Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Seven Sisters

Nā-Huihui-O-Makaliʻi, “Cluster of Little Eyes” (Makaliʻi) (a faint group of blue-white stars) marks the shoulder of the Taurus (Bull) constellation.  Though small and dipper-shaped, it is not the Little Dipper.

Traditionally, the rising of Makaliʻi at sunset following the new moon (about the middle of October) marked the beginning of a four-month Makahiki season in ancient Hawaiʻi (a sign of the change of the season to winter.)

In Hawaiʻi, the Makahiki is a form of the “first fruits” festivals following the harvest season common to many cultures throughout the world. It is similar in timing and purpose to Thanksgiving, Oktoberfest and other harvest celebrations.

Something similar was observed throughout Polynesia, but it was in pre-contact Hawaiʻi that the festival reached its greatest elaboration.  As the year’s harvest was gathered, tributes in the form of goods and produce were given to the chiefs from November through December.

Various rites of purification and celebration in December and January closed the observance of the Makahiki season. During the special holiday the success of the harvest was commemorated with prayers of praise made to the Creator, ancestral guardians, caretakers of the elements and various deities – particularly Lono.

Makaliʻi is also known as the Pleiades; its common name is the Seven Sisters.

But it is not these seven sisters that is the subject of this summary; this story is about Mellie, Kulamanu, May, Einei, Lucy, Kathleen and Lani – the seven daughters of Curtis and Victoria Ward.

Curtis Perry Ward was born in Kentucky and arrived in Hawaiʻi in 1853, when whaling in the Pacific was at its peak. Curtis worked at the Royal Custom House, which monitored commercial activity at Honolulu Harbor for the kingdom.

Victoria Robinson was born in Nuʻuanu in 1846, the daughter of English shipbuilder, James Robinson and his wife Rebecca, a woman of Hawaiian ancestry whose chiefly lineage had roots in Kaʻū, Hilo and Honokōwai, Maui.

Ward started a livery with headquarters on Queen Street and expanded into the business of transporting cargo on horse-pulled wagons. The size of Ward’s work force became just as big as the harbor’s other major player, James Robinson & Co. (Victoria’s father.)

Curtis and Victoria married in 1865 and for many years they made their home near Honolulu Harbor on property presently occupied by the Davies Pacific Center.

The Wards bought land on what was then the outskirts of Honolulu, eventually acquiring over 100-acres of land running from Thomas Square on King Street down to the ocean.

They built the “Old Plantation” in 1882, a stately, Southern-style home on the mauka portion of the property.  It featured an artesian well, vegetable and flower gardens, a large pond stocked with fish, and extensive pasturage for horses and cattle. Self-sufficient as a working farm, Old Plantation was surrounded by a vast coconut grove.

Here’s a link to a video of “Old Plantation” with Anna Machado Cazimero, Kanoe Cazimero, Rodney Cazimero, Melveen Leed and Tito Berinobis. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtPTv1QENC0

That year, Curtis Ward died (at age 53,) leaving Victoria to raise seven daughters and manage the estate.  Here’s a little bit about the girls.

Mary Elizabeth “Mellie” Ward (February 16, 1867 to July 26, 1956) – married Frank Hustace September 30, 1886; Frank worked with, then succeeded his father-in-law in the draying business.

May Augusta Ward (May 10, 1871 to January 6, 1938) – married Ernest Hay Wodehouse in 1893; he was a prominent figure in the business world of Hawaiʻi; former president of Hawaiian Sugar Planters’ Association and the Sugar Factors Co, Ltd.

Annie Eva Theresa “Einei” Ward (March 13, 1873 to July 19, 1934) – married Wade Armstrong (Einei was the first of the Ward sisters to die, living to the age of 61.)

Keakealani Perry “Lani” Ward (May 27, 1881, December 31, 1961) – married Robert Booth; in 1966, Kapiʻolani Medical Center for Women and Children completed a new four-story Lani Ward Booth wing on Punahou Street.

