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January 21, 2025 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.

© 2025 Hoʻokuleana LLC

 

Filed Under: Economy, General, Prominent People Tagged With: Hawaii, Oahu, Manoa, John Guild, Manoa Valley Inn

January 17, 2025 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)

© 2025 Hoʻokuleana LLC

Filed Under: Economy, Military Tagged With: Hawaii, Oahu, Kalakaua, Pearl Harbor, Treaty of Reciprocity, Hickam, Joint-Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Dillingham, Hawaiian Dredging

January 16, 2025 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Portland and Oregon

A small article in the Honolulu Star (March 27, 1900) made the announcement … “Hibernia block will probably be the name of the new sky scraper to go on Hotel Street, between Union and the Elite building.”

“It is not stated that the building will be painted green though best authorities agree that it will be one of the handsomest In Honolulu. Several stores in the block have already been spoken for.”

The green paint reference was suggested since Hibernia is the Latin name for Ireland (with green its national color.)  It’s not clear what its original color was, but it dropped the Hibernia name and ended up being called the “Oregon.”  It had an odd notch where the “Portland” building was added.

Part of it eventually gave way to Bishop Street; but that is getting ahead of ourselves.  Let’s look back.

Almost every new building erected during the construction boom that followed the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom and the annexation of Hawaiʻi by the US was anticipated by the press to be the best, the finest or, as in this case, the handsomest structure yet to adorn the city.  (Papacostas)  The anticipated Hibernia was no exception.

Before they built, they needed to take down some of the existing structures on the property – among them, the old Bell Tower building on Union Street.

“When first erected, the buildings were used by the volunteer fire department and the hook and ladder and an engine were housed there. In the tall tower the fire bell was hung and a watchman gazed from its heights, during the night-time to detect the first signs of a fire.”  (Hawaiian Gazette, May 4, 1900)

Apparently, demolition was long overdue.  “The tumble-down structures, weatherbeaten and dilapidated, have been standing for the last thirty years, unoccupied of late except as a carpenter shop.”

“(W)hen the building began to show signs of age, the steeple became unsafe and was cut down to the proportions of a small-sized cupola and the bell was removed, fire signals being given by a deep-voiced siren along the waterfront.”

“As soon as the buildings are razed, excavation work will be commenced on the site. The residence cottage now standing on the Ewa side of the new Elite building, on Hotel Street, will be razed. The new Hibernia building, when erected, will thus have the advantage of two line frontages, one on Hotel Street and the other where the Bell Tower buildings now are.”

“The corner property will not be touched for the present. The Hibernia block will be a fitting companion to the artistic Elite block, just finished.”  (Hawaiian Gazette, May 4, 1900)

Before it was finished, the building name was changed to “Oregon Block.”  It was expected to be completed September 1, 1901; owners were AV Gear, J Lando, V Hoffman, JF Reiley and LA Rostin.  (The Independent, April 26, 1901)  Later, owners were identified as Sullivan and Buckley.

As built, it didn’t last long.  Just as the fire tower and other improvements stood in its way (that were later removed to allow construction,) the Oregon Block stood in the way of the extension of Bishop Street up to Beretania.

At the time, Bishop Street was not the road we see today.  It came into existence around the turn of the century (about 1900.)  Initially, it was only a couple of blocks long, between Queen and Hotel Streets.  Business and bankers wanted it extended, mauka and makai.  However, the mauka extension posed a problem for the Oregon Block.

“Bishop Street, extended mauka, will cut through the Oregon block just shaving the edge of Jim Quinn’s automobile stand, take in the shed in its rear, cut off the back building of Helen’s court and two or three old sheds adjoining on the Ewa side…”  (Hawaiian Gazette, June 21, 1910)

However, “(t)he proposition of Superintendent Campbell to extend Bishop street straight mauka going through a portion of the Oregon block property and closing up Union street is not meeting with approval generally by holders of real estate to be affected.”  (Hawaiian Gazette, November 25, 1910)

A year later, the Bishop Street Extension Commission completed its report to the Governor.  “The only feature not satisfactorily settled was in relation to the Oregon block property, owned by Sullivan & Buckley, for which the owners demand a price of $100,000”

“The commission tells the Governor that it believes this price to be too high, but that possibly it will be a saving in the long run, considering that several years may be required to secure the title by condemnation proceedings.”  (Hawaiian Star, September 26, 1911)

Negotiations went on and on, and they didn’t go well; the owners refused a land exchange and held out for more money.  Condemnation proceedings were started.

