Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Honouliuli

The island of Oʻahu is divided into 6 moku (districts), consisting of: ‘Ewa, Kona, Koʻolauloa, Koʻolaupoko, Waialua and Waiʻanae. These moku were further divided into 86 ahupua‘a (land divisions within a moku.)

‘Ewa was divided into 12-ahupua‘a, consisting of (from east to west): Hālawa, ‘Aiea, Kalauao, Waimalu, Waiau, Waimano, Mānana, Waiʻawa, Waipi‘o, Waikele, Hōʻaeʻae and Honouliuli.

‘Ewa was at one time the political center for O‘ahu chiefs. This was probably due to its abundant resources that supported the households of the chiefs, particularly the many fishponds around the lochs of Puʻuloa (“long hill,) better known today as Pearl Harbor. (Cultural Surveys)

Each had fisheries in the harbor, floodplains with irrigated kalo and fishponds, and interior (lower kula valley streams/gulches) and mountain forests.  One of these, Honouliuli, had a large coastal area, including what it is typically referred to as the “ʻEwa Plains.”  (Kirch)

Honouliuli includes lands extending from the mountains, to the watered plains where loʻi kalo (taro pond fields) and loko ia (fishponds) were developed, to the arid plains and rich fisheries on the ocean. Along the ocean-fronted coast of Honouliuli are noted places in lore and ancient life, such as Keahi, Kupaka, Keoneula (Oneula), Kualakai, Kalaeloa and Koʻolina.  (Maly)

Honouliuli (dark bay) includes a wide plain back of Puʻuloa (Pearl Harbor) and Keahi (a point west of Pearl Harbor) where the homeless, friendless ghosts were said to wander about. These were the ghosts of people who were not found by their family ʻaumakua or gods and taken home with them, or had not found the leaping places where they could leap into the nether world.  (Pukui)

In 1793, Captain George Vancouver described this area as desolate and barren:  “From the commencement of the high land to the westward of Opooroah (Puʻuloa – Pearl Harbor) was … one barren rocky waste, nearly destitute of verdure, cultivation or inhabitants, with little variation all to the west point of the island. …”

In 1839, Missionary EO Hall described the area between Pearl Harbor and Kalaeloa as follows: “Passing all the villages (after leaving the Pearl River) at one or two of which we stopped, we crossed the barren desolate plain”.  (Robicheaux)  In the 1880s, these lands were being turned over to cattle grazing and continued through the early-1900s.

Nearby Moku ʻUmeʻume (Ford Island) provided pili grass for house thatching. Ewa’s house builders gathered their pili grass for house thatching here until the time came when foreign shingles were introduced, then thatching was discontinued.

It was also covered with kiawe trees; it was noted that the kiawe forests there and the Honouliuli region supplied much of the fuel for kitchen fires in Honolulu.

Reported in 1898, a few fishermen and some of their families built shanties by the shore where they lived, fished and traded their catch for taro at ‘Ewa.  Their drinking water was taken from nearby ponds, and it was so brackish that other people could not stand to drink it. (Cameron; Maly)

James Campbell, who arrived in Hawaiʻi in 1850, ended up in Lāhainā and started a sugar plantation there in 1860 (later known as Pioneer Mill.)  He also started to acquire lands in Oʻahu, Maui and the island of Hawaiʻi.

In 1876, he purchased approximately 15,000-acres at Kahuku on the northernmost tip of Oʻahu from HA Widemann and Julius L Richardson. In 1877, he acquired from John Coney 41,000-acres of ranch land at Honouliuli.

Many critics scoffed at the doubtful value of his Honouliuli purchase. But Campbell envisioned supplying the arid area with water and commissioned California well-driller James Ashley to drill a well on his Honouliuli Ranch.

In 1879, Ashley drilled Hawaiʻi’s first artesian well; James Campbell’s vision had made it possible for Hawaiʻi’s people to grow sugar cane on the dry lands of the ʻEwa Plain.

