Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Central Fire Station

No organized fire protection system existed in Honolulu until November 6, 1850, when the city’s first volunteer fire brigade was formed.

On December 27, 1850, King Kamehameha III established by ordinance in the Privy Council creating the Honolulu Volunteer Fire Department; the 1851 legislature enacted the ordinance into law.

In August 1851, a second-hand fire engine was purchased through public subscription and became the property of Engine Company No. 1.

Within ten years, the city had four engine companies, including No. 4, which was composed exclusively of Hawaiians. Kings Kamehameha III, Kamehameha IV, Kamehameha V and Kalakaua were all active members of this company. (NPS)

In 1870, the tallest structure in Honolulu was the bell tower of Central Fire Station, then-located on Union Street. Spotters would sit in the tower, ready to sound the alarm. (HawaiiHistory)

In 1897, Central Fire Station was relocated to its present site at Beretania and Fort Streets, a consolidation of Engine Companies 1 and 2.

“The city of Honolulu is protected from fire by a very efficient department. The central fire station is not only an ornament to the city, but contains all the necessary conveniences for its intended purpose.”

The 2½-story blue stone Central Fire Station was one of three stations at the time; the others were the 2-story wooden Makiki Station and the 2-story brick Palama Station.

There were 200 3-way standing and 50-ground hydrants distributed throughout the City. Plans were underway for a fire alarm telegraph system with 65-alarm boxes. (Report of the Governor of the Territory of Hawaii; to the Secretary of the Interior, 1901)

The Central Fire Station soon became outmoded. The Romanesque Revival rock structure was replaced in 1934 by a Dickey designed Moderne/Art Deco two-story reinforced concrete building (Kohn M Young was the engineer.) It previously served as headquarters for the Honolulu Fire Department.

The building is five bays wide and dominated by the three middle bays with their one-and-one-half story Art Deco aluminum doorways which were constructed by the California Artistic Metal and Wire Company of San Francisco.

Above the doors are aluminum panels with linear designs with an octagon in the middle containing the letter HFD. Above each panel is a set of four windows.

The end bays each contain a first story window and a set of three second story windows. All second story windows are jalousies, and the first floor windows are tinted plate glass.

A decorative belt course bands the top of this flat roofed building. This banding employs the octagonal HFD motif of the door panels. An abbreviated tower of approximately thirty feet rises from the roof at the rear of the right bay. This tower has a pair of long rectangular louvers running its height.

In 1949, a one-story hollow tile addition was erected at the rear to provide additional office space. The Ewa (northwest) side of the building features a balcony with geometric deco decoration. Behind the balcony is a set of three windows with rectangular pillars between them. (NPS)

© 2026 Hoʻokuleana LLC

 

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Makiki Christian Church

At age 29, Reverend Takie Okumura of Japan set sail for Hawaiʻi in 1894. He was initially appointed to serve as minister of the Japanese Christian Church, the predecessor to today’s Nuʻuanu Congregational Church.

Okumura left there and began his work in the section of Honolulu centering about Makiki district in November, 1902.  The work commenced in a little shed on Kīnaʻu Street near a Japanese camp and without a single church member.  (The Friend, November 1930)

Within a year, the shed became too small and a cottage across the street was rented which would accommodate about eighty people.  By his untiring effort, Okumura was able to organize the Makiki Church with 24-members on April 8, 1904.  The church continued to grow and was moved to the present building on the corner of King and Pensacola Streets in 1906.  (The Friend, November 1930)

In early-1910, the Makiki Japanese Church (later known as the Makiki Christian Church) introduced the custom of one English sermon per month.  The Church acquired property near McKinley High School (at the corner of Pensacola and Elm.)  Then, in the 1930, a new, enlarged church was contemplated and then constructed.   It was modeled after a Japanese Castle.

The “Makiki Castle” was the inspiration of the Reverend Okumura.  Okumura asked Hego Fuchino to design the church.

Born and educated in Japan, Fuchino immigrated to Hawaiʻi at age 17 or 18 and worked his way through ʻIolani School and the University of Hawaiʻi. He worked as a land surveyor and engineer in Honolulu while he taught himself architecture, and became one of the first Japanese architects in Hawaiʻi.

One of Fuchino’s earliest works was the Kuakini Hospital, which he designed in 1919. He designed the Izumo Taisha Mission; commercial buildings; movie theaters such as the Haleiwa Theater; residences and apartments; and schools such as the Hawaiian Mission Academy.

Inspired by the early-Edo period Himeji Castle in Japan, the church is the only Christian church in the United States to be modeled after a sixteenth-century Japanese castle.

