Lei Day, officially launched in 1928, is a popular festival in Hawai`i. Don Blanding, then a columnist for the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, came up with the idea, later saying that at the time Hawai`i had no day that was special. Why not have a Lei Day – a day when everyone could wear lei and give lei? Grace Tower Warren, another columnist, suggested May 1st would be the perfect day. Coincidentally, she came up with the slogan: May Day is Lei Day in Hawai`i.

Princess Helen Kawananākoa, approved, saying “the nicest part of Lei Day is that it brings kamaainas together again.”

The Honolulu Star Bulletin reported that the new event took off. “Lei blossomed on straw and felt hats, lei decorated automobiles, men and women and children wore them draped about their shoulders.”

Even Governor Judd caught the spirit. The following year he urged residents to “observe the day and honor the traditions of Hawaii nei by wearing and displaying lei.”

Leonard Hawk wrote a song for the new holiday, one that perpetuates the theme. “May Day is Lei Day in Hawaii” was written as a foxtrot, though now the music is adapted to hula. You can sing along with King Nawahi’s Hawaiians.

MODERN LEI DAY CELEBRATIONS

The City and County of Honolulu holds an Annual Lei Day Celebration at Kapi`olani Park to celebrate lei and the artistry of Hawai`i’s lei makers. This year’s theme is Lei `Aloha Kea – The brilliant white lei, the platinum of kupuna. Charlene Leimomi Irvine is the 90th Lei Queen. She has two princesses in her Court: First Princess Helen Mealoha Yuk Jun Kuoha-Torco and Princess Sharon Rose Marie Au-Curtis. Free lei-making workshops have been held throughout O`ahu with participants encouraged to enter the Lei Competition on Lei Day.

Lei Day is celebrated at many Hawai`i public schools, especially at the elementary level. Each year a boy and girl from the graduating class is voted to represent each island. Children construct paper leis and cardboard mats to sit on during the festivities. When Lei Day arrives, the royal court marches in costume to preside over events. Family and friends are invited to watch students sing songs from Hawai`i and other parts of Polynesia and perform dances. Besides hula, there may be the Maori poi dance, Filipino stick dance, and Samoan slap dances. Relay races are often part of the event

Lei Day is a joyful event. A time to relax with friends and share aloha. When a lei is made, the mana of the creator is woven into the flowers. Thus, when you give lei, you give a part of yourself. When you receive lei, you receive part of the person who created it.

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Princess Helen Kawananākoa quoted in Leilehua Yuen. “May Day is Lei Day in Hawai`i.” Ke Ola. May-June 2016.

Quotations from the Honolulu Star-Bulletin taken from “May Day is Lei Day in Hawaii.” Perfect Days Hawaii.

Illustrations from Wikimedia Commons:

Leis by Janine. Creative Commons Attribution.

Princess Abigail Helen Kawanākoa. Public Domain.

Lei Day Hawaii by Charles W. Bartett. Hand Colored Etching. Public Domain.

Eight strand Lei Niihau, Bishop Museum. By Heart. Creative Commons Attribution.

Still Life with Ilima Lei and Coconut by Helen Whitney Kelley. Watercolor. Public Domain.

For More Information:

Hundreds Turn Out for 89th Annual Lei Day Celebration. KITV. May 1, 2016

Lei Day Celebration. City and County of Honolulu.

Lyrics: May Day is Lei Day in Hawaii. Squareone

Cara Fasone. May Day in Hawaii. Hawaiian Culture Stories.

Marie Tutko. May Day is Lei Day in Hawaii. Kings Hawaiian. April 29, 2013.

Nina Wu. “Honolulu’s 90th Lei Queen and Court Crowned.” Honolulu Star-Advertiser. Mar. 5, 2018.

The post MAY DAY IS LEI DAY IN HAWAI`I first appeared on Sandra Wagner-Wright.

Kilauea Lodge began its life as a YMCA camp called Hale O Aloha. Built in 1938, the camp served boys from all over the Territory of Hawaii who explored terrain at nearby Kīlauea Volcano and returned to sleep in dormitories after taking their meals and enjoying the fireplace at the lodge.

And not just any fireplace. Looking like the boys could enter at any moment, the Fireplace of Friendship continues to intrigue guests. Harold Lucas, YMCA camp director, came up with the idea of bringing together stones, coins and artifacts from around the world.

Within the fireplace are a poi pounder, dinosaur vertebrae, exotic minerals including an entire quartz embedded with gold. There’s a Mexican opal, over five hundred coins, and a substantial section of a petrified wood log at the top.

In October 1938 T. A. Jaggar, president of the local YMCA, and some young campers lit the first fire laid with driftwood from all the islands. Four hundred guests came for the momentous occasion.

The camp continued until the 1960 tsunami destroyed the Hilo YMCA structure. The organization sold the camp to finance a new facility, and Virginia and Bill Dicks opened the Volcano Lodge Restaurant as a lunch shop featuring “mile high pie.” With Volcano Road directly in front of the lodge, the restaurant did a good business until Māmalahoa Highway bypassed the older road. Business fell. The Dicks sold the property to Albert and Lorna Jeyte in 1986.

After extensive renovation, Kilauea Lodge opened in 1988, Dormitories became guest suites, and Albert learned to cook. The Jeytes made Kilauea Lodge a local landmark, and a popular place for visitors to Volcano National Park a mile up the highway to stay.

At some point in the near future, Kilauea Lodge will open a new chapter in it’s history. The property has been for sale since 2014 with an asking price of $5.2 million.

The next day, I was off to Volcanos National Park, a magical place that I imagine might be like middle earth. There’s rain forest and lava fields. Native birdsong and invasive Himalayan ginger to pull.

My first stop was the Thomas A. Jaggar Museum named after the founder of Hawaiian Volcano Observatory located at the same site.
The observatory began in 1912 as a joint effort of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Hawaiian Volcano Research Association, a group of Honolulu businessmen who funded the project. Jaggar served as director until 1940.

The observatory moved to its current location on Uwekahuna Bluff next to the museum in 1986. The surrounding walkway looks directly over the Southwest Rift Zone.
After drinking in the view, I drove back to the turn-off for Chain of Craters Road. The nineteen mile road winds from the mountain to the sea. In the first phase the drive wends through rainforest with birdsong in the air. As it climbs above the rainforest on a clear day, the sun gets hotter and the terrain more stark. As the road began its descent to the sea, I decided to return to Volcano for lunch at Cafe Ono.

Cafe Ono is part of Volcano Garden Arts, presided over by Ira Ono. The small cafe features vegetarian food in pleasant, friendly surroundings.

The immediate grounds seem whimsical with large porcelain tea pots flanking a pathway to adventure.

After lunch I went back to Kilauea Lodge for some reading and once again chuckled at the sign asking drivers to slow down to avoid the Senior Cat.