“At 240 feet the water commenced to overflow. The bore was continued to 273 feet, the flow increasing and coming to rise from one-half to two-thirds of an inch crown above the pipe, 7 inches in diameter.  This success was a happy surprise to the community. (There was) a sheet of pure water flowing like a dome of glass from all sides of the well casing, and continuing to flow night and day, without diminution.”  (Congressional Record, 1881)

What they discovered was vast reservoirs of artesian water; the groundwater here is composed of a freshwater lens that generally moves toward the ocean but is impeded by a wedge of caprock that overlies the volcanic rock near the coast.  (Nellist, Bauer)

When the first well came in at Honouliuli the Hawaiians named it “Waianiani” (crystal waters.)  (Nellist) The ʻEwa Plain has been irrigated with ground water since 1890. By 1930, Ewa Plantation had drilled 70 artesian wells to irrigate cane lands; more were drilled later.

It was some years after the first artesian wells were brought in before there was a general understanding of the formation of the coastal caprock and its vital importance in the creation and functioning of the artesian reservoirs.

Discovery of artesian water at Honouliuli was beyond question the most important single contribution to the development of Oʻahu and Honolulu as we know the island and city today.  (Nellist)  (The flow from the well continued for 60-years until it was sealed by the City and County of Honolulu in 1939.)

In 1889, Campbell leased about 40,000-acres of land for fifty years to BF Dillingham (of Oʻahu Railway and Land Co;) after several assignments and sub-leases, about 7,860-acres of Campbell land ended up with Ewa Planation.

By 1923, Ewa Plantation was the first sugar company in the world to raise ten tons of sugar per acre and, by 1933, the plantation produced over 61,000-tons of sugar a year.

Ewa Plantation was considered one of the most prosperous plantations in Hawaiʻi and in 1931 a new 50-year lease was executed, completing the agreement with Oʻahu Railway and Land Company and beginning an association with Campbell Estate.

By 1936, ʻEwa Plantation Company was the first plantation to have a fully mechanized harvesting operation and by 1946 tests were made to convert the hauling of cane from railroads to large trucks.

During WWII, Japanese Americans were put in internment camps in at least eight locations on Hawaiʻi; one of those sites was at Honouliuli Gulch.  The forced removal of these individuals began a nearly four-year odyssey to a series of camps in Hawaiʻi and on the continental United States.

They were put in these camps, not because they had been tried and found guilty of something, but because either they or their parents or ancestors were from Japan and, as such, they were deemed a “threat” to national security.

In 1962, Castle and Cooke purchased majority control of ʻEwa Plantation Company stock and in 1970 ʻEwa Plantation Company merged with Oʻahu Sugar Company in Waipahu (the ʻEwa mill closed in the mid-1970s after the sale; the mill was demolished in 1985.)

Campbell became known by the Hawaiians as “Kimo Ona-Milliona” (James the Millionaire).  Despite his success in sugar, his interests turned to other matters, primarily ranching and real estate.

When James Campbell died on April 21, 1900, the Estate of James Campbell was created as a private trust to administer his assets for the benefit of his heirs (in 2007, the James Campbell Company succeeded the Estate of James Campbell.) The Estate played a pivotal role in Hawaiʻi history, from the growth of sugar plantations to the growing new City of Kapolei.

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The Last Survivor

The message: “Air Raid, Pearl Harbor. This is no drill” came at 0755 on December 7, as Japanese planes swept overhead in an attempt to cripple the Pacific Fleet.  Taney, moored alongside Pier 6, Honolulu Harbor, stood to her antiaircraft guns when word of the surprise attack reached her.

The US Coast Guard Cutter Taney (originally launched as the Roger B Taney) was named for Roger Brooke Taney, who was born on March 17, 1777 in Calvert County, Maryland.  Roger Taney was a lawyer and later served in President Andrew Jackson’s administration as Attorney General and Secretary of the Treasury – he was later appointed as Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court.

