Kahului | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

August 25, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kahului Landing

It is believed that initial Polynesian discovery and settlement of the Hawaiian Islands occurred between approximately AD 1000 and 1200. (Kirch) This effectively started the ‘Settlement’ phase.

For generations, the small, slowly growing population clustered around shore sites near streams that supplied them with water. Such sites are best for inshore fishing.

The food plants of Hawaiʻi can be divided into three groups: those known as staple foods (the principal starchy foods – kalo (taro,) ʻuala (sweet potato,) ʻulu (breadfruit,) etc;) those of less importance (to add nutrients and variety to the diet;) and those known as famine foods. (Krauss)

Kamakau states that there were no chiefs in the earliest period of settlement but that they came “several hundred years afterward … when men became numerous.” The communities shared familial relations and there was an occupational focus on collection of marine resources.

By the 14th century, inland elevations to around the 4,000 foot level were being turned into cultivated fields of the early dryland Kona Field System.

By the 15th century, residency in the dry uplands was becoming permanent, and there was an increasing separation of chiefly class from commoners. In the 16th century the population stabilized and the ahupua‘a land management system was established as a socio-economic unit. (Kepā Maly)

“The sweet potato and gourd were suitable for cultivation in the drier areas of the islands. The cult of Lono was important in those areas, particularly in Kona on Hawaii and ‘Ulupalakua on Maui . At both of these places there were temples dedicated to Lono. The sweet potato was particularly the food of the common people.” (Handy Handy & Pukui)

In the later Hawaiian period (c. 1600-1800), leading to the eventual rise of Kamehameha I to power (c.1791 A.D.), the ko kula kai and ko kula uka (coastal and upland-slopes) of this area came to be extensively cultivated with important staple and supplemental crops suited to dryland planting techniques and the Kona environment. (Kepa Maly)

“Not the smallest piece of Ground was left uncultivated. By their accounts it is hardly possible that this Country can be better cultivated or made to yield a greater sustenance for the inhabitants; they passed thro fields of hay, with which they cover the young Tarro Grounds, to prevent the suns drying it up.”

“In their walk through the Villages they met with real hospitality, every one was desirous of entertaining them, & used enticing arts to prevail upon them to stay some time amongst them; these Villages were never found farther than 4 or 5 miles from the sea side”. (Journals of Captain James Cook, Beaglehole)

“Small bays generally had a cluster of houses where the families of fishermen lived-as in Kona, Hawaii, in the specific localities of Kailua, Holualoa, Kahalu‘u, Keauhou, Napo‘opo‘o, Honaunau, Kealakekua, and Ho‘okena. … Wherever a ruling ali‘i had his establishment there was a large aggregation of domiciles.” (Handy, Handy & Pukui)

Of significance to the land of Kahului, is the fact that a number of early historians record that the area between modern day Kailua Town to Keauhou, was favored by the ali‘i nui (high ranking chiefs) of the island of Hawai‘i as a residence. (Maly)

Kahului is a ili within the ahupua‘a of Holualoa. (Ili, ahupua‘a and moku are Hawaiian terms that refer to land divisions. A moku is a large section of an island, while an ahupua‘a is a portion of a moku that is typically somewhat pie-shaped, and runs from the mountains to the ocean, and an ili is a portion of an ahupua‘a.) (NPS, Henderson House) (Others suggest Kahului is an ahupua‘a.)

Kahului is a part of this larger district that was a significant political seat and population center. (Maly) On the makai side, at Kahului Bay, was a canoe landing.

“Look at all the ulu niu [coconut grove]. This is about 1890, it’s Kahului Bay, there are canoes at the landing, the sand was up. Look where all the people are standing. And there are thatched house here. This is where the Kona Tiki Hotel is now.” (Kepā Maly)

“You know, the shore was very different here, even when I was young. The beach came up with sand and rocks into the yard, and there used to be an old canoe and boat landing in front here. You know Kahului was an important landing, before days.”

“Over there [pointing to a thatched house in the picture on the north side of the landing] that’s where the Kona Tiki Hotel is now. You see, they’ve filled all this in to make the road and hotel. The landing is all changed now.”

“But look, there are so many people, all Hawaiians down on the shore. Now almost all the families are gone. Our house would be just off the picture here. Now, all these walls and house sites are all gone too.” (Luciana Ka‘ailehua Makuakâne-Tripp, Interview with Kepa Maly)

February 9, 2020 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Kanahā Pond

According to archaeologists Tomonari-Tuggle and Welch, changes shown on various maps suggest that the entire coastal area mauka of Kahului Bay was once marsh land, and could have been a natural formation that was only slightly modified by Hawaiians for fish cultivation.

