Images of Old Hawaiʻi

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Kaʻau

“Go hence to your father,
‘Tis there you find line and hook.
This is the hook-‘Made fast to the heavens’
‘Manaia-ka-lani’ – ‘tis called.
When the hook catches land
It brings the old seas together.
Bring hither the large Alae,
The bird of Hina.”

(Queen Liliʻuokalani, in a translation of the Kumulipo, Hawaiʻi’s creation chant, speaks of Hina’s advice to her son Maui.)

The demi-god Maui is the subject of extraordinary stories throughout Polynesia. In many of the accounts he is a mischievous trickster, stealing the secret of fire and helping his mother to dry kapa by lassoing the sun to slow its progression across the sky. (Bishop Museum)

“The most audacious terrestrial undertaking of the demigod Maui was his attempt to rearrange the Islands of the group and assemble them into one solid mass.”

“Having chosen his station at Kaʻena Point, the western extremity of Oʻahu, from which the island of Kauai is clearly visible on a bright day, he cast his wonderful hook, Mana-ia-ka-Iani, far out into the ocean that it might engage itself in the foundations of Kauai.”

“When he felt that it had taken a good hold, he gave a mighty tug at the line. A huge boulder, the Pōhaku O Kauai, fell at his feet.”

“The mystic hook, having freed itself from the entanglement, dropped into Pālolo Valley and hollowed out the crater, that is its grave.” (Manaiakalani, therefore, formed Kaʻau Crater.)

“This failure to move the whole mass of the island argues no engineering miscalculation on Māui’s part. It was due to the underhand working of spiritual forces.”

“Had Maui been more polite, more observant of spiritual etiquette, more diplomatic in his dealings with the heavenly powers, his ambitious plans would, no doubt, have met with better success.” (Emerson)

Another story of Kaʻau relates to how Helumoa at Waikiki got its name. It involves Kakuhihewa, Maʻilikukahi’s descendent six generations later, ruling chief of O‘ahu from 1640 to 1660 (Maʻilikukahi is honored as the first great Chief of O‘ahu and legends tell of his wise, firm, judicious government.)

It is said that the supernatural chicken, Kaʻauhelemoa one day flew down from his home in Kaʻau Crater in Pālolo and landed at Helumoa.

Furiously scratching into the earth, the impressive rooster then vanished. Kākuhihewa took this as an omen and planted niu (coconuts) at that very spot.

Helumoa (meaning “chicken scratch”) was the name he bestowed on that niu planting that would multiply into a grove of reportedly 10,000-coconut trees.

This is the same coconut grove that would later be called the King’s Grove, or the Royal Grove, and would be cited in numerous historical accounts for its pleasantness and lush surroundings.

Kamehameha and his warriors camped near there, when they began their conquest of O‘ahu in 1795. Later, he would return and build a Western style stone house for himself, as well as residences for his wives and retainers in an area known as Pua‘ali‘ili‘i.

Kamehameha I resided at Helumoa periodically from 1795 to 1809. He ended Waikīkī’s nearly 400-year reign as O‘ahu’s capital when he moved the royal headquarters to Honolulu (known then as Kou) in 1808 (to Pākākā.)

Here’s a little geological background on Kaʻau Crater …

The Hawaiian Islands were formed as the Pacific Plate moved westward over a geologic hot spot. Oʻahu is dominated by two large shield volcanoes, Waiʻanae and Koʻolau that range in age from two to four-million years old.

The younger volcanic craters formed after Oʻahu had moved well off the hot spot and the main shield volcanoes had gone dormant for at least two-million years.

Somewhat more than half of the craters of southeast Oʻahu are arranged in linear groups, those dominated by the craters Tantalus, Diamond Head and Koko Crater. In the Diamond Head group is the main Diamond Head vent, Kaimuki crater and Mauʻumae crater. Kaʻau is an extension of this line of craters up into the Koʻolau range.

The Koko group crater line extends for a distance of about six miles, through the Koko Crater vent and from Mānana Island to Koko Head. It includes no less than fourteen separate vents and dikes, of which most are distant from a straight line but a few yards. (Bishop Museum)

“The Kaʻau tuff and basalt flows were erupted during a high stand of the sea (probably during plus 95-foot (Kaʻena) stand of sea)” (about 1-million years ago – a ‘youthful’ volcanic outburst.) (USGS)

Rising magma encountered groundwater and generated steam explosions. Kaʻau crater was probably blasted out by the explosions. Its walls are Koʻolau basalt, overlain by tuff and mudflow debris.

