Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Keliʻiponi

Although Kalākaua had been elected and serving as King since 1874, upon returning from a trip around the world, in 1883, it was determined that Hawaiʻi’s King should also be properly crowned.

“ʻIolani Palace, the new building of that name, had been completed the previous year, and a large pavilion had been erected immediately in front of it for the celebration of the coronation. This was exclusively for the accommodation of the royal family …”

“… but there was adjacent thereto a sort of amphitheatre, capable of holding ten thousand persons, intended for the occupation of the people.” (Liliʻuokalani)

The design of the pavilion and amphitheater was entrusted to Messrs. Buchman and Rupprecht, two artists who had recently arrived in the Islands. The whole thing was considered the “finest specimen of this kind of work that has ever been produced in Honolulu.” (HABS)

“On Monday, 12th February, the imposing ceremony of the Coronation of their Majesties the King and Queen of the Hawaiian Islands took place at ʻIolani Palace.”

“Like a mechanical transformation scene to take place at an appointed minute, so did the sun burst forth as the clock struck twelve, and immediately after their Majesties had been crowned.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, February 17, 1883)

“Prince Kawānanakoa presented the Crowns; the President of the Legislative Assembly then took the King’s Crown and raised It up before the people and placed it in the hands of the Chancellor, saying: ‘I present this Crown to the rightful King of these Islands, approved by Acts of the Legislative Assembly in the Legislature of the Kingdom assembled of the years 1880 and 1882.’”

“The Chancellor then placed it in the King’s hands, saying this Crown of pure gold to adorn the high station wherein thou hast been placed. The King then raised up the Crown and placed it upon his head.”

“The Chancellor then took the second Crown and placed it in the King’s hands, who rose and placed it upon the Queen’s head who reverently bowed her head on receiving it, the King saying” ‘I place this Crown upon your head, to share the honors of my throne.’”

“His Majesty wore the white uniform of the Guards, with a white helmet, and plume of white, red, and blue. He wore the Grand Cordon, Star and Collar of the Order of Kamehameha I; the Star of the Imperial Order of the Chrysanthemum of Japan; the Star of the Order Michael and St. George of England; the Star of the Order of Conception of Portugal and the Star of the Order of Hawaiʻi.”

“The sword of State placed in the King’s hands as the ensign of Justice and Mercy, is an exact counterpart of that of England. It has a straight blade, of fine Damascus steel inlaid in gold with the Hawaiian coat of arms surmounted by the crown and bearing the motto of the realm.“

“A Coronation Pavilion (Keliʻiponi) for King Kalākaua had been constructed for the ceremonies; the pavilion was surrounded by a spacious Amphitheatre for the accommodation of the spectators of the ceremony. The outer walls were adorned with the armorial bearings of Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Great Britain, France, Peru, Hawaiʻi, Chile, Japan, China, Norway and Sweden.”

“In addition to the 4,000 people that were comfortably seated within the Amphitheatre and on the platform, there were crowds of spectators extending to the Palace gates on either side, principally Hawaiians.”

On the outside of the octagonal Pavilion, each of the eight uprights supporting the roof are ornamented with shields emblazoned on them, representing Russia, Netherlands, United States, Hawaii, Germany, Austria, Italy and Holland. (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, February 17, 1883)

“The dome of the building … was ornamented on each of the eight sides with colored shields displaying the coats-of-arms of one of each of the eight great nations of the world, America occupying the central position, Great Britain to right of centre, Germany to left of centre, the others on the panelled fronts prepared on the remaining five sides.”

“Flags of the different nations surmounted the shields the whole being surrounded with wreaths and circles of the native leaves.” (Hawaiian Gazette, February 14, 1883)

The Pavilion (approximately 25-feet in diameter) was about 50-feet from the stairway to the Palace and was connected to it by a platform; on the interior, each of the eight sides bore the name of one of the respective Kings of Hawaiʻi, from Kamehameha I to Kalākaua, painted in gold letters. (HABS)

“(O)n the veranda of the palace on the one side were seated the officers of the vessels of war in the port, and on the other persons of rank or position who had not been otherwise assigned to stations.” (Liliʻuokalani)

Following the coronation festivities, “The Pavilion in which His Majesty was crowned has been moved to the west side of the Palace, and now stands as a permanent ornament to the grounds.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, April 21, 1883)

Three years later, in November 1886, Kalākaua threw another large celebration in honor of his fiftieth birthday, and the Jubilee activities included the usual lūʻau, hula and a grand ball. The Royal Hawaiian Band played from the pavilion. (HABS)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Ana Huna

Native Hawaiians believe ʻiwi (the bones) to be the primary physical embodiment of a person. Following death, ʻiwi are considered sacred, for within the bones reside the person’s mana (spiritual essence.) Mana was greatly valued, and native Hawaiians spent their lives maintaining and enhancing their mana. (Halealoha Ayau)

For native Hawaiians, it was important for the bones of a deceased person to complete their journey and return to the ground to impart their mana.

