Pearl City | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

October 1, 2022 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Pearl Harbor Yacht Club

In 1888, the legislature gave Benjamin Franklin (Frank) Dillingham an exclusive franchise “for construction and operation on the Island of O‘ahu a steam railroad … for the carriage of passengers and freight.”

Ultimately OR&L sublet land, partnered on several sugar operations and/or hauled cane from Ewa Plantation Company, Honolulu Sugar Company in ‘Aiea, O‘ahu Sugar in Waipahu, Waianae Sugar Company, Waialua Agriculture Company and Kahuku Plantation Company, as well as pineapples for Dole.

Passenger travel was an add-on opportunity that not only included train rides; they also operated a bus system. However, the hauling for the agricultural ventures was the most lucrative.

In addition, OR&L (using another of its “land” components,) got into land development. It developed Hawai‘i’s first planned suburban development and held a contest, through the newspaper, to name this new city. The winner selected was “Pearl City” (the public also named the main street, Lehua.)

The railway owned 2,200-acres in fee simple in the peninsula. First, they laid-out and constructed the improvements, then invited the public on a free ride to see the new residential community. The marketing went so well; ultimately, lots were auctioned off to the highest bidder.

Excursion trains filled with passengers traveled to Pearl City on weekends and the area became a favorite place for pleasure seekers and picnic parties.

“Boarding a train at the O‘ahu Railway and Land Company depot at King and Iwilei streets I we rode to Pearl City and transferred to a small section-train known as The Dummy for the short peninsula ride to within a few steps from our destination.”

“Usually the section-locomotive trailed one passenger car but when it trailed a flat car instead we were elated. We could sit on its edge and dangle our legs.” (Henrietta Mann, Watumull Oral History)

Wealthy families visited the peninsula on weekends or during the summers, maintaining mansions on the peninsula and enjoying parties and yacht races in Pearl Harbor. Dillingham promoted sail boat races, a large dancing pavilion, and many forms of entertainment and recreation. (Aiea Pearl City Livable Communities Plan)

The local paper reported, “A new sporting club is being organized by a number of Honolulu men. It will be called “The Pearl Harbor Yacht Club” and will have a handsome club house on the lochs”. (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, December 4, 1899) There was even talk of building an ‘ark’ (a barge with a house on it), noting , “In San Francisco Bay … there are many ‘arks’. (Honolulu Republican, September 3, 1900)

“In 1901 the Hawaii Yacht Club was chartered and built a boat house near the west end of Aloha Avenue, about where the ferry landing was later built. The club later reorganized at the Ala Wai. Many of the wealthy families had yachts or other vessels for recreation, which joined the utilitarian fishing and ferry boats on the waters around the peninsula.”

The Pearl Harbor Yacht Club “became known for the many sail boat races it held. The Yacht Club had a wooden L-shaped pier at the end of Lanakila Avenue and a marine railway to pull boats out of the water. (Historic Context Study)

The Pearl Harbor Yacht Club (PHYC) had two earlier locations on Pearl City Peninsula before it was established north of Lanakila Avenue in the late 1920s.

The first club house, called the “old Parker Place,” faced on Middle Loch and was loaned to the club by R.W. Atkinson, one of the club’s charter members and owner of that property.

The club purchased the “Jones Place” in November 1925, remodeling the house, and building a pier and “runway for hauling boats”.

In March 1928 the two-story residence of Albert F. Afong was purchased and “turned into a clubhouse for the Yacht Club”. The clubhouse was situated on the lot abutting the pier and some of its foundation is still visible. (HAER HI-55)

“[Pearl Harbor] Yacht Club [property] was owned by this Chinese guy, Afong. And then, when Afong, in 1929, stock crash, he went bankrupt (I heard), and he had to get rid of all his land. That’s when the yacht club bought his home. It was a big yard, big home.”