Though their early history and even the actual boundaries of the wetlands to which they belonged are uncertain, we know that the swampy Kahului of old came to an end with the harbor dredging. A network of canals still drains groundwater from beneath the town’s coral-fill foundation.

A pair of fishponds, Kanahā and Mauoni, were located near the coastal area of Kahului Bay (between the present harbor and the airport.) Both Mauoni and Kanahā were naturally occurring, inland freshwater ponds whose shapes were altered by early Hawaiian fishpond builders.

The ponds were used for storing and fattening fish, because Hawaiian kapu prohibited catching or eating fish from the sea during the yearly spawning season. It was permissible, however, to eat fish taken from freshwater ponds.

Mauoni extended to the old County Fairgrounds area, near the present Safeway. Just east of the current harbor facilities is the Kanahā Fishpond, which is said to have been built by Chief Kihapiʻilani, brother-in-law of ‘Umi.

Kihapi‘ilani, a ruling chief of Maui in the early 1700s, was living at Kahului where he “began the transporting of the stones for the walls of the ponds Manoni [Mau‘oni] and Kanahā. He is the one who separated the water of the pond, giving it two names” (Dye).

“The kuapā is still there to this day, but a large portion of it has been lost, covered under the sands flying in the winds.” (Manu in Nupepa Ku Okoa, August 23, 1884, Maly)

According to another tradition, Kapiiohookalani, King of O‘ahu and half of Moloka‘i, “built the banks of kuapa of Kanahā and Mauoni, known as the twin ponds of Kapiioho—for the purpose he used men from Oʻahu and Molokaʻi, as well as those of Maui under his aunt Papaikaniau. “ (Dye)

“Tradition relates that the laborers stood so closely together that they passed the stones from hand to hand … Before the ponds were finished, Kapiioho had been killed by Alapainui of Hawaii at the battle of Kawela, Molokai. He was survived by a daughter Kahamaluihiikeaoihilani and son Kanahāokalani.” (Dye)

During King Kamehameha’s campaign to unify the Hawaiian Islands, the principal military encounter on Maui took place within Kahului Bay, in the area around the pond. For two days, there was constant fighting between the two sides until Kamehameha conquered them with the help of the military expertise and cannons of his western advisors, John Young and Isaac Davis.

It was a bloody battle and by the time it was over, the beach between Kahului and Pāʻia was covered with the canoes and bodies of fallen warriors.

When Kahului Bay was dredged in the early 1900s to deepen the harbor, the material that was removed was dumped on low-lying ground along the shore. In the process, the remains of an ancient fishpond disappeared (like most of the large ponds in the Hawaiian Islands that have been degraded or filled for development.)

Over the years, the Fairgrounds, the Kahului Industrial Area, parts of Dream City and much of commercial Kahului were filled in or dried out – or both – leaving Kanahā Pond just a small patch of a extensive wetland that extended to where Queen Ka’ahumanu Center was built.

Since the turn of the twentieth century, the pond has functioned primarily as a waterfowl and shorebird sanctuary.

Before the Second World War, Kanahā Pond was owned by the Hawaiian Commercial and Sugar Company. During the War, the HC&S donated the land, which included Kanahā Pond, to the US Navy.

In 1951 the Hawaiian government formally designated the pond as a bird refuge. The pond is home to two endangered species – the Hawaiian Stilt and the Hawaiian Coot, as well as providing sanctuary to many migrant shorebirds and waterfowl.

In 1959 the state legislature appropriated funds to improve the habitat and the Maui County government appointed a Citizens Advisory Committee.

More funding was obtained, and in 1961 the state legislature made long-term plans which included bird-feeding stations, observation areas and a picnic area, as well as an experimental dredging to try to eliminate the offensive odor, which manifested itself during the summer months.

Due to the continued destruction of many of Hawai’i’s wetland areas Kanahā Pond was designated a registered natural landmark in late 1971 by the Department of the Interior, one of only two such sites registered at the time.

Kanahā Pond provides one of the most important waterbird habitat in Hawaiʻi. It is one of the few remaining brackish-water ecosystems, providing refuge for both resident and migratory bird populations.

The pond and surrounding area are within the Kahului Airport jurisdiction. DOT has set the land aside for public recreation and wildlife purposes. Even though it is habitat for local and migratory birds (not the best of neighbors of airports,) since 1973, DOT and FAA have allowed construction of protective moats and nesting places, improvement of observation shelters and occasional dredging.

