Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Ala Wai Boat Harbor

Waikīkī was well-suited for Hawaiian shallow-draft canoes that did not require deep water and could be easily beached.

Deeper-draft Western ships anchored off-shore, “it is unquestionably the most eligible anchoring place in the island.”  Its advantages were sandy bottom, soft coral, irregular reef and mild surf. Nonetheless, while foreign ships did anchor at Waikīkī, it was not the perfect harbor.  (Vancouver 1793)

“…On rounding Diamond hill the village of Wyteetee (Waikīkī) appears through large groves of cocoanut and bread-fruit trees … A reef of coral runs along the whole course of the shore, within a quarter of a mile of the beach, on which the sea breaks high; inside this reef there is a passage for canoes. Ships frequently anchor in the bay, in from sixteen to twenty fathoms, over a sand and coral bottom.”  (Corney, 1818)

On shore, Waikīkī was famous for its fishponds with one listing citing 45 ponds.  The ten fishponds at Kālia were loko puʻuone (isolated shore fishponds formed by a barrier sand berm) with salt-water lens intrusion and fresh water entering from upland ʻauwai (irrigation canals.)  These were later used as duck ponds.

Following the Great Māhele in 1848, many of the fishponds and irrigated and dry-land agricultural plots were continued to be farmed, however at a greatly reduced scale (due to manpower limitations.)

In the 1860s and 1870s, former Asian sugar plantation workers (Japanese and Chinese) replaced the taro and farmed more than 500-acres of wetlands in rice fields, also raising fish and ducks in the ponds.

Toward the beginning of the 1900s, downtown Honolulu was the destination for Hawaiian visitors, who numbered only about 3,000. While Honolulu had numerous hotels, there were few places to stay in Waikīkī.

In 1891, at Kālia, the ‘Old Waikiki’ opened as a bathhouse, one of the first places in Waikīkī to offer rooms for overnight guests. It was later redeveloped in 1928 as the Niumalu Hotel; the site eventually became the Hilton Hawaiian Village.

In 1906, the US War Department acquired more than 70-acres in the Kālia portion of Waikīkī for the establishment of a military reservation to be called Fort DeRussy.

The Army started filling in the fishponds which covered most of the Fort site – pumping fill from the ocean continuously for nearly a year in order to build up an area on which permanent structures could be built.  Thus, the Army began the transformation of Waikīkī from wetlands to solid ground.

As part of the government’s Waikīkī Land Reclamation project, the Waikīkī landscape was further transformed with the construction of the Ala Wai Drainage Canal – begun in 1921 and completed in 1928 – resulted in the draining and filling in of the ponds and irrigated fields of Waikīkī.

During the 1920s (before Ala Moana Park,) a barge channel was dredged parallel to the shore through the coral reef to connect Kewalo Basin to Fort DeRussy.

Part of the dredge material helped to reclaim wetland that was filled in with dredged coral; this created the area now known as Ala Moana Park (completed in 1934.)

Smaller boats, moored in the dredged area, also traveled along this channel to Kewalo Basin to get out to sea.  While no formal facilities were built, boats anchored in the nearshore waters; this was the beginning of the Ala Wai Boat Harbor.

Portions of the coastal area were used as a public park (1936-1947.)   Around this time, the land was conveyed from the City to the State (1949) and some land-based boat-related uses started popping up.

Ala Moana Park grew in popularity as swimming beach; with growing use and concern for interaction between Park users and boaters, in 1951, a channel was dredged directly out to sea.  The reef rubble that was dredged was used to fill in this old navigation channel (between Kewalo and the Ala Wai Harbor.)

Over the years, the Harbor grew incrementally.

The Ala Wai Small Boat Harbor is the State’s largest recreational boat harbor, among about fifty small boat harbors, launching ramps, jetties, wharves and landings statewide transferred from the Department of Transportation to the Department of Land and Natural Resources, Division of Boating and Ocean Recreation.

It consists of about 700 berths. There are also dry berthing spaces, a harbor agent’s office, comfort stations, showers, paved parking, a launching ramp and pier.