“The Pearl Harbor Yacht Club originally bought the Ted Cooke home, but that was a smaller place. The building was big, big, two-story building. Originally that was built by the Jones Family. And then they sold it to the yacht club, and the yacht club first started in the peninsula over there. Then it was too small, so they took the Afong place.” (Asada Oral History)

“Pearl Harbor was a great thing, for instance. In the late twenties and early thirties the Pearl Harbor Yacht Club was very active. A whole bunch of us young people had what we called eighteen-footers; they were center-board boats.”

“We’d go down virtually every weekend in the summer months and usually stay at Ben Dillingham’s grandmother’s house, we boys. And the girls would stay with the Theodore [Atherton] Cookes, both of whom had lovely homes right on the peninsula there.”

“We would go into these races and have just a glorious time. Of course all of that’s gone now, except over at Kaneohe; they’ve more or less continued the tradition. Honolulu, in our youth, was a small, simple, quiet, slow-moving town, which is no longer.” (James Judd Jr, Watumull Oral History)

“[M]y dad liked sailing very much. He must have started sailing competitively when I was, oh I guess, around twelve or fifteen years old. Pearl Harbor Yacht Club was inside Pearl Harbor. There was a wonderful yacht club there and there were no limits. You could sail around Ford Island and all the way down West Loch, et cetera because the U. S. Navy hadn’t set up any restricted areas.”

“Every once in a while there’d be a naval exercise. Wonderful races with several classes of sailboats were what I participated in. My dad raced a star class boat and I had a little moon boat.”

“I can remember seeing all the great ships of the Navy there, and I’d just be sailing my own little twelve-foot sail boat and be looking at the Lexington and the Saratoga … and George Patton.”

“The great General Patton was a sailor, he was at Schofield, and he was a sailor. He was a very wealthy person. He had a schooner, about a seventy-foot black-hulled gorgeous schooner and he’d sail around Pearl before he’d go out the entrance and here we were just kids taking it all in.” (Stanley Kennedy Jr, Watumull Oral History)

“The pre-war club was a place for Hawaii’s leading families and members of the Big 5 commercial and plantation companies. They included the Dillinghams, Frears, Castles, Cookes, Dowsetts, Spauldings, McInernys, Mott-Smiths, Wilders, Atkinsons, Damons, James Dole and Princess Kawananakoa.”

“Pearl Harbor Yacht Club was also a magnet for local and national celebrities in those heady days of the late 1920s and through the 1930s.” (Dean Smith; Sigall)

“Through the years, membership in the Pearl Harbor Yacht has included Shirley Temple, Duke Kahanamoku and Harold Dillingham, who sailed the 1934 Pearl Harbor Yacht Club’s entry into the biannual Trans-Pacific Yacht Race aboard ‘Manuiwa’ and won.” (Ho’okele)

“Duke was quite an avid yachtsman and he belonged to the Pearl Harbor Yacht Club, which was at Pearl City at that time. We had raced up on Saturday to Waikiki and the following Sunday, which was December 7, we were supposed to race back again to Pearl City. Well, naturally, we couldn’t because the war started that morning.” (Nadine Kahanamoku, Watumull Oral History)

Today, Pearl Harbor Yacht Club provides recreational and competitive boating opportunities for Active Duty, Reserve, Retiree, DoD personnel and their families, as well as the community at large. It is situated at 57 Arizona Memorial Drive in Pearl Harbor.

January 8, 2022 by Peter T Young 3 Comments

Pearl City Tavern

On November 16, 1889, the Oahu Railway and Land Company (OR&L) began operating O‘ahu. OR&L wasn’t just about a railroad, it had ‘land’ components, as well. The railway owned 2,200-acres in fee simple in the peninsula.

First they laid-out and constructed the improvements, then invited the public on a free ride to see the new residential community.

It was Hawai‘i’s first planned suburban development and held a contest, through the newspaper, to name this new city. The winner selected was “Pearl City” (the public also named the main street, Lehua.)

As noted in Whitney’s 1890 Tourist Guide, “The new town of Pearl City, another offspring of our railroad enterprise, rests on one of the loveliest slopes of Pearl Harbor’s borders.”

“A handsome depot and several residences built in new styles of architecture present a decidedly attractive appearance. The town is bisected by a wide boulevard, from either side of which extend well graded avenues. A landscape gardener is engaged in beautifying the borders of the thoroughfares, and setting out trees of all the varieties that flourish in this generous climate.”