Three sisters never married, and Lucy and Kathleen lived their lives at Old Plantation:
Hattie Kulamanu Ward (March 26, 1869 to March 2, 1959)
Lucy Kaiaka Ward (August 27, 1874 to March 20, 1954) (one of the founding members of the Hawaiian Humane Society)
Victoria Kathleen Ward (February 27, 1878 September 12, 1958)

Victoria Ward established Victoria Ward Ltd. in 1930 to manage the family’s property, primarily the remaining 65-acres of Old Plantation, now part of the core of Kakaʻako real estate adjoining downtown Honolulu.  Victoria Ward died April 11, 1935.

Victoria Ward was loyal to the Kingdom (Queen Liliʻuokalani was her personal friend) and she died under the flag much in the same way her husband passed under the Confederate flag more than 50 years before.  (Command)

Three sisters, Lucy Kathleen and Kulamanu, took control of the Victoria Ward Estate, with Kathleen becoming president and Lucy the secretary.

All was not always happy in the family.

In 1951, sisters Lucy and Kathleen sued to establish guardianship for sister Kulamanu.  At the hearing, evidence of insanity was undisputed and proved to the judge’s satisfaction that Kulamanu was mentally incapable of managing her estate. On evidence of suitability the probate judge found that Hawaiian Trust Company, Limited, is “a fit and proper person to be appointed” as guardian of her estate.  (Circuit Court Records)

Later (1957,) the Supreme Court decided on sisters Lani and Mellie (and nephew Cenric Wodehouse) petition for the appointment of a guardian for their sister, Kathleen, alleging that Kathleen was seventy-seven years of age, mentally infirm and unable to manage her business affairs.

The court found Victoria Kathleen Ward was incompetent to manage her business affairs (but not insane) and appointed Chinn Ho, Mark Norman Olds and George H Vicars, Jr guardians of the property.  (Supreme Court Records)

In 1958, the city bought the mauka portion of the Old Plantation Estate and tore it down to build the Honolulu International Center (later re-named Neal S. Blaisdell Center (after Honolulu’s former Mayor.))

The Blaisdell Center has been in operation since 1964 and in 1994 was remodeled and expanded.  The Blaisdell Center complex includes a multi-purpose Arena, Exhibition Hall, Galleria, Concert Hall, meeting rooms and parking structure.

On April 8, 2002, General Growth Properties, Inc announced the acquisition of Victoria Ward, Limited; this included 65-fee simple acres in Kakaʻako, with improvements of over one-million square feet of leasable area (Ward Entertainment Center, Ward Warehouse, Ward Village and Village Shops.)

General Growth later (2004) acquired the Howard Hughes Corporation.  With excessive debt, General Growth was pushed into bankruptcy in 2009; then, in 2010, it spun off the Ward assets into the Hughes entity (General Growth was out of bankruptcy by the end of that year.)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Lewalewa Settlement

“[Gilbert] Islanders were brought [to Hawai‘i] in different ships under contracts for labor work during the years 1880 and 1882. In the contract was a clause agreeing to ship the Gilbert Islanders back to their homes after conclusion of the contracts.”

“[Many] of them were employed on Koloa plantation, Kauai, and a large proportion were taken back according to agreement. Others remained. It is stated, voluntarily. Many it is claimed were not offered passages.  During their stay here the Islanders have kept themselves in colonies.” (Hawaiian Gazette, Oct 16, 1903)

“An outcome of the scattering of poor South Sea Islanders after the destruction of Chinatown in January of last year, was the building of a mushroom village of shacks within the breakwater on the Waikiki side of the channel [into Honolulu Harbor]”. (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, Sep 9, 1901)

By that time, residential construction began with the filling of fishponds, marshes and mudflats starting with the area closest to downtown Honolulu; Kakaʻako flourished as a residential settlement where immigrant workers joined the Hawaiian community to form areas such as Squattersville, a shantytown which sprang up along the district’s makai border.  (KSBE)

“Within this rock wall enclosure several sand spits have been formed by the action of the tides, and upon these the homeless and destitute people from the South Seas built their squalid homes”.

