Koolaupoko | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

June 28, 2025 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Podmore Fire Control

“There are strong arguments in favor of putting the principal harbors of the country in a state of adequate defense, even at very considerable cost. But the work should be done according to a well digested plan, which will give reasonable security that it will answer its purpose.” (New York Times, July 1, 1884)

Harbor defenses had constituted the primary element of the means employed by the Army for seacoast defense. Harbor defenses consisted of permanently installed guns of various calibers, which could be supplemented in an emergency by mobile coast artillery guns and controlled mine fields.

The Artillery District of Honolulu was established April 24, 1909 and consisted of Forts Ruger, DeRussy, Kamehameha and Armstrong (the District was renamed Headquarters Coast Defenses of Oʻahu.)

Following World War I and until the end of World War II, additional coastal armaments were constructed. Then, the Army mission was “the defense of Pearl Harbor Naval Base against damage from naval or aerial bombardment or by enemy sympathizers and attack by enemy expeditionary force or forces, supported or unsupported by an enemy fleet or fleets”.

Batteries at Fort Kamehameha, Fort Weaver and Fort Barrette (the latter two constructed in 1924 & 1935) completed pre-World War II coastal defense network for Pearl Harbor.

Batteries at Fort DeRussy and Fort Ruger were responsible for the defense of the South coast and Honolulu Harbor. While none of the large caliber guns were ever fired except in practice, the secondary anti-aircraft guns of coastal artillery units at Fort Kamehameha were credited with shooting down a number of attacking aircraft on the morning of December 7, 1941.

Following the Pearl Harbor attack, as part of the growing Coast Defense network, numerous Batteries and their associated Fire Control Stations were set up around the Islands.

A Fire Control Station is an observation and command center used to direct fire from gun Batteries on the coast. Fire Control personnel spot and determine where the guns should aim (typically working with others using triangulation;) Batteries have the guns to fire at the targets.

In 1917, Waimanalo Military Reservation was created (later renamed to Bellows Field in 1933;) with the outbreak of WWII, Bellows was transformed almost overnight into an important facility where aircraft were prepared for their duty in the Pacific Theater.

Part of the defense of the facility was Battery Wailea, located at Wailea Point (at the dividing line between Waimanalo and Lanikai.) Search lights were emplaced at the Battery. The Battery was operational from 1942 to 1945.

It was initially armed with two mobile 155-mm guns (about 6-inches, that could send 96-lb projectiles 17,400-yds,) later replaced with two 5-inch guns (58-lb projectile, 10,000-yd range) (later supplemented with two 3-inch guns (15-lb projectile, 11,100-yd range.))

Battery Wailea was supported by Fire Control Station Podmore. Podmore, completed February 28, 1943 – named for a nearby triangulation station, supported other armaments and was made up of two stations: a single story North structure (29A) and a double-tiered South station (29B & 29C.) (Bennett)

Pedestals in the bunkers were mounts for high-powered optical instruments for determining azimuth and range of ocean vessels.

An observer and recorder staffed each observation station. Data obtained from the observer’s optical instrument was telephoned by the recorder to the assigned gun battery by a local-battery operated telephone. (Bennett)

The troops manning the site slept and lived in tents in shifts on the slopes. Water and power lines were brought up from below to serve the bunkers and tent quarters from the Lanikai side of the Kaʻiwa Ridge.

The Podmore stations were located in the South Sector of Oʻahu’s two defense sectors, and tactically assigned to the Harbor Defenses of Kāneʻohe Bay located in a tunnel system dug into Ulupaʻu Crater on Mōkapu Peninsula.

The harbor defenses were set up to protect the vital Navy seaplane and landplane base at the Kāneʻohe Bay Naval Air Station built on the Mōkapu Peninsula. (Bennett)

After end of WWII, the parcel was declared surplus by the General Services Administration (GSA) and was offered for sale to the highest bidder. Both the State and the City & County did not offer to acquire the parcel and the property was sold to a private individual. (DLNR)

Today, a hiking trail takes you to the Fire Control Station.