Toward the end of the eruption, lava rose in Kaʻau crater, probably forming a lava lake. Slight recession of the lava in the crater at the end of the eruption left a poorly drained hollow forming a swamp that sometimes contains an open pond. (Volcanoes in the Sea)

(Kaʻau Crater is reached from the end of the Pālolo valley. The trail (muddy and wet) is a closed trail and is not open to the public – news reports note people are repeatedly rescued from there and a couple people recently died on the trail (portions of the trail involve ascending the waterfalls along the way.)

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by Peter T Young 3 Comments

North Pacific Missionary Institute

On October 1, 1872, the Hawaiian Evangelical Association Theological School opened its doors for men interested in a life of Christian ministry.

In its infancy, Rev John D Paris became the head of the institution, accompanied by Rev Dwight Baldwin and Rev Benjamin W Parker as instructors.

Recruitment of Native Hawaiian students was an ongoing problem. A year after the school opened Rev. Paris wrote, “Aka, auhea la ka nani o ke aupuni kanaka ole?! Auhea hoi ka pono o ke Kula Kahuna haumana ole?” (But where is the glory of the Kingdom without men? Where indeed is the value of the ministers’ school without students?) (Williams)

Beginning with 13 students, the school endeavored to graduate these men as ministers in order to send them on to more missionary work around the world, paying special attention to the Pacific.

The school’s three-year program curriculum included Bible History, Sacred Geography, Church History, Natural Theology, Evidences of Christianity, Christian Theology, Composition and Delivery of Sermons, and Pastoral Theology.

The Theological School took up residence within an older structure, previously used as a Marine Hospital, owned and operated by Dr. Gerrit P. Judd. It was located at the corner of what is today Punchbowl and South Beretania Streets in Honolulu (presently, where the Kalanimōku Building (DLNR & DAGS) is situated.) (In 1874, Paris retired and moved back to Kona.)

In 1877, Rev. Charles McEwen Hyde was sent to Hawaiʻi from Massachusetts to reorganize the school as the North Pacific Missionary Institute.

Hyde was former valedictorian at Williams College and graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary; he envisioned “a grand opportunity to do important service for Christ and for the world.” (Williams)

He quickly picked up the Hawaiian language in order to converse with the indigenous population, and began delivering his sermons in Hawaiian.

“With great skill and patience and energy he has conducted its affairs, and the Institute has been one of the most effective agencies for the support of Christian institutions at the Islands.”

“But Dr. Hyde’s energies were by no means confronted to this one seminary. He sought in every way to upbuild the native Hawaiian churches, and to promote the work of education in schools of all grades.”

“’From this institution has gone forth, under the training of Dr. Hyde, the whole circle of younger men who today fill the pastorate of the Hawaiian churches.’ And after referring to several of these pastors by name, it is well added: ‘These men are the best of witnesses to the faithful and painstaking service of this most indefatigable of teachers.’” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, December 13, 1899)

Hyde served as Principal until 1883, until resigning his position to the temporary care of Rev. Henry H. Parker.

In 1889, it was decided by the Hawaiian Board that a new building was to be erected that would accommodate the seminary’s students with better living and learning quarters. A wooden structure was built in 1890.

The building had 16-dormitories and several large lecture rooms for instruction. During construction, the students attended classes at Kawaiahaʻo Church.

“Eleven students had been under instruction, three of these having entered this year. Instruction is now given in the afternoons as well as the mornings. Friday afternoon and Saturday are the only times available for such work as may be available as a means of self-support.”

“It has been necessary therefor to supplement the meagre weekly cash allowance, granted by the Hawaiian Board, by the distribution of weekly rations of rice, bread, salmon and kerosene to each student. The students are not pampered children of ease by any means, but learn from the very first to endure hardness as good soldiers of Jesus Christ.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, June 7, 1895)

“In the training which it furnishes to these leaders of the churches, the theological school affects the moral and religious life of the country. It holds the same relation to the ministerial profession that the law school does to the legal profession, or the medical college to the practice of medicine.”

“A well trained ministry is peculiarly necessary at the present time for the Hawaiian Islands. Everything is in a transition state, and a strong ministry is needed, which can hold to the good which has been achieved in the past and make it effective in the new order of things which is to come.” (Hawaiian Gazette, November 6, 1896)

“The work of the Institute in training Hawaiians for pastoral and missionary service has been carried on as heretofore. It has also been enlarged in its scope, so as to furnish more instruction through the use of the English language.”

