Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Waialua Female Seminary

Education in the US at the beginning of the 19th-century was primarily triggered by the need to train the people to help grow the relatively new nation.

Back then, it was believed that women should be educated to understand domestic economy, because they were to play the major role in educating the young, primarily in their homes, and later (as the school population grew and there was a shortage of teachers) as school teachers.  (Beyer)

Although schools for upper-class women were in existence prior to the 19th-century, the female seminary for middle-class women became the prevailing type of institution from 1820 until after the Civil War. The most prominent female seminaries were Troy Seminary (1821,) Hartford Seminary (1823,) Ipswich Seminary (1828,) Mount Holyoke Seminary (1837) and Oxford Seminary (1839.)

The seminary’s primary task was professional preparation: the male seminary prepared men for the ministry; the female seminary took as its earnest job the training of women for teaching and motherhood.  (Horowitz, Beyer)

The founders of the female seminaries were at first men who were committed to providing education for women, but as time went by, more of the founders were women. The financial backing for these seminaries was typically from private sources and the tuition charged the students. Their enrollment varied between 50 to 100-students; they preferred girls between the ages of 12 and 16.  (Beyer)

Western-style education did not begin in Hawai’i until after members of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) arrived in 1820.

Because the primary educators responsible for developing the education system of Hawai’i were Americans, the educational practices for Hawaiian girls tended to mirror, but not necessarily duplicate, what was taking place on the continent.  (Beyer)

In 1835, at the general meeting of the Mission, a resolution was passed to promote boarding schools for Hawaiians; several male boarding schools and two female boarding schools were begun (Wailuku Female Seminary on the island of Maui and the Hilo School for Girls on the island of Hawai’i.)  Before the 1850s, both of these schools had closed.

Wailuku Female Seminary (or the Central Female Seminary, as it was first called) was the first female school begun by the missionaries. It received support at a time when the missionaries were experimenting with both boarding schools and a manual labor system.

The first female seminary to be established on the island of Hawaiʻi was the Kaʻū Seminary. In 1862, Orramel Hinckley Gulick and his wife, Ann Eliza Clark Gulick (a graduate of Mount Holyoke Seminary,) began the school. Both were the children of missionaries (Peter Johnson Gulick and Fanny Hinckley Thomas Gulick; Ephraim Weston Clark and Mary Kittredge Clark.)

Due to the isolated location of the seminary, it was difficult to attract many students to the school. As a consequence, tuition and board were free, as long as the girls were placed under the parental care of the teachers of the school until the girls were married or obtained employment.

In 1865, after struggling to fill the school, it was decided to move the school to Waialua, Oʻahu, on the Anahulu Stream.  It opened there on August 7 with 50-students, ranging in age from 11 to 15.  As with other schools at the time, the students were instructed in the Hawaiian language.

The girls are selected by the pastors, from among the most promising girls of the parishes; and every major district in the islands had one or more representatives in the school. It was hoped that this institution would raise up a class of educated women, who might make teachers, and suitable partners for native Hawaiian ministers and missionaries.  (The Missionary Herald)

The large two-story building, surrounded by a veranda, housed the girls, their four teachers, one temporary assistant and two children of the teachers. A second large building was the school-house, the lower floor of which was a spacious school-room, while the upper story was divided into recitation rooms. (The Missionary Herald)

The girls at Waialua Female Seminary came from families where the traditional Hawaiian culture was still practiced. However, at school the girls were dressed in calico, as opposed to their usual holoku; they slept in beds, rather than on mats on the floor; and they ate at a table with silverware, instead of on the floor using their fingers.

The schedule for the day began with breakfast, followed by each girl reading from the Hawaiian Bible; after the principal offered a prayer in Hawaiian, they were dismissed to begin the routine work, which included all the work necessary to maintain the school (except for carting and carrying firewood and baking and pounding the taro for poi.)

The older girls put the food away, washed the dishes and swept the floor. The younger girls did various tasks, which included sweeping and dusting the parlor, the sitting-room or the schoolroom, gathering up the litter of leaves and branches from the yard and garden paths, or putting the teachers’ rooms in order. Some of the girls were involved with preparing the meals; all the girls washed and ironed clothes once a week.

