YMCA

November 9, 2018 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Black Cat Cafe

“During the 1930s, the thousands of young men who joined the military service and sailed to the Hawaiian Islands for duty considered themselves fortunate indeed to receive such a choice assignment.”

“They enjoyed the beautiful beaches, lush foliage, and year-round pleasant climate that characterized “the Paradise of the Pacific” but, at the same time, they also served as the first line of defense for the United States.”

“On payday, it was the first sergeant who sat with the pay officer at a desk in the day room and called out the names of assembled personnel, one at a time.”

“As his name was called, each man stepped up, saluted the pay officer, repeated his own name, received his pay in cash, saluted again, did an about face, and left the room.”

“The pay in those days was $21 a month for privates, and from that amount 25 cents went to the Old Soldiers Home and $1.50 to the quartermaster laundry. After receiving what was left, the men normally had the rest of the day off.”

“If they wanted to go to Honolulu, a bus ride cost ten cents and taxi fare was a quarter. The bus line ended at the Army and Navy YMCA on Hotel Street in downtown Honolulu where a taxi depot was conveniently located so military members could take cabs to other areas.”

“Across the street was the famous Black Cat Cafe, a favorite hangout for off-duty soldiers and sailors. A Coney Island atmosphere prevailed there, with hot dogs, hamburgers, sea food, slot machines, and various other concessions.” (Arakaki & Kuborn)

“Throughout the afternoon and evening … buses and rattletrap taxis raced down the two-lane highway connecting Pearl Harbor and Honolulu, past the wrecks of similar taxis, and by sunset, a white river of sailors was flowing down Hotel Street.” (Clarke)

“On weekends, the streets of Honolulu were jammed with sailors. Here you will see one location that was popular for its cheap but good food.”

“Nowhere was the hustle and bustle greater than at the Black Cat Café. Ideally situated across from the Armed Forces YMCA at the corner of Hotel and Richards streets, the Cat provided the men with food, slot machines, and various other types of entertainment.”

“One very popular concession was the photo gallery where they could pose for photographs with “hula girls” to send to their families as souvenirs.”

“But for servicemen the food at the Cat was the major draw and after the war it was one of the most fondly recalled pleasures of their time in the Islands.”

“Prices were rock-bottom — the menu in 1941 listed hot dogs for 10 cents, hamburgers for 15 cents, a roast turkey dinner for 50 cents, and the most expensive item was the porterhouse steak with mushrooms for a dollar.” (USS Helena)

“(T)he bar most favored by servicemen. Many said it was the best joint to buy cheap beer and whiskey after working out at the YMCA across the street and before going in search of women.” (Knotts)

“But for servicemen the food at the Cat was the major draw and after the war it was one of the most fondly recalled pleasures of their time in the Islands.” (USS Helena)

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Black Cat Cafe Honolulu, HI 1939

Black Cat-ArizonaLibrary

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Black-Cat

Soldiers and sailors lined up at a business near the bus depot and taxi stand. Building with the gabled facade is the Black Cat-PP-39-6-001

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Black Cat-menu-1941

Black Cat-menu-1943

February 2, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

The Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) was founded in London, England, on June 6, 1844, in response to unhealthy social conditions arising in the big cities at the end of the Industrial Revolution (roughly 1750 to 1850).

Growth of the railroads and centralization of commerce and industry brought many rural young men who needed jobs into cities like London. They worked 10 to 12 hours a day, six days a week.

George Williams came to London 20 years later as a sales assistant in a draper’s shop, a forerunner of today’s department store. He and a group of fellow drapers organized the first YMCA to substitute Bible study and prayer for life on the streets.

The YMCA idea, which began among evangelicals, was unusual because it crossed the rigid lines that separated all the different churches and social classes in England in those days.

This openness was a trait that would lead eventually to including in YMCAs all men, women and children, regardless of race, religion or nationality. Also, its target of meeting social need in the community was dear from the start. (YMCA)

By 1851 there were 24 Ys in Great Britain, with a combined membership of 2,700. That same year the Y arrived in North America: It was established in Montreal on November 25, and in Boston on December 29. (YMCA)

“One of the most interesting foreign YMCA’s of this period was that of Honolulu formed … by ten young Americans, (including) the Association’s first president, Sanford B. Dole”. (Hopkins)

“In Spring 1869 in Honolulu, three friends met at Peter Cushman Jones’s home and decided to form the Young Men’s Christian Association of Honolulu.”

“In the first year, many community leaders joined the YMCA Honolulu, including Sanford B. Dole, Theo H. Davies, and Samuel M. Damon.” (UH)

“The ‘Young Men’s Christian Association,’ of Honolulu, appears to have started in to do a good work. They have fitted up the room up-stairs in the Sailors’ Home building, in neat and convenient style.”