The Ka‘iwa ridgeline may be accessed by one of two legal routes: the first is a City and County of Honolulu public access right-of-way that was established as a condition of subdivision approval for the Bluestone condominiums. The other access point is a State-owned trail corridor that was purchased for use by the Nā Ala Hele Trail and Access Program (Governor’s Executive Order 3610, 1994). (DLNR)

Most folks call the Podmore Fire Control bunker the Lanikai Pillboxes; a misnomer. As noted, the bunkers were built as an observation and command center for Battery Wailea and observation for Bellows Field.

A pillbox is a reinforced guard post, normally equipped with openings through which to fire weapons. The Podmore Fire Control Station was for observation, not weaponry.

In 2024, DLNR published as Final Environmental Assessment that calls for actions “to improve the Ka‘iwa Ridge Trail by implementing a trail management plan concurrently with the installation of physical improvements to the trail corridor.”

“Proposed improvements include a combination of surface treatments, erosion control measures, fencing or other barriers, and trail signage throughout the trail corridor.”

Lanikai Fire Control-(saito)

Waimanalo to Alala Pt-t4379_dd-1928-noting Podmoreequipment, not guns-punynari

Trail to lanikai-bunkers-punynari

The ‘Mokes’ from Fire Control Station Podmore

Start of the hike – lanikai-bunkers-punynari

lanikai-bunkers-punynari

Kailua and Fire Control Station Podmore

Heading up the trail to lanikai-bunkers

Almost to the top of trail to lanikai-bunkers-punynari

Example of 155mm gun (not specifically at Battery Wailea)

Example of 155mm gun (not specifically at Battery Wailea)-1943

Fire Control Station Podmore

Fire Control Station Podmore-(NotSoGreatHiking)

Fire Control Station Podmore_punynari

Fire Control Station Podmore-pedestals for viwing equipment, not guns-punynari

Fire Control Station Podmore-punynari

April 7, 2025 by Peter T Young 3 Comments

Campos Dairy

During the mid-1800s, Queen Kalama, wife of Kamehameha III, and Judge CC Harris attempted to establish a sugar plantation on the majority of lands in Kāneʻohe and Kailua. When this venture failed in 1871, Judge Harris obtained title to the lands, which he transferred to his daughter Nannie R Rice.

JP Mendonca leased the lands from her and, on November 1, 1894, incorporated Kāneʻohe Ranch, for the purpose of raising cattle. A foundation herd of Aberdeen-Angus cattle formed the basis for a commercial herd of between two and three thousand head.

The “wet-lands” on the property were leased to Chinese for rice cultivation. In 1907, James B Castle acquired the capital stock of Kāneʻohe Ranch Company Limited, and in 1917 his son Harold KL Castle eventually purchased the lands from Mrs Rice.

The cattle industry remained an integral part of the ranch’s operations until World War II, with the herds in the early days being driven by cowboys over the Pali to be butchered in Honolulu. Military operations on the ranch lands became so extensive during World War II that the cattle industry was discontinued.

The 12,000-acre ranch, when it came under the direction of Mr Castle, also engaged in the cultivation of pineapple. However, because of the extensive rainfall on this side of the island, pineapples proved uneconomical and in the 1920s were discontinued. Likewise, because of competition from California, rice farming declined in the 1930s. (NPS)

Parts of the area became used by dairy farms … that leads us to the Campos clan.

One of the biggest dairies on the Island was Campos Dairy in Kailua (it was also called LW Campos Ranch and Eagle Rock Dairy – because there was a large lava outcrop in the middle of a flat field shaped like an eagle.) (Miranda)

Rafael Marfil Campos was born in Velez, Malaga, Spain on June 30, 1860 to Antonio Gonzales Campos and Ana Robles Marfil. In 1883 he married Irene Rudea Lopes of Macharaviaya, Malaga (she died in 1889); his second wife was Carolina Escano Lopes, of Benagalbon, Malaga (she died in 1894).