In 2022, there were nearly 333.3-million people in the US. There were close to 12-million registered recreational water vessels in that year, meaning that about 4% of our population owns a recreational watercraft of some sort.

Hawaiʻi, the only island state completely surrounded by water, ranks last (50th) in the number of boats, as well as boats per capita in the country (Florida ranks 1st in the number of boats; Minnesota ranks 1st per capita.)

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by Peter T Young 1 Comment

ʻĀina Haina (ʻIli of Wailupe)

Waikīkī (“water spurting from many sources”) ahupuaʻa lies between Honolulu (from the west side of Makiki Valley) and Maunalua (the east side of Wailupe) – essentially from Piʻikoi Street to the ʻĀina Haina/Niu Valley boundary.

It included several ʻili, subdivisions/portions of ahupuaʻa.  Wailupe is one of these ʻili; it is actually an ʻili lele (jumping ʻili) that includes the area we now call ʻĀina Haina and kalo (taro loʻi) lands in nearby Pālolo Valley.

From ancient times, we learn Wailupe is part of the tradition of Kamapuaʻa, a multi-formed deity.

The Hawaiian deity Kamapuaʻa, is a part of the Lono god-force, and possessed many body forms (kinolau), representing both human and various facets of nature. He was born in pig-form to Hina (mother) and Kahiki‘ula (father) at Kaluanui in the Koʻolauloa District of O‘ahu.  (Maly)

ʻOlopana, an Oʻahu Chief (and younger brother of Kahiki’ula,) was an adversary of Kamapuaʻa.  After several skirmishes and confrontations between them, Kamapuaʻa finally killed ʻOlopana and conquered Oʻahu.

When Kamapuaʻa started to divide the land, one of the notable aspects of the tradition of Kamapuaʻa is that, Lonoawohi, his priest, asked for and received the lands whose names begin with the word “wai” (i.e. Waikiki, Waianae, Waiawa … and Wailupe.  Thus, the priests of the Lono class received the “wai” lands.  (Maly)

In Hawai‘i and essentially in all cultures – water meant life and growth. In Hawai‘i – “Wai” – fresh water – is a life force – it meant abundance and wealth and was a consistent theme in native traditions, practices, land use and historical accounts.

Wailupe (literally, “kite water”) suggests this was one of the prescribed places to fly kites, some suggesting the land was named “for a kite-flying woman (he wāhine hoʻolele lupe.)”

Another name for the area was Kekaha (“the place”) and is noted in the names of the winds the canoes could expect while sailing along the southeast coast of Oʻahu:

Puuokona is of Kuliʻouʻou
Ma-ua is the wind of Niu
Holouhā is of Kekaha (Wailupe)
Māunuunu is of Wai‘alae
The wind of Lēʻahi turns here and there …

There are three gulches forming the valley; the main Wailupe Gulch follows the lower Wailupe Stream and a branch to the northwest. The northeast branch follows Laulaupoe Gulch, which is named for a round (poe) type of leaf package (laulau) used for food and for presentations.

Above, there is a third gulch called Kuluʻī, which is named for a type of tree/shrub.   On early maps, a second small stream is shown on the western side called Waialiʻi (probably “water of the chiefs.”)  (Cultural Surveys)

What we know today as Wailupe Peninsula is the former Wailupe Fishpond. The Hawaiian term for the pond was Loko Nui o Wailupe, “big pond of Wailupe.”

Just mauka of the fishpond (makai of the main coastal trail, now covered by Kalanianaʻole Highway) was a spring called Puhikani. There was a second spring, which fed a fishpond of the same name, on the west side of Wailupe Pond called Punakou, which means “kou tree spring.”

Kawaikuʻi Beach Park is named after a freshwater spring in this area that was the only source of drinking water for the coastal residents. Kawaikuʻi means “the united water” (named either because of the salt and fresh water “united” at the spring or because Wailupe residents once came to wash their clothes on flat rocks near the spring and to gather limu – thus the population congregated or “united” at this spot.)

