Manoa | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

July 31, 2025 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Kahalaopuna

Hanohano wale noʻoe
E ke anuenue o Mānoa
Ku kamahaʻo ʻo Kahalaopuna
Pua lei a ka ua me ka makani

Famous is the story of
The Rainbow Goddess of Mānoa
Kahalaopuna, the sacred one
Born of the wind and the rain
(Cabral, Boyd & Makuakane)

During the days of Kākuhihewa, ruling chief of O‘ahu from about 1640 to 1660, Kahaukani ((K) Mānoa wind) and Kaʻaukuahine ((W) Mānoa rain) were brother and sister twins.

When the children were grown up, their foster parents decided they should be united; they were married and Kahalaopuna was born to them – a uniting of the Mānoa wind and rain. She is deemed of semi-supernatural descent.

A house was built for her in a grove of sandalwood trees at Kahaiamano (some say the home was at Kahoiwai) on the way to Waiakeakua, where she lived with a few devoted servants. The house was embowered in vines and two poloulou (tabu staves) were kept standing beside the entrance (to indicate that they guarded from intrusion a person of high rank.)

Kahalaopuna “was so beautiful that a rainbow followed her wherever she went.” “Her cheeks were so red and her face so bright that a glow emanated therefrom which shone through the thatch of her house when she was in.

A rosy light seemed to envelop the house, and bright rays seemed to play over it constantly. When she went to bathe in the spring below her house, the rays of light surrounded her like a halo.”

She was betrothed in childhood to Kauhi, a young chief of Kailua.

When she was grown to young womanhood, she was so exquisitely beautiful that the people of the valley would make visits to the outer puloulou at the sacred precinct of Luaʻalaea, the land adjoining Kahaiamano, just to get a glimpse of the beauty.

Two men, Kumauna and Keawaʻa, had never seen Kahalaopuna, but they fell in love with her from the stories told of her. They would weave and deck themselves lei of maile, ginger and ferns and go bathing at Waikīkī and boast of their conquest of the famous beauty.

When the surf was up, it would attract people from all parts of the island. Kauhi, the betrothed of Kahalaopuna, was one of these. The time set for his marriage to Kahalaopuna was drawing near, and as yet he had not seen her, when he heard the assertions of the two men.

“How strange indeed was the behavior of your intended wife, Kahalaopuna! She went dancing two nights now, and on each night had a separate lover.”

Kauhi eventually believed them and he went into a jealous rage, stating he would kill Kahalaopuna.

He took her to the back of the valley; Kauhi struck her across the temple with a heavy bunch of hala nuts. The blow killed the girl instantly, and Kauhi hastily dug a hole under the side of the rock and buried her; then he started down the valley toward Waikiki.

As soon as he was gone, a large pueo (owl – a god and a relative of Kahalaopuna) immediately started digging out the body and restored life back to Kahalaopuna.

Kauhi then took Kahalaopuna to the ridge between Mānoa Valley and Nuʻuanu and killed her again. The owl, again, scratched her out and revived her. This was repeated again and again at Nuʻuanu and then in Kalihi. Finally, at Pōhākea, on the ʻEwa slope of Mount Kaʻala, he killed her again; this time the owl was not able to free and revive her and the owl left.

There had been another witness to Kauhi’s cruelties, ʻElepaio, a little green bird (a cousin to Kahalaopuna.) As soon as this bird saw that the owl had deserted the body of Kahalaopuna, it flew straight to her parent, Kahaukani and Kauakuahine, and told them all that had happened.

There was disbelief that anyone in his senses, including Kauhi, could be guilty of such cruelty to such a lovely, innocent being, and one, too, belonging entirely to himself.

In the meantime, the spirit of Kahalaopuna discovered itself to a party who were passing by; and one of them, a young man, moved with compassion, went to the tree indicated by the spirit, and, removing the dirt and roots, found the body.

He wrapped it in his kihei (shoulder scarf), and then covered it entirely with maile, ferns and ginger, and carried it to his home at Mōʻiliʻili. There, he submitted the body to his elder brother, who called upon two spirit sisters of theirs, with whose aid they finally succeeded in restoring her to life. They kept her last resurrection secret.

Kauhi was caught and subjected to a test. He lost and he and the two false accusers are put to death. His spirit, however, enters a man-eating shark, which lurks along the coast until it catches the girl out sea-bathing and finally consumes her body so that resuscitation is impossible.

Kumauna and Keawaʻa were, through the power of their family gods, transformed into the mountain peaks on the eastern side of Mānoa Valley.