A couple years later (September 24, 1913,) the Honolulu Star-Bulletin reported, “Bishop Street will be extended … This is, in part, a revival of the undertaking of the territory two years ago, when proceedings were started to condemn property necessary for the Bishop Street extension.”

By 1923, Bishop Street extended makai to the harbor (absorbing (and realigning) the former Edinburgh Street) – with no further extension mauka.

Negotiations opened, again; “property owners did not consider the city’s offer sufficient, for in 1924 the City and County of Honolulu filed a condemnation petition for the entire area, naming fifteen owners in the suit.”  (Ames; Papacostas)  The actual extension of Bishop Street mauka of Hotel to Beretania did not materialize until 1927 (Papacostas)

Oh, the “Skyscraper,” as noted by the newspaper, was (and still is) a two story brick building.  A series of eight arched windows were on the second floor facing Hotel Street; a remnant of the Oregon remains on the mauka side of Hotel Street, between Union Mall and Bishop Street.

It initially had an odd shape, with a notch left open at what would be the corner of Union and Hotel (look in the album for an image.)

This was filled in, as noted by Thrum in 1902, “A neat two-story cement-faced brick store, termed The Portland, is just finished at the corner of Hotel and Union streets, which fills out the jog of the Oregon block at that point.”  Both buildings carry their names in lettering near each top, seen from Hotel Street.

© 2025 Hoʻokuleana LLC

Filed Under: Economy, Buildings Tagged With: Hawaii, Honolulu, Oahu, Downtown Honolulu, Oregon, Portland

January 14, 2025 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Maluhia

Following the annexation of Hawaiʻi to the United States in 1898, plans evolved for the coastal defense of the island and the Naval station at Pearl Harbor.

The Artillery District of Honolulu was established in 1909 and consisted of Forts Ruger, DeRussy, Kamehameha and Armstrong.  The District was renamed Headquarters Coast Defenses of Oahu sometime between 1911 – 1913.

In 1906, the US War Department acquired more than 70-acres in the Kālia portion of Waikīkī for the establishment of a military reservation; it was designated Kālia Military Reservation, but in 1909 was renamed Fort DeRussy in honor of Brevet Brigadier General Rene Edward DeRussy, a veteran of the War of 1812 and the Civil War.

Back then, nearly 85% of present Waikīkī was in wetland agriculture or aquaculture.  The Army started filling in the fishponds which covered most of the Fort – thus, the Army began the transformation of Waikīkī from wetlands to solid ground.

The post was used almost exclusively as a seacoast defense for Honolulu Harbor during World War I. During World War II it was used for seacoast and antiaircraft defense, as a garrison for troops, headquarters for the Military Police, as a camouflage school, and as Headquarters for the US Armed Forces Institute.

The area also served as a rest and recreation area for personnel in the middle Pacific Area. Fort DeRussy was the biggest recreation center on Oʻahu, providing clubs and overnight accommodations for enlisted men and officers.  In 1949, the post was officially designated an Armed Forces Recreation area.

And, that, in part, is what this summary is about … the Maluhia Recreation Center.

The area contained a gymnasium, bowling alley, bathhouses and dressing rooms, a snack bar, surfboard lockers, a fully equipped dark room, a studio for making recordings, a library, a hobby shop, a pistol range within the coastal battery, an officers’ club, hotel facilities, and bars and restaurants.  A tram shuttle service ran between Maluhia and the bathhouses on the beach.

Before WWII, six different agencies were providing recreation, entertainment, and support services for the US Armed Forces, in addition to their regular services.  These were the Salvation Army, the YMCA, the YWCA, the National Catholic Community Service, the National Jewish Welfare Board and the Travelers’ Aid Association.

In early-1941, the groups decided to pool their efforts, and a single group was formed – the United Service Organizations, or USO. The six agencies continued with their other charity efforts, and the USO managed the US Armed Forces work.  The USO was entirely a civilian volunteer operation.

