Images of Old Hawaiʻi

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July 1, 2023 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Beach Volleyball

“A very interesting game is indulged in during an intermission, which is taken for rest and amusement combined. It is basket ball. A small wire basket is fastened to the wall on either end, about twelve feet from the floor.”

“Sides are chosen and each attempt to land a small rubber ball in the goal of the other team. The tactics involved in football are used with the exception that there is no kicking of the ball or tackling of players.”  (Hawaiian Star, December 3, 1896)

“In the winter of 1891, Luther Gulick, the head of the physical education department at the YMCA Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts, persuaded a young instructor named James Naismith to create an indoor game that could be played during the off-season.” (Basketball Hall of Fame)

Gulick’s first intention was to bring outdoor games indoors, namely, soccer and lacrosse. These games proved too physical and cumbersome.  Gulick was born on December 4, 1865 at Honolulu, Hawai‘i, the fifth of seven children of Congregationalist missionaries, Luther Halsey Gulick and Louisa Lewis Gulick.

Four years later, in 1895, William G. Morgan, an instructor at the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) in Holyoke, MA, decided to blend elements of basketball, baseball, tennis and handball to create a game for his classes of businessmen which demanded less physical contact than basketball. He created the game of Mintonette. The name later changed to Volleyball.

Per Morgan, the game was fit for the gymnasium or exercise hall. The play consisted of any number of players keeping a ball in motion from one side to the other over a net raised 6 feet 6 inches above the floor. (NCVA)

In 1900 Canada became the first country outside of the US to take up volleyball, followed by Cuba in 1906, Japan in 1908, China in 1911, France in 1915 (during World War I on the beaches of Normandy and Brittany).

Then, the game of volleyball went outside, on the beach at Waikiki.  The true birth of beach volleyball most likely began in 1915 when the Outrigger Canoe Club (OCC) set up a court on Waikiki Beach.  (Fédération Internationale de Volleyball)


Started by George David “Dad” Center as an activity to keep OCC members busy during times when there was a lack of surf, the sport has flourished. (OCC)

‘Dad’ went out and bought a couple of volleyballs and a volleyball net; then, he and OCCC other members temporarily put the net up, in the sandy beach area parallel to the tide line, between the surfboard lockers and the canoe shed. This is where the first recorded game of ‘Beach Volleyball’ took place.

After playing on this Waikiki Beach volleyball court, ‘Dad’ and his group decided that the area was not spacious enough so they relocated the court in front of the Clubs little commissary and the big lanai.

Past Club President Ronald Quay Smith said that when he first came to Hawaii in 1919 and played volleyball: “I met the ‘Outrigger boys’ who were the best volleyball players that I knew of at the time and it was something to go up against those fellows.”

“‘Dad’ Center was their captain and coach. Tom Singlehurst, Duke and Dave Kahanamoku along with some of the other boys could jump five or six feet, and we respected them very much.” (OCC)

The Club’s most famous member was Duke Kahanamoku. Duke is credited with introducing surfing to the world. Duke was also one of the best beach volleyball players at the Club.

Duke Kahanamoku is also credited, by some of California’s ‘Old-Timers’ at Santa Monica’s ‘Beach Club,’ for helping to refine the game of beach volleyball. In the 1930s, Duke came to the mainland to fill the position as Athletic Director at Santa Monica’s ‘Beach Club.’  (OCC)

It is said that Kahanamoku, because of his exceptional athleticism, was the first to make beach volleyball a rugged sports activity rather than a leisurely way to pass the time away on the beach. Duke would jump to unmatched levels and spike the ball down at extraordinary angles.

The Outrigger Canoe Club was founded in 1908 by a small group of Honolulu’s business and professional community. The Club’s original mission was to help perpetuate traditional Hawaiian sports.

The Club’s story mirrors that of Waikiki and Hawaii. The 1908 clubhouse was two grass houses purchased from a defunct zoo. The grass houses were moved to leased land, on the beach, next to a lagoon.

One (fronting the beach) was fitted out as a shed for canoes and surfboards. The other shed became the Club’s first bathhouse and dressing room. Both had spacious lanai. A sand floor pavilion was built a short time later and it became a popular gathering place for members.

A new clubhouse was eventually built in 1941 on the same grounds. Then in 1964, when the Waikiki lease was lost, the club moved to its present Diamond Head location. (OCC)

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Filed Under: General Tagged With: Outrigger Canoe Club, Beach Volleyball, Volleyball

October 24, 2019 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Kainalu

This spot was formerly called Kalehuawehe. The surf break ‘Castles’ is named after the Castle family’s four-story beachfront home.