Just above Puʻu o Manoa (Rocky Hill at the top of Punahou School) is another hill known as Puʻu Pueo. This was where the Owl God, Pueo, resided.

Today, you can still find the spirit of Kahalaopuna (the Princess of Mānoa) in the ānuenue (rainbows) spanning Mānoa Valley. (Information here is from Nakuina, Beckwith, Fornander, Thrum, Westervelt and Kalākaua.)

Waterfalls-back of Manoa-BM

Surfing-Waikiki

‘Rainbow_above_Taro_Patch_in_Manoa_Valley’_by_D._Howard_Hitchcock,_1910

Pueo

manoa-rainbow

Manoa_valley-BM

Manoa_Valley-Baldwin-(DAGS)-Reg1068-1882-Google_Earth-Kaohiwai noted

Manoa_Valley-1935

Manoa_Valley_from_Waikiki,_oil_on_canvas_by_Enoch_Wood_Perry_Jr.-1860s

Kahalaopuna – Manoa-Google Earth

Eastern Side of Manoa-Valley-from-Round-Top-Drive

Back of Manoa Valley

January 21, 2025 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Mānoa Valley Inn

The first subdivision in Mānoa was the Seaview tract, in Lower Mānoa near Seaview Street, which was laid out in 1886 (this area in the valley became known as the “Chinese Beverly Hills” due to the high percentage of people of that ethnic group buying into the neighborhood (1950s.)) (DeLeon)

In 1888, the animal-powered tramcar service of Hawaiian Tramways ran track from downtown to Waikīkī. In 1900, the Tramway was taken over by the Honolulu Rapid Transit & Land Co (HRT.)

In addition to service to the core Honolulu communities, HRT expanded to serve other opportunities. In the fall of 1901, a line was sent up into central Mānoa. The new Mānoa trolley opened the valley to development and rushed it into the expansive new century.

Originally numerous large, well-designed houses lined Vancouver Drive; however with the passing of the years many of these dwellings have disappeared. One of approximately a half dozen remnants of the earlier time which are scattered in the area is the subject of this summary.

The lot and house had been previously owned by Benjamin Dillingham, founder of the Oahu Railway and Land Company; Richard Bickerton, Supreme Court Justice and Privy Council Member under Queen Liliʻuokalani; Grace Merrill, sister of Architect Charles Dickey, and wife of Arthur Merrill, principal of Mid Pacific Institute. (NPS)

The John Guild House, now known as Mānoa Valley Inn at 2001 Vancouver Drive, was purchased in 1919 by John Guild, a Honolulu businessman. It had been built four years earlier by Iowa lumber dealer Milton Moore and has been refurbished and restored several times over its lifespan. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002.

Predating Hawaiʻi zoning laws by some fifty years, the Seaview area was one of the first areas to impose restrictive covenants for design and view planes. It is likely that this is the reason that John Guild remodeled an earlier house on this site, rather than rebuilding a new house.

Prior to the 1919 major remodeling, the Guild residence was a large two-story bungalow style house which featured brown shingles. Guild added the large brackets, outset square projections, porte cochere and inset centered porch.

The house was purchased in the 1980s by Honolulu businessman Rick Ralston (the founder of Crazy Shirts), who restored it in 1982 for use as a bed and breakfast under the name John Guild Inn, later Mānoa Valley Inn. Several other transactions followed.

It’s now a 4,424-square-foot, three-story gabled cottage near the campus of the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, operating as a bed and breakfast with six bedrooms, a suite and a small cottage and a broad, sheltered lanai with a view over the city on the sea side of the house. The rooms are furnished with fine antiques.

Let’s go back to the home’s original namesake, John Guild.

Guild was born May 11, 1869, in Edinburgh, Scotland; he was son of James (a merchant of Edinburgh) and Mary (Scott) Guild. After leaving school he went to join relatives interested in the sugarcane industry in the West Indies. He married Mary Knox there on August 20, 1891; they had four children, Dorothy, Marjorie, Douglas Scott and Winifred.

He came to Hawaii 1897 and for short time was employed on Makaweli plantation; he later joined Alexander & Baldwin, then a co-partnership (incorporated 1900) and worked his way to being a Director and Secretary of A&B and in all the companies they represented. He had quite a share in the development of the concern.

Guild’s prominent presence came to an abrupt end.

