Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Charles John Wall

Charles John Wall was born in Dublin, Ireland, on December 23, 1827.  He married Elizabeth Evans (Miller) Wall; they had 10-children: Thomas E Wall; Emily Wall; Charles Wall; William Albert Wall; Henry Wall; Walter (Walt) Eugene Wall; Arthur Frederick Wall; Alford Wall; Ormand E Wall and Alice Wall

In 1880, the family came to Honolulu by way of California.  Wall (and some of his children) left some important legacies in Hawaiʻi.  Charles was an important nineteenth century Honolulu architect, some of the buildings he designed are still here; several have been lost, but not forgotten.

Charles J Wall participated, or led the design of ʻIolani Palace, Kaumakapili Church, Lunalilo Home and the Music Hall/Opera House.

ʻIolani Palace

The design and construction of the ʻIolani Palace took place from 1879 through 1882; three architects were involved: Thomas J Baker, Charles J Wall and Isaac Moore. The Baker design generally held in the final work.

A quarrel broke out between Baker, Samuel C Wilder (Minister of the Interior) and the Superintendent of Public Works.  Shortly after the cornerstone was laid on December 31, 1879; Baker apparently ended his connection with the Palace.

He was succeeded by Wall, who had recently arrived in the Islands and was “employed to make the detail drawings from the first architect’s plans.”

According to the March 31, 1880 Hawaiian Gazette, Wall had “skillfully modified and improved” some of the objectionable features of the original design.  (Peterson)  Wall was succeeded by Isaac Moore after about nine months.

ʻIolani Palace was the official residence of both King Kalākaua and Queen Lili‘uokalani. After the overthrow of the monarchy, ʻIolani Palace became the government headquarters for the Provisional Government, Republic, Territory and State of Hawai‘i.

During WWII, it served as the temporary headquarters for the military governor in charge of martial law in the Hawaiian Islands.  Government offices vacated the Palace in 1969 and moved to the newly constructed capitol building on land adjacent to the Palace grounds.

Click HERE for a Link to additional information on ʻIolani Palace:

Kaumakapili Church

Starting in 1837, “the common Hawaiian folk of Honolulu” started petitioning Rev. Hiram Bingham, head of the Hawaiian Mission, to establish a second church or mission in Honolulu (Kawaiahaʻo being the first.)

It started as a thatched-roof adobe structure erected in 1839 on the corner of Smith and Beretania Streets.  The adobe building was torn down in 1881 to make way for a new brick edifice.

King Kalākaua took great interest in the church and wanted an imposing church structure with two steeples.  His argument was, “…that as a man has two arms, two eyes, two ears, two legs, therefore, a church ought to have two steeples.”

The cornerstone for the new church was laid on September 2, 1881 by Princess Liliʻuokalani (on her birthday.)  Seven years later the new building was completed.

It was an imposing landmark, first of its kind, and visible to arriving vessels and land travelers.  It was dedicated on Sunday, June 10, 1888.  In January, 1900, disaster struck.  The Chinatown fire engulfed the entire building leaving only the brick walls standing.

On May 7, 1910, the congregation broke ground for the third church building.  It was dedicated on June 25, 1911, the same day in which the 89th Annual Conference of the Hawaiian Evangelical Association (ʻAha Paeʻaina) was hosted by the church.

Click HERE for a Link to additional information on Kaumakapili Church:

Lunalilo Home

The coronation of William Charles Lunalilo took place at Kawaiahaʻo Church in a simple ceremony on January 9, 1873. He was to reign as King for one year and twenty-five days, succumbing to pulmonary tuberculosis on February 3, 1874.

His estate included large landholdings on five major islands, consisting of 33 ahupuaʻa, nine ‘ili and more than a dozen home lots. His will established a perpetual trust under the administration of three trustees to be appointed by the justices of the Hawaiian Supreme Court.

Lunalilo was the first of the large landholding aliʻi to create a charitable trust for the benefit of his people.  The purpose of his trust was to build a home to accommodate the poor, destitute and infirm people of Hawaiian (aboriginal) blood or extraction, with preference given to older people.

In 1879 the land for the first Lunalilo Home was granted to the estate by the Hawaiian government and consisted of 21 acres in Kewalo, near the present Roosevelt High School.