Campos had emigrated from Spain to Cuba in 1893; there he lost his worldly possessions in the revolution against Spain. In 1897, Campos married Maria Gallardo Claros de Macharaviaya. He then moved to Puerto Rico in 1900.

After returning to Spain and living there for a while, he came to Hawaiʻi in 1907.

1912 newspaper reports show Campos was farming in Kapahulu (near where the Honolulu Zoo is situated.) Campos “is an expert farmer who arrived here from Spain in the immigrant steamer Heliopolis …”

The newspaper was reporting on losses he suffered on his vegetable and fruit farm due to fruit flies attacking his Chile pepper. He noted, “If something is not done in regard to the fruit fly, our islands will be ruined as far as vegetables and fruits are concerned.” (Hawaiian Star, June 6, 1912) That same year, recorded transactions note he also sold cows.

During the 1920s and 1930s several dairymen moved from Kapahulu to the windward side because large tracts of land had been abandoned by Libby, McNeill & Libby, following the closing of their pineapple cannery in Kahaluʻu.

Campos Dairy farm appeared in 1925 along the mauka side of Kailua Road (reportedly, one of the first to make the move to the Windward side.) It was where Target and the Ka Malanai Condominiums are today.

Leasing land from Kāneʻohe Ranch, Campos also bought land around Kaʻelepulu Stream. A 1994 MidWeek cover story said the Campos land included 800 to 1,000-acres, where a herd of 1,000 to 1,200-cattle roamed. (Star-Bulletin)

The senior Campos “retired from the diary business in 1937, turning his interests over to his sone, Lawrence. He kept his hand in, however, by maintaining a flock of 600 Rhode Island Red chickens as a hobby.” (Adv, Mar 1, 1946) (Another son, George, also was involved with management of the dairy.)

Campos sold milk to the Dairymen’s Association (a cooperative formed in June 1897 when seven O’ahu dairy farms joined forces (Waiʻalae Ranch dairy, Kaipu Dairy, Mānoa Dairy, Honolulu Dairy, Nuʻuanu Valley Dairy, Woodlawn Dairy (Mānoa) and Kapahulu Dairy.)) (In 1959, the Dairymen’s Association, Ltd name changed to Meadow Gold Dairies Hawai‘i.)

Due to disagreement in a new policy, Campos was ready to go out on his own. “The decision to go into his own milk and dairy products business was made, according to Mr Campos, when Dairymen’s refused him the renewal of the flat-rate contract … he was asked to join the pool to which most of the milk producers now belong”. (Honolulu Record, September 7, 1950)

Lawrence Campos of the Eagle Rock Dairy planned to go into distributing milk in competition with the Dairymen’s Association. This brought speculation of a “milk price war.”

“Campos is working closely with owners of the Hygienic Dairy in his plans to organize a million dollar company … Hygienic has also had disagreement on a contract renewal with Dairymen’s.” (Honolulu Record, September 14, 1950)

By 1952, Campos is noted as “processing and selling milk;” that year, Foremost bought Campos Dairy Products, Ltd, as well as several other dairies and made its entrance into the Honolulu milk market. Operations were later transferred to Waimanalo. (FTC)

In the late-1960s, negotiation were underway by respective parties to acquire the Campos lease on the Castle/Kāneʻohe Ranch lands – the plan was to develop the pasture into apartments, condominium and commercial uses (one party offered $1,370,000 to purchase the Campos Ranch leases with Castle.)

Hawaii’s current dairy industry is tiny compared to what it once was. The state was self-sufficient in milk until 1982. Dairy operations could once be found across Oahu — from Hawaii Kai to Kapahulu and Waianae.

But in 2022, Hawaii had 633 dairy cows spread across 22 farms, according to the USDA. And more than half belong to Cloverleaf Dairy. In the 1960s, the state had about 50 dairies; now, there is one – the 350-cow Cloverleaf Dairy. (Heaton; Civil Beat)

February 16, 2025 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Pāhonu

Honu neʻe pū ka ʻāina
The land moves like the turtle.
(Land passes slowly but inexorably from owner to heir.)
(Pukui)

From its earliest period of occupation, the Waimānalo Bay region was an extensive agricultural area, featuring taro farms that used the traditional Hawaiian loʻi (pondfield) cultivation system.