From island to island, community to community and family to family, there were many different ways to prepare bodies for burial. Each method was appropriate for the individual and his or her status.  Burial locations were one of the most secretive traditions in a culture over a thousand years old. (DLNR)

Sometimes the bones of the dead were dug up out of the burial grounds to be used for arrows for rat shooting and for fishhooks, and the bones and bodies of the newly buried were dug up for food and bait for sharks.

For this reason, surviving family members sought places of concealment for the bones of their grandparents, parents, children, chiefs and relatives. They searched for deep pits (lua meki) in the mountains, and for hiding pits (lua huna) and hiding caves (ana huna) along the deep ravines and sheer cliffs frequented by koa‘e birds.  (Kamakau; Kumu Pono)

For some, including the high aliʻi, often their ʻiwi were placed in secret burial caves (ana huna.)

A few of the notable areas burial areas with secret burial caves include, ʻIao Valley, Pohukaina, Pali Kapu o Keōua and the reported cave burial of Kahekili and Kamehameha at Kaloko.

ʻIao Valley (Maui)

For centuries, high chiefs and navigators from across the archipelago were buried in secret, difficult-to-access sites in the steep valley walls of ʻIao on Maui.

‘Iao Valley became a “hallowed burying place for ancient chiefs” and is the first place mentioned in the historical legends as a place for the secret burials of high chiefs.

Because this was sacred ground, commoners were not permitted to enter the valley, except for the Makahiki festival.  Some suggest the last burial was in 1736, with the burial of King Kekaulike.

Pohukaina (Oʻahu)

“There is only one famous hiding cave, ana huna on Oʻahu. It is Pohukaina… This is a burial cave for chiefs, and much wealth was hidden away there with the chiefs of old … Within this cave are pools of water, streams, creeks, and decorations by the hand of man (hana kinohinohiʻia), and in some places there is level land.”  (Kamakau)

Pohukaina involves an underground burial cave system that connects with various places around O‘ahu and is most notable as the royal burial cave at Kualoa. The opening in the Honolulu area is in the vicinity of the Kauikeaouli (Kamehameha III) residence (the grounds of ʻIolani Palace,) where also many of the notable chiefs resided.  (Kamakau; Kumu Pono)

The opening on the windward side on Kalaeoka‘o‘io faces toward Ka‘a‘awa is believed to be in the pali of Kanehoalani, between Kualoa and Ka‘a‘awa, and the second opening is at the spring Ka‘ahu‘ula-punawai.

On the Kona side of the island the cave had three other openings, one at Hailikulamanu – near the lower side of the cave of Koleana in Moanalua—another in Kalihi, and another in Pu‘iwa. There was an opening at Waipahu, in Ewa, and another at Kahuku in Ko‘olauloa.

The mountain peak of Konahuanui was the highest point of the ridgepole of this burial cave “house,” which sloped down toward Kahuku. Many stories tell of people going into it with kukui-nut torches in Kona and coming out at Kahuku.  (Kamakau; Kumu Pono)

Pali Kapu O Keōua (Kealakekua, Hawaiʻi Island)

Keōua (father of Kamehameha I) and Kalaniʻōpuʻu (aka Kaleiopuʻu & Kalaiopuʻu) were half-brothers, sons of Peleioholani.  During the illness of Keōua, at his residence in Hilo, a messenger was sent to Kaʻū to notify Kalaniʻōpuʻu of his brother’s illness; he immediately started for Hilo.

Keōua said to Kalaniʻōpuʻu, “Brother, I cannot live long, for our uncle Alapaʻinui has an evil disposition and is praying me to death. My only request to you is to take my young son Kamehameha and keep him with you, for some day he will become famous and will add luster to our lineage; do not neglect him.”

Kalaniʻōpuʻu sent for their kahuna; as soon as the kahuna saw Keōua he advised Kalaniʻōpuʻu to return home, as it was impossible for his brother to live.  (He died shortly thereafter; his remains were transported to Kona.)

On arriving at Kailua great preparations were being made for the mourning ceremonies. Wailing, removing the teeth, shaving the head, etc, took place. After these ceremonies Kalaniʻōpuʻu headed for Kaʻawaloa to await the remains of his brother Keōua from Hilo.