The Makiki Christian Church is a five-story redwood building whose main tower rises ninety feet above street level.  A three- story parish hall and Sunday school, built four years after the tower, extends out from the tower to give the building a T- shaped floor plan.

“The castle-like edifice with its stone wall and high tower is after the style of the castle built by Oda Nobuuaga, famous Shogun, in 1577 at Omi. A number of years before that the feudal lord of Yaniato, Matsunaga, built a castle with a high tower and called his tower “Tenshukaku,” “ten” meaning heaven; “shu” lord; and “kaku,” lower or the place to worship the Lord of Heaven.”  (The Friend, November 1930)

Rather than a building associated with war, Okumura indicated that the castle was a place of defense, meant to provide protection and peace, and that the earliest known building erected in Japan for Christian worship was Tamon Castle.

To the pastor, this design symbolized refuge, security and grandeur.  Finally convinced it was not warlike, the congregation raised funds to build the tower, lobby and chapel in 1931.  (Hibbard)

At the time of construction, China and Japan were at war; however, as a gesture of goodwill to show that animosity between the two nations did not extend to Hawaiʻi, Okumura specified that all building materials were to be purchased from City Mill, owned by KA Chung.  (HHF)

Later, the castle became “A Place To Protect The Country” but it is true that the tower originated as “A Place To Worship God.”  The Makiki Church erects its new edifice with its tower indicating the thought of the Psalmist who sang “Jehovah is my fortress—my high tower.”  (The Friend, November 1930)

In November 1932 the tower was completed and in 1936 the Parish Hall was added to the church.

The churchyard is entered from the Elm Street side through a munekado (a gable-roofed gate supported by two pillars). The building’s entrance is fourteen feet high with a pair of massive solid wooden doors.

A large vestibule, thirty feet in height, runs parallel to the sanctuary and provides access to the church and the parish hall wing. The interior includes acid-stained concrete floors, columns with elbow brackets, and 164 ceiling panels depicting fruits, flowers, and vegetables painted by Yunosuke Ogura.

Before he died in 1951, Okumura also established the Okumura Boys and Girls Home, which provided young men and women affordable housing; he started the first Japanese-language school and the first AJA baseball league.

Makiki Christian Church is listed on the Hawaii Register of Historic Places (No. 80-14-9719, dated September 30, 1988;) it is one of the most photographed churches in the Islands.

© 2025 Hoʻokuleana LLC

 

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Queen Emma

In 1836, Honolulu wasn’t really a city; it was just a large village with only one main street, King Street, and less than 6,000 people – about 500 were white foreigners.

It was a major port for whaling ships, and as one writer put it, one of the most “unattractive” places in the world.

Emma, the future queen, was born “Emma Naea” in Honolulu on January 2, 1836 to Fanny Kekelaokalani Young, daughter of John Young, King Kamehameha I’s counselor, and Kaʻoanaʻeha, Kamehameha’s niece. Her father was high chief George Naea.

As was the custom, she was offered to her mother’s sister, Grace Kamaikui Rooke and her husband, Dr. T.C.B. Rooke as hānai daughter. Unable to have children of their own, the Rookes adopted Emma.

Emma grew up speaking both Hawaiian and English, the latter “with a perfect English accent.” She began formal schooling at age 5 in the Chief’s Children’s School, where she was quick and bright in her studies.

At age 13, Dr. Rooke hired an English governess, Sarah Rhodes von Pfister, to tutor young Emma. He also encouraged reading from his extensive library. As a writer, he influenced Emma’s interest in reading and books.

At 20, Emma became engaged to the king of Hawai‘i, Alexander Liholiho, (Kamehameha IV,) a 22-year-old who had ascended to the throne in 1855.  The couple had known each other since childhood.

At the engagement party, accusations were made that Emma’s Caucasian blood made her not fit to be the Hawaiian queen, and her lineage was not suitable enough to be Alexander Liholiho’s bride.

However, the wedding was held as planned however, and the new queen soon became involved in the business of the kingdom, particularly that of saving the Hawaiian people from extinction.

In his first speech as King, Kamehameha IV stated the need for a hospital to treat the native population.  Due to introduced diseases, the Hawaiian population had plummeted since the time of Captain Cook’s arrival to 70,000, with extinction a very real possibility.

The treasury was empty, so the king and his queen undertook the mission of soliciting enough funds to establish a proper hospital in Honolulu. Within a month, their personal campaign had raised $13,530, almost twice their original goal.

To recognize and honor Emma’s efforts, it was decided to call the new hospital “Queen’s.”