“Pearl City will afford pleasant homes for those who desire recreation after the day’s toils in Honolulu. (Whitney; Tourist Guide, 1890) The marketing went so well; ultimately, lots were auctioned off to the highest bidder.

Later, the Pearl City Tavern opened in 1939 under the ownership of George & Irene Fukuoka. Advertiser restaurant writer Francee King noted in an article in 1970, “George Fukuoka started a small eatery just across the street from where Pearl City Tavern now stands.”

“In two years it had burst its seams with customers, and he made the move to a larger place in the present location. It soon became evident that more expansion was necessary as customers passed the word that Pearl City Tavern was an excellent place to eat. And, so over the years it grew until it became the impressive double-dining room complex that we know as PCT.”

“George Fukuoka’s way has always been to provide superior foods and superior services for his patrons. Always he has searched for new and different dished to tempt the appetite.” (King Adv, Feb 15, 1970)

A Nippu Jiji article in 1942 noted, “One of rural Oahu’s favorite recreation spots, the Pearl City Tavern is celebrating its second anniversary this month. In the last two years it has grown from a lunch counter and fountain to a large cafe with a bar, and a ballroom that will accommodate 600 dancers.”

“It started with three employees and now has 40. A few months ago, the Pearl City Tavern contributed 11,000 to the army and navy relief funds. Red Cross and newspaper subscriptions for rural Oahu service men.

The tavern was home to a group of live monkeys, that amused and entertained bar & restaurant patrons from a habitat behind a glass window at the bar.

“Take time to visit the fascinating Monkey Bar. The ‘floor show’ they put on is amusing and delightful, a bonus pleasure at cocktail time. You are also invited to the beautiful Roof Garden, where bonsai trees of many shapes, sizes and varieties are on display” (King) (George Fukuoka was a noted bonsai collector.)

The Fukuokas were an enterprising couple who turned their tavern into a self-contained entertainment complex. Besides the famous monkeys who lived in a plexiglass cage behind the bar, there was dancing and musical entertainment, a separate Japanese restaurant featuring an organist, a souvenir shop that sold ceramic monkey mugs emblazoned with the tavern logo. (Hawaiian Time Machine)

The “Monkey Bar” at the PCT was a popular drinking spot for servicemen. “Fifty years ago, it was a roadside joint with screen windows and an 8- by 12-foot dance floor. Now, a modern bar and restaurant are decorated with hanging plants, Japanese paper screens and a coin-operated Karaoke machine with sing-along video lyrics.”

“Usually pilots had a favorite watering hole wherever they called home. Around Oahu it was at PCT. The bar was actually a pretty nice restaurant and seemed to grow larger all the time, probably from the revenue garnered from all of those pilots.” (Naval Aviator in Landers)

“Used to be the sailors threw beer at the monkeys and the monkeys responded by throwing s – – – back at the sailors,” said bartender Duane Sato, 32, a Pearl City native well-versed in monkey bar lore.

“There was another monkey that walked along the bar with a tin cup. If a customer didn’t put any money in the cup, the monkey was trained to spill the guy’s drink.”

Later, “The bar was approximately 40 feet long and behind it was a glassed enclosed cage full of monkeys, mostly long tailed spider monkeys. The monkeys would run, jump, swing, climb or pick fleas from each other. It was like being in a zoo, especially at night when the clientele began to get inebriated.” (Sailor)

For many of the Sailors, the main pursuit in the tavern was to agitate Marines (and vice versa), not monkeys. ”If you wanted to learn to fight, that was the place to do it.” (Sailor)

“We’d love to fistfight the Marines, and it was easy to instigate them. All you had to do was try to dance with their girlfriends. That guaranteed a brawl every time.” (Sailor, Daily News)

“Military Police duties were performed mostly on post, no patrols off post except during the first two days of each month during pay day, which was the first day of each month. There were occasional patrols off post when troops visited the beaches on weekends, and to the Pearl City Tavern in Pearl City”.