“That these people are poverty stricken is evidenced by the makeshift affairs which they call their homes. Driftwood, boards secured from any chance place, pieces of tin, boxes, crates and general debris are the component parts of these odd, misshapen structures, which they have erected to shelter them.”

“Picturesque as the village may seem to the stranger who visits it, the Board of Health has determined that cleanliness shall be the first rule of the place”.  (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, Sep 9, 1901)

“For some time many [of the Gilbert Islanders] lived in a settlement of huts on sand enclosed by the stone wall built, into the sea at Kakaako, back of the Quarantine wharf.”

“There they supported themselves by fishing, the women assisting by braiding hats and mats. … The Gilbert Islands being a British protectorate the colonies here are under the control of that country and British Consul Hoare has taken a strong interest in the matter of sending them home.” (Hawaiian Gazette, Oct 16, 1903)

“The Lewalewa settlement, or the South Sea Island settlement, as it is more commonly known, which has existed on the breakwater enclosure beyond the boathouses, for several months, is doomed.”

“The Board of Health says that too many deaths from tuberculosis have occurred there, and with the co-operation of Captain Merry, who has charge of the Naval Station here, it is hoped that the settlement may be removed.”

“Since the plague of last year this sand spit, protected by the stone breakwater, has been a refuge for the poverty-stricken South Sea Islanders. They built small shacks of driftwood, and almost anything that would keep out wind and rain, and have eked out a miserable existence”.

“Yesterday the question of the health of the inhabitants of that interesting village was brought up and the statement made that there was at present too much tuberculosis in the place. Deaths have been numerous from this cause, and it was declared that a change of conditions must take place there.” (PCA, June 6, 1901) They later moved to Kalihi. (PCA, Oct 16, 1903)

Later, “Acting Governor Atkinson and Superintendent of Public Works Holloway had a meeting this morning with the representatives of seventeen families of Hawaiians who have ‘squatted’ on land in Kakaako and who were served with notices of eviction at the instance of Mrs. Ward, owner of the property.”

“It appears that the Hawaiians were living principally by fishing in the private fishing right adjoining the land. As a result, it was impossible to lease the fishery.”

“The Hawaiians are all poor people and arrangements are being made to find them homes elsewhere. ‘We hope to place them on lands In Kalihi where they will be all right,’ said the Acting Governor, ‘and thus all parties will be satisfied.’”

“Aside from the fishery proposition complaints were made that the colony of squatters was a somewhat noisy one.” (Hawaiian Star, May 25, 1906)

Even later, a much larger settlement on the ‘Ewa side of Kewalo at Kaʻākaukukui, near the former location of Incinerator Number One at Kaka‘ako, was referred to as “Squattersville” because the residents lived without authorization on land belonging to the Territory of Hawai‘i.

The dwellings that lined the shoreline, where the present Olomehani Street now runs, were protected from the ocean by a low seawall about three feet high.

The community of about 700 Hawaiians and part-Hawaiians was evicted in May 1926 and their homes were razed. The City and County of Honolulu constructed two incinerators and an ash dump at Kewalo (what we now call Kakaʻako Makai).

Despite its use as a refuse dump, the Kaʻākaukukui area continued to be heavily utilized as a fishing and swimming area. (HABS Report)

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A Building Tells Stories About Buildings

This story is one of the unhappy stories I had while at DLNR.  We were dealing with the last of its kind – so losing it had a different, and more permanent, meaning.  I hope telling the story will help keep the memory alive.

This is not only of personal concern, at the time I was also the State Historic Preservation Officer.

Anyway, on December 27, 1850, the Honolulu Fire Department was established, by signature of King Kamehameha III, and was the first of its kind in the Hawaiian Islands, and the only Fire Department in the United States established by a ruling monarch.