Taro was grown in the lowlands, irrigated with water from Waimānalo Stream, as well as on terraced sections that were watered by the small streams and springs flowing out of the Koʻolau Range.

These terraced sections extended for nearly 2-miles in a semicircle at the foot of the mountains around the broad base of the Waimānalo valley. By the 1850s, the area’s fertile soil provided not only taro but also breadfruit, mountain apple, kukui and coconut trees, sweet potatoes and sugar cane. (NPS)

In addition to the agrarian-based economy, several fishing villages dotted the bay’s shoreline. Two of the best-known villages in the area were Kaupō and Kukui. Kaupō was on a small peninsula opposite Mānana Island (Rabbit Island) and just northwest of Makapuʻu Beach Park (where Sea Life Park is located.)

The village may have been depopulated during the early-1800s and probably was repopulated during the early-1850s when a disastrous smallpox epidemic struck Honolulu and Hawaiians settled temporarily in the Waimānalo Bay region to escape its ravages.

The small fishing village of Kukui was further northwest, along the bay in the Kaiona Beach vicinity near Pāhonu Pond (‘Turtle enclosure’) – a prehistoric walled enclosure where it is said that turtles were kept for the use of Hawaiian chieftains. (NPS)

Before we go there, let’s look at some findings of Dr Marion Kelly where she speaks of three main technological advances resulting in food production intensification in pre-contact Hawai‘i: (a) walled fishponds, (b) terraced pondfields with their irrigation systems and (c) systematic dry-land field cultivation organized by vegetation zones.

The Hawaiian walled fishpond stands as a technological achievement unmatched elsewhere in island Oceania. Hawaiians built rock-walled enclosures in near shore waters, to raise fish for their communities and families. It is believed these were first built around the fifteenth-century.

The general term for a fishpond is loko (pond), or more specifically, loko iʻa (fishpond). Loko iʻa were used for the fattening and storing of fish for food and also as a source for kapu (forbidden) fish.

Samuel Kamakau points out that “one can see that they were built as government projects by chiefs, for it was a very big task to build one, (and) commoners could not have done it (singly, or without co-ordination.)” Chiefs had the power to command a labor force large enough to transport the tons of rock required and to construct such great walls.

The fishponds just described refer to aquaculture to grow fish – they were found throughout the Islands; however, at Waimānalo, Oʻahu, the only remaining aquaculture of green sea turtle known to have been carried out by the early-Hawaiians involved a coastal pond named Pāhonu that was used to maintain turtles until they were ready to be eaten. (NOAA)

The green sea turtle is the principal marine turtle species in the Hawaiian Islands. Common names used in the Hawaiian Archipelago include honu, green turtle and green sea turtle. They are herbivorous, feeding primarily on seagrasses and algae. This diet is thought to give them greenish-colored fat, from which they take their name. (NOAA)

In Hawaiʻi, as throughout Polynesia and other islands in the pacific, sea turtles have always been a traditional part of the local culture and have historically been revered as special and sacred beings. (Luna)

“There was once a chief who was so fond of turtle meat that he ordered a sea wall be built to keep captured turtles from escaping. Every turtle caught by a fisherman was put into this enclosure. No one else was allowed to partake of turtle meat under penalty of death. No one dared to eat turtle as long as the old chief lived.” (Pukui; Maly)

Kikuchi in his “Hawaiian Aquaculture Systems,” notes that “An early visitor to Waikiki area remarked that the ruling chief of Oʻahu, Kahekili, ‘mentioned also some others where he had a quantity of turtle.’”