The next day I drove back to Hilo, refreshed and exhilarated from my visit up the mountain.

Hawai`i Volcanos National Park

Kilauea Lodge.com

Jaggar Museum & Overlook

Michael Brestovansky. “Undisclosed Buyer Eyes Kilauea Lodge” Hawaii Tribune Herald. Oct 10, 2017. A5

Tom Calls. “Inn Owners Bowing Out: Kilauea Lodge for Sale.” Hawaii Tribune Herald. December 14, 2914.

Alan McNarie. “Kilauea Lodge Then and Now.” Ke Ola Magazine. Nov/Dec 2014. 13-18.

Devany Vickery-Davidson. “Enchanted Gardens of Ira Ono.” Ke Ola Magazine. Jan/Feb 2011.

The post Getaway to Volcano, Hawai`i first appeared on Sandra Wagner-Wright.

In 1873 Father Damien accepted a call to serve people who lived with Hansen’s Disease on an isolated peninsula called Kalaupapa on the island of Moloka`i. Father Damien spent the rest of his life serving St. Philomina Catholic Church, building houses, schools, and hospitals, caring for patients and dressing their wounds, making coffins, digging graves, sharing food and his pipe — and taking no particular precautions to preserve his health.

Hansen’s Disease was detected in Hawai`i as early as the 1830s. Fearing further spread of the disease the 1864 Legislature passed “An Act to Prevent the Spread of Leprosy” authorizing the Board of Health to establish a receiving hospital to examine suspected cases and an isolation settlement for those patients confirmed to have the disease.
The Kalihi Hospital and Detention Stations opened in 1865. The first group of patients arrived at Kalawao in 1866. In 1872 there were 385 residents

Father Damien arrived in Hawai`i from Belgium in 1865 and served on the Big Island. In 1873 he learned priests were needed at Kalaupapa. He and three other priests volunteered to go in succession. Damien arrived first and never left the island.

Damien was not the first to serve at Kalaupapa. There had been other priests, Mormon elders, and during the early years patients’ family and friends went as Kokua (helpers).

Damien lived with his flock. He conversed with them in Hawaiian. He constantly badgered the Kingdom of Hawai`i and the Catholic church for more resources.

In 1886 Father Joseph Dutton arrived to assist Damien. Two years later Mother Marianne Cope came with two sisters from the Order of St. Francis. Their arrival was timely. Damien contracted leprosy and the disease took its course. On April 15, 1889 Father Damien died, and was buried in the churchyard of St. Philomina.

But Damien’s story wasn’t over. Both his body and spirit would travel beyond what Damien himself could have imagined.

In 1936 Damien’s remains were transferred to Belgium. In 1995 the remains of Damien’s right hand came back to Hawai`i as a relic.

In 1977 Damien began the path to sainthood when Pope Paul VI declared him “Venerable.” Pope John Paul II beatified Damien in 1995 and granted the Blessed Damien a Memorial Feast Day on May 10.

On October 11, 2009 Pope Benedict XVI declared Father Damien to be a Saint.

FATHER DAMIEN DAY

In Hawai`i Father Damien is celebrated on the day of this death, April 15. The statue by Marisol Exocobar is covered in lei. It is a day of remembrance.

St. Damien’s symbols are the tree and the dove. He is the spiritual patron of people living with HIV.

Father Damien of Molokai – Hawaii’s First Saint

by Heidi Chang, 2011

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In 1969 Marisol Excobar’s statue of Father Damien was unveiled at the State Capital. There is a duplicate statue in the National Statuary Hall Collection in Washington D. C.

Illustrations from Wikimedia Commons.

Father Damien in 1873 when he went to Molokai. US Public Domain.

Kalaupapa Leper Colony in 1905. Public Domain.

St. Philomena Roman Catholic Church Molokai. Public Domain.

Father Damien’s Funeral Procession on Moloka`i. U.S. Public Domain.

Crypt of Father Damien in Leuven, Belgium. By FaceMePLS. Creative Commons Attribution.

Father Damien’s gravesite on Molokai`i. Public Domain.

Father Damien statue at Hawai`i State Capital Building covered in Lei for Father Damien Day. By Daniel Ramirez. Creative Commons Attribution.

Video: Father Damien of Molokai – Hawaii’s First Saint by Heidi Chang. 2011.

For More Information:
Father Damien. National Park Service.

About Hansen’s Disease. National Park Service.

Kerri A. Inglis. Ma`i Lepera: Disease and Displacement in Nineteenth-Century Hawai`i. Honolulu: University of Hawai`i Press. 2013.

Ralph S. Kuykendall. The Hawaiian Kingdom. Vol. 2. Honolulu: University Press of Hawai`i. 1978.

The post FATHER DAMIEN – HAWAI`I’S FIRST SAINT first appeared on Sandra Wagner-Wright.

Liliuokalani Gardens sit on 30 acres on the Waiaikea Peninsula of Hilo Bay. Within that acreage is a 17 acre Japanese Garden designed in the Edo Style. The original plan for the gardens envisioned a “strip of land that stretches in front of the kerosene oil warehouse and on to the harbor line bordering Coconut Island.” The kerosene oil warehouse is long gone, but Coconut Island, now connected to the Gardens by a bridge, extends the area.

The 1917 Report from the Legislative Committee on Public Lands described the area as one that “After and careful consideration we find that the object of the bill is to provide a park in the suburbs of the City of Hilo where can be constructed gardens surrounding silvery lakes and about rock-bound inlets of the sea of great beauty on the order of Japanese landscape gardening that will add greatly to the beauty of this approach to the city and further the txt land desired is of little value for other purposes.”

In 1917 Queen Liliuokalani dedicated the Gardens to Japanese immigrants who came to Hawai`i to work on the sugar plantations.

Interest in Japanese garden design for public spaces in Hawai`i may have begun with a 1914 visit to Japan by people from Hawai`i with an interest in economic development and beautification projects.

The Japanese Garden is said to be the largest Edo style garden outside of Japan. The central water feature is Waihonu Pond which is surrounded by foot bridges, traditional gazebos, weeping willows, azaleas and a bamboo grove. A traditional Japanese tea house called Shoran is also on the grounds. The 15th Grand Tea Master of Urasenki donated the tea room. The Urasenki Hilo Association conducts tea ceremony classes here in both Japanese and English.

In honor of the United States Centennial Celebration, a traditional rock garden joined other garden features.

Liliuokalani Gardens is the center for numerous community events, including the annual Queen Liliuokalani Festival honoring the monarch’s birthday in September. The one day festival opens with the presentation of ho`okupu with members in attendance from the Queen Liliuokalani Trust, the Royal Order of Kamehameha, the Ka`ahumanu Society, Hale o Na Ali`i and hula halau.