In 1837, Samuel Northrup Castle arrived in Honolulu as a missionary.  He left Hawaiʻi for a short time then returned as a businessman for the mission.  With Amos Cooke, he founded Castle & Cooke Company in 1851 – it grew into being one of Hawaiʻi’s “Big Five” companies.

One of his ten children would surpass him as a businessman. James Bicknell Castle was born November 27, 1855 in Honolulu to Samuel and Mary (Tenney) Castle. He attended Punahou School 1867–1873, and then Oberlin College.

Castle acquired property in Waikīkī; it had been the home of Boki, the governor of O’ahu, and his wife Liliha.  In 1899, James B. Castle built his Waikīkī home and called it ‘Kainalu.’  It was a lavishly furnished four-story mansion with extensive grounds, an ocean pier and other amenities.

In business, he greatly expanded Castle & Cooke in the sugar and railroad industries.  One of his first moves was in 1890 when Lorrin Thurston and others joined to create the Kahuku Plantation Company on land subleased from Benjamin Dillingham.

Castle is credited with winning control of the Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Company from Claus Spreckels in 1898, which he sold to Alexander & Baldwin for a large share of their stock. He later bought large amounts of land, such as Kāneʻohe Ranch.

He then moved to his next phase of his work, which was to connect the Dillingham’s Oahu Railway & Land Co. (OR&L) in Kahuku with the proposed street railway system in Honolulu by way of the Windward Coast.

His plan was to extend his Koʻolau Railroad Co. south of Kahana Bay through Kāneʻohe and Kailua, and on to Waimanalo where it would go through a tunnel and into Manoa Valley and connect with the Rapid Transit & Land Co.

Unfortunately, he died in 1918 before the project could be completed; however, he ran the line from Kahuku to Kahana Bay and extended his plantation and used this railway to haul it to the Kahuku mill.  The train service completely closed down by 1952.

When Castle died, his widow found the beachfront property more than she wished to keep up.  Mrs. James B. Castle was impressed by the charitable work being done by the Elks (the Honolulu Elks Lodge 616 was established on April 15, 1901) and in 1920 sold them 155,000 square feet on the beach at Waikīkī complete with lavish home, for $1 a square foot.

For decades, the Elks membership and officers worked to raise funds to pay off the mortgage. Every possible method of raising funds was tried. Elks held carnivals, “smokers,” baseball matches, boxing matches, theatricals, auctions, circuses, concerts and dances.

Funds were raised for charity, and a bit set aside to retire the mortgage. Finally, on March 3, 1943, as members sang “Auld Lang Syne;” the mortgage was burned with great ceremony.

Several times since 1920 the sale of the property was proposed and even authorized, but motions were defeated or rescinded. Most prominent was a protracted discussion with the Outrigger Canoe Club, which was looking for a new home.

Between 1954 and 1956, Outrigger Canoe Club made several offers to purchase about half the Castle property. All were refused. Eventually, in 1955, the Elks agreed to lease property to Outrigger. Negotiations continued, and a lease was signed effective November 17, 1956.

In 1958 the Lodge determined to raze Kainalu and rebuild a new lodge. After an April gala aloha event, the old Lodge was demolished in June of 1959. Ground breaking for the new building took place on August 17, 1959.  On June 20, 1960, the first meeting was held in a new building, the present lodge building.

In the sand, constantly washed by the waves, are 6 flat-topped black basalt rocks set in cement. The rock is said to come from the Kaimuki Quarry. Also visible is one round, bowl-shaped object. These are the last remnants of the James Castle home.

The multi-sided stones were the footings for pillars holding up the Castle home’s dining room. Facing the ocean, 9 tubular wooden pillars sat on the round cement footings, and in the rear a second row of heavier pillars sat on the lava rock.

In 2007, a rent dispute between the Elks Lodge and Outrigger Canoe Club was settled by a three-member arbitration panel. Terms of the new rent between the next-door neighbors were not disclosed because of a confidentiality agreement (the Elks Lodge, the landowner, was seeking up to $1 million or more a year in rent from the canoe club for a 99-year lease that was renegotiated midway through the term.)

James Castle and his wife had one child, Harold Castle; in the form of various gifts, Harold Castle is the man behind Castle Hospital, Castle High School, Kainalu Elementary, Central Union Windward Church and the Windward Branch of Hawaiʻi Pacific University.