The academic work took place between 9 am and noon and 1 pm and 4 pm.  The curriculum included geography, arithmetic, surveying, astronomy, singing, Bible history and the Bible in general. Manual training consisted of instruction in cutting and sewing dresses, in washing, ironing, cooking, cleaning house and painting; an hour and a half was spent on gardening and farming.

The school kept the girls until they graduated (40 percent of the enrollment,) married (34 percent of the enrollment,) were employed (4 percent of the enrollment,) left for health reasons (6 percent of the enrollment) or were dismissed for not applying themselves or for bad behavior (16 percent of the enrollment.)

In December of 1870, the school closed when the Mission sent the Gulicks to evangelize in Japan.  Waialua Female Seminary reopened on April 3, 1871, under the direction of Miss Mary E Green (another missionary descendent and graduate of Punahou and Mount Holyoke Seminary.)

Miss Green ran the school until 1882, when she became ill and could no longer run the school. The property was sold and the money was given to the trustees of Kawaiahaʻo Seminary in Honolulu to make further improvements there.  (Lots of information here from Beyer and Missionary Herald.)

The school was called ‘Hale Iwa’ by the girls (the first use of the name for this area.)  Later, that name came back to this area when OR&L opened the Haleiwa Hotel (1899;) when the hotel closed (1943,) the name of the area remained as Haleiwa, and it continues to be called that today.

The image shows Waialua Female Seminary (1865.)  In addition, I have added other images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

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Moku

Prior to European contact, each of the major islands or independent chiefdoms in the Hawaiian chain comprised a mokupuni (island.) Over the centuries, as the ancient Hawaiian population grew, land use and resource management also evolved.

The traditional land division of pre-contact Hawaiians was based on the sustainability and self-reliance within ahupuaʻa (community watershed areas) as well as within larger regions (moku) and lastly individual sovereign islands (mokupuni.)

The mokupuni were subdivided into land units of varying sizes, and the largest division was the moku (district – literally: interior island,) administered by high-ranking chiefs.

They were either relatives of the high chief of the island, trusted supporters or high ranking individuals who pledged their support to the high chief but were allowed to remain relatively independent.

Each island was divided into several moku or districts, of which there are six in the island of Hawaiʻi, and the same number in Oʻahu. There is a district called Kona on the lee side and one called Koʻolau on the windward side of almost every island.  (Alexander)

It appears that the six districts on the islands of O‘ahu and Hawai‘i, and the system of developing smaller manageable units of land became formalized in the reigns of Māʻilikūkahi and ʻUmi-a-Līloa, respectively (about the time Columbus was sailing across the Atlantic.)

Māʻilikūkahi is noted for clearly marking and reorganizing land division palena (boundaries) on O‘ahu.  Palena, or possibly an evolved term “palena ʻāina” are place boundaries.  (Beamer)

Defined palena brought greater productivity to the lands; lessened conflict and was a means of settling disputes of future aliʻi who would be in control of the bounded lands; protected the commoners from the chiefs; and brought (for the most part) peace and prosperity.

Fornander writes, “He caused the island to be thoroughly surveyed, and boundaries between differing divisions and lands be definitely and permanently marked out, thus obviating future disputes between neighboring chiefs and landholders.”

Kamakau tells a similar story, “When the kingdom passed to Māʻilikūkahi, the land divisions were in a state of confusion; the ahupuaʻa, the ku, the ʻili ʻāina, the moʻo ʻāina, the pauku ʻāina, and the kihapai were not clearly defined.”

“Therefore, Māʻilikūkahi ordered the chiefs, aliʻi, the lesser chiefs, kaukau aliʻi, the warrior chiefs, puʻali aliʻi, and the overseers (luna) to divide all of Oʻahu into moku, ahupuaʻa, ʻili kupono, ʻili ʻāina, and moʻo ʻāina.”

