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February 1, 2020 by Peter T Young 3 Comments

Seaside Hotel

What we think of today as the “Royal Hawaiian Hotel” actually is the second hotel of like name (the first one was in downtown Honolulu – the location of the State Art Museum and office) and, the site of the present Royal Hawaiian used to be the home of the Seaside Hotel.

But there was a link between the site and the hotel’s name. In the 1890s, the Seaside Hotel was a beach annex to the Royal Hawaiian Hotel located at Richards and Hotel streets.

There is now another “Seaside Hotel” in Waikīkī, but that’s different from the hotel we are discussing here. That other “Seaside” was built in 1970 and has been used by United Airlines as a perk for employees and company retirees.

This Seaside was really on the water and until the Royal Hawaiian took its place, it was one of the earliest hotels in Waikīkī.

It was situated on 10 coconut-covered oceanfront acres on one of the best parts of Waikīkī Beach (Kamehameha V (and others) had a residence here, on land known as Helumoa.)

It was the only Honolulu hotel where guests were accommodated in separate and distinct cottages (bungalows and tent houses.) Each was named for prominent people who stayed there (one was the Alice Roosevelt Longworth cottage – named for Teddy Roosevelt’s cigar-smoking daughter.)

It was marveled as “folksy, family-style living”) and it was a favorite of author, Jack London, who noted, “The older I grow, the oftener I come back, and the longer I stay.” (SagaOfSandwichIslands)

In 1907, the Seaside Hotel opened on the property, and was later acquired by Alexander Young’s Territorial Hotel Company, which operated the Alexander Young hotel in downtown Honolulu.

In 1924, the Seaside Hotel’s lease of the land at Helumoa was soon to expire and the land’s owners (Bishop Estate) put out a request for proposals to build a hotel.

Matson Navigation Co. had big plans to build luxury ocean liners to bring wealthy tourists to Hawaiʻi. But, they needed a hotel equally lavish at Waikīkī.

Soon Matson’s luxury ocean liner and its 650 wealthy passengers would be arriving in Honolulu every two weeks and the two largest hotels, the Alexander Hotel and the Moana, could not accommodate all of them. The availability of the Bishop Estate land began putting wheels into motion.

In March 1925, William Roth, Manager of Matson Navigation Company, his wife Lurline (whose maiden name was Matson) and Mrs. William Matson, the widow of the founder of Matson Navigation Company, arrived in Honolulu for a three-week stay so that Roth could attend the annual Matson conference.

Famous New York-based architect Charles V. Wetmore also arrived in Honolulu at the invitation of Matson Navigation Company leadership.

Wetmore advised Matson Navigation that “Honolulu is one of the wonder spots of the world, and it should have a hotel that is as much of an attraction as the city itself.”

Castle & Cooke, Matson Navigation and the Territorial Hotel Company successfully proposed a plan to build a luxury hotel, with 400 rooms, at a cost of $2 million on the parcel of Waikīkī beach to be leased from the Bishop Estate.

The ground-breaking ceremony took place on July 26, 1925, before a building permit was issued or a contract was signed with the building contractor, Ralph Wooley. By the time the contract was executed on September 5, 1925, some three hundred men were already at work.

The building permit still was not signed by August, and the City withheld granting it unless the building codes were first revised (high rises were not, then, permitted.) The planning commission did not want to revise the building code to allow high rises on Waikīkī beach.

The City and County Board of Supervisors disregarded their concerns and allowed the increase in heights. This would forever change the landscape of Waikīkī, as the decision also allowed much taller highrises to be built in the area.

The opening of the Waikīkī Royal Hawaiian on February 1, 1927, ushered in a new era of luxurious resort travel to Hawai‘i. The six-story, 400-room structure was fashioned in a Spanish-Moorish style, popular during the period and influenced by screen star Rudolph Valentino.

The Honolulu Star-Bulletin described the newly opened Royal Hawaiian as “the first resort hostelry in America.”