The construction of the first Lunalilo Home at that site was paid for by the sale of estate lands. The Home was completed in 1883 to provide care for 53 residents. An adjoining 39 acres for pasture and dairy was conveyed by the legislative action to the Estate in 1888.

After 44 years, the Home in Kewalo (mauka) had deteriorated and became difficult and costly to maintain. The trustees located a new 20-acre site in Maunalua on the slopes of Koko Head.

Click HERE for a Link to additional information on Lunalilo:

Music Hall – Opera House

In 1881, a Music Hall was built across the street from ʻIolani Palace, where Ali‘i regularly joined the audiences at performances. Queen Lili‘uokalani is even said to have written her own opera.  (Ferrar)  It was built by the Hawaiian Music Hall Association.

The building was first called the Music Hall, but shortly after its transfer to new owners, the name was changed to the Royal Hawaiian Opera House.  (Daily Bulletin, February 12, 1895)

Despite its name, the Opera House was not primarily a venue for classical entertainment. Many of its bookings were melodramas and minstrel shows, two very popular forms of theater at the time.  Then, it was the first house to show moving pictures in Hawaiʻi.

The building was of brick 120 by 60 feet on the ground floor and walls forty feet high and twenty inches thick. The front door was ten feet wide, opening into a vestibule 16 by 27 feet. The seating capacity of the house was 671 persons. The stage was forty feet deep and provided with a complete set of scenery, traps and all necessary paraphernalia. (Hawaiian Star, February 12, 1895)

“Originally there were two (private) boxes. One on the right of the stage looking out was regarded as the property of the late King Kalākaua, who had subscribed liberally to the stock of the Association.  The box on the opposite side was owned by the present proprietors, Messrs. Irwin & Spreckels. About two years ago two boxes wore opened above those mentioned for letting to whomever first applied for thorn on any occasion.”  (Daily Bulletin, February 12, 1895)

Click HERE for a Link to additional information on the Opera House:

Wall died at Honolulu on December 26, 1884.

The image shows some of Wall’s designs – ʻIolani Palace, Kaumakapili Church, Lunalilo Home and the Opera House.  In addition, I have added others similar images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kaʻalāwai

Along the coastal area between Lēʻahi (Diamond Head) and Kūpikipikiʻō (Black Point) several small neighborhoods are sometimes identified by the names of the main roads in the area Kaikoo, Papu Circle and Kulamanu. However, the historic name for this area of Oʻahu’s is Kaʻalāwai.

Kaʻalāwai literally means ‘the water (basalt) rock’ and is probably named for the springs on the beach and among the rocks at the east end of the beach.

It is a narrow, white-sand beach with a shallow reef offshore, which generally has poor swimming conditions. There are only a few scattered pockets of sand on the nearshore ocean bottom.  Lots go surfing outside.

At the east end of the beach near Black Point is a mansion turned museum, built by Doris Duke, the daughter of James Duke, the founder of the American Tobacco Company, and her husband, James Cromwell.  (It’s their name that is attributed to the “Cromwell’s” Cove and Beach references.)

In the late-1930s, Doris Duke built her Honolulu home, Shangri La, on five acres overlooking the Pacific Ocean and Diamond Head.  Shangri La incorporates architectural features from the Islamic world and houses Duke’s extensive collection of Islamic art, which she assembled for nearly 60 years.

Through an Exchange Deed dated December 8, 1938 between the Territorial Land Board of Hawai‘i and Ms Duke, two underwater parcels (totaling approximately 0.6-acres) were added to the Duke property.

At water’s edge below the estate, Duke then dynamited a small-boat harbor and a seventy-five-foot salt-water swimming pool into the rock.  The harbor was built to protect Duke’s fleet of yachts, including Kailani Lahilahi, an ocean-going, 58-foot motor yacht and Kimo, the 26-foot mahogany runabout that Duke sometimes used to commute into Honolulu.

Part of the deal was that the transfer gave the Territory (now State) a perpetual easement of a four-foot right-of-way for a pedestrian causeway along the coastline.  It’s a popular swimming area (ongoing media reports note the hazards here, so be careful.)

