”

“The basaltic lava flows of Hawaii, where little weathered and sound, furnish an unlimited supply of rock suitable for crushing and for use as coarse aggregate in concrete.”

“Basalt is not so hard in respect to cutting tools as granite, but it is an exceedingly tough rock with a high resistance to impact. In the production of any grade of stone from basaltic lava flows, there is much loss through the necessity for handling the clinkery layers of unsuitable material which lie between the dense parts of successive flows …”

“… and this expense becomes prohibitive in attempting to produce large size dimension stone in most quarries, as well as in production of breakwater stone of large size.”

“Such stone has in some instances been shipped by barge from one Island to another owing to the difficulty of finding suitable local material.” (Historic Inventory of the Physical, Social and Economic, and Industrial Resources of the Territory of Hawaii, 1939)

“The United States entered into a contract in the amount of $400,000 with Delbert E Metzger, on June 12, 1908, for constructing a breakwater at Hilo Harbor, Hilo, Hawaii, the price being $2.48 ½ per ton of 2,000 pounds of stone put in place.”

“The specifications call for a jetty of the rubble mound type, but as it is being built, it resembles more a huge sloping wall of carefully laid masonry. It has a uniform top width of 15 feet, eleven feet so that their longest dimension is perpendicular to the slope.”

“The stone used below three feet below low water must weigh 130 pounds per cubic foot, or more, and all stone above this plane must weigh 150 pounds per cubic foot.”

“This specified weight for the stone sent the contractor nearly thirty miles, to Puna, on the east point of the island, to open a quarry, for while the whole island is virtually built of flows of lava rock and the breakwater itself rests on a reef of it …”

“… there are comparatively few places on the slopes of Mauna Loa where rock of this weight may be found in large quantities.”   (Overland Monthly, July 1909)

Throughout the construction of the Hilo Breakwater boulders for the breakwater came from three primary sources: Kapoho, Waiakea and Kukuihaele.  It’s the latter that is the place that is the subject, here.

“First Blast for Hilo Breakwater. … The first blast for rock for the Hilo breakwater was fired September 3 at the Lyman quarry in Puna. The blast consisted of three tons of dynamite. Thus the actual work on this great enterprise has begun.” (Advertiser, Sept 13, 1908)

“[O]n July 21, 1914, it was announced that a new quarry at Waipio, near Kukuihaele would be opened.” (Warshauer, HTH) 

“Waiulili Peninsula [a rock outcrop] a quarter mile north of Kukuihaele Landing & a quarter mile south of the mouth of Waipi’o Valley is the so-called boulder quarry/breakwater to take boulders to build Hilo Harbor”. (Narimatsu)

“The small breakwater that is being constructed on the Kukuihaele side of Waipio Gulch is progressing well, and the contractors hope to soon have loaded scows on their way to the Hilo structure. Twenty thousand tons of rock, each individual stone of which must weigh eight tons, are required for the particular part of the breakwater contract that will be handled first.”

“There is an ample supply of that kind of rock at the Kukuihaele end and the contractors anticipate no trouble as to that part of the work. The quarry is located on the old trail that winds around the bluff from Kukuihaele to Waipio.” (Hawaii Herald, Aug 14, 1914)

“The two advantages to the contractor which will result from this plan, as it is seen by those who are favoring it are a saving of transportation charges and saving of quarry charges.”

“It is claimed that the quarry at Waipio can be much more easily and cheaply worked than any other one, and that the hauling by water will be about forty cents a ton cheaper than the railroad could do for.” (Hilo Daily Tribune, July 21, 1914)

“[The Hilo breakwater contractor, Delbert Metzger] went out to a cliff face out beyond [Honoka‘a] at Kukuihaele where there was a landing, and in fact he quarried the rock off of the face of a cliff way out there and swung it down to a barge and took the barge then right in …”

“… towed it right up to the breakwater and he had a better deal that way than he would have had if he’d had to haul it by truck. And so he made a heck of a lot more money. He got it practically free – big slabs that came right off the face of the cliff.”

“[Metzger made] a lot of money and decided that he didn’t want to be an engineer anymore – he wanted to be a lawyer – went back to law school and came back out to Hawaii and stopped there on the Big Island.” (Judge Martin Pence, Watumull Oral History) (Metzger later became Federal District Magistrate for South Hilo.) (Melendy)

“Huge boulders have fallen from time to time from various causes, and these will admit of easy handling without the necessity of blasting. The distance from the quarry to the Hilo breakwater is about forty-eight miles and the contractors feel sure that the cost of towage will be very reasonable.”

Young Brothers was hired to carry the rocks to Hilo.  “In order to meet the growing demand of the towage business in this harbor, the Young Bros have purchased the tug Breakwater … which it has been using for towing scows from Waipio to the Hilo breakwater.” (Star Bulletin, Aug 2, 1917) The ‘Breakwater’ tugboat was later renamed ‘Mikiala.’