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Seaside-Hotel-(SagaOfSandwichIslands)-1916
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Seaside_Hotel-(SagaOfSandwichIslands)-1903
Guests walking toward Seaside office and entry-(SagaOfSandwichIslands)-1913
Seaside-lanai-(SagaOfSandwichIslands)-1913
Royal Hawaiian Hotel-screened_patio-HSA-1890
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Cocoa-Nut_Grove,_and_Residence_of_the_Late_King_Kamehameha_V.,_at_Waikiki,_Oahu-before-1875
BVD-14-1-31-41-Bertha Young residence and Royal Hawaiian hotel_150w-KamehamehaSchoolsArchives
Helumoa_Summer House of King Kamehameha V, Waikiki-(eBay)-1873
Bellmen_at_Porte_Cochere-(honoluluadvertiser)-1927
Coconut Grove during the hotel's construction (HHF) (1925)
Coconut_Grove_Lanai-(HHF)-1927
Dancers are from the Dan Wallace Hula Studio in the Royal Hawaiian Hotel-(HSA)-1950s-PP-33-5-023
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Royal_Hawaiian_oceanside_construction-(HSA-HHF)-1926
Seaside_Hotel-noted-(Moana_Hotel-Apuakehau_Stream-marshland_behind)-1920
Waikiki scene arial view of moana & RH

Filed Under: Buildings, Economy Tagged With: Hawaii, Waikiki, Matson, Royal Hawaiian Hotel, Helumoa, Seaside Hotel

March 27, 2015 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

The Macfarlanes

This summary is a little bit about some places and events that the Macfarlane family was involved with – some generally known and with us today, some long gone, but the history helps give us some added perspectives.

Henry (Harry) and Eliza Macfarlane settled in Hawaii at Waikiki in 1846, coming from Scotland by way of New Zealand. They purchased/leased the ‘ili of Kaluaokau sometime in the mid-nineteenth century, eventually raising six children there (George Walter, Frederick W, Richard H, Edward Creamer, Helen B (later Cornwell) and Clarence William.)

One lasting legacy at their Kaluaokau home is the banyan tree Henry and Eliza planted – we now more commonly refer to the former home site as the International Market Place.

Among other things, the Macfarlanes owned and operated hotels. One, the Commercial Hotel in downtown Honolulu, has a notable claim to fame – Macfarlane brought gas lighting to Hawaiʻi, hanging the first gas lamps over the billiard tables in his Honolulu saloon.

“On Tuesday evening last Mr. E. Burgess opened his spacious billiard saloon at the Commercial Hotel, which was well attended, no doubt the novelty of the room being lit up with gas proving a great attraction. There are four burners … and they filled the large room with a most brilliant light.”

“Mr. Macfarlane is deserving of great credit for his indefatigable exertions in being the first to introduce gas on this Island”. (Polynesian, November 6, 1858) (The next year, Honolulu Gas Company formed and lit-up more of Honolulu.)

The Commercial Hotel was one of Honolulu’s earliest hotels to advertise hot and cold water for baths and showers. It operated as a hotel and saloon until 1903, when the building was torn down. (Hibbard)

They had other property, in Waikīkī. Son, George is credited with building one of the first hotels in Waikīkī (his home turned to hotel) – the Park Beach Hotel near Kapiʻolani Park. CN Arnold later leased the Macfarlane property in 1888.

By 1899, the hotel failed and Macfarlane sold the lease to James Castle, who built Waikīkī’s most impressive mansion, a lavishly furnished four-story home with extensive grounds, an ocean pier and other amenities. He called it Kainalu.

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

Between 1954 and 1956, Outrigger Canoe Club made several offers to purchase about half of the Elk’s 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 Elks razed Kainalu and built a new lodge.)

In 2007, a rent dispute between the Elks 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, the landowner, were 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.)

