Oahu | Page 20 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

September 19, 2023 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Wahiawa Dam and Reservoir (Lake Wilson)

“The greatest irrigation proposition ever undertaken in the Hawaiian Islands is the Wahiawa dam, which will soon be under course of construction in the Wahiawa valley, some miles from Honolulu. …”

“It will also be used for irrigating fruit lands belonging to a colony of settlers in the immediate vicinity of the dam and for generating electric power.” (Louisiana Planter, September 19, 1904)

“This dam will conserve in a great natural reservoir basin over two and a half billion gallons of water which will be used chiefly to irrigate the upper cane lands of the Waialua Agricultural Company’s great sugar plantation, eight miles away.” (Louisiana Planter, September 19, 1904)

“The dam will be built by the Wahiawa Water Company, which consists of the Waialua Agricultural Company and members of the colony of fruit growers who own the land which the reservoir will occupy when filled.”

“The site that has been selected, is just below the junction of the north and south forks of Kaukonahua, the largest and longest stream on the island of Oahu. The reservoir basin lies between the Waianae and Koolau ranges of mountains and extends up the north fork of the stream 3.5 miles and 4.5 miles up the south fork.” (Louisiana Planter, September 19, 1904)

By 1889, sugar cane had become a rapidly-developing crop on Oahu. Despite the fact that the Hawaiian Islands receive significant amounts of total rain, it falls sporadically onto volcanic soil that does little to hold it. For agricultural purposes, much of the terrain is practically desert unless the rainfall can be captured and held. (HeritageMuseumOC)

Initially the sugar plantations were dependent on irrigation systems that used massive pumps to lift rainwater up to 650-feet from artesian wells along the coast to the level of the plantations. This was a very expensive proposition and most likely required a great deal of maintenance. So the idea of building a dam became very attractive.

Leonard Grant (LG) Kellogg had settled in the colony of Wahiawa, which was primarily engaged in pineapple farming. He organized the Wahiawa Water Company with the purpose of providing drinking water and irrigation to the colony. The company constructed a ditch from a local water source to the colony.

The Wahiawā Colony Tract covered an area of 1,300-acres. The homesteaders formed an agricultural cooperative called the Hawaiian Fruit and Plant Company; later, they set aside the central town lots for the use and benefit of the Settlement Association of Wahiawā resident landowners. Within a few years, Wahiawā Town was underway.

In 1902, LG called in his mainland brother, Hiram Clay Kellogg, to survey the area as the site of a potential reservoir. He also turned to the Waialua Sugar Plantation to help finance a reservoir project and be a customer of the water after the dam was built.

Once the survey was completed, LG called on James Dix Schuyler, a prominent consulting engineer from Los Angeles. Schuyler recommended a dam structure that used a combination of rock fill (loose boulders packed together) and hydraulic fill (soil that is moved into place and compacted by water). Clay was hired to do the detailed plans for the dam and to supervise its construction.

Although officially named Wahiawa, the dam is also known as the Waialua. It was constructed at a fork in the Kaukonahua River, backing the water up into two separate valleys to form what may have been considered two reservoirs, implying two separate dams.

Construction began in 1903 and was completed in 1905. The logistics of the construction were challenging. Railroad track was laid for bringing in the boulders for the rock fill portion from as far away as 6-miles. A high trestle was built over the dam site, and the rocks were dropped into place. The long drop compacted them so they held in place.

At its completion, it was the highest dam and largest reservoir in the Hawaiian Islands. The dam rose 98-feet above the stream bed, was 460-feet long and 25-feet wide at the crest, and 580-feet wide at the base. The original capacity of the reservoir was 2.5-billion gallons. It cost $300,000 to build, and was considered something of a bargain.

The water from the Wahiawa dam was transported to the higher cane lands of the Waialua plantation by means of tunnels and ditches and reduced the cost of water from an average of $63-per acre to about $20-per acre. It will also served lands between the 700 and 400-feet levels which could not be supplied by pumps for less than $90 to $100-per acre.

The water supply feeding the reservoir was ample to fill it from 4 to 6-times per year; with rainfall distributed throughout the year, the reservoir was refilled in rapid succession as it is emptied. The average depth is 26-feet, with the maximum depth of 88-feet at the dam.

At the time, the capacity of the pumping plant on the Waialua plantation was 72,000,000-gallons daily (more than double the average consumption of the city of San Francisco, CA.)