The festival itself features hundreds of hula dancers dancing in unison, taiko drumming, musicians, crafts, and food.

To give you a sense of what the festival is like, I’ve included a video by Big Island Video News from the 2008 Festival

But on a quiet morning, the festival seems far away. And the road into Liliuokalani Gardens beckons walkers to begin their day.

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Photos by Author. All Rights Reserved.

Stephanie Salazar. “Queen Liliuokalani Festival Held in Hilo.” Big Island Video News. Sept. 20, 2012.

Dave Smith. “Group Preparing for Liliuokalani Garden’s Centennial”. Big Island Now. April 24, 2013.

The post Liliuokalani Gardens: An Oasis in Time first appeared on Sandra Wagner-Wright.

Days of Grace: California Artist Grace Hudson in Hawai’i introduced me to an artist who achieved commercial success with her portraits of native peoples in California and Hawai`i. Grace’s interest in art and ethnography came naturally. Her parents were deeply interested in the Pomo Indians near their home in Uziah, California. They were also talented photographers.

About 1890 Grace married Dr John Wilz Hudson who encouraged her to focus her work on the nearby Pomo Indians

Grace’s first professional portrait, National Thorn, was exhibited at the 1891 Minneapolis Industrial Exposition.

By 1895 Grace had become so successful, John was able to give up medicine to develop his own interests in archeology and ethnography. Unfortunately the stress of producing enough saleable art began to affect Grace’s mental and physical health. She was exhausted, anxious, and unable to sleep soundly. On the advice of friends, Grace and John concluded she would be able to recover in Honolulu. She would travel alone.

Grace arrived in Honolulu on January 2, 1901 and took up residence at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel on the corner of Hotel and Richards Streets. With letters of introduction and the connections she had made aboard the Zealandia out of San Francisco, Grace quickly became part of Honolulu’s social and art scene.

Grace called this portrait Emma Square after the park near her hotel. It was a popular place for lei sellers. Grace wrote that one of the lei sellers had taken a fancy to her, but whether she was the subject of Grace’s portrait remains unknown.

In June Grace traveled to Hilo aboard the Kinau, a vessel she referred to as an “evil smelling craft.” Initially Grace stayed at the Hilo Hotel. She briefly relocated to Volcano House and then returned to Hilo where she began painting.

One of the pictures begun in Hilo was Punahele which was shown at Grace’s October art exhibition at the Pacific Hardware Company in Honolulu. The portrait was well-received and later shown at the 1909 Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition in Seattle.

In 1901 Hilo was a pretty quiet town, and though Grace found plenty of subjects for painting, she missed the social life in Honlulu. She returned to the Royal Hawaiian Hotel in August, later moving to the hotel’s annex in Waikīkī which featured cottages with seaside amenities. In Waikīkī Grace encountered the model for Aloha.

Grace didn’t assign a title to this portrait in her painting diary, but the custom made frame is embossed with the name ‘Aloha.’ Grace gave the portrait to her husband. There were only three paintings that remained in the Hudson household until their deaths. Aloha was one of them.

Grace arrived back in San Francisco on November 16, 1901. She was rested, had a new enthusiasm for her art, and was apparently happy to return to her husband.

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Featured Image: Grace Hudson. U.S. Public Domain. Wikimedia Commons

Photos:

John & Grace Hudson. U.S. Public Domain. Wikimedia Commons.

Paintings:

National Thorn by Grace Hudson, 1891.

Emma Square by Grace Hudson, 1901.

Punahele by Grace Hudson, 1901.

Aloha by Grace Hudson, 1901.

All paintings in U.S. Public Domain. Wikimedia Commons.
Days of Grace: California Artist Grace Hudson in Hawai’i. Honolulu Museum of Art.

Grace Hudson Museum and Sun House.

Women Artists in Hawai`i 1900-1950. Honolulu Museum of Art. 

Karen Holmes & Sherri Smith-Ferri. Days of Grace: California Artist Grace Hudson in Hawaii. Ukiah CA: Grace Hudson Museum & Sun House. 2014.

The post Days of Grace first appeared on Sandra Wagner-Wright.

The Honolulu Museum of Art is an oasis in busy Honolulu. The institution was founded by Anna Rice Cooke. She and her husband Charles Montegue Cooke collected art. Eventually the collection outgrew their home on Beretania Street and Anna decided to establish an art museum on the site. She wanted it to be multi-cultural to reflect Hawai`i’s people.

Whenever I travel to Honolulu, I hope there will be enough time for me to stop at the museum to view the current exhibitions. Last week I viewed a display on Harajuku – Tokyo Street Fashion. You can see the exhibition poster on the right side of the museum’s entry way above. I can’t help but wonder what Mrs. Cooke would have thought of the doll-like fashions on display.

Harajuku appeared in 1990s Tokyo as a combination of the cuteness of Hello Kitty with a so-called British new wave. The name Harajuku is from the district in Shibuya near the Harajuku Station, an area that has become a center for extreme teen culture. All the fashions include accessories and bold make-up to enhance the look.

There are several variations of Harajuku. The Lolita look channels a Victorian look with flat shoes and lace bonnets as if plucked from Alice in Wonderland. The white collared dress below is called Wonder Queen. Inspired by Alice’s experience at the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party, the dress has playing card motifs.

Gothic Lolita is a variation on the theme with its severe black dress. I couldn’t help but wonder if these were the dresses many of us have tried to avoid – constricting and corseted.

Another aspect is the Visual Lolita which has a more androgynous look.

Another display held several manniquens on a revolving platform. The fashions are known as Otome which is also the Japanese word for maiden. These dresses were popular in the 1970s and are a sort of precursor for current Harajuku.

In case you’re wondering if people really wear Harajuku on the street, here are three photographs I located on Wikimedia Commons. Were the subjects posing? I would say yes. But don’t we all pose a bit when we select our clothing for the day?

Once again Japanese teen-agers have created a look that is creative and playful. Maybe we should play more with our own appearance.

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Featured Image: Entrance to the Honolulu Museum of Art. Photo by Author.

Photographs:

Photographs of museum displays by Author, with permission.

The group of Harajuku girls by Peter Van den Bosscha. Creative Commons Attribution. Wikimedia Commons.

Karol and Die of Dir en grey cosplays, the photo featuring the red dress, by Nicholas Wang. Creative Commons Attribution. Wikimedia Commons.

The Gothic Girl is by Carolos Castillo. Creative Commons Attribution. Wikimedia Commons.

Harajuku. Japan-guide.com

Harajuku Exhibition. Honolulu Museum of Art.

The post HARAJUKU: Hello Kitty’s Fashion Successor first appeared on Sandra Wagner-Wright.