“Rev. John Leadingham, formerly instructor in the Slavic department of the Oberlin Theological Seminary, has been appointed by the ABCFM Associate Instructor in the NPM Institute and began his work in November, 1894.” (Board of Education Report, 1896)

“Professor Leadingham’s lessons in English have not been confined to the students, but he has kindly consented to teach English to a class of young Hawaiian lawyers. Two Portuguese young men also, who wish to enter the gospel ministry, have been under instruction for the last three months.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, June 7, 1895)

“The privileges of the Institute are now opened to other nationalities, and in addition to the 8 Hawaiian students, one Portuguese and one Chinese are taking the prescribed course of study. This extends over three years. In some instances, a fourth year is added for special study.”

“Of the thirty-six pastors now serving the fifty-five Hawaiian Evangelical churches, twenty-five are graduates of the NPM Institute. Besides these there are six graduates engaged in foreign missionary work in the Gilbert Islands.” (Board of Education Report, 1896)

In 1900, Leadingham became the Principal (he left the islands in 1904.) The Hawaiian Board later redirected its efforts into the consolidation of Kawaiahaʻo Seminary, Mills Institute and the Japanese Boarding School into the Mid-Pacific Institute.

The “first great step in the development of its higher educational work by purchasing between thirty-six and thirty-seven acres of land in Mānoa Valley – the Kidwell estate. Upon this it is proposed to locate the Mid-Pacific Institute”.

“In making this purchase the Board has parted with the premises of the North Pacific Missionary Institute on Punchbowl street to the Methodist church” (and, in between, the Korean School.) (Hawaiian Star, May 18, 1907) (Lots of information here is from Williams and Mission Houses.)

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by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Walter Murray Gibson Building

In 1834, King Kamehameha III organized the first police force in the Hawaiian Islands. This was only four years after the inception of London’s first police force, and twelve years before that of any American city.

In 1845, the king appointed the first Marshal of the island, and sheriffs were appointed for each island. After counties were organized in 1905, sheriffs were elected for each county.

In 1885, the Minister of the Interior under King Kalākaua purchased property at Bethel and Merchant Streets and began construction of a new Police Court building on the site. The May 21, 1885 Daily Bulletin noted, “The work on the new Police Station building is progressing rapidly.”

The Chinatown fire of 1886 destroyed the old King Street police station so all of the functions of that building were transferred to the nearly completed Merchant Street structure, a two-story brick building.

The cell block was in the basement, the offices of the Marshal, Deputy Marshal, Police Justice and a detention area were on the ground floor. The courtroom was on the second floor.

In 1930, this building was demolished in order to construct the present structure on the site. The earlier brick building on the same site was built during the era of Walter Murray Gibson, so the new structure is also known as the Walter Murray Gibson Building.

While Gibson was in the Legislative Assembly (1878-1882) he became Finance Committee Chairman and under his leadership allocations of public funds showed his concern for the national pride of Hawaiians: $500 to Henri Berger, leader of the Hawaiian Band, for composing the music for Hawaii Ponoʻi, the new national anthem; $10,000 for a bronze statue of Kamehameha I; and $50,000 to begin construction of a new ʻIolani Palace, to house King Kalākaua and Queen Kapiʻolani, and all their successors. (Adler – Kamins)

He was also Member of Privy Council and Board of Health (1880, Health President 1882;) Commissioner of Crown Lands (1882;) Board of Education, President (1883;) Attorney General (1883;) House of Nobles (1882-1886;) Secretary of War & Navy (1886;) Premier and Minister of the Interior (1886) and Minister of Foreign Affairs (1882-1887.)

In his new capacities, Gibson’s first notable accomplishment was his development of a new monetary system for the island nation. The new money was printed in San Francisco and the bills featured Kalākaua. This was followed by the creation of a postal system; Gibson himself designed and printed the postage stamps for the Hawaiian kingdom. (Lowe)

Back to the building …

The later police station cost $235,000 and used eleven tons of French marble, Philippine mahogany and Waianae sandstone. The building, designed by local architect, Louis E. Davis, was occupied on September 29, 1931. (The Nuʻuanu Street addition was constructed in 1986.)

The style is Spanish Colonial Revival, also called Spanish Mission Revival; at the time it was built, the Spanish colonial revival style structure was becoming an accepted style for public edifices in Honolulu.

It is a three-story (with basement) Mediterranean-style reinforced-concrete building with plaster finish and ornate terra-cotta entry and decorative interior detailing. Various window and balcony elements reflect interior stairway. Interesting curved railings of exterior stair in 1939 addition at ‘Ewa end of building.