“The Pearl City Tavern, which we referred to as the Monkey Bar, was a popular GI hangout, and was the dividing line for the two MP Companies jurisdictions. There was considerable rivalry between the two MP Companies, and some animosity also.”

“On two or three occasions the MPs from Honolulu arrested our patrols in Pearl City for being out of their jurisdiction, and our MPs in turn arrested a couple of their patrols when the occasion arose. That’s what caused the friction between the two companies. (Army MP Tropic Lightning Museum))

“In my day, we were all over the legal limit before we arrived. If you’re going to drink in a bar filled with monkeys, you have to be loaded before you get there.” (Sailor, Daily News)

Pearl City Tavern closed in 1993 (and the building later razed to make way for a car dealership). In 2018, George and Irene Fukuoka were inducted (posthumously) into the Hawai‘i Restaurant Association Hall of Fame.

July 18, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Remond Grove

BF (Frank) Dillingham’s OR&L company, created in 1889, changed the landscape of west Honolulu. The first section of track extended only as far as Aiea. (Burlingame)

In the beginning, since there were as yet no real destinations along the line, Dillingham created the concept of picnicking along Pearl Harbor, and within days of the line’s opening began marketing excursions.

These excursions had several purposes: they helped train the employees—from the on-board crews of engineers, firemen, conductors and brakemen to those on the ground like ticket agents and mechanics …

… they also built up an excitement among the public that the railroad was a reality; and most importantly perhaps, they brought in at least some income.

Some excursions included boat rides, others picnics and dancing, where people could be entertained with piano, banjo, trumpet, and saxophone performances. Community groups were encouraged to plan picnics and parties there, the larger the better. (Next Stop)

“A few years ago, when a party of a dozen or more gentlemen made a circuit of Oahu, and inspected the lands proposed to be bonded and made available for the purposes of settlement and public use, they were facetiously called the ‘colonization party’ by the wags of Honolulu, who stood upon the street corners and wished the party a sarcastic good-bye.” (Daily Bulletin, November 27, 1890)

He held a contest that gave to Mānana the new name ‘Pearl City,’ and on its main thoroughfare, Lehua Road, he promoted a dance pavilion named Remond Grove. (de Silva, ksbe)

“The then manager of the development scheme took all jokes good-naturedly. He had faith in the scheme which the public had not. His faith proves now to have been founded in reason; if faith, followed by good works, as exemplified at Pearl City and along the line of the Oahu Railway, are to count for anything.”

“The development of this scheme, the largest individual enterprise ever set afloat in Hawaii, barring Col. Spreckel’s steamship lines and mammoth plantation, has grown so gradually but steadily amongst us that many people as yet hardly realize the sacrifices which have been made …”

“… and the work that has been done by the management of the Oahu Railway and Land enterprises to develop the resources of Oahu, by bringing the large Pearl City tract into quick communication with the Honolulu market …”

“… and making it available to the better classes of Honolulu’s business and professional people, who desire to live in the country within reach of town.” (Daily Bulletin, November 27, 1890)

“The new town lies just beyond Remond Grove. It marks the beginning of a suburban city within twelve and a half miles, or thirty
minutes’ run of Honolulu. The new town is laid out to the best advantage and covers a series of splendid building terraces which arise from the depot to the branch reservoir 100 feet above the sea level and within half a mile of the station.”

“The lots offered for sale are mostly situated upon graded streets and are ready for building upon. The soil is a rich, red loam in which will flourish cither trees, or vegetables, or flowers.”

“The main avenues of Pearl City are Lehua, Maile and Woodlawn, laid not in the order named. The cross streets are numbered from First to Tenth. The avenues are each eighty feet wide and the cross streets are sixty feet each. (Daily Bulletin, November 27, 1890)

The pavilion at Remond Grove has for some time been one of the attractions. It was built for the use of picnickers and dancing parties by the railroad company.

It is seventy feet square, open on all sides, and is lighted by electricity. Surrounding it is a well-kept lawn, with a playing fountain in front, and provided with swings, croquet games, etc.