This is a story about hard work, commitment, and a family owned business marking its 100th anniversary this year. It is a Hawai`i story and an American story. It’s a story worth telling.

Koichi Taniguchi left Japan in 1907. He was seventeen years old when he arrived in Honolulu. The young man worked at Heeia Sugar Plantation for six years before his bride Taniyo arrived. The couple moved to Waiakea Town, a district in Hilo. They bought a two-story building on Lihiwai Street, and opened K. Taniguchi Shoten in 1916.

The enterprise was a 500 square foot grocery and dry goods store serving Waiakea Town and the plantations along the Hamakua Coast. Taniyo operated the store while minding her son Yukiwo. Koichi took orders from around Hilo and from plantation workers, and then delivered the items by bicycle. Both the business and the family grew.

Koichi Taniguchi’s business philosophy still infuses KTA Superstores. Mr. Taniguchi supported the community because the community supported the store. Plantation workers were paid once a month. When they were on strike, the workers weren’t paid at all. Mr. Taniguchi extended them credit. The policy continued in World War II when the store extended credit during times of rationing. The debts were paid.

By 1939 the Taniguchis had saved enough money to open a second store, this time in downtown Hilo at the corner of Keawe and Mamo Streets.

In 1946 a devastating tsunami struck Hilo without warning. Waiakea Town was destroyed completely. Much of downtown was also damaged. Hiloans, including the Taniguchis, rebuilt. The Taniguchis expressed confidence in the future by opening a store in Kailua-Kona.

In 1960 another tsunami struck Hilo. When the wave appeared Yukiwo Taniguchi was parked in front of the downtown store. He was loading his car with merchandise to take across the island. Fortunately Yukiwo had time to rush to the second story of the store. He survived. The wave moved his car twenty-five yards.

Today KTA Superstores remain a family owned enterprise with six stores on the Island of Hawai`i. Barry Taniguchi, grandson of Koichi and Taniyo, is Chairman and CEO. Their great-grandson Toby Taniguchi  serves as president and chief operating officer. KTA’s business model continues to be service to the community.

One hundred years is a long time for a family owned business to flourish. For generations Big Island residents have shopped at KTA. It looks like future generations will have the same privilege.

Congratulations KTA

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Featured Image: KTA Super Store downtown location. Photo by Author.

Pictures:
Hilo Beach in 1892. U.S. Public Domain. Wikimedia Commons.
Hilo Suburbs in 1907. U.S. Public Domain. Wikimedia Commons.
1946 Hilo Tsunami. U.S. Public Domain. Wikimedia Commons.

Downtown KTA Super Store. Photo by Author.

Wanda Adams. “Family Owned KTA Superstores Committed to Hawaii Products. Honolulu Advertiser.com Dec. 3, 2008.

John Burnett. “Happy Birthday, KTA.” Hawai’i Tribune Herald. Jan. 17, 2016. Pp. 1, 8.

KTA Super Stores.

Jason Y. Kimura. “Family Calling for Hall-of-Famer.” Hawaii Retail Grocer. 2015.

Rod Thompson. “Support of Local Products Propels KTA.” Star-Bulletin.com. Sept. 29, 2002.

The post CENTURY OF SERVICE first appeared on Sandra Wagner-Wright.

The closure of C & H shouldn’t be a surprise. In 2015 Hawai`i was the third largest sugar producer in the U.S. with 1,422 tons. Florida, the largest American producer, harvested 15,278 tons. Parent company Alexander & Baldwin said it expects to lose $30 million dollars in fiscal year 2015.

If you, like me, associated cane sugar with Hawai`i, one of the reasons could be C & H’s very successful advertising campaign.

Sugar production required a docile labor force – one that would endure harsh conditions in the hope of a better future. Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, Puerto Ricans, Filipinos, Portuguese, Germans, and Norwegians created the multi-ethnic culture of modern Hawai`i.

The work was excruciating. Ronald Takaki in Pau Hana, his book about life on the sugar plantations, quoted one worker’s determination:

The only reason I’m doing
This tough and painful holehole work
Is for the sake of my wife and children
Who live back home.

The history of the plantation era is not romantic. But it is an integral part of what Hawai`i is today. Strange to remember that Kōloa plantation on Kaua`i was the first commercial sugar plantation in the then Kingdom of Hawai`i. In 1980 there were fourteen sugar plantations with another 550 independent sugar growers on 220,000 acres of land. They produced about a million tons of raw sugar annually. In 2017 after 182 years of commercial sugar production, the industry will be gone.

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Featured Image. Pu`unene Mill. Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Company. Maui. Photo by Joanna Orpia. Creative Commons Attribution. Wikimedia Commons.

Photo: Chinese contract laborers loading sugar cane onto a wagon. U.S. Public Domain. Wikimedia Commons.

Olivia Lowenberg. “Why Sugar, Once a Big Business in Hawaii, is Now Disappearing.” The Christian Science Monitor. Jan. 8. 2016. Here.

Alexander and Baldwin Announces Transition of Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Company to a Diversified Farm Model. Press Release. Honolulu. Jan. 6. 2016.

Grove Farm Sugar Plantation Museum. 

Sugar Cane Production in the U.S. Statistica.com 

Worker’s quotation in Ronald Takaki. Pau Hana: Plantation Life and Labor in Hawaii. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. 1983. p. 90.

The post No More Sugar From Hawai`i first appeared on Sandra Wagner-Wright.

Do you ever see an announcement of an upcoming exhibit or event and think, ‘I’d like to see that?’ Last April, I saw an article about Nā Kuana`ike Pāheana o Hawai`i: Artistic Perspectives of Hawai`i. It’s on display at Lyman House Museum until September. Hmmm…I’d like to see that…sometime. I promptly forgot all about it until last week.

I was having one of those days – the kind where you want to abandon the computer and the to-do-list and do something out of the ordinary routine. Lunch, I thought, preferably by the water. And took myself down to Hilo Bay Café.

The view was wonderful. The food didn’t disappoint. I ate as slowly as I could. Fish tacos. Then I ordered dessert – salted caramel ice cream. But despite my efforts at procrastination, the meal was over.

Then I remembered the art exhibit. It was just up the road. I found a vastly different museum than I remembered. The last time I visited Lyman House was in 2009 for a traveling exhibit called Grandfather’s House, a replica of a rural Korean house in the 1930s. Grandfather must have been tired, because the exhibit is still there.

The art exhibit of paintings, prints, and photos from the 18th to 21st centuries was well worth the visit. I was surprised at the number of 18th century prints in the museum’s permanent collection. There’s something special about seeing a print by John Webber about Captain James Cook’s arrival in Hawai`i next to a 20th century depiction of the same event by Herb Kane.