Malo gives a detailed description of the kuleana that a kālaimoku aliʻi who divided lands for Mōʻī had to fulfill:  “There are two important aspects in being a kālaimoku, to take care of the aliʻi, and to take care of the makaʻāinana, for these two reasons the kālaimoku guides the aliʻi at his side, with the careful attention to these two things, things were to be done properly.”  (Malo, Beamer)

What is commonly referred to as the “ahupuaʻa system” is a result of the firm establishment of palena (boundaries.)  This system of land divisions and boundaries enabled a konohiki (land/resource manager) to know the limits and productivity of the resources that they managed.

In the late-1400s, through warfare and alliances with other chiefs, ʻUmi gained control of the entire Island of Hawaiʻi. ʻUmi made himself the aliʻi nui, or high chief, for the whole island.

ʻUmi divided his island into separate moku, or districts. These moku were subdivided into smaller sections called ahupuaʻa.

In the time of ʻUmi, son of the great chief Līloa, the Hawaiian islands were divided into political regions. The four mokupuni (larger islands) of Kauaʻi, Oʻahu, Maui, and Hawaiʻi were divided into moku (districts).

The smaller islands of Molokaʻi, Lānaʻi and Kahoʻolawe became moku of Maui, and Niʻihau a moku of Kauaʻi.

Traditionally, the Island of Kaua‘i was divided into five moku (districts): Haleleʻa, Kona, Koʻolau, Nāpali and Puna. However, after the battle of Wahiawa in 1824, the land of Kaua‘i was redistributed and district boundaries changed. The new district names became: Hanalei, Kawaihau, Līhuʻe, Kōloa and Waimea.  (Cultural Surveys)

For ease in collecting annual tribute, the moku were subdivided into ahupuaʻa, land sections that usually extended from the mountain summits down through fertile valleys to the outer edge of the reef in the sea (or if there was not reef, one-mile from shore.)

The size of the ahupuaʻa depended on the resources of the area with poorer agricultural regions split into larger ahupuaʻa to compensate for the relative lack of natural abundance. Each ahupuaʻa was ruled by an aliʻi or local chief and administered by a konohiki.

These natural land divisions were the result of the flow of water over the land (streams or springs.)

From the earliest days, streams were among the most important natural resources sought after by native Hawaiians. Battles were fought and lives sacrificed for the right to use stream water.

The Hawaiians called freshwater wai, and considered it to be sacred. People using wai from streams took only what was absolutely necessary. They were expected to share the wai with others. This was done without greed or selfishness.

Such practices gave Hawaiians their word for law which is kanawai, or the “equal sharing of water.” Water was so valuable to Hawaiians that they used the word “wai” to indicate wealth. Thus to signify abundance and prosperity, Hawaiians would say waiwai.

In keeping with this concept of wealth being fresh water, the traditional land tenure system in ancient Hawaii had at its very core the presence of streams, or kahawai. Although of many shapes and sizes, each ahupua’a consisted of three area types: mountain, plain and sea.

The image shows the Moku of Oʻahu (ksbe.) In addition, I have added other related images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