During an evening fete at the pavilion it is brilliantly lighted, and gorgeously decorated, presenting an animated spectacle. (Next Stop)

To further expand the number of passengers on his train, in 1890, Dillingham carved up the Mānana peninsula to create O‘ahu’s first major housing development.

His railroad ran regular tours to Remond Grove, and according to his advertising, it was “always at the disposal of Pleasure Parties.” (de Silva, ksbe)

The Remond Grove grounds are beautifully laid out with flowers and shrubbery. The large dancing pavilion had a capacity for 1,000 people; it was located in the center of the Grove, both grounds and pavilion being lighted throughout with electricity.

During the Spanish-American War, Army Engineers established Camp Langfitt at Pearl City and was occupied from September 27 to October 19, 1898. It was named after Major William Campbell Langfitt, commanding officer of the battalion of the 2nd Engineers.

The troops camped inside the large dance pavilion. Remond Grove was south of Kamehameha Highway, east of Lehua Avenue and primarily north of the H-1 freeway (at the present Hale Mohalu Site.) (Greguras)

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Remond_Grove-Pearl City-UH-USGS-Reg1767-1892

OR&L Advertisement-Remond Grove noted

September 4, 2016 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Benjamin Franklin Dillingham

Benjamin Franklin (Frank) Dillingham was the son of Benjamin Clark Dillingham, a shipmaster, and Lydia Sears (Hows) Dillingham, born on September 4, 1844 in West Brewster, Massachusetts.

He left school at 14 and shipped on his uncle’s vessel for a voyage around the Horn to San Francisco. During the Civil War, on June 6, 1863, he was nineteen-year-old third mate on the clipper ship Southern Cross bound for New York with a cargo of ‘log wood.’

‘Florida’ was flying the British ensign, though as she steamed closer, she ran up the rebels’ ‘stars and bars.’ A squad of armed Confederate sailors boarded and took Dillingham and the rest of the clipper’s small crew prisoner.

Then, as the new prisoners watched from the deck of their captor, the Southern Cross was set ablaze and sunk. Eventually they were put ashore at Rio de Janeiro and worked their way back to the war-torn United States.

Dillingham headed west, determined to take up residence in San Francisco and find work ashore. An unsuccessful hunt for employment led him back to the sea, and in 1865 he was hired by Captain John Paty as first mate on the bark Whistler, on the San Francisco/Honolulu run.

“A brief sojourn in the city enabled me to realize that I had no training in any other vocation, save that of the sea, and learning that Capt. Paty of the bark Whistler plying between the coast and Honolulu was in need of officers, I applied and obtained the position of first mate without delay.” (Dillingham; Chiddix & Simpson))

Dillingham wrote that he felt at home the first time he came ashore in Honolulu: “After my tempstuous experiences in rounding Cape Horn and the Cape of Good Hope, the trip seemed to me like a pleasure excursion.”

“It felt as if I had anchored in a home port; the cordiality I experienced from all those whom I met removed at once the feeling of being in a foreign land though the streets were filled with several nationalities. The luxuriant foliage, the balmy breezes, the tropical fruits, all afforded such delights that I felt sure I should return.”

He did return, and ultimately stayed after an unfortunate encounter between his horse and a carriage; “The first officer of the bark Whistler, Mr. Dillingham, whose leg was broken last Friday night, by being thrown from a horse, in collision with a carriage, on the valley road …”

“(Dillingham) is now at the American Marine Hospital, where he receives every care and attention, and is in favorable condition for recover.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, July 29, 1865) Unfortunately for him, the Whistler left him in Honolulu and sailed away.

He accepted a job as a clerk in a hardware store called H. Dimond & Son for $40 per month. The store was owned by Henry Dimond, formerly a bookbinder in the 7th Missionary Company. In 1850 Dimond had been released from his duties at the Mission and had gone into business with his son.

Dillingham later bought the company with partner Alfred Castle (son of Samuel Northrup Castle, who was in the 8th Company of missionaries and ran the Mission business office;) they called the company Dillingham & Co (it was later known as Pacific Hardware, Co.)