LYMAN HOUSE ORIGINS

Though the thatched roof disguises the archectecture, the house built by missionaries David and Sarah Lyman in 1839 was one of the first houses on Hawai`i Island to be built in the New England style with local koa and `ohia woods. On January 27, 1839, Sarah noted: “Moved into our new house today. The carpenters left last week, the mason still at work in the chambers.”

Writing thirty years later, Isabella Bird, peripatetic traveler, noted that in Hilo the missionary houses “combine the trimness of New England with the luxuriance of the tropics; they are cool retreats, embowered among breadfruit, tamarind and bamboo through whose graceful leafage the blue waters of the bay are visible.”

Over the years, Haili Street was extended, requiring the Lyman House to move to the side. A roof was added. The view has changed considerably. But from about the point where the house once stood, you can still look down Haili Street to the bay.

CORNICOPIA OF MINERALS

On the ground floor I revisited the permanent galleries and was astonished. Orlando Hammond Lyman, David and Sarah’s grandson, collected shells and minerals. Some had been in the family since the early 19th century. Orlando started his own collection in 1918. Not content with what he himself discovered, Orlando purchased smaller collections from throughout the world. In 1981, the collection was estimated at over 20,000 specimens. What was once a sterile almost overpowering display is now an artful arrangement glittering under tasteful lighting.

Of particular note is the only known specimen of a mineral called Orlymanite. First discovered in Orlando’s collection and native to South Africa, Orlymanite was officially identified in 1987 as a new mineral species. And it’s most famous sample is in the Lyman collection.

The Habitats of Hawai`i gallery imaginatively displays geological and natural features of Hawai`i. Particular stars are the model of a lava tube and displays of reef fish, including a ten foot shark. [I’d rather see a display shark than meet one while snorkeling.]

I returned home refreshed and ready for computer research. Like most people I travel to see exhibits in other places and overlook the delights in my own neighborhood. I drive by Lyman House several times a week on my way downtown, but it wasn’t until I rebelled from my usual routine that I took the time to pay a call.

Acknowledgements:
Featured Image: Hawai’i Visitors Bureau sign for Lyman House.
All rights reserved for photos by author.

For more photos of the Lyman Museum mineral collection, see Mineral Museums. Here.

Hawaii247. Lyman House Presents Grandfathers’s House. July 13, 2009. Here.

Hilo Bay Café.

Lyman Museum and Mission House.

The Mineralogical Record.

The Lymans of Hilo. Lyman House Memorial Museum. 1979.

Isabella Bird. Six Months in the Sandwich Islands. Charles E. Tuttle Company. 1978.

The post ART & MINERALS AT LYMAN HOUSE first appeared on Sandra Wagner-Wright.

Joseph Kapeau Ae`a, a member of the Royal Hawaiian Band, was an early composer in the new genre. In 1881 he composed a classic hula ku`i – Ke `Ala Tubarose, more commonly known as the Hilo March. A film of the Danish musical group called the Four Hawaiians playing the Hilo March is available on YouTube here.

Sonny Cunha wrote the first well-known hapa haole song My Waikiki Mermaid in 1903. The lyrics evoked everyone’s Hawaiian fantasies. Cunha was one of the first Hawaiian entertainers to tour on the Mainland with his own group.

Every evening I meet her

On the beach at Waikiki I greet her

Nothing sweeter nor neater

Than my mermaid of the southern seas

Chorus: Auwë ta hu-a

Should you see her in bathing

She would surely set you all a raving

Rubber necking heart breaking,

Pretty mermaid of the Southern seas.

Chorus: Auwë ta hu-a

You should see her by moonlight

She’s the cutest little thing that’s living

Kisses giving high living,

Pretty mermaid of the Southern seas.

Chorus: Auwë ta hu-a

Should you ever go riding

Don’t be foolish let her do the driving

Nothing doing just cooing,

Pretty mermaid of the Southern seas.

 In 1926 the MacDowell Sisters recorded My Waikiki Mermaid. You can listen to it on You Tube here.

In 1912 Bird of Paradise opened on Broadway featuring five Hawaiian entertainers. The New York Times called the music “weirdly sensuous.” The play toured extensively in the United States and Europe

But it was the Panama-Pacific Exposition held in 1915 San Francisco that made what Americans called Hawaiian music nationally popular. A troupe of Hawaiian musicians called the Royal Hawaiian Quartet and led by George E. K. Awai performed in the Territory of Hawaii Pavilion.

The song fueling the new craze was On the Beach at Waikiki by Charles Kaipo. Listen to it here.

 “Honi kāua wikiwiki,” sweet brown maiden said to me

As she gave me language lessons on the beach at Waikiki.

“Honi kāua wikiwiki,” she then said and smiled in glee

But she would not translate for me on the beach at Waikiki.

“Honi kāua wikiwiki,” she repeated playfully

Oh those lips were so inviting on the beach at Waikiki.

 “Honi kāua wikiwiki,” she was surely teasing me

So I caught that maid and kissed her on the beach at Waikiki.

 “Honi kāua wikiwiki” you have learned it perfectly.

“Donʻt forget what I have taught,” said the maid at Waikiki.

Hawaiian records sold more than any other type of music, and the song writers at Tin Pan Alley began churning out as many Hawaiian inspired tunes as they could.

One of these tunes was Making Wicky Wacky Down in Waikiki, recorded by Sophie Tucker in her suggestive style. Listen to her rendition here. 

 Pack up your troubles, come on along,

Where nights are dreamy and life’s a song;

In Honolulu across the sea,

Makin’ wicky-wacky down in Waikiki.

 *

Those hula dancers are sure good news,

Those joy dispensers a cure for the blues;

It’s absolutley the place to be,

Makin’ wicky-wacky down in Waikiki.

 *

No evening clothes,

Anything goes,

Believe it or not!

And when the night shadows fall,

That’s when they’re all

Getting hot,

On the ukelele!

 *

They use a moonbeam to light the night,

And every tune seems to sound just right!

It’s absolutely the place to be,

Makin’ wicky-wacky down in Waikiki.

 *

Come with me, all you wooky makers,

All you wideawakers, join me!

Oh boy, I’ve just found a spot,

Uh-huh, you’re gonna like it a lot!

 *

And it’s far away, hope in Honolulu,

Where the hula-hula greets you.

Hawaii’s the place,

Get a smile on your face!

 *

And I wanna go where they shake their hips,

That’s where the sailors all shake their ships!

You wouldn’t blame me if you could be

Makin’ wicky-wacky down in Waikiki.

*

You get a feeling of pure delight,

Your head is reeling, your heart is light,

Your eyes are dancing with revelry,

Makin’ wicky-wacky down in Waikiki.

 *

You never saw

Dresses of straw

Like they’re wearin’ there!

And all those dances they do,

There’s nothing you

Can compare;

What a revelation!

*

Hawaiian cuties with goo-goo eyes,

And they’re beauties, you’d be surprised!