Back in those early days, firefighting equipment was primarily buckets and portable water supplies.  As the department grew, several hand-drawn engine companies were added.

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.  Central Fire Station was later relocated to its present site at Beretania and Fort Streets.

Until 1901, most business buildings in downtown were 2-3 floors, that year the 6-floor Stangenwald Building was completed; it remained the tallest building until 1950, when the seven-story Edgewater Hotel in Waikīkī took over that title.

So, for a very long time, firefighting in Honolulu was handled pretty close to the ground, with buildings essentially accessible via hand-raised ladders.

Also, back then, with all the buildings relatively similar in scale, spotting was easy from the towers adjoining the stations and firefighting equipment was pretty consistent to deal with the similar building heights.

The old Kakaʻako Fire Station was occupied on October 1, 1929, by Engine Company Number 9.  In 1930, a hook and ladder building was constructed.  It housed a ladder truck for 20 years.

It housed the equipment that transported ladders to the downtown fires.  Its size and shape showed the scale of Honolulu’s buildings.

The lengths of the ladders on the ladder trucks were tall enough to effectively fight downtown structure fires.  Taller ladders were not needed, because Honolulu, then, did not have taller structures.

And that’s the point of this story.

When the Fire Department was going through its consultation with DLNR’s Historic Preservation Division, I got involved in the discussions when I heard they wanted to get rid of the ladder building.

It was the last of its kind (all other ladder buildings (typically attached to the various fire stations) had been removed from the other older fire stations.)  Kakaʻako had the last one.

I suspect some may wonder what the big deal was – that’s the position the Fire Department took.  What is so important about a rotting wood attachment to an historic Fire Station? (The Kakaʻako Station was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.)

And, with a brand spanking new Administration building going up next door, this old building was an eyesore and in the way.

We had a meeting with the top brass from the Fire Department – the Chief and his Assistant Chiefs.

I tried to convince them that simply looking at the ladder building (that they wanted to remove) helped tell the story of what Downtown Honolulu used to look like (especially in the present context of predominantly high-rise and relatively few low-rise structures.)

That building helped tell the story of the other buildings in the area and the look of Honolulu at the time.

Well, after several discussions (several of them not pleasant,) we compromised on retaining the facades of the front and rear of the ladder building, with trellising forming the height of the building (trying to give the sense of scale of the ladder building) and tiles on the ground noting the perimeter walls.

Unfortunately, during the course of construction, we were belatedly-told that the facades could not be saved and there was nothing anyone could do about that.

I’ve been back to the Station and was happy to see the tiled outline of the old ladder building in the connecting walkway between the Old Kakaʻako Station and the Administration building.

It’s difficult to imagine that Honolulu was once a low-rise central business district – and was that way for such a long time.  Fortunately, we have some representation of what it looked like, told through the tiles on the ground.

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by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Kakaʻako Pumping Station

The word “Sewer” is derived from the term “seaward” in Old English, as in ditches and ravines slightly sloped to run waste water from land to sea.

From an 1857 story in the Commercial Pacific Advertiser it appears that the first sewer facility to be constructed on Oʻahu was a storm drain located at Queen Street at the foot of Kaʻahumanu Street opposite Pier 11.  (ASCE)

Despite three outbreaks of smallpox, a typhus epidemic and two cholera epidemics between 1853 and 1895, no other serious actions were taken to improve conditions.

Honolulu was a growing city and needed a better way of disposing its wastewater.

At that time, the city had grown to approximately 30,000-people, and it was estimated that about 1.8-million gallons of sewage was being disposed of in the City septic systems daily.  This was much more than septic tank excavators could keep up with – which caused sanitation and odor concerns.

In 1897, Rudolph Hering, a New York Sanitary Engineer, was hired to prepare specifications for a Honolulu sewerage system, pumping station and ocean outfall (Hering had previously designed the New York and other large city sewage systems.)

Hering recommended a “separate system” whereby separate networks of conduits would carry sewage and storm waters, a system still used today in Honolulu.