Follow Peter T Young on Facebook  Moku

Prior to European contact, each of the major islands or independent chiefdoms in the Hawaiian chain comprised a mokupuni (island.) Over the centuries, as the ancient Hawaiian population grew, land use and resource management also evolved.
The traditional land division of pre-contact Hawaiians was based on the sustainability and self-reliance within ahupuaʻa (community watershed areas) as well as within larger regions (moku) and lastly individual sovereign islands (mokupuni.)
The mokupuni were subdivided into land units of varying sizes, and the largest division was the moku (district – literally: interior island,) administered by high-ranking chiefs.
They were either relatives of the high chief of the island, trusted supporters or high ranking individuals who pledged their support to the high chief but were allowed to remain relatively independent.
Each island was divided into several moku or districts, of which there are six in the island of Hawaiʻi, and the same number in Oʻahu. There is a district called Kona on the lee side and one called Koʻolau on the windward side of almost every island.  (Alexander)
It appears that the six districts on the islands of O‘ahu and Hawai‘i, and the system of developing smaller manageable units of land became formalized in the reigns of Māʻilikūkahi and ʻUmi-a-Līloa, respectively (about the time Columbus was sailing across the Atlantic.)
Māʻilikūkahi is noted for clearly marking and reorganizing land division palena (boundaries) on O‘ahu.  Palena, or possibly an evolved term “palena ʻāina” are place boundaries.  (Beamer)
Defined palena brought greater productivity to the lands; lessened conflict and was a means of settling disputes of future aliʻi who would be in control of the bounded lands; protected the commoners from the chiefs; and brought (for the most part) peace and prosperity.
Fornander writes, “He caused the island to be thoroughly surveyed, and boundaries between differing divisions and lands be definitely and permanently marked out, thus obviating future disputes between neighboring chiefs and landholders.”
Kamakau tells a similar story, “When the kingdom passed to Māʻilikūkahi, the land divisions were in a state of confusion; the ahupuaʻa, the ku, the ʻili ʻāina, the moʻo ʻāina, the pauku ʻāina, and the kihapai were not clearly defined.”
“Therefore, Māʻilikūkahi ordered the chiefs, aliʻi, the lesser chiefs, kaukau aliʻi, the warrior chiefs, puʻali aliʻi, and the overseers (luna) to divide all of Oʻahu into moku, ahupuaʻa, ʻili kupono, ʻili ʻāina, and moʻo ʻāina.”
Malo gives a detailed description of the kuleana that a kālaimoku aliʻi who divided lands for Mōʻī had to fulfill:  “There are two important aspects in being a kālaimoku, to take care of the aliʻi, and to take care of the makaʻāinana, for these two reasons the kālaimoku guides the aliʻi at his side, with the careful attention to these two things, things were to be done properly.”  (Malo, Beamer)
What is commonly referred to as the “ahupuaʻa system” is a result of the firm establishment of palena (boundaries.)  This system of land divisions and boundaries enabled a konohiki (land/resource manager) to know the limits and productivity of the resources that they managed.
In the late-1400s, through warfare and alliances with other chiefs, ʻUmi gained control of the entire Island of Hawaiʻi. ʻUmi made himself the aliʻi nui, or high chief, for the whole island.
ʻUmi divided his island into separate moku, or districts. These moku were subdivided into smaller sections called ahupuaʻa.
In the time of ʻUmi, son of the great chief Līloa, the Hawaiian islands were divided into political regions. The four mokupuni (larger islands) of Kauaʻi, Oʻahu, Maui, and Hawaiʻi were divided into moku (districts).
The smaller islands of Molokaʻi, Lānaʻi and Kahoʻolawe became moku of Maui, and Niʻihau a moku of Kauaʻi.
Traditionally, the Island of Kaua‘i was divided into five moku (districts): Haleleʻa, Kona, Koʻolau, Nāpali and Puna. However, after the battle of Wahiawa in 1824, the land of Kaua‘i was redistributed and district boundaries changed. The new district names became: Hanalei, Kawaihau, Līhuʻe, Kōloa and Waimea.  (Cultural Surveys)
For ease in collecting annual tribute, the moku were subdivided into ahupuaʻa, land sections that usually extended from the mountain summits down through fertile valleys to the outer edge of the reef in the sea (or if there was not reef, one-mile from shore.)
The size of the ahupuaʻa depended on the resources of the area with poorer agricultural regions split into larger ahupuaʻa to compensate for the relative lack of natural abundance. Each ahupuaʻa was ruled by an aliʻi or local chief and administered by a konohiki.
These natural land divisions were the result of the flow of water over the land (streams or springs.)
From the earliest days, streams were among the most important natural resources sought after by native Hawaiians. Battles were fought and lives sacrificed for the right to use stream water.
The Hawaiians called freshwater wai, and considered it to be sacred. People using wai from streams took only what was absolutely necessary. They were expected to share the wai with others. This was done without greed or selfishness.
Such practices gave Hawaiians their word for law which is kanawai, or the “equal sharing of water.” Water was so valuable to Hawaiians that they used the word “wai” to indicate wealth. Thus to signify abundance and prosperity, Hawaiians would say waiwai.
In keeping with this concept of wealth being fresh water, the traditional land tenure system in ancient Hawaii had at its very core the presence of streams, or kahawai. Although of many shapes and sizes, each ahupua’a consisted of three area types: mountain, plain and sea.
The image shows the Moku of Oʻahu (ksbe.) In addition, I have added other related images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Marine Corps Base Hawaiʻi

The US military first established a presence on the Mōkapu peninsula in 1918 when President Woodrow Wilson signed an executive order establishing Fort Kuwaʻaohe Military Reservation on 322-acres on the northeast side of Mōkapu.