In 1826, the missionary Levi Chamberlain took a tour of the island of O‘ahu, traveling through the southern coast of O‘ahu westward from Makapuʻu. He recorded a settlement of eighteen houses at Maunalua, with three additional settlements between Maunalua and Wai‘alae. These settlements were probably at Kuliʻouʻou, Niu and Wailupe. At Wai‘alae he stopped at a settlement with a schoolhouse.  (Cultural Surveys)

The land of Wailupe was reportedly distributed to the father of Kamaha by Kamehameha the Great following the Battle of Nuʻuanu in 1795.

At the Māhele, Kamaha, konohiki (land manager) of the land, received Wailupe, retaining half and returning half.  (The King accepted “the large Fish pond (Wailupe Pond) and one acre of Kula land in the Ili of ‘Wailupe’ Oʻahu;” Kamaha received the remainder of the land and all of the smaller fishponds.)  (Cultural Surveys)

In Wailupe, 57 claims were made and 37 were awarded, indicating that there was substantial settlement in the area. The claims were mainly for kula lands with sweet potato, coconut, orange, hala, ipu and pili grass with no mention of taro being grown. Lots averaged 1.5-acres with two kula patches. The majority of lots were adjacent to major streams within the valley.

In 1924, Robert Hind purchased 2,090-acres and established the Hind-Clarke Dairy.  The Hind-Clarke Dairy was a favored stop along the road, as noted in a 1930 visitor’s guide: “The Hind-Clarke Dairy, a short way ahead and to our left with a large sign over the entrance, is not to be passed unnoticed. The dairy is a model of its kind and well affords an opportunity to see dairying in its most scientific form. The cottage cheese on sale is, perhaps, the most delicious you have ever tasted.”  (Cultural Surveys)

In 1946, Hind sold his dairy operation to Creameries of America, and soon after that began to develop the remainder of his land for residential use.  The former cattle pasture was subdivided into lots to form a new residential community called ‘Āina Haina (which means, “Hind’s land.”)

Soon after this the Hawaiian Dredging Company filled in the old Wailupe Fishpond, forming the Wailupe Circle subdivision. A deep channel (depth of approximately 12 to 20 feet) was dredged around the pond, as well as a channel through the reef to the open ocean) and dredge material filled in the pond.

The ‘Āina Haina Shopping Center was built in 1950 (Hawaiʻi’s first McDonald’s opened there on November 2, 1968.)  (The Hind Clark Dairy operation occupied the area now used as ʻĀina Haina Shopping Center and ʻĀina Haina Elementary School.)  (Lots of information here from Maly and Cultural Surveys)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

St. Augustine by-the-sea

At the time of the arrival of Europeans in the Hawaiian Islands during the late-eighteenth century, Waikīkī had long been a center of population and political power on Oʻahu.  Starting back in the end of the fourteenth century, Waikīkī had become “the ruling seat of the chiefs of O’ahu,” including Kamehameha, who resided here after conquering Oʻahu in 1795.

In 1819, Kalanimōkū was the first Hawaiian Chief to be formally baptized a Catholic, aboard the French ship Uranie. “The captain and the clergyman asked (John) Young what Ka-lani-moku’s rank was, and upon being told that he was the chief counselor (Kuhina Nui) and a wise, kind, and careful man, they baptized him into the Catholic Church” (Kamakau).  Shortly thereafter, Boki, Kalanimōkū’s brother (and Governor of Oʻahu,) was baptized.

In July 1827, three Sacred Hearts priests and three Sacred Hearts brothers from France arrived in Honolulu to begin the Hawaiian Catholic Mission. The beginnings of the Mission were difficult. They were neither welcomed by the royal government nor by the Protestants already in the Islands.

France, historically a Catholic nation, used its government representatives in Hawaiʻi to protest the mistreatment of Catholic Native Hawaiians. Captain Cyrille-Pierre Théodore Laplace, of the French Navy frigate “Artémise”, sailed into Honolulu Harbor in 1839 to convince the Hawaiian leadership to get along with the Catholics – and the French.  Finally, the persecution ended in June and the kingdom granted religious freedom to all.