The King and Queen rejoiced at the birth of their son, Albert Kauikeaouli Leiopapa a Kamehameha, on May 20, 1858. The entire populace welcomed the new heir to the throne with joy, only to be stricken by utter grief four years later when the little boy died suddenly of “brain fever.”

Just 15 months later, Alexander Liholiho, (Kamehameha IV,) weakened by chronic asthma, died at age 29.  In her grief, Queen Emma took a new name, Kaleleonalani, which means “flight of the heavenly chiefs.”

To ease her pain, Emma dedicated herself to many worthy causes, among which was organizing a hospital auxiliary of women to help with the ill. She also helped found two schools, St. Andrews Priory in Honolulu and St. Cross on Maui.

Her work included the development of St. Andrews Cathedral. She journeyed to England where she and her friend, Queen Victoria, raised $30,000 for the construction or the cathedral.

“Queen Emma, or Kaleleonalani, the widowed queen of Kamehameha IV … refined by education and circumstances … is a very pretty, as well as a very graceful woman. She was brought up by Dr. Rooke, an English physician here, and though educated at the American school for the children of chiefs, is very English in her leanings and sympathies …”

“… an attached member of the English Church, and an ardent supporter of the “Honolulu Mission.” Socially she is very popular, and her exceeding kindness and benevolence, with her strongly national feeling as an Hawaiian, make her much beloved by the natives.”  (Bird)

When King Lunalilo died in 1874, Emma became a candidate for the throne (the Kingdom had become a constitutional democracy). Lunalilo had wanted her to succeed him, but he failed to make the legal pronouncement before he died.

An election for a new sovereign was held.  Although she campaigned actively, she lost the throne to David Kalākaua.

Politics was not her strong suit — humanitarianism was.  Queen Emma was much loved by the people and hundreds of mele have been composed in her honor.  Her humanitarian efforts set an example for Hawaii’s royal legacy of charitable bequests.

After her death on April 25, 1885 at age 49, she was given a royal funeral and laid to rest in Mauna ʻAla beside her husband and son.

“She was different from any of her contemporaries. Emma is Emma is Emma. There’s no one like her. A devout Christian who chose to be baptized in the Anglican church in adulthood, and a typically Victorian woman who wore widow’s weeds, gardened, drank tea, patronized charities and gave dinner parties, she yet remained quintessentially Hawaiian.”  (Kanahele)

“In a way, she was a harbinger of things to come in terms of Hawaii’s multi-ethnic, multi-cultural society. You have to be impressed with her eclecticism — spiritually, emotionally and physically. She was kind of our first renaissance queen.”  (Kanahele)

Queen Emma left the bulk of her estate, some 13,000 acres of land on the Big Island and in Waikiki on Oahu, in trust for the hospital that honors her.  (Lots of good information here came from Queen’s Hospital)

© 2024 Hoʻokuleana LLC

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

French Invasion of Honolulu

In 1846, a treaty had been concluded with France, eliminating the harsh terms of the treaty of 1839. This produced an exceedingly friendly feeling toward France.

However, in 1848, Consul Dudoit retired from the French consulship and William Patrice Dillon was appointed in his place.  Later, things got worse.

The French Invasion of Honolulu (also known as the Sacking of Honolulu, or the Tromelin Affair) was an attack on Honolulu by Louis Tromelin for the persecution of Catholics and repression on French trade.

On August 12, 1849, French admiral Louis Tromelin arrived in Honolulu Harbor on the corvette Gassendi with the frigate La Poursuivante.  Upon arrival, de Tromelin met with French Consul Dillon.

Dillon immediately initiated a systematic and irritating interference in the internal affairs of the Kingdom, arising largely out of personal hostility to RC Wyllie, minister of foreign affairs, picking flaws and making matters of extended diplomatic correspondence over circumstances of trifling importance.

This continued until the French Admiral Tromelin arrived, and after a conference with Dillon the celebrated “ten demands” were formulated and presented to the Hawaiian Government with the commanding request for immediate action.