You’re never lonesome for company,

Makin’ wicky-wacky down in Waikiki.

Harry Owens arrived in Hawai`i in 1934 as music director of the Royal Hawaiian Orchestra at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel. Owen became a father that October and wrote a song for his new daughter. Sweet Leilani became the orchestra’s signature song.

Two years later vocalist Bing Crosby and his wife Dixie Lee vacationed in Hawai`i. Crosby wanted to include Sweet Leilani in his 1937 movie Waikiki Wedding. It turned out to be a turning point Crosby’s career. Sweet Leilani won the Academy Award for Best Original Song. Crosby’s recording became his first Gold Record. You can listen to Bing  sing Sweet Leilani on here.

 Sweet Leilani,
Heavenly flower,

Nature fashioned roses kissed with dew,

And then she placed them in a bower,

It was the start of you.

 *

Sweet Leilani, 
Heavenly flower,

Tropic skies are jealous as they shine

I think they’re jealous of your blue eyes

Jealous because you’re mine

 *

Sweet Leilani,
 Heavenly flower,

I dreamed of paradise for two

You are my paradise completed

You are my dream come true.

Owens and his orchestra performed Sweet Leilani in Fred MacMurray’s 1938 movie Coconut Grove. The unique sound was for many Americans the sound of Hawai`i.

Owens made the steel guitar an integral part of the new Hawaiian sound. He took his band and other entertainers, often including Hilo Hattie, touring on the Mainland. His motto: All Hawaiian, All the Time.

Owens did an even greater service to Hawaiian music by transcribing ancient and twentieth century Hawaiian songs into musical notation. Owens received the Na Hoku Hanohano Lifetime Achievement Award in 1987.

Acknowledgements:

Featured  Image: Surf Riding at Waikiki by Frank Coffee. Public Domain. Wikimedia Commons.

James Revell Carr. Hawaiian Music in Motion. University of Illinois Press. 2014.

Amy K. Stillman. Early Hapa Haole Songs. November 13, 2011. Blog.

Hapa Haole Songs. Lyrics to Hawaiian Songs Written in English 1916-1978. Here.

Makin’ Wicky Wacky in Waikiki by James Cavanaugh, Billy Curtis, Burton Lane, and Al Hoffman.

The post HAPA-HAOLE HAWAIIAN MUSIC – A SAMPLING first appeared on Sandra Wagner-Wright.

More details followed. The previous Tuesday, Mrs. George Glover presided over a small luncheon at the Hilo Yacht Club. On Thursday afternoon Mrs. H. V. Patten, Mrs. Gwynn Matthias, and Mrs. Gilbert Hay held an afternoon tea for two hundred guests. Who knew there were two hundred Hiloans of sufficient social stature to attend a social event where no fewer than five prominent women “poured” at the “beautifully appointed tea table” with its presumably floral “lovely mixed bouquet?” Decorations included baskets of anthuriums and a bowl of reeds in the rooms with coral and pink torch ginger flowers on the lanai.

I saw the article last Wednesday in a column called “This Day in History.” The column generally appears after the Daily Horoscope. Other items were from 1964 and 1989. I was intrigued. Who were these women, hidden behind their husbands’ names? I conducted an unscientific Google Search and uncovered the following wisps of Hilo women in 1939.

Bride-Elect Helen Henderson grew up in Hilo, though she left to attend Punahou School in Honolulu. Graduating in 1935, Henderson attended LaSalle College in Boston, completing a degree in Liberal Arts. The groom, who was not mentioned in the article, was Selden K. Buddy Chillingworth. After the wedding, Helen and Buddy made a life in Honolulu. The couple was married for 50 years.

According to the family placed obituary, Helen “enjoyed a good book, long walks on Kahala Beach, the lovely music of the Farden ladies, and evenings entertaining loved ones on the lanai at her home in Waialae Kahala- often ending in fried chicken ordered up from Rueben’s in Kahala Mall. Her reserved manner camouflaged an absolutely wicked sense of humor and a resilient, ever-young, and relentlessly positive spirit.”

Helen’s sister-in-law Dorothy Henderson was also honored at the tea. Dorothy had recently moved back to Hilo with her husband Harold.

Mrs. George Glover’s given name was Marion. According to 1940 Census, at the time she hosted lunch at the Yacht Club, Marion was 33 years old. She had one daughter, Vivienne, age 13.

Details on the “Tea Ladies” are as follows:

Mrs. H. V. Patten’s given name remains a mystery. Her husband, Harold Vaughn Patten, was an officer for Hilo Electric Light. Mrs. Patten was probably a member of the Hilo Woman’s Club. Her contribution to the club’s 1937 cookbook was a recipe for Barbequed Short Ribs.

Mrs. Gwynn Matthias was married to the Treasurer-Manager of the First Trust Company of Hilo. Her son enlisted in the army in 1941 and was killed while training in Arizona.

Mrs. Hay didn’t appear on my Google search.

None of the women profiled here or listed in the full article worked outside the home. A few had Japanese housemaids. Most had children. Like their first names, these women’s lives are difficult to trace. Perhaps someday I’ll look for them in the archives.

Acknowledgements:
Featured Image: Pedestrians on a Hilo Street, 1907, Public Domain. Wikimedia Commons

This Day in History 1939. Hawaii Tribune-Herald. Dec. 3, 2014, B5.

Helen Lamb Henderson Chillingworth. Obituary. Honolulu Star-Advertiser. April 6, 2011. Here.

“Hilo Youth Killed in Plane Crash.” Honolulu Star-Bulletin. July 27, 1943. Here.

The post Entertaining the Bride-Elect, 1939 first appeared on Sandra Wagner-Wright.

The story happened at the Eva Parker Woods Cottage Museum, a wooden structure that rises above fishponds to face the sea. But the story isn’t about Eva. It’s about Francis Hyde I`i Brown, a public man who lived a secluded private life and left a legacy of global achievement.

Brown’s family history spans the history of Hawai`i. His grandfather was John Papa I`i, an ali`i who served Hawai`i’s high chiefs, converted to Christianity, and wrote Fragments of Hawaiian History, an eyewitness foundational work for anyone interested in pre-contact Hawai`i.

Brown’s mother, Irene Kahalelaukoa I`i married Charles A. Brown in 1886. In 1898, she divorced Brown to marry Carl S. Holloway. Irene built a reputation as a philanthropist, which I’m sure she was. Undoubtedly she was also a strong-minded woman, divorcing at a time when such events were rare. Mr. Brown is remembered as a “retired capitalist,” if anyone thinks of him at all.

Francis Hyde I`i Brown, Irene’s second son, was born in Honolulu on September 16, 1892. With other boys of his class and time, Francis attended Punahou School before transferring to Fessenden School in West Newton, Mass. As a young man, Francis enlisted in the Army and was an ambulance driver during World War I.