Work on the system began in 1899 and sewer lines were laid out in a gravity flow pattern in a rectangular fashion and ran along Alapaʻi, River and South Streets, past Thomas Square, and ended in the Punahou area.

The system was extended to the remaining portion of what was then considered to be “town,” between Liliha on the ʻEwa side, Artesian Street, beyond Punahou to Judd Street, and including the Kewalo District.

The expansion was later delayed, due to a lack of funding. Much of the extension work thereafter was performed by property owners who were furnished piping and sewer components by the government.

The collection lines terminated at a main reservoir (the underground reservoir was dubbed the Hering Reservoir) at the low point at the intersection of Keawe Street and Ala Moana Boulevard in Kakaʻako.  (Darnell)  The sewage would then be pumped out to sea.

In addition, OG Traphagen (designer of the Moana Hotel) was hired to design the steam-powered sewer pumping station at this low spot.

The cost was tremendous for the construction of the lines, and construction was stopped several times due to lack of funding. The sewer outfall to the ocean was built in 1899. The outfall ran some 3,800-feet out to sea at a depth of 40-feet of water, rather than farther out to a 100-foot depth (again, due to funding constraints.)  (Darnell)

In 1900, the Kakaʻako Pumping Station was constructed; with features such as large arched windows, exterior walls of local lava rock, roofs of green tile and a smokestack 76-feet tall.

The architectural style is Industrial Romanesque with the walls constructed of locally-cut bluestone and concrete with plaster finished interior walls.

The first sewer system connections (to the Department of Health building on Punchbowl and Queen Streets, and to the Post Office building on Bethel and Merchant) were completed in 1900. This was followed by the slow conversion of other properties from cesspools to sewers.

Two additions were built to support the Pumping Station facility. In 1925, an additional “Pump” building of brick to house a high-speed, electric powered pump was added and the original plant was turned into a machine shop, storeroom and office. In 1939 a second “New” Pump House was constructed on the southwestern side of the existing structures.

The use of the Kakaʻako Pumping Station was abandoned by the City and County of Honolulu when it built a new pumping station on the southwest portion of the block, adjacent to the Historic Ala Moana Pumping Station in 1955.

Now under the jurisdiction of the Hawaiʻi Community Development Authority, it is restored by the nonprofit Hawaiʻi Architectural Foundation.

Today, the interior of the 1900 Pumping Station does not contain any historic equipment or utilities.  (Lots of information here from HCDA, HHF, ASCE and Darnell.)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

“Swillauea”

In 1898, the US Army built a seawall and filled a submerged coral reef on the ‘Ewa (western) side of Kaʻākaukukui for a gun emplacement at Fort Armstrong to protect the mouth of adjoining Honolulu Harbor.

At the turn of the century, Ala Moana Boulevard was built at what was then the shoreline, and the broad areas on both sides of the future Kapiʻolani Boulevard consisted of rice fields.

The dredging of harbors, offshore areas and the Ala Wai Canal provided fill for the reclamation of the ‘swamps.’  The construction of the Ala Wai stopped the annual flooding of Waikīkī.

At the beginning of the twentieth-century, the stretch of coast makai of Ala Moana Boulevard between Fort Armstrong (Piers 1 & 2 at Honolulu Harbor) and Waikīkī was the site of the Honolulu garbage dump, which burned almost continually.

The residue from burned rubbish was also used to reclaim wetlands.  This residue provided a fill that was quite inert and solid.  Thus, a rubbish dump was considered a cost-free method for a landowner to reclaim swampy land.

Since at least the 1850s, the Hawaiian Monarchy was providing urban public services in Honolulu, including refuse collection and disposal.  Horse-drawn wagons were first used for the collection of refuse; the horses were stabled in Kakaʻako.

Following Annexation and Territorial status (1900,) garbage removal was one of six items listed in the Oʻahu County’s 1905 monthly operating expenses, along with the police and fire departments, the electric light plant, city parks and the Royal Hawaiian Band.  The only direct income for Oʻahu County was its refuse collection fees.