The ten demands:

  1. The complete and loyal adoption of the treaty of March 26th 1846.
  2. The reduction of the duty on French brandy to fifty per cent ad valorem.
  3. The subjection of Catholic schools to the direction of the chief of the French Mission and to special inspectors not Protestants and a treatment rigorously equal granted to the two worships and to their schools.
  4. The use of the French language in all business intercourse between French citizens and the Hawaiian Government.
  5. The withdrawal of the (alleged) exception by which French whalers which imported wine and spirits were affected and the abrogation of a regulation which obliged vessels laden with liquors to pay the custom house officers placed on board to superintend their loading and unloading.
  6. The return of all duties collected by virtue of the regulation the withdrawal of which was demanded by the fifth article.
  7. The return of a fine of twenty-five dollars paid by the whale ship ‘General Teste’ besides an indemnity of sixty dollars for the time that she was detained in port.
  8. The punishment of certain school boys whose impious conduct (in church) had occasioned complaint.
  9. The removal of the governor of Hawaii for allowing the domicile of a priest to be violated (by police officers who entered it to make an arrest) or the order that the governor make reparation to that missionary.
  10. The payment to a French hotel keeper of the damages committed in his house by sailors from HBM’s (His Britannic Majesty’s) ship ‘Amphitrite.’  (Alexander)

The Hawaiian Government was allowed three days in which to make a satisfactory reply to these demands.  If they were not acceded to, the admiral threatened to cancel the existing treaty, and to “employ the means at his disposal to obtain a complete reparation.”

Sensing disaster, King Kamehameha III issued orders: “Make no resistance if the French fire on the town, land under arms, or take possession of the Fort; but keep the flag flying ’till the French take it down. … Strict orders to all native inhabitants to offer no insult to any French officer, soldier or sailor, or afford them any pretext whatever for acts of violence.”

On August 25, the demands had not been met.

About noon of the 25th, a firm but courteous reply was sent to the admiral, declaring that the Hawaiian government had faithfully observed the treaty of 1846; that the existing duty on brandy was so far from being “an absolute prohibition” that the importation of French brandy had greatly increased under it …”

“… that rigorous equality in the treatment of different forms of worship was already provided for, but that public schools supported by government funds should not be placed under the direction of any mission, whether Catholic or Protestant; and that the adoption of the French language in business was not required by the treaty or by international law, and was impracticable in the state of the islands.

The Hawaiian government offered to refer any dispute to the mediation of a neutral power, and informed the admiral that no resistance would be made to the force at his disposal, and that in any event the persons and property of French residents would be scrupulously guarded.

After a second warning of the impending invasion, 140-French Marines, two field pieces and scaling ladders were landed by boat, which were met with no opposition and Tromelin’s troops took possession of an empty fort.

The invaders also took possession of the customhouse and other government buildings, and seized the king’s yacht, together with seven merchant vessels in port.

But the Admiral was careful not to lower the Hawaiian flag.

The marines broke the coastal guns, threw kegs of powder into the harbor and destroyed all the other weapons they found (mainly muskets and ammunition).

They raided government buildings and general property in Honolulu, including destruction of furniture, calabashes and ornaments in the governor’s house.  After these raids, the invasion force withdrew to the fort.

On the 30th, the admiral issued a proclamation, declaring that by way of “reprisal” the fort had been dismantled, and the king’s yacht, “Kamehameha III,” confiscated (and then sailed to Tahiti,) but that private property would be restored. He also declared the treaty of 1846 to be annulled, and replaced by the Laplace Convention of 1839. This last act, however, was promptly disavowed by the French Government.

He sailed away with the understanding that the King would send an agent to France to settle the difficulties.

In 1850, the Hawaiian government instructed commissioners JJ Jarves and GP Judd to demand an indemnity of $100,060 on account of the seizure of the Kamehameha and damage wrought by de Tromelin’s forces.

But for the consideration of a loss of face, the indemnity would have been paid. Instead, a compromise was decided upon. To Consul Perrin, successor of Dillon, the Minister of Foreign Affairs wrote:
“There is no need to tell you that indemnities are out of question. The word itself should be avoided: however, the Prince-President … wishes that … in his name, you put in the hands of King Kamehameha a very costly present.”

The present turned out to be an elaborate silverware table service. Today, the heavy, ornate silver service sent to Kamehameha III by Louis Napoleon of France is the formal tableware of the Governor of Hawaiʻi in Washington Place.

The image shows Fort Kekuanohu, Fort Honolulu in a drawing by Emmert in 1853 (this is to show a representation of the fort – this was not drawn during the occupancy by the French.)  (The inspiration and information here is primarily from reports in the Hawaiʻi Journal of History through UH-Mānoa.)

© 2025 Hoʻokuleana LLC

by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Some Playground History

“In recognition of the truth of Joseph Lee’s declaration, ‘A boy without a playground is father to the man without a job’, the Free Kindergarten and Children’s Aid Association is making a valiant effort … to secure a trained playground worker for Honolulu.” (The Friend, April 1912)

Initially private groups, rather than public agencies, undertook efforts to build playgrounds in American cities. Some of the first privately operated playgrounds open to the public were established in Boston in the 1880s, but most cities witnessed a burst of private initiative in the following decade.