Since 1957, the Department of Land and Natural Resources, through a cooperative agreement with Castle & Cooke, Inc., has managed Wahiawa Reservoir as a public fishing area. In 1968, a 14-foot wide concrete boat launching ramp and parking area were constructed by the State for public use.

The reservoir is stocked with both large and small mouth bass, bluegill sunfish, Channel catfish, Threadfin shad, tilapia, peacock bass, oscar, Chinese catfish, and carp. It is the responsibility of DLNR’s Division of Aquatic Resources to manage these gamefish populations within the reservoir for recreational fishing purposes.

In 1999, the invasive aquatic plant, salvinia molesta, invaded the reservoir; within months, its growth exploded to a point in 2003 that it covered 95% of the reservoir’s surface area.

Salvinia molesta is a plant that under ideal conditions will double in number in 2-3 days and double in volume in 7-10 days. Apparently, little was done to stop it. In addition to other concerns, at risk was a die-off of 500-tons of fish.

In the first month of my service at DLNR (January, 2003,) I asked our Chief Engineer (Eric Hirano) to prepare and oversee a plan to rid the reservoir of salvinia. By May 24 2003 (after approximately $1.7-million,) DLNR reopened the popular state park for public use of shore portions.

The park reopening, after nearly 3-months of closure, followed successful completion of intensive bulk extraction activities by State, City and County, and federal and military agencies. A month later, Wahiawa Freshwater Recreation Area was reopened to boat fishing. (Lots of information here from Heritage Museum of Orange County.)

September 15, 2023 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

St. Augustine by-the-sea

At the time of the arrival of Europeans in the Hawaiian Islands during the late-eighteenth century, Waikīkī had long been a center of population and political power on Oʻahu. Starting back in the end of the fourteenth century, Waikīkī had become “the ruling seat of the chiefs of O’ahu,” including Kamehameha, who resided here after conquering Oʻahu in 1795.

In 1819, Kalanimōkū was the first Hawaiian Chief to be formally baptized a Catholic, aboard the French ship Uranie. “The captain and the clergyman asked (John) Young what Ka-lani-moku’s rank was, and upon being told that he was the chief counselor (Kuhina Nui) and a wise, kind, and careful man, they baptized him into the Catholic Church” (Kamakau). Shortly thereafter, Boki, Kalanimōkū’s brother (and Governor of Oʻahu,) was baptized.

In July 1827, three Sacred Hearts priests and three Sacred Hearts brothers from France arrived in Honolulu to begin the Hawaiian Catholic Mission. The beginnings of the Mission were difficult. They were neither welcomed by the royal government nor by the Protestants already in the Islands.

France, historically a Catholic nation, used its government representatives in Hawaiʻi to protest the mistreatment of Catholic Native Hawaiians. Captain Cyrille-Pierre Théodore Laplace, of the French Navy frigate “Artémise”, sailed into Honolulu Harbor in 1839 to convince the Hawaiian leadership to get along with the Catholics – and the French. Finally, the persecution ended in June and the kingdom granted religious freedom to all.

With Catholics now free to practice their faith, a small Catholic chapel was built in 1839 in Waikīkī “in the Hawaiian style,” likely consisting of posts and thatch on the beach near the present Kalākaua Avenue.

This chapel was re-built 15 years later (in 1854) at that beach location in Western-style wooden framing (from the lumber of shipwrecked ships.) The size of this chapel was about 20 feet by 40 feet, with a steeple.

Waikīkī continued to grow and improvements to the chapel were made later by putting in flooring, galvanized roofing, and lattice walls. This church site on the beach served its purpose for many years, until the site was exchanged for a piece of land on what is now ʻOhua Avenue.

The chapel was used primarily for devotions; parishioners still had to go to the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace (in downtown Honolulu) for Sunday Mass.

During the Spanish-American War, American soldiers were garrisoned at Kapiʻolani Park (at a temporary Camp McKinley – 1898-1907) and the Catholic soldiers wanted a regular Catholic Mass in Waikīkī, so permission was given for Mass every Sunday. A larger chapel was built to accommodate all the worshippers.

The soldiers left when the war ended, but by that time there was a growing Catholic community in Waikīkī. On August 28, 1901, a more permanent church with lattice-work walls reminiscent of the palm fronds of the first chapel in Waikīkī.