Oʻahu, like many other coastal communities, was ringed with tidelands.  The area was traditionally noted for its fishponds and salt pans, and for the marsh lands where pili grass and other plants could be collected.  About one-third of the coastal plain at Kakaʻako was a wetland.  The entire shoreline was coral rubble bordered by fringing reefs and mudflats.

As time went on, when the fishponds were no longer used, they were more often than not filled with material dredged from the ocean or hauled from nearby areas, garbage and general material from other sources. These reclaimed areas provided valuable new land near the heart of growing urban Honolulu.

The ʻili of Kaʻākaukukui was awarded by land court to Victoria Kamāmalu; Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop inherited the land, which later became part of the Kamehameha Schools (formerly the Bishop Estate). The Territory of Hawai‘i acquired the land in 1919.

Just as the Army had done at Fort Armstrong, the government built a new seawall, extending east to reclaim more Kaʻākaukukui reef and submerged land.

During the 1920s, the channel and basin on the Waikīkī (eastern) side of the growing Kakaʻako peninsula was dredged as a small boat harbor, called Kewalo Basin, to relieve overcrowding at Honolulu Harbor by the sampan (tuna fishing) fleet.

Hawaiian Dredging Company completed Kewalo Basin’s wharf and channel in 1925, and by 1930 the sampan fishing fleet was relocated to their new base.

In 1930, a garbage incinerator was constructed on Mohala Street (now ʻĀhui Street) near the east end of the Kakaʻako seawall (near Kewalo Basin.)  This moved the open dump fires into a more controlled and contained facility.

In 1931, the City and County of Honolulu dedicated the land on the Waikīkī-side of Kewalo Basin as Moana Park (the name was later changed to Ala Moana (“the path to the sea.”))

After the 1930 incinerator was constructed on ʻĀhui Street, the Star-Bulletin named it “Swillauea” (a play with words associated with the long burning fires of Kīlauea volcano on Hawai‘i Island) and lamented, “… Oh Swillauea-by-the-Sea … a monument to despair, foolishness and ugliness … all the king’s horses and all the king’s men couldn’t find another place to burn the City’s rubbish except in the City’s front yard ….” (Mason Architects)

In the 1940s, another, larger incinerator was added, as well as a significant new seawall, 500-feet seaward of the old shoreline, enclosing more acreage of tidelands to be filled with the post-combusted ash.   (The large boulders laid in the wall lining Kewalo Channel and around the point came from Punchbowl Crater during the initial development of the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific by James W. Glover, Ltd.)

Incinerator Number One was later removed from service after the new incinerator on ʻOhe Street was constructed in 1946-48.  With the completion of the seawall in 1949, filling operations began and by the mid-1950s the shallow reef of Ka’ākaukukui was completely covered over.

And, again, in 1950 another seawall was extended and ash filled areas making more usable acreage.  Following statehood in 1959, government officials met to discuss the near-completion of the fill behind the seawall.   As the height increased, the State expressed concern over the mountain of ash which was growing so rapidly.

The State finally told the City in 1971 to stop placing any more ash to the pile.  Parts of the ash pile were then 25 feet above the top of the seawall.

The incinerator was finally shut down in 1977 because it could not meet the increasingly stringent air pollution standards. Then, in 1992, the State constructed Kakaʻako Waterfront Park on the ash pile (the young and young-at-heart now slide on cardboard down the steep grass-covered incinerator ash hill.)

The second incinerator, on ʻOhe Street, was renovated and is now used as the Children’s Discovery Center.  (The initial incinerator on ʻĀhui Street was used in 1952 by United Fishing Agency as part of their fish auction facility – the fish auction has since relocated to the Commercial Fishing Village at Pier 38.)

(Lots of information here is from the Historic American Buildings Survey for the Kewalo Incinerator and Cultural Surveys.)

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