“… We walked back to Mr. Castle’s house, where we sat on a long bench outside, facing the sea. There Aiona told me the story of Pa-honu, an enclosure for turtles that was once located back of Mrs. Wall’s present home.” (Pukui; Maly)

Pāhonu, the offshore pond (500 feet long, 50 feet wide,) is just south of Kaiona Beach Park fronting the shoreline; a line of stones, submerged at high tide, but visible at low tide, notes its location. (Pukui)

Kaiona Beach Park, a small four-acre park at the south end of Waimānalo Bay, is a popular camping site that has also been used for many years as a community boat anchorage.

In 1998, residents of Waimānalo built a boat ramp in the south end of the park, the only paved ramp in Waimānalo. They also placed a monument to Hawaiian fishers from their community near the ramp. Kaiona means “attractive sea. (Clark)

The beachfront residence named Pāhonu inland of the pond was used from 1980 to 1988 as the base of operations for the popular television series, Magnum PI. A surf site borders a small channel through the reef and is also known as Magnums. (Ulukau) The ‘Magnum’ house has been removed and other houses are it its place.

Next to Pāhonu is Kaʻakaupapa (shallows at the right.) The old saying of this place was, “Papa ke kānaka, papa nā mea a pau”—“Multitudes of people, multitudes of gods, all in multitudes.” (Aiona, Informant, Sept. 14, 1939; Cultural Surveys)

Nearby is the Shriners Club, a private clubhouse that opened on April 20, 1931. Popularly known as Shriners Beach, it is used for a wide variety of events, including wedding receptions, birthday parties and other social gatherings. (Clark)

The green turtle is listed as endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. In 1978, the Hawaiian population of the green turtle was listed as threatened under the U.S. Endangered Species Act of 1973. NOAA Fisheries and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) have joint jurisdiction for green sea turtles.

State and Federal laws prohibit harassing, harming, killing, or keeping sea turtles in captivity without a permit allowing these activities for research or educational purposes. Divers should be aware that riding turtles is illegal and puts these animals under stress.

November 21, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

It’s Raining … Inside

The Koʻolaupoko moku (district) encompasses lands from Kualoa Point to Makapuʻu Point. Encompassing 43,598-acres (68-square miles,) Koʻolaupoko makes up approximately 11-percent of Oʻahu’s land mass.

The Koʻolau Mountain Range forms the inland (mauka) boundary of the district. The ridge elevation generally ranges from 2,500 to 2,800-feet; Kōnāhuanui, the tallest peak on the Koʻolau Mountain Range (3,150-feet) is found in Koʻolaupoko. (BWS)

Koʻolaupoko is the remnant of the Koʻolau volcano. Eruptions forming the mountains occurred approximately 2-million years ago and left lava flows that layered over each other. Magma pouring out of fissures in the volcano solidified in the narrow cracks; the rock that is created is much denser and much less permeable than the surrounding porous lava flows.

These dense, usually vertical geological structures are known as volcanic dikes. These dikes form wall-like areas that can capture and contain water.

Trade winds, which blow over the Pacific from the northeast across the Hawaiian Islands, bring large quantities of moist air to the Koʻolau Range. When these winds are deflected up and over the range, the water vapor condenses into clouds and falls as rain.

The rainfall does one of three things: (1) it runs off, eroding the land, forming valleys and gouges in the mountain slopes (and also creates some spectacular periodic waterfalls;) (2) wets the land surface, shallow infiltration saturates the uppermost soil layer and replaces soil moisture used by plants and then is absorbed by the vegetation and/or evaporates (evapotranspiration;) or (3) it percolates into the ground (slowly sinks into the ground and becomes groundwater.)

For the latter, it takes about 9-months for the rain, now groundwater, to seep down through cracks and permeable materials in the mountain; much of the groundwater ends up contained in dikes inside the mountain.

As these dike compartments become filled with water and overflow the dike edges, sometimes the water emerges at the surface as springs or streams.

Dike water is good for drinking water.

Development of dike-impounded reservoirs for domestic water offers two basic benefits: (1) the water level is typically high (limiting pumping (as in energy to pump water up wells) and allowing gravity to distribute to the needs at lower elevations) and (2) the reservoirs are isolated from saline water.