With Catholics now free to practice their faith, a small Catholic chapel was built in 1839 in Waikīkī “in the Hawaiian style,” likely consisting of posts and thatch on the beach near the present Kalākaua Avenue.

This chapel was re-built 15 years later (in 1854) at that beach location in Western-style wooden framing (from the lumber of shipwrecked ships.) The size of this chapel was about 20 feet by 40 feet, with a steeple.

Waikīkī continued to grow and improvements to the chapel were made later by putting in flooring, galvanized roofing, and lattice walls. This church site on the beach served its purpose for many years, until the site was exchanged for a piece of land on what is now ʻOhua Avenue.

The chapel was used primarily for devotions; parishioners still had to go to the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace (in downtown Honolulu) for Sunday Mass.

During the Spanish-American War, American soldiers were garrisoned at Kapiʻolani Park (at a temporary Camp McKinley – 1898-1907) and the Catholic soldiers wanted a regular Catholic Mass in Waikīkī, so permission was given for Mass every Sunday. A larger chapel was built to accommodate all the worshippers.

The soldiers left when the war ended, but by that time there was a growing Catholic community in Waikīkī. On August 28, 1901, a more permanent church with lattice-work walls reminiscent of the palm fronds of the first chapel in Waikīkī.

As Waikīkī grew, so did the church; it was expanded twice, in 1910 and then in 1925; but time, a growing population and termites took their toll and by the early-1960s a larger church was needed.

In 1962, the present church was blessed. Designed by local architect George McLaughlin, the design reflects hands folded in prayer. The 20-side stained glass windows depict 15-mysteries of the rosary, the arrival of the missionaries, the first lay catechists (Catholic teachers of the faith) in Hawaiʻi, Father Damien and the bishop receiving the current church.

Today, St Augustine-by-the-Sea Church sits within urban Honolulu at the eastern end of the Waikīkī resort area. It is surrounded by modem urban development and high-rise hotels.

St. Augustine by-the-sea has not undergone any major exterior renovations or improvements since its construction in 1962.  The church recently published a Master Plan and Environmental Assessment for a new multi-purpose Parrish Hall, as well as other improvements.

St. Augustine features a small museum dedicated to the life and times of St. Damien of Molokaʻi. In 1863, his brother, who was to leave for the Hawaiian Islands, became ill and Damien took his place. He arrived in Honolulu on March 19, 1864, and was ordained at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace (in downtown Honolulu) on May 21, 1864.

For the next nine years he worked in missions on the big island, Hawaiʻi. In 1873, he went to the leper colony on Molokaʻi, after volunteering for the assignment.  He announced he was a leper in 1885 and continued to build hospitals, clinics and churches, and some six hundred coffins. He died on April 15 1885, on Molokaʻi.  (Lots of information and images from St. Augustine website and related reports.)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Sea Bathing

Even the most rudimentary plumbing was unknown before Captain Cook’s arrival. The ancient Hawaiians depended on streams and springs for their water supply, sometimes carrying calabashes of water great distances over rugged terrain. They bathed in streams, mountain pools, ʻauwai (irrigation ditches,) shore pools and the sea.  (Schmitt)

In the late-19th Century, Waikīkī’s shoreline was mostly a day-use beach; overnight accommodations were scarce.  Visitors, usually residents of Honolulu, would arrive via horse-drawn carriage, on horseback or in a canoe.  (White)

“The most popular resort of the people of Oʻahu is the famous Waikīkī … Waikīkī is the seaside and pleasure-resort of the island. … There are a number of private residences, picturesque-looking bungalows and cottages, but all airy, comfortable, and close to the murmuring sea. A beautiful grove of towering coconut-trees adds to the tropical charm of the place.”  (Musick, 1898)