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An aerial view of the Elks Lodge’s original Waikiki building.
James Castle estate built in 1899 and sold to the Elks Club in 1920. Torn down in 1951
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Kainalu-James_B._Castle_home_in_Waikiki
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Mrs. Castle, widow of businessman James B. Castle, sold their Waikiki home to the Elks after he died in 1918.
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Kainalu-interior

Filed Under: Economy, Buildings, Prominent People Tagged With: Castle and Cooke, Kapiolani Park, Outrigger Canoe Club, Hawaii, Waikiki, Oahu, Kahuku, Kainalu

February 23, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Uluniu Swimming Club

As a little kid, we’d go down to Waikiki Beach and visit my grandmother at the Uluniu Swimming Club.

Back in those times, it seemed like it was a place only grandmothers went; from my sub-four-foot perspective, the place was packed with old ladies.

It figures, Uluniu was originally founded as the Women’s Auxiliary of the Outrigger Canoe Club.

The facility was right on Waikiki Beach between the Royal Hawaiian Hotel and the Moana Hotel, next door to the old location of the Outrigger Canoe Club.

I remember the hau-covered trellised walkway into the club.

Shortly following the organization of the Outrigger Canoe Club in 1908, wives of members demanded facilities for women at the Club so they, too, could enjoy the ocean waters in front of the Club.

Uluniu started in Waikiki in 1909; it was located in a grove called Helumoa (they say there were 10,000 coconut trees; in 1795, King Kamehameha I established a home in the Helumoa coconut grove.)

The Women’s Auxiliary provided women and girls with a recreational environment, away from the men’s club.

In 1914 Uluniu was the first women’s club to be affiliated with the Amateur Athletic Union when Ellen Fullard-Leo became the first woman member of the AAU.

The Uluniu was asked to design “sensible bathing costumes” for women (short sleeves and legs). These bathing suits not only were used in Hawaii, they became the standard for all National AAU competition. (Uluniu)

In 1925, the Club separated from the Outrigger and became the Uluniu Women’s Swimming Club, accepted male spouses as non-voting members, and sponsored swimming programs, meets and competitions with trophies sought by local high schools.

The Swanzy Cup, named for Julie Judd Swanzy, the first club president, was given to individuals, mostly for high school swimmers.

The Uluniu Bowl trophy was awarded to teams, and was won so many times by the Punahou School team that the Club has given it on permanent loan to the school.

“Our club stands for something valuable and solid, not only in its direct influence on the beach but indirectly on the community at large.”

“The club offers a chance to use the beach here to our members and their children and for the older members without children, there is always this lovely shaded lanai with a view out over the ocean and enjoyment in the late afternoon.” (Castle; OCC)

On October 9, 1939, a new clubhouse was opened. Previously the clubhouse was located between the OCC and the Moana Hotel; it was later moved Waikiki of the Royal Hawaiian Hotel and remodeled.

In 1965, the Club changed its name for the third time to the Uluniu Swimming Club and admitted men as voting members. This was in preparation for the loss of the Waikiki lease, when both Outrigger and Uluniu had to leave their Waikiki properties.

The club no longer has a place at Waikiki; its last day on Waikiki Beach was June 26, 1968.

In the 1970s, the club purchased the present clubhouse property in Lāʻie, overlooking a large coconut palm-lined lawn extending to the beachfront.

Members and their guests can stay at the clubhouse, “Kaiwao” (literally, “inland of the sea;”) it’s located just past the Polynesian Cultural Center.

It’s actually a beach house used by members as an overnight-retreat. With about 100 members in the club, members share responsibility of management and care for the house.

In 2008, about five-decades after first visiting Uluniu as a little kid, I joined the Uluniu Swimming Club; we enjoy our retreats to the beach house.

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Uluniu-400
Uluniu
Uluniu
Waikiki-1958-Royal_Hawaiian-Uluniu_Swim_Club-Outrigger_Canoe_Club
Waikiki-1958-Royal_Hawaiian-Uluniu_Swim_Club-Outrigger_Canoe_Club
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View from beach to house at Uluniu Laie house
View from beach to house at Uluniu Laie house
View from house to beach at Uluniu Laie house
View from house to beach at Uluniu Laie house
Uluniu Womens Swimming Club sign
Uluniu Womens Swimming Club sign

Filed Under: General Tagged With: Hawaii, Waikiki, Laie, Outrigger Canoe Club, Uluniu

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