On their arrival they were deposited in a cave three-fourths of the way up the pali, whence it was called “Ka Pali Kapu O Keōua (at Kealakekua Bay.”)  (Diary of George Hueu Davis, the Son of Isaac Davis; Henriques)

Later, in 1829, Kapiʻolani “and Kaʻahumanu removed the bones of (Kapiʻolani’s) father, and more than a score of other deified kings and princes of the Hawaiian race, from their sacred deposit, – may be the “House of Keave” at Honounou, – placing them out of the way, in one of the caves high in the precipice at the head of the bay where she resided.”  (Anderson, 1864)

(A little side note on Pali Kapu O Keōua … while I was at DLNR, the 2006 Kohala earthquakes exposed a previously unknown burial cave on the side of the Kealakekua cliff.  Because we had concerns about keeping the cave secret, I asked FEMA to document this new cave in a separate, non-public report, aside from the general (public) earthquake damage report.  They agreed; the cave was subsequently sealed.)

Kaloko (Kona, Hawaiʻi Island)

An early traditional reference to the area in the late eighteenth century mentions the burial of Kahekili, the ruler of Maui, in a hidden cave at Kaloko. However, the most significant burial ceremony traditionally reported to have taken place there is that of Kamehameha, although there is no firm proof of this.  (NPS)

Following his death, Kamehameha’s bones were supposedly transported by canoe from Kailua to Kaloko, where the bearers of the royal remains met the man in charge of the secret burial cave, and together they placed the bones in the same depository used for Kahekili.

“Kaloko (pond) is another famous burial area; it is in Kekaha, Hawaii. (In a cave that opens into the side of the pond) were laid Kahekili, the ruler of Maui, his sister Kalola, and her daughter, Kekuʻiapoiwa Liliha, the grandmother of Kamehameha III. … This is the burial cave, ana huna, where Kameʻeiamoku and Hoapili hid the bones of Kamehameha I so that they would never be found.”  (Kamakau; NPS)

In 1887 King Kalākaua designated a man named Kapalu, who had guided him to a burial cave at Kaloko in which he supposedly beheld Kamehameha’s bones, as overseer and keeper of the “Royal Burial Ground” at Kaloko.

A year later Kalākaua wrote that he ordered Kapalu to retrieve the bones, which the king took to Honolulu and deposited in the Royal Mausoleum in Nuʻuanu Valley.  (Barrère; NPS)  (Questions remain as to where Kamehameha was buried.)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

ʻAuwai

In pre-Captain Cook times, kalo (taro) played a vital role in Hawaiian culture. It was not only the Hawaiians’ staple food but the cultivation of kalo was at the very core of Hawaiian culture and identity.

Taro can be cultivated by two very different methods. Upland, or dryland, taro is planted in non-flooded areas that are fed by rainfall. Lowland, or wetland, taro is grown in water-saturated fields.

The early Hawaiians probably planted kalo in marshes near the mouths of rivers. Over years of progressive expansion of kalo lo‘i (flooded taro patches) up slopes and along rivers, kalo cultivation in Hawai‘i reached a unique level of engineering and sustainable sophistication.

Kalo lo‘i systems are typically a set of adjoining terraces that are typically reinforced with stone walls and soil berms. Wetland taro thrives on flooded conditions, and cool, circulating water is optimal for taro growth, thus a system may include one or more ʻauwai (irrigation ditches) to divert water into and out of the planting area.  (McElroy)

Most important in the system of distribution of water for application to the soil were the main ditches diverting the water from natural streams.

Each of these large ʻauwai was authorized and planned by the King or by one or more chiefs or konohiki whose lands were to be watered thereby, the work of excavation being under the direction of the chief providing the largest number of men.  (Perry, Hawaiʻi Supreme Court)

The ʻauwai construction and maintenance formed foundations around which an entire economy, class system, and culture functioned.  The ʻauwai, lo‘i and the taro plant’s mythical and spiritual connections in Hawaiian society influenced individual and social activity within the ahupua‘a.  (Handy, HART)

Taro cultivation affected many aspects of Hawaiian life: the labor required to build and maintain the ʻauwai; the shared water rights; and tributes to the Mō‘ī and to the chiefs (Ali‘i.)  (Handy, HART)

All ʻauwai had a proper name, and were generally called after either the land, or the chief of the land that had furnished the most men, or had mainly been instrumental in the inception, planning and carrying out of the required work. All ʻauwai tapping the main stream were done under the authority of a konohiki of an ahupuaʻa.  (Nakuina, Thrum)

ʻAuwai were generally dug from makai – seaward or below – upwards. The konohiki who had the supervision of the work having previously marked out where it would probably enter the stream, the diggers worked up to that point.