The vice squad, weights and measures, military police and shore patrol were in the basement, the receiving area, general offices, foot patrol, examiner of chauffeurs and traffic department were on the main floor, the jail was on the second floor, and district courtrooms and offices were on the top floor.

A one-and-a-half-story entrance hall on the ground floor at the Merchant/Bethel Streets corner contains a stairway to the first floor. Access to the second and third floors is via an open core stairway contained in the tower on Bethel Street.

During wartime, the first floor housed the Alien Property Custodian, which confiscated property owned by foreign citizens, beginning with the declaration of martial law on December 7, 1941. (It was this agency that closed the Yokohama Specie Bank across the street in 1941.)

The Police Department left the building in 1967, when they moved to the old Sears store in Pawaʻa. The Old Police Station, or Court Building as it was also known, continued to house the District Courts.

The courts, in turn, were moved in 1983 and the building stood empty for three years in the mid-1980s while the city debated the building’s future.

After a 1985 plan to use it as the vehicle and driver licensing operations center was rejected following public objection, in 1985 the city decided to use the building for the city’s Real Property Assessment and Public Housing Divisions.

The building is part of the Merchant Street Historical District, occupying four square blocks in downtown Honolulu, containing a variety of interesting old buildings. The area is what remains of “old” Honolulu.

Merchant Street, once the main street of the financial and governmental part of the city, bisects the district and is lined with low-rise, well maintained buildings of character and distinctions. (Lots of information here is from the HABS.)

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Hakipuʻu

The nine ahupuaʻa of Kāneʻohe Bay, beginning at the boundary between Koʻolauloa and Koʻolaupoko Districts (west) and moving eastward, are Kualoa, Hakipuʻu, Waikāne, Waiāhole, Kaʻalaea, Waiheʻe, Kahaluʻu, Heʻeia and Kāneʻohe.

The ahupuaʻa of Hakipuʻu (Broken Hill – referring to the jagged ridge top) is located at the northern end of Kāne’ohe Bay, between Kualoa and Waikāne.

Paliuli (green cliff,) a “legendary paradise of plenty” with many proclaimed sites throughout the islands, was said to have existed in the mauka regions of Hakipuʻu.

The legendary and historic navigator Kahaʻi a Hoʻokamaliʻi was said to have landed on the beach here, on his return trip from Tahiti. He is credited for bringing and planting the first ʻulu (breadfruit) tree, in this ahupuaʻa. (Mālama ʻĀina)

“The area is typical of Oʻahu, in contrast to Kauai, Maui, and Hawaiʻi, in combining: (a) bay and reef coast line which make cultivation feasible right to the shore where coconuts thrive; (b) extensive wet-taro plantations with ample water; (c) swampy areas where taro and fish were raised …”

“… (d) sloping piedmont and level shore-side areas well adapted to sweet-potato farming; (e) ample streams whose mouths are ideal seaside spawning pools; (f) fishponds in which systematic fish farming was practiced; (g) upstream terraced stream-side lo‘i; (h) accessible forested slopes and uplands, for woodland supplies and recourse in famine times”. (Handy; Klieger)

“The bay all round has a very beautiful appearance, the low land and vallies being in a high state of cultivation, and crowned with plantations of taro, sweet potatoes, sugar-cane, etc. interspersed with a great number of coconut trees”. (Portlock, 1786)

Fishponds, loko i‘a, were things that beautified the land, and a land with many fishponds was called a ‘fat’ land (‘āina momona.) They date from ancient times. (Kamakau)

Moliʻi fishpond (within Hakipuʻu) has a pond wall about 4,000-feet in length (attributed to the work of Menehune) that separates about 125-acres of shallow water (one of the largest ever built) from the northern rim of Kāneʻohe Bay. The main species of fish raised in ponds were ʻawa (milkfish) and ʻanae (mullet.)

Handy described the taro flats at Hakipuʻu, originally more than one-half mile south from Moliʻi Fishpond, where all the level land along Hakipuʻu Stream was once in terraces.

It was especially interesting as the only swamp plantation on Oʻahu in which a marshland patch was cultivated in the old mounding method. (Devaney)

“An acre of kalo (taro) land would furnish food for from twenty to thirty persons, if properly taken care of. It will produce crops for a great many years in succession without lying fallow any time.” (Wyllie, 1848)

Based on the estimated rates of population decline due to the introduction of European disease, Hakipuʻu would have had a population of about 300 at the time of ‘contact’ in 1778, decreasing to about 225 by 1800. In the first formal census in 1832 the population of Hakipuʻu had declined to 180.