As Waikīkī grew, so did the church; it was expanded twice, in 1910 and then in 1925; but time, a growing population and termites took their toll and by the early-1960s a larger church was needed.

In 1962, the present church was blessed. Designed by local architect George McLaughlin, the design reflects hands folded in prayer. The 20-side stained glass windows depict 15-mysteries of the rosary, the arrival of the missionaries, the first lay catechists (Catholic teachers of the faith) in Hawaiʻi, Father Damien and the bishop receiving the current church.

Today, St Augustine-by-the-Sea Church sits within urban Honolulu at the eastern end of the Waikīkī resort area. It is surrounded by modem urban development and high-rise hotels.

St. Augustine by-the-sea has not undergone any major exterior renovations or improvements since its construction in 1962. The church recently published a Master Plan and Environmental Assessment for a new multi-purpose Parrish Hall, as well as other improvements.

St. Augustine features a small museum dedicated to the life and times of St. Damien of Molokaʻi. In 1863, his brother, who was to leave for the Hawaiian Islands, became ill and Damien took his place. He arrived in Honolulu on March 19, 1864, and was ordained at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace (in downtown Honolulu) on May 21, 1864.

For the next nine years he worked in missions on the big island, Hawaiʻi. In 1873, he went to the leper colony on Molokaʻi, after volunteering for the assignment. He announced he was a leper in 1885 and continued to build hospitals, clinics and churches, and some six hundred coffins. He died on April 15 1885, on Molokaʻi. (Lots of information and images from St. Augustine website and related reports.)

September 2, 2023 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Farewell to thee … Until we meet again

In the early-nineteenth century there were three routes from Honolulu to Windward Oʻahu: around the island by canoe; through Kalihi Valley and over the pali by ropes and ladders; and over Nuʻuanu Pali, the easiest, quickest and most direct route.

The first foreigner to descend the Pali and record his trip was Hiram Bingham. His zeal for spreading the word of God led him to take a group of missionaries over the Pali to the Koʻolaupoko moku (district) in 1821.

The current Pali Highway is actually the third roadway to be built there. A large portion of the highway was built over the ancient Hawaiian foot paths that traversed the famous Pali pass.

In 1845 the first road was built over the Nuʻuanu Pali to connect Windward Oʻahu with Honolulu. It was jointly financed in 1845 by the government and sugar planters who wanted easy access to the fertile lands on the windward side of Oʻahu. Kamehameha III and two of his attendants were the first to cross on horseback.

A legislative appropriation in 1857 facilitated road improvements that allowed the passage of carriages. The Rev. E. Corwin and Dr. G. P. Judd were the first to descend in this manner on September 12, 1861.

Lili‘uokalani used to visit friends at their estate in Maunawili. She and her brother King David Kalākaua were regular guests and attended parties or simply came there to rest.

Guests, when leaving the home, would walk between two parallel rows of royal palms, farewells would be exchanged; then they would ride away on horseback or in their carriages.

On one trip, when leaving, Liliʻu witnessed a particularly affectionate farewell between a gentleman in her party and a lovely young girl from Maunawili.

As they rode up the Pali and into the swirling winds, she started to hum a melody weaving words into a romantic song. The Queen continued to hum and completed her song as they rode the winding trail down the valley back to Honolulu.

She put her words to music and as a result of that 1878 visit, she wrote “Aloha ‘Oe.”

The melody may have been derived from Croatian folk song (Subotika region) Sedi Mara Na Kamen Studencu (Girl On The Rock,) in 1857 published in Philadelphia by Charles Crozat Converse as The Rock Beside The Sea.

Aloha ʻOe was first introduced in America in 1883 by the Royal Hawaiian Band with Heinrich (Henry) Berger conducting.

“Though I was still not allowed to have newspapers or general literature to read, writing-paper and lead-pencils were not denied; and I was thereby able to write music, after drawing for myself the lines of the staff.”

“At first I had no instrument, and had to transcribe the notes by voice alone; but I found, notwithstanding disadvantages, great consolation in composing, and transcribed a number of songs.”

“Three found their way from my prison to the city of Chicago, where they were printed, among them the “Aloha Oe,” or “Farewell to Thee,” which became a very popular song.” (Liliʻuokalani while imprisoned)

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

Although she didn’t own the property in Maunawili, it is often referred to as the Queen’s Retreat.

The Maunawili property is also referred to as the Boyd/Irwin/Hedemann house, due to the subsequent list of owners of the property.