The different representatives in the ahupuaʻa taking part in the work furnished men according to the number of kalo growers on each land.  (The quantity of water awarded to irrigate the loʻi was according to the number of workers and the amount of work put into the building of the ʻauwai.)

Dams that diverted water from the stream were a low loose wall of stones with a few clods here and there, high enough only to raise water sufficiently to flow into the ʻauwai, which should enter it at almost a level. No ʻauwai was permitted to take more water than continued to flow in the stream below the dam (i.e. no more than half.)

Use of the water was regulated by time increments, which varied from a few hours each day for a small kalo patch to two or three days for a kalo plantation. By rotation with others on the ʻauwai, a grower would divert water from the ʻauwai into his kalo. The next, in turn, would draw off water for his allotted period of time.  (KSBE)

The ʻauwai primarily existed to support taro cultivation.   Other crops, such as sweet potatoes, bananas or sugar cane, were regarded as dry land crops dependent on rainfall.  Sugar cane and bananas were almost always planted on loʻi banks (kuauna) to receive moisture seeping through.  (Nakuina, Thrum)

ʻAuwai varied in size and structure depending on the number and size of lo‘i they irrigated. In smaller lo‘i, water could be directed from one terrace into the next below it.

However, larger lo‘i required individual ʻauwai capable of carrying more water. In more complex systems, these might be branches from another ʻauwai, often connected to the same source.  (HART)

An early description of ʻauwai is from explorer Nathaniel Portlock, noting the Kauaʻi ʻauwai in 1787, “This excursion gave me a fresh opportunity of admiring the amazing ingenuity and industry of the natives in laying out the taro and sugar-cane grounds …”

“… the greatest part of which are made up on the banks of the river, with exceeding good causeways made with stones and earth, leading up the valleys to each plantation; the taro beds are in general a quarter of a mile over, dammed in, and they have a place on one part of the bank, that serves as a gateway.”

“When the rains commence, which is in the winter season, the river swells with the torrents from the mountains, and overflowed their taro-beds; and when the rains are over, and the rivers decrease, the dams are stopped up, and the water kept in to nourish the taro and sugar-cane during the dry season …”

“… the water in the beds is generally about one foot and a half, or two feet, over a muddy bottom … the taro also grows frequently as large as a man’s head.”

Another early description of ʻauwai and loʻi is from Otto von Kotzebue, a Russian naval officer who was in the Islands in 1816, “The artificial taro fields, which may justly be called taro lakes, excited my attention. … I have seen whole mountains covered with such fields, through which water gradually flowed; each sluice formed a small cascade which ran … into the next pond, and afforded an extremely picturesque prospect.”

The burden of maintaining the ditches fell upon those whose lands were watered; failure to contribute their due share of service rendering the delinquent hoaʻāina (tenant) subject to temporary suspension or to entire deprivation of their water rights or even to total dispossession of their lands.  (YaleLawJournal)

In some ʻauwai, not all of the water was used; after irrigating a few patches the ditch returned the remainder of the water to the stream.  (YaleLawJournal)

One notable ʻauwai, with water still flowing through it (however, the loʻi kalo is long gone) is in Nuʻuanu.  After damage to the ʻauwai system during the battle of Nuʻuanu, Kamehameha moved to quickly restore the valley’s agriculture production, summoning Kuhoʻoheiheipahu Paki to rebuild the irrigation system.

“(I)n three days, (Paki) rallied several hundred men to construct the tremendous Nuʻuanu irrigation system which supplies the numerous pondfields (from Luakaha, near Kaniakapūpū to around what is now Judd Street) …this irrigation system is known even today as the Paki ʻauwai.” (Hawaiʻi Legislature)

Among other loʻi along its course, Paki ʻAuwai served the loʻi kalo of Queen Emma at Hānaiakamālama (the Queen’s Summer Palace.)

The image shows a portion of the rock-lined Paki ʻAuwai in Nuʻuanu (just below Kaniakapūpū (you take the same trail to see each.))

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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.

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Watertown

As a means of solidifying a site in the central Pacific, the US negotiated an amendment to the Treaty of Reciprocity in 1887.  King Kalākaua in his speech before the opening session of the 1887 Hawaiian Legislature stated (November 3, 1887:)

“I take great pleasure in informing you that the Treaty of Reciprocity with the United States of America has been definitely extended for seven years upon the same terms as those in the original treaty, with the addition of a clause granting to national vessels of the United States the exclusive privilege of entering Pearl River Harbor and establishing there a coaling and repair station.”