During WWII, the USO used what buildings they could, such as churches, private homes, beach and yacht clubs, commercial businesses, and even railroad cars. Services provided included dances, food, facilities for pressing clothes, showers, reading rooms, games, among others. The most publicized was the live entertainment for the military personnel stationed throughout the world.

It was provided by Camp Shows, Inc., which was a separate organization of professional entertainers and managers set up and supported by the USO.

Maluhia, which means “haven of rest,” was opened on April 27, 1943 as a recreation center for enlisted men.  Although built by the Army on Army land, the building was constructed to serve as a recreation center for the men and women of all of the armed forces, including those stationed in Hawaiʻi and those passing through Hawaii while returning home from the warfront. It was one of the largest of its kind in the world.

The restaurant and terrace provided seating for 1,200 men and women (although on busy days many more were able to pack in.) It also contained the longest bar in the Hawaiian Islands.  The 1944 wing addition on the west side added a hostess office, hostess consultation room, enlisted men’s quarters room, an office for the officer in charge and a store room.

“Broad lanais, spaciousness and a feeling of the ‘outdoors brought inside’ (were) some of the elements that (made) the building characteristically Hawaiian in atmosphere”.

During WWII, Maluhia was open seven days a week, from 11 am to 5 pm; typically 1,000 to 2,000 people a day visited Maluhia during the week, with often over 4,000 a day on the weekends.

Music was provided by various service bands throughout the islands. Free entertainment was provided each afternoon, including music, variety shows, movies and sketches. Dances were held at least three to four days a week.

At the end of the war, the troops stationed throughout the Pacific gradually were taken home. The number of military personnel in the Pacific increased due to the Korean Conflict in 1950-53 and the Vietnam Conflict in 1963-73.  Later, demand waned and the Maluhia Hall was eventually torn down.

The Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies opened new “Maluhia Hall,” a new state-of-the-art learning center at Fort DeRussy. The learning center brings more than 10,000-sq ft of additional classroom space to support the US Department of Defense institute’s security cooperation and executive education programs  (Lots of information here is from Maluhia-HABS-NPS.)

© 2025 Hoʻokuleana LLC

Filed Under: Military Tagged With: Hawaii, Waikiki, Oahu, USO, Fort DeRussy, Maluhia Recreation Center, Maluhia

January 12, 2025 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Nu‘uanu Valley

“Within the famous valley of that name
Now twice or thrice the high wind blows each year,
In spiteful gusts: sometimes it comes with bursts
Until you hear it pulsing through the gorge
Of rain, in fiercer squalls; and, howling down the glen,
It breaks great tropic fronds like stems of clay.
Lo! then, unbending palms and rugged dates,
Loud-whistling, strain in each recurrent blast.
Like things alive! -or fall, with roots up-torn,
The feathered Algarobas, as the gale
Treads out its wasteful pathway to the sea!”
(Robert Louis Stevenson, 1889; Overland 1909)

“The first object that arrests the attention on approaching the shore, is the beautiful valley of Nuuanu situated just in the rear of the city and extending inland between two spurs of the Mountain. It is clothed with perpetual green and with its numerous cottages whose white walls peep forth from amid the shrubery has a cool and inviting appearance.” (Gorham D. Gilman, 1841)

“The scenery of Nuanau [Nu‘uanu] is strikingly picturesque and romantic.”

“I accompanied my friend Mr. Pelly to his rural retreat in the valley of Nuanau. The change of temperature within a distance of four miles of gentle ascent was very remarkable, so that, at our journey’s end, we found a change from light grass clothing to warm pea-jackets highly acceptable.”

“Mr. Pelly’s residence was a snug little cottage, surrounded by a great variety of tropical plants, particularly by beds of pine-apples and miniature plantations of coffee.”

“At the head of the valley, distant but a few miles from the house, a pali of 1,100 feet in height overhangs the windward side of the island. I had intended to ride to this precipice in the course of the afternoon, but was prevented by the heavy rain …”

“… our time, however, was spent very agreeably in receiving visits from many of the neighboring natives. Next morning, though the rain continued to fall as heavily as ever, and the clouds and mist were driving down the gorge before the trade-wind, I was trotting away at dawn in the very teeth of the storm.”