Roger B Taney, Coast Guard Builders No. 68, was laid down on May 1, 1935 at the Philadelphia Navy Yard.  She was launched on June 3, 1936.   The Roger B Taney departed Philadelphia on December 19, transited the Panama Canal from the 27th to the 29th, and arrived at her home port, Honolulu, Territory of Hawaiʻi, on January 18, 1937.

The Taney had arrived in the Pacific at a time when the US, and Pan-American Airways in particular, was expanding its commercial air travel capabilities.  The “Clipper” flights across the Pacific to the Far East made islands like Hawaiʻi, Midway, Guam and Wake important way-stations.

In the 1930s, the US Bureau of Air Commerce (later known as Department of Commerce) was looking for islands along the air route between Australia and California to support trans-Pacific flight operations (non-stop, trans-Pacific flying was not yet possible, so islands were looked to as potential sites for the construction of intermediate landing areas.)

To affirm a claim on remote Pacific islands, international law required non-military occupation of all neutral islands for at least one year.  An American colony was established at Canton (Kanton) and aney transported and supplied colonists on the island (1938-1940.) (Canton was picked by Pan-Am for its trans-Pacific flight flying boat operations.)

The 327-foot Secretary class cutter Taney was designed and initially missioned to interdict opium smugglers and carry out search and rescue duties from the Hawaiian Islands through the central Pacific Ocean.  In 1940 and 1941, Taney received successive armament upgrades in anticipation of war, with 3- and 5-inch guns capable of shooting at both surface and airborne targets, additional .50 caliber machine guns, depth charge racks and throwers, and sonar for locating submarines.

On the eve of Pearl Harbor, Taney was officially assigned to the US Navy’s Destroyer Division 80, though she retained her Coast Guard crew. When Japanese aircraft attacked Pearl Harbor and other American military installations in Hawaiʻi on December 7, 1941, she was tied up at Pier 6, Honolulu Harbor, where she was able to repeatedly engage Japanese planes which flew over the city.

When the attack subsided, Taney immediately commenced anti-submarine patrol duties off Pearl Harbor and was at sea for 80 of the first 90 days of the war.

After service in the Pacific and a major retrofit, Taney was sent into the Atlantic serving as the Flagship of Task Force 66, US Atlantic Fleet and command vessel for six convoys of troop and supply ships between the US and North Africa. Returning to the Pacific after a dramatic reconfiguration as an Amphibious Command Ship in 1945, Taney participated in the Okinawa Campaign and the occupation of Japan.

Immediately after the end of the Pacific war in September 1945, Taney steamed into Japanese home waters where she assisted with the evacuation of Allied prisoners of war.

Following World War II, Taney was reconfigured for peacetime duties and from 1946 until 1972 she was home ported in Alameda, California. Known as “The Queen of the Pacific,” Taney carried out virtually every peacetime Coast Guard duty including decades of Ocean Weather Patrol throughout the Pacific, fisheries patrols in the Bearing Sea and countless search and rescue missions.

During the Korean War, Taney received additional anti-submarine weapons and frequently carried out plane-guard duties off Midway Island and Adak, Alaska.

The mid-1970s were a period of transition for the Coast Guard with the passage of the Fisheries Conservation and Management Act and the nation’s shift towards increased interdiction of narcotics smugglers.  These operations called for off-shore patrols of up to three weeks.

Stationed in Virginia, Taney completed the last Coast Guard ocean weather patrol in 1977, and from 1977 to 1986 carried out search and rescue duties, training cruises for the Coast Guard Academy and drug interdiction in the Caribbean.

She was formally decommissioned on December 7, 1986 (after more than 50-years of continuous service) and turned over to the city of Baltimore, Maryland for use as a museum ship in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor.  Over her distinguished career, Taney received three battle stars for World War II service and numerous theatre ribbons for service in World War II, Korea and Vietnam.