Jack Young was in charge of the work at Hilo and spent the better part of a year skippering the Brothers (the name of their tug) as it towed a scow loaded with rock to be dumped on the breakwater extension.

A news article appearing in the Pacific Commercial Advertiser on December 25, 1911, provides some insights into the job of building the breakwater as the Young Brothers’ crew experienced it:

“The sea had been rough for several days, and finally made it impossible to work. On Monday, the … scow was taken out in tow of the Hukihuki, having on board about 125 tons of rock, which it was to dump on the bottom ….”

“Here the substructure, which has been laid by Lord & Young, forms a kind of artificial reef over which the waves break in stormy weather. On the day in question, the breakers were thundering in at a great rate, and great combers were continually sweeping the deck of the scow.”

“Nevertheless, the Hukihuki bucked through the swirling water, and she had just brought the scow over the substructure, though not in the exact place where the load was to be dumped, when trouble began.”

“The heavy scow was let down, in the trough between two big waves, to such a depth that one of her edges struck the rock of the substructure with such a force that the timbers were splintered and broken, and the water began to pour in through the leak.”

“All thought of depositing the load had to be abandoned, and the Hukihuki maneuvered the disabled craft out of the breakers. The scow was sinking so rapidly that it was impossible to save the load, and good Kapoho rock was jettisoned.”

“By good seamanship the scow was towed to safety, where she is being repaired.”

Contrary to urban legend, the Hilo breakwater was built to dissipate general wave energy and reduce wave action in the protected bay, providing calm water within the bay and protection for mooring and operating in the bay; it was not built as a tsunami protection barrier for Hilo.

It was while Young Brothers was engaged in building the Hilo breakwater that Captain Jack Young met and fell in love with Alloe Louise Marr. She had come to Hilo from Oakland, California, in 1909 with her father, Joseph Thomas Marr, to visit his cousin, Jack Guard.

John Alexander (Jack) Young and Alloe Louise Marr were married in a double wedding ceremony with her cousin, Stephanie Guard and John Fraser on September 20, 1911 at Hilo. (Harry Irwin (later Judge and territorial Attorney General) was Jack’s best man and Florence Shipman (daughter of WH Shipman who later married Roy Blackshear) was bridesmaid.) In 1922, Young Bros. Ltd. contracted the towing to build the breakwater at Nawiliwili harbor hauling by barge the 6-ton rocks from the quarry on the coast of Maui to build the base of the breakwater.

Jack and Alloe Young are my grandparents. I am the youngest brother of the youngest brother of the youngest brother of Young Brothers.  (My grandfather was the youngest of the Young Brothers; my father was the youngest brother in his generation; and I am the youngest brother in our family.)

We never met our grandparents, and they never knew they had grandchildren from their son Kenny; they both had died before they knew my mother was pregnant with my older brother.

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Major Warren’s Hotel

“Major (William R) Warren was Honolulu’s first restauranteur. His establishments, both in Honolulu and California, were famous for their excellent cuisine.”  (Hoyt)

Warren ‘The Major’ – he of the big paunch, red face, and blonde eyebrows – was in the hotel business in 1817 and offered a July 4 dinner in 1818.  (Greer)

Land Commission Award records note, “this lot was first occupied by William R Warren, who originally obtained it from Kaikioʻewa (governor of Kauai) before the year 1819.”  (avakonohiki)

In 1819 he obtained property at what is now Hotel and Bethel Streets, and around 1825 built a structure referred to as the ‘Warren House’ and ‘Major Warren’s Hotel.’  (Schmitt)

It apparently also served as town hall, or general meeting place for the public to assemble and plan for celebrations, or discuss questions of importance in the community, or serving as a ball room. (Thrum)

“(Warren) gave the use of his large dining room to the ‘Oahu Amateur Theatre.’ Major Warren had moved his Honolulu establishment several times, but in 1834 he was located approximately, on the makai-ewa corner of Fort and Beretania Streets, almost opposite the present Catholic Cathedral.  (Hoyt)

So prominent was this Warren name in the community that in 1836, when the naming of the streets was being considered the suggestion was made that ‘the open space near Messrs. Peirce & Brewer’s establishment” (corner of Fort and Hotel) “from Rooke & Peabody’s house to Major Warren’s old stand be named Warren Square.’  (Thrum)

Warren’s pioneering enterprise, ‘Major Warren’s Hotel,’ gave ‘Hotel Street’ its name in downtown Honolulu (although in the 1830s that part of Hotel between Fort Street and the hotel was also called Warren Square.)  (Greer, Clark)

Warren went to California.  “That this boniface had a winning personality may be judged by the following description of him on his departure in February, 1838: ‘A gentleman with a smiling visage, a rotund figure, a disposition like a sunbeam, and a heart as big as the Island of Hawaii was Major Warren.’”  (Thrum)

Dr. Ed. Espiner took over Warren’s interest in the premises and continued for some time without change of name. In December, 1840, Espiner sold the property to Wm. French and the ‘Warren Hotel’ name continued until 1844.