Today, Shangri La is open for guided, small group tours and educational programs. In partnership with the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art – which owns and supports Shangri La – the Honolulu Museum of Art serves as the orientation center for Shangri La tours.

Another stretch of beach here had some other interesting ownership/use issues.

In the old days, a Beach Road ran right next to the water at Kaʻalāwai. When some of the private property mauka of the road was subdivided into seven lots and conveyed in 1885, the makai boundaries of these seven lots were specified “along the road”.

However, in 1959, folks adjoining the then-abandoned road soon made claims to it – most extended their landscaping (and even put in improvements (patio, walls, etc)) out over the old beach road.

Some of the abutting owners succeeded in their title claims and subsequent legal battles, obtaining declaratory judgments in their favor and they gained title to the road remnant real estate.  Subsequently, the Hawaiʻi Supreme Court ruled that the State owns the road.

The last property made application to the State to acquire the road remnant, however, after following discussions, they ended up seeking a long-term easement over the old roadway.

Oh, one more Kaʻalāwai story … following the overthrow of Queen Liliʻuokalani in 1893, the Committee of Safety established the Provisional Government of Hawaiʻi as a temporary government until an assumed annexation by the United States.

The Provisional Government convened a constitutional convention and established the Republic of Hawaiʻi on July 4, 1894. The Republic continued to govern the Islands.

From January 6 to January 9, 1895, in a “Counter-Revolution,” patriots of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi and the forces that had overthrown the constitutional Hawaiian monarchy were engaged in a war that consisted of battles on the island of Oʻahu.

It has been called the Second Wilcox Rebellion of 1895 (named after Robert William Wilcox.)  In their attempt to return Queen Liliʻuokalani to the throne, it was the last major military operation by royalists who opposed the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi.

Wilcox’s headquarters was at Kaʻalāwai. (Daily Bulletin, January 19, 1895)  Shortly after the fighting began, losing the element of surprise and seeing no tactical importance in remaining at Diamond Head, Wilcox ordered his men to retreat to Waiʻalae.

Wilcox and his men then escaped to the Koʻolau up a trail on the precipice to the ridge separating Mānoa from Nuʻuanu. On that ridge his men dispersed into the mountain above; Wilcox and a few others crossed Nuʻuanu that night, eluding the guards.  They were later captured.

Queen Liliʻuokalani was put under arrest on the 16th, and confined in a chamber of ʻIolani Palace.  A tribunal was formed and evidence began to be taken on the 18th.  Nowlein, Wilcox, Bertelmann and TB Walker all pleaded guilty, and subsequently gave evidence for the prosecution.

Wilcox was court-martialed and sentenced to death, but the sentence was commuted to thirty-five years.    In January, 1896, he was given a conditional pardon and became a free man; in 1898, President Dole gave him a full pardon.  (Wilcox later served as the first delegate and representative of Hawaiʻi in the US Congress.)

Convicted of having knowledge of a royalist plot, Liliʻuokalani was fined $5,000 and sentenced to five-years in prison at hard labor. The sentence was commuted to imprisonment in an upstairs bedroom of ʻIolani Palace.

She spent 8 months in this room.  After her release from ʻIolani Palace, the Queen remained under house arrest for five months at her private home, Washington Place. For another eight months she was forbidden to leave Oʻahu before all restrictions were lifted.  Liliʻuokalani died of a stroke on November 11, 1917 in Honolulu at the age of 79.

The image shows Kaʻalāwai and Black Point area prior to development.  In addition, I have added others similar images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

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Liliʻuokalani

She was born Lydia Liliʻu Loloku Walania Wewehi Kamakaʻeha to High Chiefess Analeʻa Keohokālole and High Chief Caesar Kaluaiku Kapaʻakea on September 2, 1838.

At that time, children often were named in commemoration of an event.  Kuhina Nui Kīnaʻu had developed an eye infection at the time of Liliʻu’s birth.  She gave the child the names Liliʻu (smarting,) Loloku (tearful,) Walania (a burning pain) and Kamakaʻeha (sore eyes.)

In her youth she was called “Lydia” or “Liliʻu.” (She was also known as Lydia Kamakaʻeha Pākī, with the chosen royal name of Liliʻuokalani, and her married name was Lydia K. Dominis.)  As was the custom, she was hānai (adopted) to Abner Pākī and his wife Laura Kōnia.