Major Edward Boyd and his wife bought the land in 1869, it served as their estate. Sugar baron William G Irwin next purchased the estate in 1893, starting up a coffee mill, there.

C Brewer later owned the estate in the 1920s and 1930s, using it as a retreat. Kāneʻohe Ranch bought it in 1941, when the military used it as a headquarters and rest area. Even the Girl Scouts used it as a camp in the late-1940s.

The Hedemann family was the last to live there, until 1985, when the estate was purchased by a Japanese investor, who developed much of the surrounding area as the Luana Hills Country Club.

Since 2000, the property has been owned by HRT Ltd., the for-profit arm of the Jeanette and Harry Weinberg Foundation.

Uninhabited since about 1985, the structures and grounds of the estate are rapidly decaying and being absorbed by the forest of Maunawili. On June 26, 2022, fire destroyed the Queen’s Retreat.

Here is a link to an early (1904) rendition Aloha ʻOe:

Ellis Brothers Glee Club Quartet (men) (1904)

August 25, 2023 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Alexander Young Hotel

Alexander Young was born in Blackburn, Scotland, December 14, 1833, the son of Robert and Agnes Young. His father was a contractor. When young, he apprenticed in a mechanical engineering and machinist department.

One of his first jobs included sailing around the Horn in 1860 to Vancouver Island with a shipload of machinery and a contract to build and operate a large sawmill at Alberni.

He left Vancouver Island for the distant “Sandwich Islands,” arriving in Honolulu February 5, 1865; he then formed a partnership with William Lidgate to operate a foundry and machine shop at Hilo, Hawaiʻi, continuing in this business for four years.

Moving to Honolulu, Young bought the interest of Thomas Hughes in the Honolulu Iron Works and continued in this business for 32 years. On his retirement from the iron works he invested in sugar plantation enterprises. He became president of the Waiakea Mill Co.

During the monarchy he served in the House of Nobles, 1889, was a member of the advisory council under the provisional Government and was a Minister of the Interior in President Dole’s cabinet.

With the new century he started a new career, when in 1900 he started construction of the Alexander Young Hotel, fronting Bishop Street and extending the full block between King and Hotel streets in downtown Honolulu. The 192-room building was completed in 1903.

In 1905, Young acquired the Moana Hotel and later the Royal Hawaiian Hotel (the ‘old’ Royal Hawaiian in downtown Honolulu that was later (1917) purchased for the Army and Navy YMCA.)

The Honolulu businessman whose downtown hotel that bore his name helped him became known as the father of the hotel industry in Hawaiʻi.

“Mr. Young has sought the best money could buy, with the single purpose of attaining the beauty, comfort and convenience which modern architecture can supply, modern thought suggest and modern man can require.” (Evening Bulletin, August 3, 1900)

Extending a block in length and rising six stories in height, the Alexander Young Building was the largest edifice in Honolulu. It dominated the city-scape and was a major landmark in the downtown area.

At the time of its construction it was the foremost hotel in the Pacific and one of the major hotels in America.

The Advertiser noted, “San Francisco with its 400,000 people, has only one caravansary as good and is priding itself on the prospect of one more. Across the bay Oakland, with 100,000 people, has nothing to compare with it; and going East through Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Kansas and so on to the western limits of Chicago, no hotel of equal cost and splendor can be found.”

“Between Chicago and Honolulu is a distance of 4,000 miles and a population of over thirty million people, yet but one hotel can be found in all that region which equals in size, modern fittings, and general attractiveness the hotel which bears the name Alexander Young.” (Honolulu Advertiser 1903)

It was four stories in height, six at the two ends, and built of grey granite; there was a roof garden tent where refreshments were served and concerts given. At either end of this roof garden is a dance pavilion. (The only major addition to the building was the fifth story placed on the roof garden in 1955.)

The Young Hotel was used by the military in both World Wars. During WW I, the US Army used the second floor. During WW II, the military occupied most of the hotel. Other notable occupants of the hotel include the 1929 legislature, which maintained its offices there while ʻIolani Palace was refurbished.

In 1964, the hotel was converted to stores and offices. The landmark (on the National Register of Historic Places) Alexander Young Building was demolished in 1981.

At about the same time, Young formed the von Hamm-Young Company with his son-in-law, Conrad Carl von Hamm and others (an automobile sales, textiles, wholesale sales, machinery and a host of other businesses, and forerunner of The Hawaiʻi Corporation.) He also started Young Laundry.