A New York Times headline tells the story: “ADMITS $750,000 Shortage; John Guild Manipulated Surplus Cash of Honolulu Firm”

“John Guild, formerly secretary and director of Alexander & Baldwin and honored member of the business and social communities of Honolulu is now No. E-512 in the Oahu penitentiary. He is employed in garden work…” (Maui News, August 29, 1922)

“(T)he grand jury found two true bills of indictment against him, one for embezzling bonds from the Episcopal Church and the other for embezzling $37,000 from Alexander & Baldwin in 1917.”

“On Saturday morning Guild was taken before Judge Banks and pleaded guilty to both indictments. He was sentenced to serve in the Oahu penitentiary at hard labor two terms of not less than five nor more than ten years, to run consecutively.”

“This would mean that with allowance for good behavior he may be released in between seven and eight years, if he lives to finish his sentence.” (Maui News, August 29, 1922)

Only two indictments were issued, “though more than a hundred might have been more were claimed.” It was reported that the A&B books showed that Guild’s embezzlement was in excess of a million dollars.

The house was sold to the company for $1 and Guild was sent to prison where he died in 1927. In 1925, merchant Arthur J Spitzer and his wife Selma purchased the house. They lived here until 1970.

The house later fell on hard times and was used as a student rooming house. The building was scheduled for demolition in 1978, when it was bought and renovated by Ralston and continues to be a very active bed and breakfast.

August 13, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Waihī Nui

“Manoa valley ends in what is called ‘the pen.’ It has walls with a trail into Pauoa valley.” (Towse) “Rocky, wooded ridges enclose it to right and left, and straight ahead is the black, sheer face of Konahuanui.” (Loomis)

Translated “his large seeds (testicles,)” the name Kōnāhuanui is said to come from a story summarized by T Kelsey: “when a man, probably a giant, chased a woman who escaped into a cave, he tore off his testes and threw them at her”. (Kawaharada)

Kōnāhuanui is the highest peak in the Koʻolau Mountains and is the northwest corner of the Mānoa Ahupua‘a boundary. It was the home of the gods Kāne and Kanaloa.

It is also home to a moʻo goddess, a large mythic lizard that lives in freshwater pools and streams. Rain clouds gather around its peak, and its Kona side, often ribboned with waterfalls, is the wettest area of Honolulu: here is the source of the waters of Mānoa and Nuʻuanu valleys.

“[T]his cul-de-sac at its makai, or southern, angle, along the stream called ‘Aihualama. The trail into Nu‘uanu opened at its upper left, or northwestern, angle. Here was a good path for a kama‘aina going alone from valley to valley”. (Loomis)

In an 1882 map of Manoa prepared by Baldwin, there are several waterfalls back in the valley, including, Waiihi-nui (Waihī Nui), Waihii-iki (Waihī Iki), Luaaulaea and Naniuapo.

“[T]he ground rises rapidly for a few rods, to a thicket of hibiscus and eugenia, at the foot of a magnificent mountain, exhibiting from the base to its summit a perpendicular height of a thousand feet – as rich a variety of projecting cliff and wild recess, of dripping rocks and mantling foliage, of graceful creeper, pendant shrub, and splendid flower, as Arcadia itself can boast.” (Stewart)

“On the curve of high cliffs at the mauka boundary of Manoa sheer white splashes of waterfall filled pools hidden from the casual eye in recesses where Kaahumanu herself loved to bathe among cool winds and soft air laden with fragrance of awapuhi and maile.” (Damon)

The water from these falls converge into Manoa Stream. Mānoa Valley formerly supported a large population with scores of lo‘i kalo that were watered by the many freshwater streams. (ASM)

“When we had seen the piece of land appropriated by Kalaimoku or Mr. Pitt to our use, and had given directions to the natives who cultivated the taro on the land, we indulged ourselves with a pleasant bath in a cooling stream that waters the valley, and we returned across a part of the mountain which lies between that place and Honoruru valley.” (Missionaries Chamberlain, Loomis, Blatchely and Bingham; Damon)

“The taro patches that followed the stream bed down the center of the valley were now either vegetable gardens, pasture land, or abandoned. … AIso much of the stream’s water had been diverted for the use of the island’s increasing population. The taro farms that were in the valley from the time the first foreign observer stepped into it were gone for good.” (DeLeon)

“In 1919 the Hawaii Sugar Planters’ Association established an experimental substation in the rear of the valley. Here sugar cane was raised for experimental purposes. Trees from all over the Pacific were also brought to the substation to see how they would adapt to the Hawaiian environment. The substation became Lyon Arboretum, which is part of the University of Hawaii.” (DeLeon)

There is something about falling water that fascinates a human being.