From 1901 to 1908, the Navy devoted its time to improving the facilities of the 85 acres that constituted the naval reservation in Honolulu. Under the Appropriation Act of March 3, 1901, this tract of land was improved with the erection of additional sheds and housing. The station grew slowly, and not always at an even pace.  (navy-mil)

On May 13, 1908, the US Congress affirmed Pearl Harbor’s strategic importance by appropriating funds and authorized and directed the Secretary of the Navy “to establish a naval station at Pearl Harbor, Hawaiʻi, on the site heretofore acquired for that purpose”.  (Congressional Record)

Until the transfer of the Naval Station to Pearl Harbor, the naval reservation in Honolulu remained nothing more than a rather elaborate coaling station. The major interests were the shipping and weighing of coal and the checking of invoices.  (navy-mil)

Immediate improvements included dredging the entry channel; constructing the necessary infrastructure and other naval facilities; and building a drydock.

Congress further noted that Secretary “may, in his discretion, enter into contracts for any portion of the work, including material therefor, within the respective limits of cost herein stipulated, subject to appropriations to be made therefor by Congress, or may direct the construction of said works or any portion thereof under the supervision of a civil engineer of the Navy.”  (Congressional Record)

“A small army of men, looking for work at Pearl Harbor, besieged the Naval Station this morning.  … Men, who have been turned away from time to time with the promise that they might find something, when the necessary papers arrived, this morning thronged to the place to get the precious slips. … The men are to be put to work as soon as Washington has been heard from and building at Pearl Harbor begins.”  (Evening Bulletin, August 6, 1908)

On December 5, 1908, the newly-formed “Hawaiian Dredging Company of Honolulu was found to have made, the lowest figure of the six bidden ($3,560,000,) which included two Honolulu concerns and four mainland companies.”  (Evening Bulletin, December 1, 1908)

Hawaiian Dredging apparently initially intended a partner, “The contract for the dredging of the Pearl Harbor channel… will be handled in a combination with the San Francisco Bridge Company”. (Hawaiian Star, December 18, 1908)  However, shortly thereafter, it was noted that Hawaiian Dredging “is now controlled and owned entirely by the Dillingham interests”.  (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, December 22, 1908)

“The contract was signed December 24, 1908, and actual dredging operations began March 1, 1909.”  (Congressional Record)  The period from 1908 to 1919 was one of steady and continuous growth of the Naval Station, Pearl Harbor.  (navy-mil)

That leads us to this piece’s title and the focus of this summary – Watertown.

With all the work underway at Pearl Harbor, Hawaiian Dredging created a camp, more like a small city, to house and provide for the workers and their families.

It was called ‘Watertown,’ because of the frequent leaks in its water main, which was installed so hastily that much of it lay above ground.  (McElroy)  (It was alternatively known as “Dredger’s Row” or “Drydock Row.” (Waller))

It was situated “on the Waikīkī or Honolulu shore of the channel … just below Bishop Point, and mauka of Queen Emma Point (Fort Kamehameha.)”  (Pacific Commercial Advertiser; Papacostas)

Watertown was a 2,000-acre settlement containing numerous large structures, roads, rail lines, port facilities and an ethnically diverse population of laborers responsible for the dredging of Pearl Harbor. In the early 1930s the population of Watertown numbered 1,000 laborers and their families, including 300 school-aged children. (McElroy)

The residents were made up of Japanese, Russians, Chinese, Portuguese and a score of Americans who were the employees of the dry-dock, machinists, launch hands, laborers and native Hawaiian fishermen.  (Fletcher)

In addition, off-duty inspectors overseeing the dredging operations lived at Watertown in quarters provided by Hawaiian Dredging and ate their meals at a restaurant conducted by Chinese. (While on duty they slept and ate on the dredges which were located from one-half to two miles from shore in the channel.)  (Fletcher)

The town included a schoolhouse and adjacent Catholic Church, a theater, post office, at least one hotel and a number of stores and offices.

In addition to housing its resident population, Watertown was noted as a recreation hub for the entire region, complete with gambling, drink and prostitution.  (McElroy)

By the early-1930s, Watertown was falling into disrepair and businesses were declining. Demolition began in 1935 and had disappeared by December 11, 1936, when an Army air base (later Hickam Air Force Base) replaced the town (however, the former Watertown school buildings were initially used by the construction crew associated with the Hickam construction.)  (Waller)

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