The Army stayed there until August 1940 when the Navy decided to acquire all of Mōkapu Peninsula to expand Naval Air Station Kāneʻohe; it included a sea plane base, it began building in September 1939 and commissioned on February 15, 1941.

Between 1939 and 1943, large sections of Kāneʻohe Bay were dredged for the dual purposes of deepening the channel for a sea plane runway and extending the western coastline of the peninsula with 280-acres of coral fill.

As of December 1941, two of five planned, steel hangars had been completed, each measuring 225-feet by 400-feet.

On Sunday morning, December 7, 1941, two waves of Japanese Imperial Navy aircraft bombed and strafed Kāneʻohe Naval Air Station, several minutes before Pearl Harbor was attacked.

Of the 36 PBY Catalina “flying boats” based here, 27 of 33 on the ground or moored in Kāneʻohe Bay were destroyed. Only three planes, out on patrol at the time of the attack, escaped and they suffered air-to-air combat damage.

Following repairs, a 5,700-foot land runway was built and 14-inch guns were brought to be set atop the edge of Ulupaʻu Crater in the seven-story deep “Battery Pennsylvania” as part of the coastal defense of Windward Oʻahu.

One of the 14-inch guns was from the USS Arizona; construction of Battery Pennsylvania was completed in August 1945. The huge gun was fired only once, in celebration, a few days before Japan’s formal surrender on V-J Day, September 2, 1945.  The firing shook and, some said, “cracked” the crater.

In 1941, this reservation became known as Camp Ulupaʻu; a year later it was redesignated as Fort Hase. It was never as permanent as the Navy’s air station side of the peninsula. Historic photos show tents and wooden structures dominating the landscape, even in August 1945. After the war, Fort Hase was rapidly emptied.

After the armistice was signed aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945, thousands of military members of all services began to pass through Pearl Harbor and other military installations in Hawaiʻi, including Kāneʻohe Naval Air Station, bound for discharge on the US Mainland and return to civilian life.

On April 1, 1946, all Kāneʻohe NAS residents and workers were evacuated as nearly 25-foot waves from the Alaska tsunami washed over the peninsula, nearly covering the runway and the Fort Hase areas before rapidly receding back to the sea.

In May of 1949, Kāneʻohe Bay NAS was decommissioned and placed in a maintenance status. All property (except buildings) was transferred to NAS Barbers Point.

The Navy put Mōkapu Peninsula land up for lease, but no interested parties came forward. By June 1950, only a small security detail remained.

The following year, in 1951, the Marine Corps decided that Mōkapu Peninsula would make an excellent home for a combined air-ground team, consolidated all landholdings and, in January 1952, commissioned Marine Corps Air Station Kāneʻohe Bay.

In 1953, the base became the home of the 1st Provisional Marine Air-Ground Task Force.

In 1993, the Navy moved its “Orion” and helicopter squadrons to MCAS, Kāneʻohe Bay from NAS, Barber’s Point, which had been selected for closure under the Base Realignment and Closure Act (BRAC)

In April 1994, the Marine Corps consolidated all of its installations in Hawaiʻi, under a single command — Marine Corps Base Hawaiʻi (MCBH).

Today, MCB Hawaiʻi continues to serve as a fully functional operational and training base for US Marine Corps forces. The Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) here operates a 7,800-foot runway that can accommodate both fixed wing and rotor-driven aircraft.

Navy and Marine Corps units headquartered at MCB Hawaiʻi Kāneʻohe Bay, include air, ground and combat service support elements; non-operational tenants include a branch health care clinic; a judicial court; a commissary facility; veterinary services; and various Marine Corps schools and academies.

All US military units located in Hawaiʻi, and others within the Pacific theater, fall under the command of the US Pacific Command, which is headquartered – along with US Marine Corps Forces, Pacific – at Camp HM Smith, on Oʻahu.