Later, in Hakipuʻu, “fields were fenced and plowed for the cane, small flumes were put up and Chinese coolies imported for laborers”; by 1867, however, it became evident that the land was poor for sugarcane and it was abandoned.

The land was later used for rice cultivation (1860s,) then pineapple. However, by 1923, it was evident that pineapple cultivation on the Windward area could not keep up with that in other O‘ahu areas.

Crops on the Windward side were not yielding tonnages as compared with the Leeward side, fields were smaller, with wilt more prevalent, and growing costs considerably higher. Plantings were therefore reduced. (Libby; Devaney)

Much of the land was converted to pasture for cattle ranching. Some of the Hakipuʻu land remains part of the Kualoa Ranch.

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Duke Kahanamoku Beach

Duke Paoa Kahanamoku was born in 1890, one of nine children of a Honolulu policeman.

Duke was named after his father who was given the name by Bernice Pauahi Bishop. The elder Duke explains his naming as “Mrs. Bishop took hold of me and at the same time a salute to the Hawaiian flag from the British Battleship in which the (Prince Albert) Duke of Edinburgh arrived”.

“… after I was washed by Mrs. Bishop she gave me the name ‘The Duke of Edinburgh.’” (The Duke of Edinburgh was visiting the Islands at the time (July 21, 1869.))

“The Duke heard and was glad and came to (the) house and I was presented to him and tooke me in his arms. And that is how I got this name.” (Nendel)

Both were born at the Paki property in downtown Honolulu. The Paki (Pauahi’s parents) home was called Haleʻakala (the ‘Pink House,’ made of coral.)

A couple years after Duke’s birth (1893,) the family was living in a small house on the beach at Waikiki where the present day Hawaiian Hilton Village now stands.

Duke had a normal upbringing for a young boy his age in Waikiki. He swam, surfed, fished, did odd jobs such as selling newspapers and went to school at Waikiki grammar school; he would never graduate from high school due to the need to help his family earn enough money to live.

For fun and extra money he and others would greet the boatloads of tourists coming to and from Honolulu Harbor. They would dive for coins tossed into the water by the visitors, perform acrobatic displays of diving from towers on boat days, and explore the crop of newcomers for potential students to teach surfing and canoeing lessons to on the beach.

He earned his living as a beachboy and stevedore at the Honolulu Harbor docks. Growing up on the beach in Waikiki, Duke surfed with his brothers and entertained tourists with tandem rides. (Nendel)

Duke’s love of surfing is what he is most remembered. He used surfing to promote Hawaiian culture to visitors who wanted to fully experience the islands.

Through his many travels, Duke introduced surfing to the rest of the world and was regarded as the father of international surfing.

Back at home, the beach and subsequent lagoon near where he lived now carry his name.

Ownership of the Waikiki property by the Paoa family goes back to Kaʻahumanu as noted in testimony before the Land Commission on December 16, 1847 (LCA 1775:)

“I hereby state my claim for a section of irrigation ditch. I do not know its length – perhaps it is two fathoms more or less. The length of my interest at this place is from the time of Kaahumanu I, which was when my people acquired this place, and until this day when I am telling you, no one has objected at this place where I live.”

“The houselot where we live is on the north of the government fence at Kalia. Some planted trees grow there-five hau and four hala. There is a well which is used jointly.” The Royal Patent for the claim was awarded to Paoa on December 7, 1870 (Royal Patent No. 7033) (Rosendahl)

In 1891, the ‘Old Waikiki’ opened as a bathhouse, one of the first places in Waikiki to offer rooms for overnight guests. It was later redeveloped (1928) as the Niumalu Hotel. Henry J Kaiser bought it and adjoining property and started the Kaiser Hawaiian Village.

The shoreline area was filled and is considered State-owned land. A 1955 lease allowed Kaiser’s Hawaiian Village to dredge and fill areas – in the process the 4.6-acre Duke Kahanamoku Lagoon was created in 1956. To the east of the lagoon is the crescent-shaped Duke Kahanamoku Beach. (In 1961 Kaiser sold to Hilton Hotels.)

Initially, the Territory of Hawaiʻi constructed the ‘Crescent Beach’ project by dredging and filling the nearby ocean shoreline; most of the material that now makes up the banks of the lagoon originated from that project (the beach and lagoon were built at the same time.)

Duke Kahanamoku Beach was crowned the Best Beach in the list of annual ‘Top 10 US Beaches 2024’ by Stephen Leatherman, a.k.a. ‘Dr. Beach’ (and has been on the top 10 list often).

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