Since the 1960s, Taney is the last ship still afloat that fought in the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Consequently, from that time on she was often referred to as “The Last Survivor of Pearl Harbor.”  A plaque memorializing her participation in the attacks is at Pier 6, Honolulu Harbor.  (Lots of information here from USCG.)

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George Washington Houghtailing

George Washington Houghtailing (April 7, 1817 – September 2, 1887,) a Dutchman from the Hudson-Mohawk Valley in New York, came to Hawai‘i around 1845.

He married a Hawaiian woman in 1850, and ran the Bay Horse Saloon on Bethel and Hotel Street in Honolulu.  (Cultural Surveys)

His first wife died after their daughter Sara was born (Sara married Jerome Feary.) Houghtailing remarried (Elizabeth Thompson) and had ten more children (5-boys and 5-girls,) nine of whom lived to adulthood.

During the Māhele, he was given several kuleana, later consolidated into a 15-acre tract along a road later named after him, Houghtailing Road. The family home was between School and Vineyard Streets.

“On the premises there was a large pond which had a natural spring and which also fed the lower land where we had taro patches and cultivated the other truck gardening on the land. The land was quite open.”

“We had a couple of bay horses and raised chickens and pigs for family consumption. There was a large open area fronting Houghtailing Road which was used as a park for the neighborhood kids.”  (Houghtailing Jr; Cultural Surveys)

Mr. Houghtailing located the ponds, taro fields, and rice patches from School Street to Liliha Street; other taro patches were in the area “between Pālama Street and Liliha Street, below School Street down to what in now Vineyard Street”.

The rice ponds and taro patches, usually operated by the Chinese, were cultivated up to the 1920s, when many were filled in for the development of residential subdivisions.

The Japanese took over some of the land as truck farms, and the Japanese also gradually took over the small stores once operated by the Chinese.  Additionally, the development of one of the first subdivision, the McInerny Tract was developed around 1918-1920.

“The upper part of McInerny Tract used to be planted with pineapple. The other part was more grazing and open area where guavas and other natural types of fruits, like mangoes, grew. … The sugarcane fields in the Pālama area, ran all the way up to what would be now the Dole (cannery) parking lot … extended above what is now Vineyard Street.”

“The management of that plantation at that time was the Honolulu Plantation, where the mill was located in Aiea. … Cane growing in the Kapālama area phased out about the late ‘20s. I think.”

“The phasing out program took place because lands were being purchased by the federal government to expand military reservations, including Hickam Field.” (Houghtailing Jr; Cultural Surveys)

Back to the Bay Horse … “On Sunday the 17th inst. Geo. Houghtailing an employee of the Bay Horse Saloon was arrested for selling liquor on that date and placed under bonds. At the same time James Gibbs was arrested for selling liquor without a license at the same time and place, and also placed under bonds to appear on the following Monday.”  (Hawaiʻi Holomua, June 27, 1894)

The warrants were later seen as defective and “After the close of the prosecution the defense moved for their discharge, and the court discharged Mr. Houghtailing as there was no evidence against him, and after viewing the premises did charge  Mr. Gibbs on the grounds that there was no evidence to hold him guilty of the offence charged.”  (Hawaiʻi Holomua, June 27, 1894)

At the end of World War II, the Catholic Diocese of Honolulu saw the need for a second Catholic School on Oʻahu. The new school was named after Saint Damien de Veuster.

The Congregation of Christian Brothers, students, and parents volunteered to turn the land, which included 4-acres of taro patches and a good deal of uneven swampland into a school campus, because the company that started the construction on Damien went bankrupt.

Damien Memorial School is now situated on what was part of the Houghtailing homestead in Kapālama.

Regarding the name, the theory is that all Houghtailings and various spellings in the United States are descended from Conrad Mathias Houghtaling who emigrated from the Netherlands around 1650.