After the war, Francis returned to Hawai`i. On January 30, 1919, Francis married Stephanie Wichman, but he didn’t settle down. Not unlike other young men of Hawai`i, Francis became an athlete. He excelled at golf, traveled extensively and owned fourteen cars. In 1925, Francis was elected to the Territorial House of Representatives. Two years later, he became a Territorial Senator and served almost continuously until 1947.

Though he was a strong swimmer and renowned surfer, golf was Brown’s premier sport. In 1924 Brown set a course record at the Old Course at St. Andrews, Scotland with a score of 67. Three years later, he set the record at Pebble Beach Golf Links. And between 1920 and 1930, Brown reigned as Amateur Champion in Hawai`i, Japan, and California. Pretty heady stuff, yet Brown kept things in perspective. Brown’s nephew, Kenny Brown, later recalled his uncle

“was the only man to drive the 12th green at Waialae (432 yards) and to carry over the 18th green at Pebble Beach (548 yards) in two shots . . . but in response to my awe he told me, ‘Remember nephew, in those days they didn’t water so heavily, so the fairways were hard as rock. And the ball was smaller too.’”

In 1936, Brown paid $6000 to purchase the small cottage James Frank Wood built for his bride Eva Parker with the surrounding 1,359 acres at Kalahuipua`a. Brown wanted to spend time there with the woman known as the love of his life, Winona Love. Half Hawaiian and half-English, Winona was known for her beauty and graceful hula. The dapper athlete and fluid dancer met at the opening of the Royal Hawaiian Hotel in 1927, and stayed together the rest of their lives.

If you want to see what the youthful couple looked like, follow these links to individual pictures of Brown and Love in their prime.

In describing the cottage at Kalahuipua`a, Kenny Brown remembered

“a tiny bedroom set out in the middle of one of the fishponds where he slept with his lady friend Auntie Winona Love…(There was) a small house for cooking and eating. Near that he built a large screened, tin roof structure where 15 to 20 guests could sleep in one room.”

And a spring fed swimming pool Brown built at the back where he and Love “went for cool dips in the crystal waters on hot sultry afternoons.”

The couple were known for ho`okipa (hospitality). An attentive host, Brown often asked guests what they wanted for dinner – and then caught it, either diving or throwing his fishing net.

Who says life can’t be like a movie? Speaking of which, Winona Love became Hollywood’s ideal island beauty. She featured in travelogues Aloha Hawaii (1929) and Blond Captive (1931). Director David O. Selznick hired Love to teach Dolores del Rio how to do the hula in the RKO film The Bird of Paradise (1932).

At this point you may be wondering how the Eva Parker Wood Cottage became part of Mauna Lani Resort. Look no further for the answer. In 1964 Brown attended the Tokyo Olympics and became friends with Noboru Gotoh, chairman of the Tokyu Corporation. Brown invited Gotoh to visit him at Kalahuipua`a. At the time, access was by foot or boat. But the men envisioned, according to Kenny Brown,

“an international resort where affluent people could come together to relax and play golf in a atmosphere of total harmony.”

To get things started, in 1972 Brown sold the property to Mauna Lani Resort which changed the name Kalahuipua`a to Mauna Lani (Mountains Reaching Heaven) in reference to the five volcanic mountains surrounding the area.

Francis I`i Brown didn’t live to see his dream become a reality. He died in August 1976 at his home in Pebble Beach. He was 83 years old.

Acknowledgments:

All Photos by Author.

Featured Image: Eva Parker Woods Cottage Museum. Photo by Author.

Kalahuipua`a. Coffee Times. Here.

Obituary: Kenneth Francis Kamuokalani Brown. Posted Feb 12, 2014. Honolulu Star-Advertiser. Here.

Mauna Lani Golf. Here.

Hawai`i Sports Hall of Fame. Here.

George F. Nellist, Editor. Hawaii and Its Buildings. Honolulu Star Bulletin. 1925. Here.

Renee Wright. Mementos of a Royal Hawaiian Love Story. Worthpoint. Here.

John Papa I`i. Fragments of Hawaiian History. Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum Special Publication. 1959.

The Bird of Paradise. 1932. Here.

Winona Love. Square One. Here.

The post Francis Hyde I’i Brown: “The Last Ali`i” first appeared on Sandra Wagner-Wright.

But if you look a little deeper, Kilauea Lodge offers more than atmosphere. It represents a slice of American history from the brief interlude between two horrific world wars. American involvement in the First World War lasted from 1917-1918. President Wilson promised it would be the “war to end all wars.” Americans believed him. During the 1920s and ‘30s most Americans committed to the concept of international brotherhood and desperately hoped President Wilson was right.

Post-war America embarked on a decade long celebration that ended abruptly with the 1929 stock market crash. Yet, people continued to cling to the ideal of peace. The builders of Hale-o-Aloha (the precursor to Kilauea Lodge) believed in that dream. Harold V. Lucas, General Secretary of the Young Men’s Christian Association, and Dr. Thomas A. Jaggar, pioneer volcanologist and Chairman of the YMCA, envisioned a forest camp where boys and young men could be infused with high morals and integrity. At the center of their vision was a cement and lava rock Fireplace of Friendship that continues to draw people. And for a moment, anything is possible.

The men envisioned a lasting edifice with contributions from around the world. Lucas sent letters to every club in the International Rotary and Lions Club International networks. Jaggar contacted the U.S. National Parks network. Could you send us a stone we can put in the fireplace? One hundred clubs and individuals from across the world sent a contribution.

Other items embedded in the massive fireplace are uniquely local, like the kuikui nut grinder.

To raise funds for $1000 cost of construction, supporters sold Friendship Tokens with a price range from 5 cents to $100. (valued at approximately $8 to $1,688 today).

In 1938, four hundred people gathered to dedicate the fireplace, many probably hoping the biblical motto “That they all may be one” would prove to be true.

Alas, in December 1941 the United States again became a nation at war. From 1942-1945 the property became a radio school for the U.S. Army, but its founders never lost hope.

The August 1943 Issue of The Rotarian included an excerpt from a then recent speech by Harold V. Lucas: “The faint hearted and faithless can hear only the roar of guns and see the wanton waste of human life and materials. A true Rotarian is not in this class. He must play the role of a man of courage to face a future challenged with disaster and chaos, of a man of faith in the power of God working through human hearts and of a man of vision to see ahead through the storm. He must plan now for the future with heart and mind unprejudiced by the narrow walls of today’s hatreds and bitterness.”