As noted above, here is Waihī Nui (‘trickling water’), Mānoa Falls. It’s in the backyard of Hawai‘i’s largest population and visitor destination. A bus line takes you within walking distance to the trailhead.

It is one of the most popular trail destinations on O‘ahu; Mānoa Falls sees an average of 200,000 visitors annually. (DLNR) The Mānoa Falls Trail is part of DLNR’s Na Ala Hele Trail & Access Program.

The video (done by DLNR) shows people down by the falls. Don’t go there; rather, there is a viewing area contained by a rock wall at the falls – heed all warning and other signs, do not go beyond the rock wall.

The State does not charge a fee to hike this trail. The Mānoa Falls Trail is open seven days a week – sunup to sundown. The parking lot is managed by Paradise Park and is not associated with the management of the state trail.

The beginning of the trail goes through a shipping container into a big open lush field used as a location for many movies. The trail continues past the field, then crosses over a natural wood footbridge through a grove of Eucalyptus trees.

The 0.8-mile trail (each way) gradually ascends through a rainforest that eventually transitions into bamboo. There is a low-lying rest area on the right of the trail with benches, interpretive sign and tree arch throne.

Continue up ascending gravel terrace steps until you round the corner that reveals the water fall from a distance. On the left you will another rest stop with a bench and interpretive sign. There is one more short section of terrace steps that leads up to a nice flat section of trail that gently takes all the way to small section of cement steps.

Ascend up the steps and now you are at the falls viewing area. On your left is a bench and viewing area is straight ahead. The viewing area is contained by a rock wall.

Signs are posted indicating to not go beyond that point, and of the potential danger of landslide. Do not go beyond the rock wall viewing area, closed area signs or into pool area or to upper pools. (DLNR)

June 5, 2023 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Pukaʻōmaʻomaʻo

Traditions on the island of Oʻahu note Mā’ilikūkahi was a ruling chief around 1500 (about the time Columbus crossed the Atlantic.) Māʻilikūkahi is said to have enacted a code of laws in which theft from the people by chiefs was forbidden.

A son of Mā’ilikūkahi was Kalona-nui, who in turn had a son called Kalamakua. Kalamakua is said to have been responsible for developing a large system of taro planting across the Waikīkī-Kapahulu-Mōʻiliʻili-Mānoa area. The extensive loʻi kalo were irrigated by water drawn from the Mānoa and Pālolo Valley streams and large springs in the area.

In 1792, Captain George Vancouver described Mānoa Valley on a hike from Waikīkī in search of drinking water: “We found the land in a high state of cultivation, mostly under immediate crops of taro; and abounding with a variety of wild fowl chiefly of the duck kind …”

“The sides of the hills, which were in some distance, seemed rocky and barren; the intermediate vallies, which were all inhabited, produced some large trees and made a pleasing appearance. The plains, however, if we may judge from the labour bestowed on their cultivation, seem to afford the principal proportion of the different vegetable productions …” (Edinburgh Gazetteer)

One century later, before it was urbanized, Mānoa Valley was described by Thrum (1892:) “Manoa is both broad and low …”

“… with towering hills on both sides that join the forest clad mountain range at the head, whose summits are often hid in cloud land, gathering moisture there from to feed the springs in the various recesses that in turn supply the streams winding through the valley, or watering the vast fields of growing taro, to which industry the valley is devoted.”

“The higher portions and foot hills also give pasturage to the stock of more than one dairy enterprise.”

Handy (in his book Hawaiian Planter) writes that in ancient days, all of the level land in upper Mānoa was developed into taro flats and was well-watered, level land that was better adapted to terracing than neighboring Nuʻuanu. The entire floor of Mānoa Valley was a “checkerboard of taro patches.” “The terraces extended along Manoa Stream as far as there is a suitable land for irrigating.”

The well-watered, fertile and relatively level lands of Mānoa Valley supported extensive wet taro cultivation well into the twentieth century. Handy and Handy estimated that in 1931 “there were still about 100 terraces in which wet taro was planted, although these represented less than a tenth of the area that was once planted by Hawaiians.” (Cultural Surveys)

Mānoa Valley was a favored spot of the Ali‘i, including Kamehameha I, Chief Boki (Governor of O‘ahu), Haʻalilio (an advisor to King Kamehameha III,) Princess Victoria, Kanaʻina (father of King Lunalilo), Lunalilo, Keʻelikōlani (half-sister of Kamehameha IV) and Queen Lili‘uokalani. The chiefs lived on the west side, the commoners on the east.