Reportedly, the correct pronunciation for Houghtailing Street (named for the family,) is Ho-tailing (Hough as in dough, not as in cough.)  (Midweek)  (Lots of information here from Houghtailing message boards, as well as Cultural Surveys.)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Harry and Billy

Flowing water turned wheels to grind wheat into flour more than 2,000-years ago.  Back then, wind was also turning windmills for grinding and pumping water.  Fast forward to the mid-1700s, a French hydraulic engineer wrote of the development of the science of hydraulics.

Beginning with Benjamin Franklin’s experiment with a kite one stormy night in Philadelphia, the principles of electricity gradually became understood.

In 1880, a brush arc light dynamo driven by a water turbine was used to provide theater and storefront lighting in Grand Rapids, Michigan; and in 1881, a brush dynamo connected to a turbine in a flour mill provided street lighting at Niagara Falls, New York.

Before light bulbs, outdoor lighting was via arc lights (lamps that produce light by an electric arc (also called a voltaic arc – through two electrodes separated by a gas.))

The world’s first public electrical supply was provided in late-1881, when the streets of the Surrey town of Godalming in the UK were lit with electric light.

That system was powered from a water wheel on the River Wey and supplied a number of arc lamps within the town. The supply scheme also provided electricity to a number of shops and premises to light 34-incandescent Swan light bulbs.

In 1882, water from the Fox River in Appleton, Wisconsin served the first operational hydroelectric generating station in the United States, producing 12.5 kilowatts of power; the total electrical capacity generated was equivalent to 250-lights.

Shortly thereafter, hydroelectricity that powered public electric lighting made its way to Hawaiʻi.

“This has been a work of great labor and anxiety, and was really only brought to a completion on Monday night. Some days previous to that the Waterworks staff … had laid the necessary piping, bringing the water into the Electric building … was to be turned into the new wheel for the first time in these islands”.  (Daily Bulletin, March 21, 1888)

“The conditions of electrical power transmission have been thoroughly studied by competent engineers, and are now so well understood that those conversant with the practical aspects of the subject are well assured that within a few years even the smallest towns and villages will supply themselves with electric light and power plants.”

“The management of an electric power plant requires no unusual scientific knowledge. Once the station has been established it can be carried on by the ordinarily intelligent class of mechanics and workmen who are to be found in every village.”  (Daily Bulletin, March 26, 1888)

“Punctually at 7 pm yesterday (March 23, 1888,) the Princess Liliʻuokalani and Princess Kaʻiulani, attended by His Excellency the Hon. LA Thurston, Minister of Interior, arrived at the Electric Light Station in the Valley and was there received by the Superintendent Mr. Faulkner and Mr. Eassie.”    (Daily Bulletin, March 24, 1888)

“The moon three quarters full rose brightly in the sky Friday night.  The usually dark streets were softly lighted by the lunar rays.  Speculation was rife as to whether the electric lights would be turned on or not as it had been announced previously that Friday evening would witness a new era in the civic history of Honolulu.”  (Hawaiian Gazette, March 27, 1888)

 “A few minutes after 7, HRH (Kaʻiulani) was accommodate with a chair for her feet and under the guidance of Mr. Superintendent Faulkner in full working costume connected the circuits and had the honor of illumining the streets of Honolulu for the first time with the new light.”

“Suddenly as the sun emerging from behind a cloud brightens and gladdens the face of nature, did the turning of that wheel brighten and gladden the anxious intellectual mirrors of the assembled cognoscenti. The work and anxiety of the last few weeks was at an end.”