Today, the pond provides opportunities to see Hawaiian Stilts and Hawaiian Coots and other waterbirds from a small concrete observation area, which is located just off from the parking lot. The refuge is open all year and there are no entrance fees.

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Kahului Naval Air Station - 1945-(Kanaha_pond-circled)

Kahului_Bay-and-mauka-Makalena-DAGS-(Reg0180)-1866-(note_ponds-mauka-of-Bay)

Kahului_Harbor-Jackson-DAGS-(Reg1326)-1881

Maui-Dodge-DAGS-(Reg1268)-1885-portion-(note-pond-near-coast-at-Kahului)

Kahului_Harbor-(UH_Manoa)-(t4465)-1929-(portion)-(showing_Kanaha_Pond)

December 8, 2019 by Peter T Young 4 Comments

After December 7, 1941 – Submarines Continue Attack on Hawaiʻi

Most are very aware of the December 7, 1941 attacks by the Japanese on military installations on Oʻahu.

Their targets were Pearl Harbor; Hickam, Wheeler and Bellows airfields; Ewa Marine Corps Air Station; Kaneohe Bay Naval Air Station and Schofield Barracks.

However, the attacks by the Japanese on Hawaiʻi did not end on December 7th.

A group of about nine Japanese submarines were kept in the vicinity of Hawaiʻi until mid-January – they were stationed there to find out just how much damage had been done to the American military.

In addition, they tried to do what damage they could, as well as stir up concern in the civilian population about the war.

Before December was over, the Japanese submarines brought war home to the neighbor islands. Not by air attacks, but with periodic shelling from their submarines.

Over the next few weeks, on several occasions, they shelled more targets in Hawaiʻi – and, those attacks were not isolated to military targets; later in the month, civilian facilities were the intended targets.

Just before dusk on December 15th, a submarine lobbed about ten shells into the harbor area of Kahului on Maui, and three that hit a pineapple cannery caused limited damage.

Over a 2½-hour period during the night of December 30 – 31, submarines engaged in similar and nearly simultaneous shellings of Nawiliwili on Kauaʻi, again on Kahului, Maui and Hilo on the Big Island.

Damage at all three points was slight, and no one was hurt. The principal result of these shellings was to stir up the war consciousness of all the Hawaiian Islands.

A report of the Kauaʻi shelling states, “At around 1:30 a.m. on the moonlit night of December 30, 1941, an enemy Japanese submarine estimated to be about 4 miles offshore shelled Nawiliwili Harbor with least 15 three-inch shells in what was the only attack on Kauai during WWII.” (kalapakibeach-org)

“The shrapnel from one shell riddled every room in the home of CL Shannon, which was located over the Kauaʻi Marine & Machine Works, Shannon’s business, then situated along the stretch of harbor between what are today the Matson and Young Brothers terminals.”

On the bluff above the harbor, where the bulk sugar storage warehouse stands today, a shell started a small cane fire. Most of the shells were duds. One punctured a gasoline storage tank, others created water plumes in the bay.

Merchant Marine William S. Chambers, on a cargo ship docked in Kahului, noted. “We were shelled by a Japanese submarine in Kahului Harbor on December 30th, 1941, shortly before we left for San Francisco.” No damage was reported at Kahului.

Ten rounds were fired at ships docked at Kahului piers. Two shells fell harmlessly into the harbor. Four rounds hit the Maui Pineapple Company cannery, doing some damage to the roof and smokestack. One fell on the driveway of the Maui Vocational School, another in a waste lumber pile on Pier I, and one broke a few windows at the Pacific Guano and Fertilizer building. Army guns unsuccessfully returned fire.

The second attack on Kahului, on December 31, took place after General Order No. 14 established wartime censorship in Hawai’i and therefore received limited coverage.

The News did, however, mention in its first edition of 1942 that Maui police, navy and marine forces, as well as “HC & S Co. cowboys,” were patrolling on horseback to prevent looting. The death toll from the attacks: one unfortunate chicken.

None of the damage was considered major. Some frightened Kahului residents started to flee, but police and Boy Scouts persuaded them to return home.

In Hilo, residents were roused when a submarine surfaced about three miles offshore and open fired on Hilo Bay. Ten rounds, with high explosive shells hit a seaplane tender, the pier and started a small fire in the vicinity of Hilo Airport.