“A card in a prominent place, informs us that ‘This room is free to all; it is supported by the voluntary contributions of the Citizens of Honolulu, and Is under the management of the Young Men’s Christian Association. Visitors are requested not to smoke in the room, and not to take away newspapers or magazines.’”

“There, we have given our young men, who appear to be in earnest in their desire to improve themselves and brother men, this notice, and only hope that their enterprise will prove a success.” (Hawaiian Gazette, September 29, 1869)

“(I)n 1876 a Chinese YMCA was organized for the immigrants of that period. It did a notable work.” (Hopkins)

During the first twelve years, YMCA Honolulu operated with no building or paid employee. Then, a building was built, and the first paid secretary started working. (UH)

On February 4, 1882, the Privy Council addressed, “A petition by Henry Waterhouse and others for a Charter of Incorporation for the Young Men’ s Christian Association of Honolulu … On motion of Mr. Castle, it was voted that the Privy Council recommend that the Charter be granted.” (Privy Council, February 4, 1882)

Later that year, the foundation for a building generally referred to as ‘YMCA Hall’ was laid on a lot the purchased the year before at Hotel and Alakea streets in downtown Honolulu (makai of Hotel and Ewa of Alakea). (Papacostas)

“During the next decade, work for Japanese was inaugurated; the program for native Hawaiians was also kept separate from that for Americans.”

“A secretary of the Honolulu Association was recruited in 1885 by H. J. McCoy, the aggressive San Francisco secretary, who visited the Islands in that year.” (Hopkins)

“From 1887 to 1922, Hawaii newspapers ran the ‘YMCA Notes,’ which reported the local YMCA news, including club meetings and events (e.g. preparing for boy summer camp). The content would usually fit in one to two columns and appear in a middle page of the newspaper.” (UH)

“In the mid-1890s the Honolulu YMCA published a paper, held religious services at the barracks, admitted women to membership—two of whom carried on the boys’ work program—and reported a YMCA among the lepers of Molokai.”

“This unusual Association was a remarkable example of what occurred when the YMCA idea was carried to a foreign shore by American emigrants.” (Hopkins)

Today, the YMCA of Honolulu is one of the largest non-profit organizations in the state. Every year, more than 100,000 individuals are served in a variety of programs.

YMCA programs and services are open to children, teens, women and men of all ages, faiths and backgrounds. In all programs, the core values of caring, honesty, respect and responsibility are promoted.

Programs and services center around three areas of focus: Youth Development, Healthy Living and Social Responsibility.

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YMCA Building

YMCA Hall

December 28, 2016 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Basket Ball

“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.

At his wits’ end, Naismith recalled a childhood game, that he had referred to as “Duck on a Rock”, that required players to use finesse and accuracy to become successful. (SONAHR)

Gulick and Naismith developed the game we now call Basketball. The first formal game was played on December 29, 1891.

That day, 18 men at the School for Christian Workers (later the International YMCA Training School, now Springfield College) in Springfield, Massachusetts played a match in the Armory Street court: 9-versus-9, using a soccer ball and two peach baskets. (SONAHR)

“A major force in the early development of the sport, Gulick oversaw Naismith’s creation of the game, led basketball’s move to the national and international level, and in 1895 became the chairman of the Basketball Rules Organization.”

“Among his other achievements, Gulick developed the YMCA triangle symbol (signifying the YMCA’s physical, emotional, and intellectual pursuits that still remain today), served on the Olympic Committee for the London Games in 1908 …”

“… and is credited with forming such notable youth organizations as the Public School Athletic Leagues (PSAL) in New York, the Boy Scouts and the Camp Fire Girls.” (Basketball Hall of Fame)

Luther Halsey 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.

Young Luther spent the first fifteen years of his life abroad in Hawai‘i, Spain, Italy and Japan. Upon return to the US in 1880, he enrolled in the preparatory department of Oberlin College until 1882.

Luther was enrolled in Hanover High School in Hanover, New Hampshire, from 1882 to 1883. In 1884, he returned to Oberlin, where he studied physical education.

However, plagued throughout his life with heart problems and chronic headaches, Gulick had to leave Oberlin due to illness in 1885. He resumed his education the same year, however, when he joined the Sargent School of Physical Training, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

The following year, Gulick became a student at the Medical College at the City University of New York where he was awarded the MD in 1889. He married Charlotte Emily Vetter on August 30, 1887. Together they had six children, Louise, Frances, Charlotte, Katharine, Luther, and John Halsey.

Throughout his life and career, Luther Halsey Gulick was greatly interested in physical education and hygiene. He also kept himself intensely busy.

While pursuing his medical degree between 1886 and 1889, he began his career as the physical director of the Jackson, Michigan YMCA in 1886.