“The sea bathing is simply perfection. The water is never chilly; and yet it is most healthful and invigorating. The bottom is of nice smooth sand, always warm and pleasant to the feet. There is no fear of undertow or of any finny monsters. Not only is it pleasant to bathe here during the day, but moonlight bathing is indulged in. … It is a novelty, worth seeing, if not worth trying.  (Whitney, 1895)

Just as “sea bathing” were gaining popularity on the American and European continents, private bathhouses, like the Long Branch Baths, Ilaniwai Baths and Wright’s Villa, began to appear in Waikīkī.  (White)

“Bath-houses that equal those in Long Branch (New Jersey) are found here, and sea-bathing in January is as pleasant as in July. There is no clearer water, no finer beach, no smoother bottom in any of the many famous watering-places than are found at Waikīkī.”  (Musick, 1898)

Bathhouses served customers with bathing suits and towel rentals, dressing rooms and each access to the beach. Initially, bathhouses served only day-use recreation of visitors, but eventually some of them began to offer overnight rooms.

One of the first of these bathhouses was the “Long Branch Baths,” named after a popular New Jersey resort. This long wooden shed was built near the edge of ‘Āpuakēhau Stream by James Dodd in 1881 at the former residence of Kākuhihewa.  (CulturalSurveys)

“There are now forty two dressing rooms for gentlemen and eighteen boudoirs for ladies. To these accommodations will be added a bathing platform 100-feet along the beach by 80-feet wide and a trapeze and spring board attached. There will also be a restaurant and when the whole is finished we may expect to have occasionally to report aquatic feats of considerable magnitude.”    (Hawaiian Gazette, May 28, 1889)

At that time, the Waikīkī beach area in Ulukou and Kahaloa was dotted with small cottages and some bathing houses. These “bathing houses,” placed strategically near the beach, were places where people could change into their bathing suits, rent towels, and walk directly into the ocean.  (CulturalSurveys)

“At “Long Branch Baths” the bather may find deep water and at a temperature which will surprise him, permitting a two or more, hours enjoyment in plunging and bathing in the pure waters. Here sun and sand baths may be indulged in.”  (Godfrey, 1898)

Dodd, who also ran a livery station, also offered round trip ‘omnibus’ mule-drawn bus service from Honolulu to Waikīkī, which included the use of the Long Branch.

Another attraction was a 200-foot long marine toboggan, where “for a nickel, riders could climb a ladder to the top of the run, mount a ‘star oval board’, zip down the chute and ricochet across the water …, skipping along like a flat pebble.” This toboggan was built on the west side of the bathhouse in 1889 by Jim Sherwood, a later owner of the Long Branch Bathhouse.

“The toboggan itself is a wooden frame with a turn up end upon which the bather reclines and the pleasure is in the swiftness of motion over the chute.  When the bather reaches the water his toboggan skips on the surface for some distance from fifty to one hundred feet in proportion to the momentum acquired in the descent and then he has to swim ashore and propel his toboggan to a landing.”  (Hawaiian Gazette, May 28, 1889)

During the 1870s and 1880s, Honolulu residents in growing numbers went out to enjoy the sea bathing at Waikīkī.  Local writers spoke of it as the Long Branch, Newport, Brighton or Trouville of Hawaiʻi.  (Kuykendall)

In 1875 or earlier, Allen Herbert proprietor of the Hawaiian Hotel in Honolulu, “provided a cottage at the sea-shore at Waikīkī … where guests can go and spend the day, or merely enjoy a morning or evening bath in the ocean.”

Apparently this was only a beach house and not a hotel for overnight accommodation of guests; it is uncertain how long the arrangement continued.  (Kuykendall)

The first hotels in Waikīkī were bathhouses, such as the Long Branch Baths, began to offer rooms for overnight stays in the 1880s.  The first beachside hotel, the Park Beach, was a converted home which offered 10 rooms, each equipped with a bath and telephone.

As time passed, more found their way into the district, at first as visitors to enjoy the beach and the sea bathing, and then as residents, especially when access was made easier by the construction of a road (sometime in the 1860s.)