“Mr. Faulkner immediately hurried away to the town to see the lamps some of which were not burning, but after the lapse of half an hour or so, he had the satisfaction of seeing that all with the exception of 3 or 4 were glowing brightly and steadily; and it is confidently expected that to-night all the lights will burn from the jump.”  (Daily Bulletin, March 24, 1888)

“At 7:30 pm the sound of excitement in the streets brought citizens, printers, policemen and all other nocturnal fry rushing outdoors to see what was up. And what they did see was Honolulu lighted by electricity. The long looked for and anxiously expected moment had arrived.”  (Hawaiian Gazette, March 27, 1888)

“The lamps are of 2,000-candle power each arranged to burn one side at a time each carbon lasting from six to seven hours. After a carbon is burned out the current is automatically transferred by a lever which immediately trips the other side of the carbon and then that one burns six to seven hours.”

“The Electrical Works are just two and a half miles from Merchant Street up the Nuʻuanu Valley. On a knoll by the roadside on the way to the Pali stands a neatly finished dwelling house thirty three feet front by twenty-seven feet wide the residence of the superintendent and engineer.”

“A few yards to the rear rises an unpretentious looking two story building dimensions forty feet long by thirty feet wide and thirty five feet high to the peak of the roof where the motors and machinery of the electric works are in operation.”

“The water pressure at the wheel is 130-pounds to the square inch. The water power in its impact on the wheel is regulated by a governor operating exactly like that of a steam engine. By the time the turbine is reached the water has come rushing through 6,000-feet of pipe from the head source which is 300-feet above the level of the main in the building.”

“It is estimated that the discharge of water into the turbine is at present 2,000,000-gallons every 24-hours but that the discharge may be 3,000,000-gallons if required.”

“The turbine makes 1,275-revolutions per minute and is equivalent to a 130-horse power engine.  The revolution of the turbine is communicated to the dynamo motors on the second floor by belting. The two dynamos are respectively 42 and 10-horse power.”  (Hawaiian Gazette, March 27, 1888)

“Before closing this brief account of the event at the station we feel bound to offer one or two remarks on what can be only regarded as a strange anomaly, that at this late period in the history of science and amongst persons of high intelligence and practical experience and scientific attainments there should have been one who could dive into the dim recesses of superstitious gloom and having found what he wanted remarked that the wheel would have no luck unless it were christened.”

“There was such a one and he no Scotchman, and he had brought his tools with him in the shape of a bottle of ‘potheen,’ (whiskey) but the strangeness of the anomaly was nothing to the strangeness of the alacrity with which the assembled few agreed with that person and the strange appreciation they showed for the ‘potheen.’”

“Suffice it to say that the wheel was christened and its health drunk with heartily expressed wishes for its success. This took place on the ground floor – the distinguished company was above.”  (Daily Bulletin, March 24, 1888)

A year later, the first of a handful of houses and businesses had electricity. By 1890, this luxury had been extended to 797 of Honolulu’s homes.

It’s interesting to note that the first electric lighting was installed in the White House in 1891 – after ʻIolani Palace (1886.)  (Contrary to urban legend that it also pre-dated the British palace, Buckingham Palace had electricity prior to ʻIolani Palace.  It was first installed in the Ball Room in 1883, and between 1883 and 1887 electricity was extended throughout Buckingham Palace.)

Oh, “Harry and Billy” in the title?

“Mr F (Faulkner) has two dynamos here the larger known as Harry and the smaller as Billy. Harry supplies power to 50 arc lights – Billy only runs 12 but Billy is getting old, having been working in America 8 years ago.”  (Daily Bulletin, March 21, 1888)

A special thanks to John Wehrheim for images (past and present) of the Nuʻuanu Hydroelectric facility.