Groundwater impounded by dikes in the Koʻolau Range is a major source of water for the island of Oʻahu, and many tunnels have been bored into the range to develop it. (USGS)

The typical sequence of excavation of a high-altitude tunnel starts with the removal of a zone of weathered rocks, either by tunneling or trenching and is followed by penetration of dike intrusions in the basalt rock.

As tunneling advances farther and farther through the dikes and basalts, the contained dike water leaks and water flow increases, often in instantaneous jumps when key restraining dikes are punctured, until either a single dike, or a series of them, releases such a large volume of stored water that excavation must be halted. (Mink; USGS)

When a tunnel is bored into a dike-water reservoir, if allowed to flow freely, it will drain water out of storage. Over the course of water exploration in this area, several dikes were struck.

The reduction of dike-confined groundwater storage caused by construction of eight tunnels in Oʻahu has been estimated at 25,800-Million gallons, equivalent, then, to the total ground-water withdrawal on Oʻahu for about 60 days. (USGS)

Little consideration was given to the storage potential of dike compartments tapped and dewatered by water-development tunnels until a bulkhead was placed in a Waikāne tunnel of the Waiāhole system in 1934 to stop the draining and allow the dike to refill with water (about 40 years after high-altitude water-development tunnels were first constructed in Hawaiʻi.)

The bulkhead at Waikāne held back some water in storage, but not in sufficient volume to be considered successful. Use of the Waikāne bulkhead was discontinued, but other attempts at bulkheading were tried elsewhere, also without much success.

That changed on February 8, 1955. A 12-foot dike 1,600 feet into the Waiheʻe tunnel was penetrated and water gushed out at an initial rate of about 2.5-mgd (million gallons per day.) A bulkhead was built to contain the water.

The bulkhead held and the concept of inducing and controlling storage was resoundingly proved with the placement of the bulkhead in Waiheʻe tunnel. The storage above the tunnel in Waiheʻe Valley has been estimated at 2,200-Million gallons. (Mink; USGS)

In Koʻolaupoko, fresh water comes entirely from precipitation along the Koʻolau Mountain Range; Waiheʻe provides much of the drinking water to Windward Oʻahu, from Kahaluʻu to Kailua.

The Honolulu Board of Water Supply recently drilled an inclined well to tap dike-impounded water. This technique permitted the development of dike impounded water without the large initial and uncontrollable waste of stored water common to prior development by tunneling.

Dike tunnel systems are also at Waimānalo, Luluku, Haiku, Kahaluʻu, Pālolo, Mānoa and two Waianae tunnels, as well as in the Kohala region of the island of Hawaiʻi and in West Maui.

Oh, It’s Raining … Inside (?)

While the bulkhead holds the dike water, along the Waiheʻe tunnel into the Koʻolau, whatever the weather outside, rainwater (now groundwater) that missed the dike continues to make its downward percolation through the mountain, through cracks in the ceiling … producing a constant ‘rainfall’ for all in the darkness of the tunnel to the Waiheʻe bulkhead.

November 19, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kaʻōhao

Kaʻōhao (the tying) is an ʻili in the Kailua ahupuaʻa in the Koʻolaupoko Moku on windward Oʻahu. Its name relates to when two women were tied together here with a loincloth after being beaten in a kōnane game. (Ulukau) The place where this act took place was given the name of Kaʻōhao and it so remains to this day. (Fornander)

Hāuna, kahu to high chief Lonoikamakahiki of Hawai‘i Island, saw that two women were beating their husbands in a game of kōnane. He offered to play the women and wagered a bet. The women said to Hāuna: “We have nothing to offer on our side excepting ourselves. If you beat us in this present unfinished game you can take us as your property.”

Hāuna then said: “I have two double canoes filled with things that are valuable; the chief articles of value on the canoes, however, are a large number of feather cloaks. If you two beat me, you two shall have the goods in the canoes together with the men on board.” The women replied: “It is a bet.”