The Macfarlanes had other Waikīkī property. Nearby in Helumoa, the Macfarlanes had other hotel property – the Seaside Hotel. (There is now another “Seaside Hotel” in Waikīkī, but that’s different from the hotel we are discussing here. That other “Seaside” was built in 1970 and has been used by United Airlines as a perk for employees and company retirees.)

Likewise, the Seaside was the annex for the “Royal Hawaiian Hotel;” not the one in Waikiki, the original Royal Hawaiian was in downtown Honolulu located at Richards and Hotel streets. In the 1890s, son, George, ran the Royal Hawaiian and the Seaside Hotels.

It was later acquired by Alexander Young’s Territorial Hotel Company, which operated the Alexander Young hotel in downtown Honolulu. After the lease expired, Matson Navigation received a new lease from landowner Bishop Estate and built what we refer today as the Royal Hawaiian Hotel.

One more thing about George Macfarlane, he was Chamberlain (an officer whose function is in general to attend to the personal needs of the King and regulate the etiquette of the Palace) and Private Secretary to King Kalākaua (and served as the medium of communication between the King and his Ministers.)

When times were tough, George was entrusted with the responsible task of negotiating and floating the first Hawaiian loan in England. The $2,000,000 loan bore interest at 6 per cent per annum; within six months, the bonds commanded 15-per cent premium. (The Morning Call, December 25, 1890)

Son Clarence (in addition to supporting the family operations) also has a notable and lasting claim to fame. A competitive sailor, Clarence invited West Coast sailors to race to the Hawaiian Islands from San Francisco.

The race start was set for summer of 1906; he took his yacht, “La Paloma,” from Honolulu to San Francisco Bay and found the city lying in ruins following the great earthquake 27-days earlier. He changed the starting point to Los Angeles. The starting line is now off the bluffs of Point Fermin in San Pedro and the finish is off the Diamond Head Lighthouse, about 2,560 miles.

The race, the longer of the two oldest ocean races in the world, continues today – we now call it the Transpacific Yacht Race (TransPac.)

Others in the family participated in the family business activities. Likewise, they had property on the Island of Hawaiʻi and operated the Puʻuloa Sheep and Stock Ranch Company (partnership of the Macfarlane family.)

7,000-sheep ran over fee and leased land, including 4,000-acres of the ahupuaʻa of ʻŌuli, extending from the sea, near Kawaihae, to the top of the Kohala range of mountains, as well as other land nearby.

The family left several lasting legacies in the Islands.

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Colonel G. W. Macfarlane, King Kalakaua, Major R. H. Baker-Schweizer
Colonel G. W. Macfarlane, King Kalakaua, Major R. H. Baker-Schweizer
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Macfarlane-LaPaloma-Examiner
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International_Market_Place-early_entrance-1957
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Downtown and Vicinity-Dakin-Fire Insurance- 10-Map-1891-Commercial Hotel-noted
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Macfarlane-Commercial_Hotel-Burgess_No_3-1854
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Seaside_Hotel-(SagaOfSandwichIslands)-1903
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Guests walking toward Seaside office and entry-(SagaOfSandwichIslands)-1913
Guests walking toward Seaside office and entry-(SagaOfSandwichIslands)-1913
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Advertisement_for_Seaside_Hotel-1908
Royal_Hawaiian_Hotel-original_wooden_structure-1900
Royal_Hawaiian_Hotel-original_wooden_structure-1900
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Park Beach Hotel, Diamond Head
Park Beach Hotel, Diamond Head
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Diamond_Head_Lighthouse-Transpac_Finish
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Col_George_Macfarlane-headstone-Oahu_Cemetery

Filed Under: Economy, Prominent People Tagged With: King Kalakaua, MacFarlane, Royal Hawaiian Hotel, Kaluaokau, Seaside Hotel, TransPac, Commercial Hotel, Hawaii

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People, places, and events in Hawaiʻi’s past come alive through text and media in “Images of Old Hawaiʻi.” These posts are informal historic summaries presented for personal, non-commercial, and educational purposes.

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