Queen Kaʻahumanu lived there; her home was called Pukaʻōmaʻomaʻo (Green Gateway.) It was situated deep in the valley (lit., green opening; referring to its green painted doors and blinds – It is alternatively referred to as Pukaʻōmaʻo.)

“Her residence is beautifully situated and the selection of the spot quite in taste. The house … stands on the height of a gently swelling knoll, commanding, in front, an open and extensive view of all the rich plantations of the valley; of the mountain streams meandering through them … of the district of Waititi; and of Diamond Hill, and a considerable part of the plain, with the ocean far beyond.” (Stewart; Sterling & Summers)

It was doubtless the same sort of grass house which was in general use, although probably more spacious and elaborate as befitted a queen. The dimension in one direction was 60 feet. The place name of the area was known as Kahoiwai, or “Returning Waters.”

“Immediately behind the house, and partially flanking it on either side, is a delightful grove of the dark leaved and crimson blossomed ʻŌhia, so thick and so shady … filled with cool and retired walks and natural retreats, and echoing to the cheerful notes of the little songsters, who find security in its shades to build their nests and lay their young.”

“The view of the head of the valley inland, from the clumps and single trees edging this copse, is very rich and beautiful; presenting a circuit of two or three miles delightfully variegated by hill and dale, wood and lawn, and enclosed in a sweep of splendid mountains, one of which in the centre rises to a height of three thousand feet.”

“In one edge of this grove, a few rods from the house, stands a little cottage built by Kaahumanu, for the accommodation of the missionaries who visit her when at this residence. … (It) is very frequently occupied a day or two at a time, by one and another of the families most enervated by the heat and dust, the toil, and various exhausting cares of the establishment at the sea-shore.“ (Stewart; Sterling & Summers)

“Not far makai … High Chief Kalanimōku, had very early allotted to the Mission the use of farm plots thus noted in its journal of June, 1823: “On Monday the 2d, Krimakoo and the king’s mother granted to the brethren three small pieces of land cultivated with taro, potatoes, bananas, melons, &c. and containing nineteen bread-fruit trees, from which they may derive no small portion of the fruit and vegetables needed by the family.” (Damon)

Then, in mid-1832, Kaʻahumanu became ill and was taken to her house in Mānoa, where a bed of maile and leaves of ginger was prepared. “Her strength failed daily. She was gentle as a lamb, and treated her attendants with great tenderness. She would say to her waiting women, ‘Do sit down; you are very tired; I make you weary.’” (Bingham)

“The king, his sister, other members of the aliʻi and many retainers had already arrived at Pukaomaomao and had dressed the large grass house for the dying queen’s last homecoming. The walls of the main room had been hung with ropes of sweet maile and decorated with lehua blossoms and great stalks of fragrant mountain ginger.”

“The couch upon which Kaahumanu was to rest had been prepared with loving care. Spread first with sweet-scented made and ginger leaves, it was then covered with a golden velvet coverlet. At the head and foot stood towering leather kahilis. Over a chair nearby was draped the Kamehameha feather cloak which had been worn by Kaahumanu since the monarch’s death.” (Mellon; Sterling & Summers)

“The slow and solemn tolling of the bell struck on the pained ear as it had never done before in the Sandwich Islands. In other bereavements, after the Gospel took effect, we had not only had the care and promise of our heavenly Father, but a queen-mother remaining, whose force, integrity, and kindness, could be relied on still.”

“But words can but feebly express the emotions that struggled in the bosoms of some who counted themselves mourners in those solemn hours; while memory glanced back through her most singular history, and faith followed her course onward, far into the future.” (Hiram Bingham)

Her death took place at ten minutes past 3 o’clock on the morning of June 5, 1832, “after an illness of about 3 weeks in which she exhibited her unabated attachment to the Christian teachers and reliance on Christ, her Saviour.” (Hiram Bingham)

March 1, 2023 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Ala Wai Canal

A son of Mā’ilikūkahi (who ruled about the time Columbus crossed the Atlantic) was Kalona-nui, who in turn had a son called Kalamakua. Kalamakua is said to have been responsible for developing large taro fields in what was once a vast area of wet-taro cultivation on Oʻahu: the Waikiki-Kapahulu-Mōʻiliʻili-Mānoa area.

The early Hawaiian settlers gradually transformed the marsh above Waikīkī Beach into hundreds of taro fields, fish ponds and gardens. For centuries, springs, taro lo‘i, rice paddies, fruit and vegetable patches, duck ponds and fishing areas were a valuable means of subsistence for native Hawaiians and others.