The Commanding General of MARFORPAC also commands 12 Marine Corps bases and stations in Arizona, California, Hawaiʻi and Japan, and operational forces in Okinawa and Hawaiʻi, afloat on naval shipping and forward-deployed to Southwest Asia. The Commander, MCB Hawaiʻi, is responsible for all Marine Corps installations and facilities in Hawaiʻi.

The image shows Marine Corps Base Hawaiʻi.  In addition, I have added some other images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

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© 2013 Hoʻokuleana LLC

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Waialua High and Intermediate School

Waialua (two waters) may refer to the two large stream drainages (Anahulu and Helemano-Poamoho-Kaukonahua) that were once used to irrigate extensive taro fields in the ahupua‘a of Kamananui, Pa‘ala‘a and Kawailoa, the more populous ahupua‘a on the eastern side of the district.  The ahupua‘a of Keālia, Kawaihāpai, and Mokulē‘ia, on the western side of the district, were more arid, and were not as well-watered as the three eastern ahupua‘a. (Cultural Surveys)

In 1813, Waialua was described by John Whitman, an early missionary visitor, as: “…a large district on the NE extremity of the island, embracing a large quantity of taro land, many excellent fishing grounds and several large fish ponds one of which deserves particular notice for its size and the labour bestowed in building the wall which encloses it.”  (Cultural Surveys)

Later (1826,) Levi Chamberlain noted, “The whole district of Waialua is spread out before the eye with its cluster of settlements, straggling houses, scattering trees, cultivated plats & growing in broad perspectives the wide extending ocean tossing its restless waves and throwing in its white foaming billows fringing the shores all along the whole extent of the district.”  (Cultural Surveys)

In 1865, Levi and Warren Chamberlain started a sugar plantation in Waialua that ultimately failed, and Robert Halstead bought the Chamberlain plantation in 1874 under the partnership of Halstead & Gordon.

Gordon died in 1888, and the plantation was managed by the Halstead Brothers, Robert and his two sons, Edgar and Frank. In 1898, Castle & Cooke formed the Waialua Agricultural Company and purchased the plantation from the Halstead Brothers.  (The mill stayed in operation up until 1996.)

By 1898, the OR&L railroad was constructed along the coast through the Waialua District, with stations in both Kawaihāpai and Mokulēʻia.  By the early-1900s, sugarcane plantations and large ranches came to dominate the lands of western Waialua.

“Waialua is reached either by railroad, a distance from Honolulu of 58 miles, or wagon road, 28 miles. The plantation lands extend along the seacoast 15 miles and 10 miles back toward the mountains. The plantation has a good railway system.”  (Louisiana Planter, 1910)

To serve the growing population, in 1914, Waialua had a one room school known as Mokulēʻia School with Miss Eva Mitchell as principal. The school served students from Waialua, Haleiwa, Mokulēʻia, Pupukea and Kawailoa. Then, on May 1, 1924, Waialua Agricultural Co. donated five-acres of land where six new classrooms were built.

In 1927, the school was renamed the Andrew E Cox School (Intermediate) in memory of the benefactor who gave the 15-acre tract of land on which Waialua High and Intermediate now stands.

When the County governance structure was adopted in the Territory of Hawaiʻi (1905,) Cox was the first member of the County Board of Supervisors, representing Waialua.  He also served as Deputy Sheriff.  (Andrew Cox died January 29, 1921 after an illness of several years at the age of 53.)

For a while, Leilehua High School was the only high school in this part of the Island had.  Then, in 1936, the Cox Intermediate School was enlarged to include a high school division and the school was renamed Waialua High and Intermediate School.

Charles Nakamura attended Waialua Elementary, Andrew E. Cox Intermediate, and Waialua High Schools. He was Waialua High’s first student body president and member of its first graduating class in 1939.  (UH)

Waialua resident Charles Nakamura said high school graduation has been a major event in the Oʻahu community of fewer than 4,000 since the first commencement at the old Andrew E. Cox Auditorium on June 7, 1939.  (Honolulu Advertiser)

By 1950, the school enrollment reached 745 students, with a staff of 30 teachers.  Today, enrollment is approximately 600 (grades 7-12.)