Toward the end of that decade an omnibus began running to Waikīkī, providing the only public transportation to that resort until the tramcar line reached there at the beginning of 1889. (Kuykendall)

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Royal Hawaiian Hotel

The first Royal Hawaiian Hotel was not in Waikīkī.  It was in downtown Honolulu where the “One Capitol District” building now stands.  By the 1900s, the Royal Hawaiian lost its guests to the newer Alexander Young hotel a few blocks away.

The downtown Royal Hawaiian was converted to a YMCA building in 1917.  The building was demolished in 1926, and a new YMCA in a similar style was built in its place.

For centuries, Helumoa in Waikīkī was the home to Hawaiʻi’s royalty.  Portions of this area would eventually become the home to the new Royal Hawaiian Hotel.

In the 1890s, the property was leased as a seaside annex to the downtown Royal Hawaiian Hotel located at Richards and Hotel streets.

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.

This was the time before flight; Matson Navigation Co. had luxury ocean liners bringing wealthy tourists to Hawaii – but, they needed a hotel equally lavish to accommodate their passengers at Waikīkī (at that time, the 650 passengers arriving in Honolulu every two weeks were typically staying at Hawaiʻi’s two largest hotels, the Alexander Hotel and the Moana.)

The availability of the Waikīkī land began putting wheels into motion.  A new hotel was planned and conceived as a luxurious resort for Matson passengers, the brainchild of Ed Tenney (who headed the “big five” firm of Castle and Cooke and Matson Navigation) and Matson manager William Roth (son-in-law to William Matson founder of Matson Navigation.)

Castle & Cooke, Matson Navigation and the Territorial Hotel Company successfully proposed a plan to build a luxury hotel, The Royal Hawaiian, with 400 rooms on the 15-acre parcel of Waikiki beach to be leased from Bishop Estate.

The ground-breaking ceremony took place on July 26, 1925.  However, the official building permits were delayed while city officials changed the building code to allow increased building heights.  After $4 million and 18 months, the resort was completed.

On February 1, 1927, the Royal Hawaiian (nicknamed The Pink Palace) was officially opened with the gala event of the decade.  At the same time, and associated with the hotel, the Territorial Hotel Co opened the Waiʻalae Golf Course.

Duke Kahanamoku, the legendary Olympic swimmer and surfer, frequented the Royal Hawaiian Hotel restaurants and private beachfront. The Royal Hawaiian Hotel became a favorite stomping ground for Kahanamoku’s famed group, dubbed the “Waikiki Beach Boys”.

Over the following decades, the Royal Hawaiian was THE place to stay and the Pink Palace hosted world celebrities, financiers, heads of state and the elite from around the world.

World War II, with its associated martial law and blackout measures, meant significant changes at the Royal Hawaiian.  In January of 1942, the U.S. Navy signed a lease with the Royal Hawaiian to use the facilities as a rest and relaxation center for officers and enlisted personnel serving in the Pacific.

During the war, over 200,000 men stayed at the Royal Hawaiian. Each day as many as 5,500 service-related visitors (most of who were not staying at the hotel) passed through the front gates to enjoy the beach or social activities.

At the conclusion of World War II, the hotel was given a makeover to restore her to the level of luxury her guests would expect.

ITT Sheraton purchased The Royal Hawaiian from Matson in June 1959.  The Royal Tower Wing was added to the existing structure in 1969.  The resort was sold in 1974 to Kyo-ya Company, Ltd., with Starwood Hotels & Resorts operating it under a long-term management contract.

In 2008, the Royal Hawaiian again underwent significant renovation (to the tune of $85-million) and held its official grand reopening on March 7, 2009.  The Tower section was renovated yet again in November 2010 and reopened as The Royal Beach Tower with upgraded rooms.

Why the color pink?  Bob Krauss once reported that the Royal Hawaiian’s pink color is due to the typically pink-painted homes in Lisbon, Portugal.

Friends of William Roth (Kimo and Sarah Wilder) had visited Lisbon and upon returning repainted their home pink with blue-green shutters.  Roth commented, “I love what you’ve done to your house. Can I paint my hotel the same color?”

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