On April 26, 1869, Dillingham married Emma Smith, daughter of 6th Company missionaries Reverend Lowell and Abigail Smith.

But hard times came on Dillingham with the collapse of whaling and the rise of sugar. Large suppliers pulled Dillingham’s credit lines, and his accounts were paid late. Then Dillingham was given the opportunity to buy the James Campbell lands in Ewa.

While he couldn’t raise the money to buy it, Campbell leased the land for 50-years. Dillingham realized that to be successful, he needed reliable transportation.

On September 4, 1888, Frank Dillingham’s 44th birthday, the legislature gave Dillingham an exclusive franchise “for construction and operation on the Island of O‘ahu a steam railroad … for the carriage of passengers and freight.”

Dillingham formed O‘ahu Railway and Land Company (OR&L,) a narrow gauge rail, whose economic being was founded on the belief that O‘ahu would soon host a major sugar industry.

“Among the most important works now in process of rapid construction, is the Oahu railway to Pearl Harbor, which is already approaching completion, so far as grading is concerned. Eleven miles of this line will have the grading completed in two weeks; and of this length ten miles are already finished.”

“The depot itself will be of imposing size and made as ornamental in appearance as convenience and traffic requirements will allow. … The progress of this important work has been so rapid during the month of July that we give it first place among the works in progress during the past month.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, July 27, 1889)

“Mr BF Dillingham, promoter of the Oahu Railway and Land Company, on his birthday a year previous, was accosted by an acquaintance with the remark: ‘Well, Mr. Dillingham, you have got your franchise: when are you going to give us the railway?’”

“Mr. Dillingham replied that on his next birthday, that day one year, he hoped to treat his friends to a railway ride. … with a strong company now at his back, the originator of the enterprise, having taken the contract to build the road, resolutely pushed operations to their present advanced stage.”

“When the appointed day arrived Mr Dillingham was ready to celebrate. His engine had been set up some days. Two third class cars, the best passenger accommodation as yet on the ground, were put together. … With a shrill blast from the whistle and the bell clanging, the engine moved easily off with its load. Three rousing cheers were given by the passengers, and crowds assembled at the starting point responded.” (Daily Bulletin, September 5, 1889)

By the early-1900s, the expanded railway cut across the island, serving several sugar and pineapple plantations, and the popular Haleʻiwa Hotel. They even included a “Kodak Camera Train” (associated with the Hula Show) for Sunday trips to Hale‘iwa for picture-taking.

When the hotel opened on August 5, 1899, guests were conveyed from the railway terminal over the Anahulu stream to fourteen luxurious suites, each had a bath with hot-and-cold running water.

Thrum’s ‘Hawaiian Annual’ (1900,) noted, “In providing so tempting an inn as an adjunct and special attraction for travel by the Oahu Railway – also of his (Dillingham’s) creation – the old maxim of ‘what is worth doing is worth doing well’ has been well observed, everything About the hotel is first class…”

The weekend getaway from Honolulu to the Haleʻiwa Hotel became hugely popular with the city affluent who enjoyed a retreat in ‘the country.’

The railway owned 2,200-acres in fee simple in the peninsula. First they laid-out and constructed the improvements, then invited the public on a free ride to see the new residential community. The marketing went so well; ultimately, lots were auctioned off to the highest bidder.

“Mr. Dillingham, besides creating the O‘ahu Railway, a line for which he struggled twenty-seven years against a public prejudice that would not see its financial possibilities, established Olaʻa plantation on the Island of Hawai‘i and McBryde plantation on Kauai.”

“He retained active management of the Oahu Railway & Land Company until 1915, when he relinquished it to George P. Denison.” (Sugar, May 1918) Dillingham died April 7, 1918 (aged 73.) (Information in this post taken, in part, from ‘Next Stop Honolulu.’)

The Dillingham Transportation Building was built in 1929 for Walter F Dillingham of Honolulu, Hawaiʻi, who founded the Hawaiian Dredging Company (later Dillingham Construction) and ran the Oahu Railway and Land Company founded by his father, Benjamin Franklin Dillingham.

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