After the women were beaten at the game, he tied them together and led them to his canoes where he said to one of them:
“This canoe shall be yours with everything in it from stem to stem, including the men. The men shall be your servants; they are not for you to sleep with. And as he had spoken to her, so in like manner he spoke to the second woman. He then left the women and proceeded to meet Lonoikamakahiki. (Fornander)

The Hawaiians used the mountain tops between Alāla Point and Wailea Point to scan the sea for fish. Some maps and other references note the area as Alaʻapapa and Mokulua.

In 1920, a bridge was constructed across Kaʻelepulu Stream, giving better access to the area. Before this time, the Windward side was relatively remote. However, in 1921, the Old Pali Road was widened and paved; this helped to initiate the suburban commute across the Koʻolau.

Shortly after (1924,) Harold Kainalu Long Castle sold land to developer Charles Russell Frazier (the head of Town and Country Homes, Ltd., which was the real estate division of the Trent Trust Co.) Frazier (primarily a marketing man, but was also developer and chief promoter,) planned the place as a resort community of summer and vacation homes.

In the 1920s, reference to the area changed, when Frazier and Richard H Trent made up the name “Lanikai” as a marketing ploy to entice wealthy buyers looking for a vacation home at the development that was references as the “Crescent of Content”.

In naming it Lanikai they believed it translated ‘heavenly sea;’ however, they used the English word order. In Hawaiian the qualifier commonly follows the noun, hence Lani-kai means ‘sea heaven,’ ‘marine heavenʻ. (Ulukau)

They laid out the subdivision and the first permanent homes in the area were constructed in 1924. Development began at the northern end of the neighborhood and moved further south along the beach.

The original lots along Mokulua Drive were numbered #1 through #39, from north to south with lots approximately 75-feet in width by 250-feet in depth, and about 18,000-square feet in area.

Beachfront properties were originally sold at an extremely low price, 20-cents per square foot, because of the lack of a windbreak.

The area was initially considered a remote country location for weekend getaways or vacations at the beach for swimming, fishing, boating and hiking.

The company’s many newspaper advertisements, which encouraged Honolulu residents to escape from the city to enjoy the recreational opportunities offered by a beach home.

These ads promoted Lanikai as a tranquil place in the country, where a “beach, protected by a reef and favored by landward breezes, is always safe for bathing.” A full-page ad, titled “Lanikai Futuregraph,” placed by Trent Trust featured their vision of the future Lanikai.

There was a row of rectangular-shaped beach-front lots, bordered by the ocean on one end and the road on the other, with homes sited near the ocean and large lawns fronting the road. The first lots sold were those along the beach and the inland lots were sold later.

The construction of the Lanikai streets was completed by October 1925. Included in the deeds for the Lanikai subdivision were restrictions that remained in effect until 1950, against building within 18-feet of the property boundary line along the street or using the property for anything other than residences.

At about the same time, Frazier leased a couple-hundred acres of neighboring land from Bishop Estate. He persuaded sixty-five men, many of whom were purchasing his lots and cottages at Lanikai, to commit to a country club project.

Before the golf course or clubhouse was even built, the Kailua Country Club (the name quickly changed to Mid-Pacific Country Club – MPCC) was heralded in the local newspaper as a “Mecca (for) tired businessmen who seek surcease from worldly cares in the surroundings of nature.” When MPCC was founded, only two eighteen-hole courses existed on the island of Oʻahu. (mpcchi)

In 1926, the development doubled in size and Frazier added the now-iconic monument at the entrance to the development.

It was designed by the famed local architect Hart Wood. (Wood, known for residential and commercial structures (including Alexander & Baldwin Building and Honolulu Hale,) designed the also-iconic “Hawaiian” double-hipped roof pattern and “lanai” or broad roofed-in patio with open sides.)

For decades, beach houses in Lanikai were mainly used as a retreat from Honolulu; however, in the 1950s, the area began to develop into a more suburban residential area. Many beach houses and beach retreats were replaced by houses more suited for daily living. (The Pali Highway and its tunnels opened in 1959; that helped spark the change.)

Lanikai Beach had a white sandy beach approximately one mile long (about half of this has disappeared over the years due to erosion along the shore.)