“On looking downwards, the placid ocean breaking on the coral reefs that gird the island, the white houses of the town glancing in the sun, the ships lying at anchor in the harbor, while canoes and boats are flitting …”

“… as if in play, among them, form together a view which, in addition to its physical beauty, overwhelms one who looks back to the past, with a flood of moral associations.”

“In the opposite direction you discover a rugged glen, with blackened and broken mountains on either side, which are partially covered with low trees, while from crag to crag there leaps and bubbles many a stream, as if glad and eager to drop its fatness through its dependent aqueducts, on the parched plain below.”

“On arriving at the pali, I saw, as it were, at my feet a champagne country, prettily dotted with villages, groves and plantations, while in the distance there lay, screened, however, by a curtain of vapors, the same ocean which I had so lately left behind me.”

“Though the wind, as it entered the gorge, blew in such gusts as almost prevented me from standing, yet I resolved to attempt the descent, which was known to be practicable for those who had not Kamehameha to hurry them.”

“I accordingly scrambled down, having, of course, dismounted, for some distance; but as the path was slippery from the wet, I was fain to retrace my steps before reaching the bottom.”

“In all weathers, however, the natives, when they are coming to market with pigs, vegetables, &c., are in the habit of safely ascending and descending the precipice with their loads.”

“While I was drenched on this excursion, the good folks of Honolulu were as dry and dusty as usual, the showers having merely peeped out of the valley to tantalize them.”  (Sir George Simpson, 1842)

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

There was no road then.  The current Pali Highway is actually the third roadway to be built there.  A large portion of the highway was built over the ancient Hawaiian foot paths that traversed the famous Pali pass.

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

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

In 1897, Johnny Wilson and fellow Stanford student Louis Whitehouse won the bid to expand and construct a ‘carriage road’ over the Pali.  Ground was broken on May 26, 1897 and the road was opened for carriages on January 19, 1898.

When the current Pali Highway and its tunnels opened (1959,) the original roadway up and over the Pali was closed and is now used by hikers.

In 1872, some referred to road into the valley as “Missionary Street,” although the Missionary Period had ended about 10-years earlier (the Missionary Period was from 1820 – 1863.)

You might more accurately call it the home of the elite, and that is not limited to folks of the Caucasian persuasion – both Kauikeaouli and Emma had summer residences here and included in the list of successful business people who called it home were the Afongs and others.

But you can’t help concluding the strong demand to live there based on early descriptions – even Realtors, today, would be envious of the descriptors Ellis used in 1831: “The scenery is romantic and delightful.”

“Across this plain, immediately opposite the harbour of Honoruru, lies the valley of Anuanu (Nuʻuanu,) leading to a pass in the mountains, called by the natives Ka Pari (Pali,) the precipice, which is well worth the attention of every intelligent foreigner visiting Oahu.”  (Ellis, 1831)

“The mouth of the valley, which opens immediately behind the town of Honoruru, is a complete garden, carefully kept by its respective proprietors in a state of high cultivation; and the ground, being irrigated by the water from a river that winds rapidly down the valley, is remarkably productive.”  (Ellis, 1831)

If you’re driving up the Pali Highway from town you can see two notches cut in the narrow ridgeline.  The notches are man-made.  Many believe they were cannon emplacements, used especially during the Battle of Nuʻuanu between Oʻahu’s Kalanikupule and Hawaiʻi Island’s Kamehameha.

However, per Herb Kane, “Kalanikupule had some arms bigger than muskets, but they were probably just swivel guns.  Besides, the Battle of Nu‘uanu Pali started as a skirmish by Diamond Head, and no one knew where the battle would end up.  Kalanikupule could not have planned it that way.”

“Hawaiians, like everyone else, understood the value of high ground.  These are certainly (pre-Cook) lookout stations, and that’s why you see them all over the islands – if you look out for them.”

© 2025 Ho‘okuleana LLC

Filed Under: General, Place Names Tagged With: Pali, Nuuanu, Robert Louis Stevenson, Hawaii, Oahu

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Images of Old Hawaiʻi

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