Alexander Young died July 2, 1910. (I have no known genealogical relation to him.)

August 18, 2023 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Schofield Barracks

In 1872, Major General John M Schofield visited the Hawaiian Islands to determine the defense capabilities of the various ports. In his report to the Secretary of War, Schofield advocated securing the exclusive use of Pearl Harbor through a reciprocity treaty with the then Kingdom of Hawaiʻi.

In 1893, after the overthrow of the monarchy, it was Schofield who encouraged annexation of Hawaiʻi. He said, “if we do not hold these islands ourselves we cannot expect the neutrals in war to prevent other belligerents from occupying them; nor can the inhabitants themselves prevent such occupation.”

The site that would become Schofield Barracks was ceded to the US Government on July 26, 1899, less than a year after Hawaiʻi was annexed to the United States. The Waianae-Uka military reservation was part of the former Hawaiian Crown Lands and consisted of 14,400 acres. (Army)

In 1905, in an address to Congress, President Theodore Roosevelt declared Hawaiʻi to be, “the most important point in the Pacific to fortify in order to conserve the interests of this country.” (LOC)

Situated between the two major mountain ranges on Oʻahu, with central access to both the North Shore, Pearl Harbor and the City of Honolulu made it an excellent strategic location.

Schofield Barracks was established on December 4, 1908, with the arrival of Captain Joseph C Castner and his construction of a temporary cantonment (headquarters and quarters) on the Waianae-Uka military reservation – first, tents for officers and soldiers; then, temporary wooden barracks.

The temporary facility was informally referred to as Castner Village; some called it the Leilehua Barracks (after the Leilehua Plain on which it is located.)

In April, 1909, the War Department chose to name the post after the late General John M Schofield, former Commanding General of the US Army, who had originally called attention to Hawaiʻi’s strategic value.

In 1910, the United States Army District of Hawaiʻi was formed under the command of Colonel Walter Schuyler at Schofield Barracks. It originally fell under the jurisdiction of the Department of California and then became a department in the newly organized Western Division.

In late-1911, the Secretary of War approved recommendations for a seven-regiment post. This would rival the Army’s largest existing post at the time (Fort Russell in Cheyenne, Wyoming.) The number of troops continued to increase, and in 1913 the Hawaiian Department was formed as an independent command under the War Department.

Permanent facilities were urgently needed.

The configuration of three barracks and one administration building surrounding a central courtyard became known as a “quad” (quadrangle.)

The quads at first took their names from the troops residing in them, i.e. the 35th Infantry Barracks or the 4th Cavalry Barracks. The alphabetical designations currently used were assigned at a later date. Quarters for the officers and their families were constructed at the same time as the barracks.

In 1921, Schofield housed the only complete division in the US Army (the Hawaiian Division) and the Army’s largest single garrison. Population rose to 14,000 in 1938, making it the second largest “city” in Hawaiʻi.

The Hawaiian Department accounted for more than 10% of the Army’s forces during the ‘30s and ‘40s. (By 1948, the base had eight sets of quad barracks.)

On October 1, 1941, the transition by the War Department in operations restructured the Hawaiian Division to form two divisions at Schofield: 24th Infantry Division and the 25th Infantry Division. (Over the following decades, the 24th ID was inactivated, reactivated and subsequently deactivated in October 2006. Schofield remains the home of the 25th ID.)

The need for soldiers trained to fight under tropical conditions arose and the Jungle Training Center, later called the Ranger Combat Training School was formed in late-1942.

The Hawaiʻi Infantry Training Center (HITC) was opened on March 14, 1951. Almost one-million soldiers went through the training center at Schofield before being sent overseas.

With the construction of housing on the old training fields and in light of the greater range and fire power of the new weaponry, larger training areas were needed. Pōhakuloa on the island of Hawaii, Makua Valley, Helemano, Kahuku and Kawailoa were used. Most of these training areas are still actively used by the 25th Infantry Division today.

Today, the Schofield Barracks Area includes Wheeler Army Airfield and Helemano Military Reservation and consists of 16,600-acres. Two brigades of the 25th Infantry Division and other units that support them are housed there.

There are approximately 14,000 military personnel as well as 2,000-civilian employees who work and train at Schofield. 21,100-soldiers and their dependents live on the premises. (Lots of information here is from NPS and Army-mil.)