The Pākīs reared her with their birth daughter, Bernice Pauahi. The two girls developed a close, loving relationship. They attended the Chief’s Children’s School (Royal School,) a boarding school, together, and were known for their studious demeanor. Liliʻu’s brother, David Kalākaua, also was among the royal students educated there.

There Liliʻu learned and became fluent in English and studied music and the arts. (Her talent for music blossomed and she eventually wrote more than 150 songs including, “Aloha Oe.”)

At 24, on September 16, 1862, Liliʻu married John O. Dominis. Dominis’ father, a ship’s captain, had built a New England style home, named Washington Place, for his family.  They lived with his widowed mother.  The home later served as the former official residence of Hawai‘i’s Governor and today serves as a museum.

On February 12, 1874, nine days after the passing of King Lunalilo, an election was held between the repeat candidate David Kalākaua (her brother) and Queen Emma – widow of King Kamehameha IV.  Kalākaua won.

At noon of the tenth day of April, 1877, the booming of the cannon was heard which announced that King Kalākaua had named Liliʻuokalani as heir apparent to the throne of Hawaiʻi. Liliʻu’s brother changed her name when he named her Crown Princess, calling her Liliʻuokalani, “the smarting of the royal one”.

From this point on she was referred to as Crown Princess with the name Liliʻuokalani. One of her first acts as Crown Princess was to tour the island of Oʻahu with her husband, sister and brother-in-law.

King Kalākaua died on January 20, 1891; because he and his wife Queen Kapiʻolani did not have any children, his sister, Liliʻuokalani succeeded him to the Hawaiian throne.

Kalākaua had been a staunch supporter of native Hawaiian civil rights.  In part, this led to a rebellion in 1887 forcing him to sign a new constitution relinquishing his powers as head of state and relegated him to a figurehead.

Queen Lili‘uokalani sought to amend the constitution to restore some of the power lost during the reign of her brother. Local sugar planters and businessmen feared a loss of revenue and influence and instigated an overthrow.

On the afternoon of January 16, 1893, 162 sailors and Marines aboard the USS Boston in Honolulu Harbor came ashore under orders of neutrality.

To avoid bloodshed, the Queen yielded her throne on January 17, 1893 and temporarily relinquished her throne to “the superior military forces of the United States”.  A provisional government was established.

The Queen issued a statement yielding her authority to the United States Government rather than to the Provisional Government:
“I Liliuokalani, by the Grace of God and under the Constitution of the Hawaiian Kingdom, Queen, do hereby solemnly protest against any and all acts done against myself and the Constitutional Government of the Hawaiian Kingdom by certain persons claiming to have established a Provisional Government of and for this Kingdom.”

“That I yield to the superior force of the United States of America whose Minister Plenipotentiary, His Excellency John L. Stevens, has caused United States troops to be landed a Honolulu and declared that he would support the Provisional Government.”

“Now to avoid any collision of armed forces, and perhaps the loss of life, I do this under protest and impelled by said force yield my authority until such time as the Government of the United States shall, upon facts being presented to it, undo the action of its representatives and reinstate me in the authority which I claim as the Constitutional Sovereign of the Hawaiian Islands.”

In 1895, Lili‘uokalani was imprisoned for eight months in ʻIolani Palace for her alleged knowledge of a counterrevolutionary attempt by her supporters.

On May 18, 1896, at 6:30 am, Lili‘uokalani was baptized and confirmed by Bishop Willis into the Episcopal Church, although she had been a long-time member of Kawaiahaʻo Church.

In her Deed of Trust dated December 2, 1909, which was later amended in 1911, Liliʻuokalani entrusted her estate to provide for orphan and destitute children in the Hawaiian Islands, with preference for Hawaiian children. Her legacy is perpetuated through the Queen Liliʻuokalani Children’s Center.

Queen Lili‘uokalani died at Washington Place on November 11, 1917, at the age of 79.  After a state funeral, her remains were placed in the Royal Mausoleum at Mauna ʻAla.

The image shows Queen Liliʻuokalani in 1891.  I have added other related images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook page.

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