In 1887, Gulick became head of the gymnasium department of the Young Men’s Christian Education’s Springfield Training School. It was there, in 1891, that the game of basketball was created. (Winter)

“He was recognized as an authority upon physical training in the public schools and the author of many books on this subject. A series of lectures at the St Louis Exposition in 1904 won him international recognition as an expert in such matters.”

“He was Chairman of the international Committee on Physical Recreation of the War Work Council of the YMCA until he had to give it up on account pf his health.” (NYTimes)

Luther’s sibling Edward Leeds Gulick and his wife Harriet Marie Gulick settled in Vermont and started the “Aloha Camp” there in 1905.

Fifteen years before women were allowed to vote, when floor length skirts and lace up boots were mandatory for playing any sport; when popular conduct books for girls encouraged a “retiring delicacy” …

… and declared that “one of the most valuable things you can learn is how to become a good housewife” – Harriet and Edward Gulick created a world in which every girl could discover her most adventurous self.

Aloha Camp afforded young women the knowledge, skills and freedom to explore wild nature on foot and on horseback, by skiff and by canoe; to kindle campfires in the woods and cook meals in the open air; to pitch tents over rough ground and sleep out of doors under the stars.

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Basketbal-equipment used in 1892

Naismith with what is believed to be the first US Basketball Team

James Naismith-Canadian physical education instructor who with Luther Gulick invented basketball in 1891

July 19, 2012 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Mauka-Ewa Corner of Richards and Hotel Streets

I wasn’t sure what to call this post. It includes a little bit of history and is essentially a discussion of the evolution of the site and building that now houses the Hawai‘i State Art Museum.

The uses evolved from scattered homes to the Hawaiian Hotel to the Armed Forces YMCA to Hemmeter Corporation headquarters to No. 1 Capitol District Building, and now to the Hawai‘i State Art Museum and State offices.

Here’s a little bit of history.

Back in the mid-1800s, the growth of steamship travel between Hawai‘i and the West Coast of the United States, Australia and New Zealand caused a large increase in the number of visitors to the islands.

The arrival and departure of Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain,) the Duke of Edinburgh and others included envoys, politicians, merchants and opportunists, created the need of good hotel accommodations to lodge similar visitors.

The Hawaiian Hotel was proposed in 1865, but not laid down until 1871. The Hotel was located on the Mauka-Ewa corner of Hotel Street and Richards Street and was formally opened by a ball on February 29, 1872.

The Hawaiian Hotel was later called the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, because King Kamehameha V felt adding “Royal” to the name would give it regal feel.

Therefore, first “Royal Hawaiian Hotel” was not in Waikīkī;l rather, it was in downtown Honolulu (the later one, in Waikīki, opened over fifty years later, in 1928.)

In 1879, the Royal Hawaiian Hotel was surrounded by dwellings, including several thatched-roof hale, but the hotel expanded over the next twenty years and replaced most of the residences.

Reportedly, Kalākaua kept a suite there; the Paradise of the Pacific noted it was “one of the coolest buildings in the city.” (I’m not sure that this is the same “cool” that I refer to as “waaay cool.”)

By 1900, the last dwellings and a doctor’s office were located on the corner of Beretania and Richards Streets. These were all gone by 1914.

In November 1917, the Royal Hawaiian Hotel was purchased by a group of local businessmen and became the official headquarters of the Armed Services YMCA in Hawai‘i.

In 1926, the hotel was demolished and the present building was constructed. The Army and Navy YMCA building was erected on the site of the former Royal Hawaiian Hotel in 1927.

Through the middle of the century, the downtown “Y” was a popular destination for service men from all branches of the military.

By the mid-1970s, an increasing number of junior enlisted personnel were married with children.

The Armed Services YMCA responded to the changing needs of the military by opening family centers at Aliamanu Military Reservation, Iroquois Point Housing, Marine Corps Base Hawaii-Kaneohe, Wheeler/Schofield and Tripler Army Medical Center.

The building was rehabilitated in the late-1980s by Hemmeter Corporation, when it was renamed No. 1 Capitol District Building.

This remodeled office complex became the Hemmeter Corporation Building. After completion in 1988, the historic building served as Hemmeter Headquarters for several years.

Hemmeter Design Group earned national awards for the redevelopment of the historic YMCA building in downtown Honolulu.

Today, the Hawai’i State Art Museum (managed by the Hawai’i State Foundation on Culture and the Arts) and several State offices are housed in the historic Spanish-Mission style building.

The Hawai‘i State Art Museum opened in the fall of 2002. The museum is located on the second floor of the No. 1 Capitol District Building.

The museum houses three galleries featuring (and serves as the principal venue for) artworks from the Art in Public Places Collection.

The image shows the No. 1 Capitol District Building. In addition, I have added some related images and maps in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook page.

http://www.facebook.com/peter.t.young.hawaii