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Music Hall – Opera House

Opera was born circa 1600 from the desire of Renaissance Italians to recreate Greek drama, pointing to various less-elevated national theatrical traditions as important contributors to the art form.  (Abbate)

Although Hawai‘i is hardly known as an international opera powerhouse, a number of native Hawaiians have been among the art form’s stars.  Most notable was tenor Tandy Ka‘ohu MacKenzie, who was born in Hāna in 1892 and went on to become a star of the international opera stage star after he was discovered by an Irish singer who happened to drop in on a performance by MacKenzie’s Kamehameha School glee club.  (Ferrar)

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 Wells troupe from California opened the music hall.  “Since then many companies and individual artists from abroad have trod its boards, and given more or less delight to the inhabitants.”  (Daily Bulletin, February 12, 1895)

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)

On July 28, 1883, the property was sold at auction to satisfy a claim. It was purchased by Mr. WG Irwin for $21,000, John D Spreckels being a partner in the deal.  (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)

The Music Hall played a role in the Wilcox Rebellion, when it was occupied by Government sharpshooters in suppressing the insurrection of Robert Wilcox in 1889.  (Daily Bulletin, February 12, 1895)

“Wilcox and I then marched towards the gate and came by Boyd’s cannon; he told us to get out of the way he wanted to fire then, because he saw some one in the Music Hall pulling down a window; Wilcox  stopped him; we walked on toward the gate when a gun fired from the Music Hall.”  (Kauhane, Hawaiian Gazette, October 29, 1889)

“Wilcox sung out to Music Hall to “stop firing! stop firing!” three or four more shots were fired from there and then Wilcox gave order to fire; cannons were then fired; think Wilcox knew that Government were gathering forces to drive us out; not my place to surrender.”  (Kauhane, Hawaiian Gazette, October 29, 1889)

It later hosted the complimentary farewell reception and ball for Captain Wiltse, commander of the USS Boston in 1893, under the auspices of the provisional Government.

The Music Hall’s “exterior was built of red brick and the facade on King street was of a modest but presentable and harmonious style. Internally it was fitted and furnished in modern fashion, with seats on a sloping floor in semi-circular rows. There were a balcony and a gallery in the second story.”  (Daily Bulletin, February 12, 1895)

Fire nearly destroyed the building.  Irwin, owner of the property, surveyed the sodden, smoking ashes from his curtained carriage. “I have had enough of music halls,” he told a questioning newsman.

He was later persuaded to rebuild, however, when it was pointed out that the only other theatrical accommodations in the city were inadequate facilities at the YMCA and the hall in Independence Park.

A commission was appointed to inquire into the strength of the walls left standing.  After a careful inspection, it was decided that three of the walls were in sound condition, and could be built upon with perfect safety.  The rear wall had to be rebuilt.  The work began.

The opening of the New Hawaiian Opera House tonight begins another epoch in the history of Honolulu and the public finds that through the action of William G. Irwin of this city and John D. and Adolph Spreckels, of San Francisco, it has a theater equal to the leading places of amusement in the United States.  (Hawaiian Gazette, November 10, 1896)

A commission was appointed to inquire into the strength of the walls left standing.  After a careful inspection, it was decided that three of the walls were in sound condition, and could be built upon with perfect safety.  The rear wall had to be rebuilt.  The work began.

The seating capacity of the New Hawaiian was about 900, but the seats were placed so far apart, in order to make it more comfortable for the patrons, that if it were necessary, two or three hundred more chairs could be placed in the auditorium without crowding. In the rear of the orchestra are two loges, each containing six chairs.  (Hawaiian Gazette, November 10, 1896)

On February 5, 1897, the Opera House displayed Edison’s Veriscope which promised to be one of the most interesting sights ever seen in Honolulu.   One of the first projections was of a fire department response to a fire.  “The crowds gather, people run hither and thither, teams pass, some block the way, the police appear, and there are seen all the usual incidents of a street lire drill.”

“It is a wonderful advance in the stereoscopic art. It projects pictures upon a white screen, in which all the figures are in motion with life-like detail. … The exhibition of the wonderful veriscope is alone worth the evening’s attendance.”  (Hawaiian Star, February 4, 1897)

The building was demolished in 1917 to make way for the Federal Building.  One of the many eulogies for the building said:  “It is historical. It is ugly. It is like a box with a few touches of ornament to make it look unlike a box. So much for the outside. On the inside, it is as cozy and comfortable as anyone could desire.”  (Gereben)

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