Waialua High School is an accredited school and offers a curriculum comparable to any high school in the island. Students who are preparing for college have courses such as physics, chemistry, biology, plain and solid geometry, trigonometry, algebra and three language courses to choose from.

For students who are interested in entering the business field, the school offers courses such as shorthand, typing, business math, bookkeeping, office practice and general business. If a student is interested in the technical or vocational field, he/she has shop, agriculture and homemaking to help further his studies.

Waialua High and Intermediate is recognized nationally as one of 11-medal-winning schools from Hawaiʻi (recognized by US News, for performing well on state exit exams, based on students’ mastery of college-level material – all 11-schools received Bronze medals.)

For the last dozen+ years, Waialua has had an award winning robotics team (Na Keiki O Ka Wa Mahope (The Children of the Future) aka Hawaiian Kids.)  The team motto is “It’s not about winning … It’s about teamwork, commitment and responsibility.”

The image shows Waialua High and Intermediate School logo.  In addition, I have added other images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

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Waikīkī Natatorium War Memorial

In 1921, the Territorial Legislature authorized the construction of a memorial dedicated to the men and women of Hawai‘i who served in World War I, on the former Irwin property – it is known as the Waikīkī Natatorium War Memorial.

The Natatorium was completed in the summer of 1927, the first “living” war memorial in the United States and as a symbol of the way of life those who served fought to defend.

It is a “living” memorial in that it included a 100 X 40 meter saltwater swimming pool, built to honor 102 who died and the nearly 10,000 others who served in WWI from Hawai‘i.

The pool is surrounded on four sides by a twenty-foot wide deck which is enclosed on the three ocean sides by a three-foot high wall.  On the fourth, mauka side, concrete bleachers rise thirteen levels in height and provide seating for approximately 2,500 people.

Olympic Gold Medalist and icon of modern surfing, Duke Kahanamoku swam the first ceremonial swim at its opening on August 24, 1927, his birthday.

An AAU National championship swimming meet, with swimmers from Japan and South America participating, capped the opening activities.

Olympic champion, Johnny Weissmuller, broke the world’s record for the 100-meter freestyle swim, and in the following three days of competition, set new world’s records for the 440 and 880-meter freestyles, cutting more than ten seconds off the previous world marks for these events.

Clarence “Buster” Crabbe, a local swimmer, who would later replace Weissmuller in the famous “Tarzan” series, won the 1,500-meter contest.

During its heyday, the Natatorium hosted celebrity swimmers including Esther Williams, as well as 34 members of the International Swimming Hall of Fame.

It was later also used by the DOE for its mandatory elementary school Learn to Swim Program (lots of kids learned to swim here.

Owned by the State but operated under an executive order to the City, the Natatorium was closed in 1979 due to thirty years of neglect.

The Natatorium is on both the National and State Registers of Historic Places.  In 1995, the National Trust for Historic Preservation placed it on its Most Endangered list.  In 2005, Historic Hawai‘i Foundation listed the site on its inaugural Most Endangered Historic Sites list.

In November 2009, Mayor Mufi Hannemann announced that he will accept the recommendation of the Waikīkī War Memorial Natatorium Task Force to preserve the historic Natatorium’s memorial arches by reconstructing them further inland, and to create additional beach space by demolishing the crumbling swimming pool and bleachers.

Despite the announcement, the natatorium didn’t get torn down anytime soon (it’s still standing.)  Demolition requires an environmental impact statement, permits, extensive planning, design and funding – about $15.1 million, according to the city.  The process could take eight years.

In May 2011, Mayor Peter Carlisle stated that the City is in the process of developing an Environmental Impact Statement according to the recommended option of the Natatorium Task Force and advanced the recommendation to tear down the long-closed Natatorium.

The Friends of the Natatorium, which maintains this site, advocates for the preservation and restoration of the Waikīkī Natatorium War Memorial, seeking the return of this facility to active recreational use by the families of O‘ahu and by visitors to Hawai‘i.

However, recent reporting notes that the City and State intend to tear down the Natatorium pool and replace it with a new beach and park area; the war memorial arches will be moved away from the shoreline.

Like a lot of other kids in those days, I swam in the Natatorium pool and walked its decks.

The image shows the natatorium in 1928.  In addition, I have added other related images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

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