A major objective of private playground organizers was to convince city officials that public recreation ought to be a municipal responsibility.  As a result, by the opening decade of the twentieth century most large American cities had established playgrounds owned and operated by municipal governments.

Shifting from an initial desire to get children off the streets, the playground movement evolved in the first two decades of the twentieth century into a well-organized and articulate national crusade.

Its proponents saw the playground not only as a refuge from urban perils, but also as a place of social reform. They believed play had educational value, and emphasized that it should be organized and supervised by the director of the playground.

The social mission of playgrounds was emphasized in playground literature across the nation and in Honolulu. In Hawaiʻi, as elsewhere, the goal of playground activities not only included vigorous physical exercise and mental satisfaction, but also the ability to work as a team member and to develop ‘a disposition to strive for high ideals.’

It was felt that playgrounds developed such virtues as: health, physical efficiency, morality, initiative, self-confidence, imagination, obedience, a sense of justice, happiness and good citizenship. At the same time they discouraged such undesirable traits as: idleness, temptation, exclusiveness, social barriers, selfishness, gang spirit, rowdyism, unfairness and delinquency.

Established in 1895, the Free Kindergarten and Children’s Aid Association and one of Hawaiʻi’s first eleemosynary organizations, offered the first teacher training program and free kindergarten to all of Hawaiʻi’s children.

The teacher training program was eventually moved to what became the University of Hawaiʻi, and the kindergartens were taken over by the Territorial Department of Education, allowing the organization to focus on serving younger children.

Free Kindergarten and Children’s Aid Association established the first public playground in the city in 1911, Beretania Playground, at the corner of Beretania and Smith streets in the heart of Chinatown.   It was intended for boys and girls under ten, and for older girls accompanying the very young, and the “play garden” was open seven days a week from 9 am to 5 pm.

Initially, administration of municipal playgrounds was delegated to existing agencies such as park boards or school boards. However, many cities eventually established special playground commissions, which often led to jurisdictional problems.

Largely through the association’s efforts, a Recreation Commission was established within the city government in 1922, following the recommendations of Henry Stoddard Curtis, a former secretary of the nationwide Playground Association and the author of Education Through Play, who lectured in Hawaiʻi in 1920.

Julie Judd Swanzy, the president of the Free Kindergarten and Children’s Aid Association, was named as the Commission’s chair. The association turned its four playgrounds (Beretania, Kamāmalu, Atkinson and Aʻala) over to the city, and promptly opened five new municipal playgrounds: Kaimuki, Dole Park, Kalihi-Kai, Kauluwela and Kalihi-Waena.

By the 1930s and 1940s cities began to consolidate separate parks and playground agencies into a single “recreation” department.

The playground of the early twentieth century represented a significant departure from nineteenth century conceptions of a park.  Rather than a carefully laid out landscape, planned as the antithesis of the cityscape, the twentieth century playground was usually of modest size and was conceived as a utilitarian space, sometimes embellished with landscaping effects or architectural detail, but frequently not.

The playground was a setting for supervised play and not contact with nature. The idea of the playground was to provide usable play space close to home in the densely populated sections of the city, not a green oasis set apart from the city.

During the 1930s, the City and County of Honolulu created a memorable set of parks and playgrounds. It was at this time that the concept of organized play in Hawaiʻi found its most architecturally significant expression.

Charles Lester McCoy, who was chairman of the Honolulu Park Board from 1931 to 1941, is remembered today as the “virtual founder of Honolulu’s modern park system.”  His personal commitment to parks, combined with his administrative ability to get things done despite the scant resources of the time, profoundly shaped the growth of the city park system at this time.

One of McCoy’s most far-reaching decisions was to employ Harry Sims Bent as park architect in 1933. It is Bent’s work that gives the 1930s parks their ‘art deco’ architectural distinctiveness.

Bent started to work for the Honolulu Park Board on the Ala Moana Park project in 1933. His work at Ala Moana included the canal bridge, entrance portals, sports pavilion, the banyan courtyard and lawn bowling green.

In the smaller parks Bent was often responsible for the overall layout as well as the structures, including walls, comfort stations and pergolas.

During the 1930s he designed the following parks for the City and County of Honolulu: Mother Waldron Playground, Kawananakoa Playground, Lanakila Park comfort station, Kalihi-Waena Playground, Haleiwa Beach Park structures, the Ala Wai Clubhouse and the Park Service Center by Kapiolani Park.   (Lots of information here from NPS and KCCA.)

© 2025 Hoʻokuleana LLC