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September 17, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

“Dream City”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Kahului_Town_Development-1st_Increment-1949

Kahului_Town_Development-2nd_Increment-1951

Kahului_Town_Development-3rd_Increment-1952

Kahului_Town_Development-4th_Increment-1953

Kahului_Town_Development-5th_Increment-1955

Kahului_Town_Development-6th_Increment-1960

June 5, 2017 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Baldwin High School

It’s situated on the sand dunes midway between Wailuku and Kahului on the main highway … it was named and renamed four different times: Wailuku Junior High School (1928) … Wailuku Intermediate (1932) … Wailuku High School (1936) … Baldwin High School (1939.)

Let’s look back …

In December of 1924 a resolution was introduced by Supervisor R. A. Drummond to establish a new high school in or near Wailuku.

While Maui High School was available for students pursuing a secondary school education (back then, it was located in Pā‘ia,) the supervisors felt that it was too far and inconvenient for students to travel to Hāmākuapoko and that a high school should be located near the population center of the island.

But it took a while for the High School to be built. First, in 1928, Wailuku Junior High School was constructed. Situated in the heart of Wailuku, it drew students from Waiheʻe, Kihei, Waikapu and Wailuku.

Enrollment skyrocketed from 225-students in 1928 to 498 in 1931. The next year the school name changed to Wailuku Intermediate. After four years the name changed again, to Wailuku High School.

By 1937, Maui High School was becoming crowded and a new school was needed to relieve pressure from the school. However, building a new high school was not a unanimously approved plan.

As reported in the Maui News (June 5, 1937): “Talk of building a new high school found Supervisor HL Holstein asking the question as to whether the school was being built so as to thrust another batch of white collar job hunters on the market or whether a vocational school was being built that would teach a man a trade so he could earn a living.”

The supervising principal, Richard E Meyer, pointed out that only 25% of students who began the first grade finished the twelfth and that the new school was to be a senior high school with some shop and vocational work.

The community received news that on October 6, 1937 the legislature provided funding for the new school construction. Fifty acres of land were purchased below the sand hills.

A number of Honolulu architects submitted their applications to the Department of Education, including CW Winstedt and CW Dickey.

However, as a cost saving measure, plans and specifications were prepared by Department of Public Works architect Henry Stewart and County architect Noboru Kobayashi.

Bids for the first unit, the Cafeteria, were called on November 1938. Construction for the shop unit began in December. Then bids for the last four units, which were the largest, administration, homemaking, science and utility buildings, were awarded.

In April 1939, Harry Baldwin, president and manager of Maui Agriculture Company, turned up the first shovel of earth, marking the beginning of the construction of these units.

On October 27, 1939, ceremonies were held celebrating the final inspection and acceptance of the administration and classroom unit. The school then received its lasting name, Henry Perrine Baldwin High School. Later that year the auditorium was built.

Students and teachers moved furniture and equipment into the new buildings before beginning the 1939 Christmas vacation and after vacation, January 8, 1940, students started at their new school.

The school’s namesake, Henry Perrine Baldwin (born August 29, 1842 in Lahaina,) was a son of Dwight and Charlotte Fowler Baldwin, early American Protestant missionaries to Hawai‘i.

He and Samuel Thomas Alexander, another son of American Protestant missionaries (William Patterson Alexander and Mary Ann McKinney Alexander,) grew up together, became close friends and went on to develop a sugar-growing partnership – Alexander & Baldwin (A&B.)

In 1883, Alexander and Baldwin formalized their partnership by incorporating their sugar business as the Pā’ia Plantation also known at various times as Samuel T Alexander & Co, Haleakala Sugar Co and Alexander & Baldwin Plantation.

By spring of 1900, A&B had outgrown its partnership organization and plans were made to incorporate the company, allowing the company to increase capitalization and facilitate expansion.

A&B was one of Hawaiʻi’s five major companies (that emerged to providing 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 Five.

Hawaiʻi’s Big Five were: C Brewer (1826;) A Theo H Davies (1845;) Amfac – starting as Hackfeld & Company (1849;) Castle & Cooke (1851) and Alexander & Baldwin (1870.)

What started off as partnership between two young men, with the purchase of 12-acres in Maui, has grown into a corporation with $2.3 billion in assets, including over 88,000-acres of land.

(In 2012, A&B separated into two stand-alone, publicly traded companies – A&B focusing on land and agribusiness, and Matson on transportation.)

A&B is the State’s fourth largest private landowner, and is one of the State’s most active real estate investors. Its portfolio includes a diversity of projects throughout Hawaiʻi, and a commercial property portfolio comprising nearly 8-million square feet of leasable space in Hawaiʻi and on the US Mainland. (Lots of information here is from Baldwin HS, NPS and A&B.)

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