Formerly the home of Hawaiian royalty, including King Kamehameha, Waikīkī, meaning “spouting waters,” once covered a much broader area than it does today.

The ahupuaʻa, or ancient land division, of Waikīkī actually covered the area extending from Kou (the old name for Honolulu) to Maunalua (now referred to as Hawai’i Kai).

Waikīkī’s marshland, the boundaries of which changed seasonally, once covered about 2,000-acres (about four times the size of Waikīkī today) before the marshes were drained.

During the first decade of the 20th-century, the US War Department acquired more than 70-acres in the Kālia portion of Waikīkī for the establishment of a military reservation called Fort DeRussy.

They drained and filled the area, so they could build on it. Thus, the Army began the transformation of Waikīkī from wetlands to solid ground.

In the early-1900s, Lucius Pinkham, then President of the Territorial Board of Health and later Governor, developed the idea of constructing a drainage canal to drain the wetlands, which he considered “unsanitary.” This called for the construction of a canal to reclaim the marshland.

The Waikīkī Reclamation District was identified as the approximate 800-acres from King and McCully Streets to Kapahulu Street, near Campbell Avenue down to Kapiʻolani Park and Kalākaua Avenue on the makai side (1921-1928.)

The dredge material not only filled in the makai Waikīkī wetlands, it was also used to fill in the McKinley High School site.

During the 1920s, the Waikīkī landscape would be transformed when the construction of the Ala Wai Drainage Canal, begun in 1921 and completed in 1928, resulted in the draining and filling in of the remaining ponds and irrigated fields of Waikīkī.

The initial planning called for the extension of the Ala Wai Canal past its present terminus and excavate along Makee Island in Kapiʻolani Park, connecting the Canal with the ocean on the Lēʻahi side of the project.

However, funds ran short and this extension was contemplated “at some later date, when funds are made available”; however, that never occurred.

By 1924, the dredging of the Ala Wai Canal and filling of the wetlands stopped the flows of the Pi‘inaio, ‘Āpuakēhau and Kuekaunahi streams running from the Makiki, Mānoa, and Pālolo valleys to and through Waikīkī.

Walter F. Dillingham’s Hawaiian Dredging Company dredged the canal and sold the material he had dredged to create the canal to build up the newly created land. The canal is still routinely dredged.

During the course of the Ala Wai Canal’s initial construction, the banana patches and ponds between the canal and the mauka side of Kalākaua Avenue were filled and the present grid of streets was laid out. These newly created land tracts spurred a rush to development.

With construction of the Ala Wai Canal, 625-acres of wetland were drained and filled and runoff was diverted away from Waikīkī beach. The completion of the Ala Wai Canal not only gave impetus to the development of Waikīkī as Hawai‘i’s primary visitor destination, but also expanded the district’s potential for residential use.

During the period 1913-1927, the demand for housing in Honolulu grew along with the city’s population. Waikīkī helped satisfy this demand; the large kamaʻāina landholdings virtually disappeared and the area started to be subdivided.

Before reclamation, assessed values for property were at about $500-per acre and the same property was reclaimed at ten cents per square foot, making a total cost of $4,350-per acre. The selling price after reclamation, $6,500 to $7,000-per acre, showed the financial benefit of the reclamation efforts.

From an economic point of view, without the Ala Wai Canal, Waikīkī may never have developed into the worldwide tourist attraction it is today.

In 1925, the City Planning Commission requested the citizens of Honolulu to submit suitable Hawaiian names for the renaming of the Waikīkī Drainage canal; twelve names were suggested.

The Commission felt that Ala Wai (waterway,) the name suggested by Jennie Wilson was the “most euphonic”. (An engineer with the Planning Commission was quick to note that, “the fact that Mrs. Wilson is the mayor’s wife had nothing to do with the choice of the name.”)

In November 1965, a storm, classified as a 25-year event, overflowed the Ala Wai Canal banks and flooded Ala Wai Boulevard.

Ala Wai Canal and the historic walls lining the canal are owned by the State of Hawaiʻi. The promenades on the mauka side of the Ala Wai Canal are owned by the State, and by, Executive Ordered to the City and County of Honolulu, the promenades on the makai side are owned by the City.

The promenades on both sides of the Ala Wai Canal are maintained by the City Department of Parks and Recreation. The Ala Wai Canal is listed in the National and State registers of historic places.