On June 15, 1844, French made a 50/50 partnership deal for operation of the hotel with Ahung, a Chinese. He brought in three Chinese copartners – Atai, Ahsing, and Ahlan – all doing business as Hungtai.  Ahung soon died; at his death Hungwa bought into the enterprise and became the proprietor of the Canton Hotel – featuring Chinese cooks and waiters. (Greer)

Hungwa ran advertisements in the local paper noting, “Canton Hotel.  The undersigned having taken the premise formerly known as the ‘Warren Hotel,’ begs to assure the public that he has spared no expense in fitting up the same for the comfort and convenience of residents and visitors, and solicits a share of the public patronage.  Billiard Room and newly fitted Bowling Alleys attached.” (Polynesian, April 26, 1845)

Samuel Thompson, one of the town’s celebrities, succeeded to it in July, 1849, to maintain it as a first class hotel under the same name.  His term was brief, John Bartlett as proprietor of the ‘Canton’ when it was fitted up and became a noted resort for officers of ships in the flush whaling days.

“Jack Bartlett,” as he was familiarly called, was cash-keeper for many of the officers and he served them honestly.  Bartlett passed away in May, 1858.  Following his death the ‘Canton Hotel’ was maintained by various parties for several years until September of 1865, when Samuel Loller of the International leased the premises and opened up the same January, 1866, under the changed name of Eureka Restaurant (it later changed to Eureka Hotel and Restaurant.)  (Thrum)

In 1878, F. Horn, put his Horn’s Bakery at the property; Horn died August 5th, 1896, but the business was continued by his widow for several years, then she sold it to the New England Bakery business.  (Thrum)

Later, the Aloha Park, then the Collegia Theatre was on the site (across the street from Empire Theatre – the building there still goes by the Empire name.)

Today, the property ( at the mauka-Diamond Head Corner of Hotel and Bethel Streets) is known as the Marine Finance (built in 1910 – it was known as the National Building when National stores occupied a bunch of it;  it’s the home to the Plumbers and Fitters Union and several other shops and offices.

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by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Kōnane

Lawe ʻili keokeo, paʻani, ka ʻeleʻele
Removing the whites is playing with the blacks

It starts with a papamū, a generally rectangular flat stone whose surface is marked with shallow pits in regular order and of considerable number.  Later more mobile boards were used.

The center of the board was called piko (navel) and frequently marked with an inset human molar; sometimes every position had an inset tooth (or a chicken or human bone.) The row along the borders of the board was termed kakaʻi.  (Ernst)

“They have a game somewhat resembling draughts (checkers,) but more complicated.  It is played upon a board about twenty-two inches by fourteen, painted black, with white spots, on which the men are placed; these consist of black and white pebbles, eighteen upon each side, and the game is won by the capture of the adversaries pieces.”

“Tamaahmaah (Kamehameha) excels at this game. I have seen him sit for hours playing with his chiefs, giving an occasional smile, but without uttering a word. I could not play, but William Moxely, who understood it well, told me that he had seen none who could beat the king.”  (Campbell)

Captain James Cook also noted Konane in his journal.  “It is very remarkable, that the people of these islands are great gamblers. They have a game very much like our draughts; but, if one may judge from the number of squares, it is much more intricate.”

“The board is about two feet long, and is divided into two hundred and thirty-eight squares, of which there are fourteen in a row, and they make use of black and white pebbles, which they move from square to square.”  (Cook)

Kōnane boards do not follow any established pattern in size and range from 6×6 boards to well over 14×14 boards.  (Some suggest even larger boards are used.)

To begin the game, the first player (black) must remove one of their pieces, either the center piece, one laterally next to it or one at a corner. The second player (white) now removes a piece of their own, adjacent to the space created by black’s first move.

Then, the players take turns making moves.  A player moves a stone of his color by jumping it over a horizontally or vertically (not diagonally) adjacent stone of the opposite color, into an empty space. Stones so jumped are captured, and removed from play.  Thereafter players take turns making moves on the board.

A stone may make multiple successive jumps in a single move, as long as they are in a straight line; no turns are allowed within a single move. The winner of the game is the last player able to make a move.

Kōnane figures in the saga of Lonoikamakahiki, a great chief credited with creating the first kahili and instituting the Makahiki games.

In a fit of jealous rage over rumors that she had been unfaithful, he killed his wife during a game of kōnane by beating her over the head with the heavy board. Later learning of her steadfastness, he was crazed with grief, but eventually nursed back to health by a faithful retainer.  (Yuen)

King Kalākaua and his Queen Kapiʻolani were experts at kōnane, and it is well known that the goddess Pele did not refuse to play the game with the demigod Kamapuaʻa.  (Brigham)

An alternative name for kōnane was mū, and for the board, papamū. Brigham notes that mū was the name of the official who captured men for sacrifice or for judicial punishment and suggests this name was adopted for the game.  (Ernst)

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