Neither the world, nor Hale-o-Aloha remained the same. The 1960 tsunami destroyed the YMCA building in Hilo. Leaders decided to sell the Volcano camp to pay for a new building. Virginia and Bill Dicks bought the property and opened a lunch shop famous for its “mile high pie.” When Highway 11 became operational, the property lost its roadside advantage. The Dicks used the building as a private home until they sold it to current owners Lorna and Albert Jeyte.

The Jeytes restored the property and opened Kilauea Lodge and Restaurant in 1988.

Is that the real story? Mostly.

Different sources have varying perspectives on camp ownership. I think the story of the YMCA camp makes the most sense, but some sources differ. The official plaque attributes camp development to the Boy Scouts and states the property was sold to finance a beach camp. Histories of the Fireplace of Friendship are consistent.

Ownership comes and goes, but a massive fireplace of cement and lava rock is pretty much for keeps.

Acknowledgements:
Photos by Author.
Featured Image: Signage for Kilauea Lodge and Restaurant

Kilauea Lodge Website:

Alan McNarie. “Then and Now: Kilauea Lodge.” Keola Magazine. Nov-Dec 2014. Here. 

Harold V. Lucas. Excerpt from Rotary Club Address. The Rotarian. Aug. 1943. Here. 

The post Kilauea Lodge & The Fireplace of Friendship first appeared on Sandra Wagner-Wright.

Kīlauea is an active shield volcano that broke through the sea about 100,000 years ago. Her first documented eruption was in 1823. Witnessing the crater that year, missionary William Ellis and his party walked to the north edge so they could descend to the pit, an activity personnel at Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park frown upon.

“After walking some distance over the sunken plain . . . we at length came to the edge of the great crater, where a spectacle, sublime and even appalling presented itself before us – ‘We stopped and trembled’ – Astonishment and awe for some moments rendered us mute, and like statues, we stood fixed to the spot, with our eyes riveted on the abyss below.”

In the years following World War II, Kīlauea presented several major eruptions. The 1952 eruption lasted 136 days. This picture from the 1954 eruption helps me imagine what William Ellis saw more clearly than his 1823 drawing.

We prefer to admire Pele’s magnificence from a distance, but sometimes the goddess comes up close and personal. The 1960 eruption buried Kapoho village.

Current activity began on Jan. 3, 1983 and shows no signs of stopping, making it one of the longest volcanic eruptions in the world. Kīlauea has two major rift zones from the caldera. The East Rift Zone, where the lava has been flowing, includes several communities. The 1986 lava flow destroyed and partly buried the communities of Kalapana, the Kalapana Gardens and Royal Gardens subdivisions, and Kaimū.

On June 27th Pele inaugurated a lava flow that threatens the communities of Pāhoa and Ka`ohe Homesteads. The lava front is moving through the Wao Kele o Puna forest reserve at a rate of about 270 yards daily, with the actual length of the flow just over ten miles Civil Defense hasn’t yet ordered residents in threatened areas to evacuate, but there’s an expectation that the lava will reach some or all of Pāhoa town and quite possibly cross Highway 130, cutting off Lower Puna. The County is clearing Railroad Avenue, an overgrown former rail bed, and Government Beach Road to provide alternate routes between Hawaiian Paradise Park and Hawaiian Beaches. Meanwhile, Pele continues to create as she destroys.

As observed on Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park website: “Each eruption is a reminder of the power of natural processes to change the air we breath, the ground we walk on, and the sea that surrounds this volcanic island we call home.”

People in Pāhoa have a more immediate concern – whether or how much of their town will survive. As Catarina Zaragoza remarked to Hawaii Tribune Herald Reporter Tom Callis, Pāhoa is “a landmark and it’s own place. . . . There would be no getting it back again, ever.”

Acknowledgements:

Featured Image: Goddess Pele holding Hi`iaka’s egg in her right hand and an `ō`ō (digging stick) in her left hand. Painting by Arthur Johnsen. Image authorized for Fair Use by Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park. Wikimedia Commons.

Tom Callis. “Pahoa Within Pele’s Grasp.” Hawaii Tribune Herald, Sept. 13, 2014, p. 1.

William Ellis. Journal of William Ellis.

Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park Website.

Hawai`i Volcano Observatory Website.

The post GODDESS PELE’S PATH first appeared on Sandra Wagner-Wright.

ORCHIDS. The very word conjures up exotic flowers and romance. At one time, every girl hoped her escort to the high school prom would give her a large orchid corsage. Ideally, the corsage should look like this.

The blossoms screamed expense, status, and an adoring boyfriend. Alas, most boys could barely afford a gardenia wrist corsage. Oh, well.

Less exotic were smaller purple vanda orchids. These flowers were a huge commercial success on the Big Island of Hawai`i in the years following World War II. The flowering fields gave the island a second name “Orchid Isle.” Sounds fanciful, even today. And the flowers were popular give-a-ways for super market openings in southern California. “The first 200 people will get an orchid from Hawaii,” screamed the advertisement. To which my mother responded: “Huh. They must grow like weeds.” Turns out her cynicism had some merit. I doubt this picture is a vanda orchid, but it does give s sense of size.

Orchids are the largest family of flowering plants with 30,000 species and at least 200,000 hybrid varieties. They can be found almost anywhere, but their natural habitat is tropical where they like to be high in the rainforest on the bark of trees. Their thick white roots prefer open air where they can absorb moisture, nutrients, and light. I’m not good at growing orchids, but have learned if I leave them alone, at least a few will flower.

Since 1952 The Hilo Orchid Society has hosted the Hilo Orchid Show & Sale, the largest and most comprehensive show in the state. Over 100 volunteers participated in the show held this past weekend. The Society devotes its efforts to “Promote, carry on, and aid in every possible way, the culture of orchids of all kinds.” It must be working. Hilo Mayor Billy Kenoi proclaimed 2014 the Year of the Orchid.

I took today’s pictures at the show. I can’t tell you the names of particular orchids, but hope you still find them beautiful. You can access a video from the 2013 Orchid Show here.

One final thought from an anonymous quotation often used in weddings

When two people are one in their inmost hearts,
They shatter even the strength of iron or bronze.
And when two people understand each other in their inmost hearts,
Their words are sweet and strong
Like the fragrance of orchids.

Photos by Author. All Rights Reserved.

Acknowledgements:
Hilo Orchid Society http://www.hiloorchidsociety.org
Information on how to grow orchids from Gardener’s Supply Company website http://www.gardeners.com/how-to/growing-orchids/5072.html
Quotation from Search Quotes http://www.searchquotes.com/

The post A SYMPHONY OF ORCHIDS first appeared on Sandra Wagner-Wright.

The missionaries couldn’t set up shop, so to speak, in Honolulu without the king’s permission. King Liholiho had no use for missionaries, but a doctor could be handy. Permission granted for one year, provided the doctor stayed. The missionaries didn’t think the doctor should remain alone. Actually, they didn’t think he should stay at all, but it was too late to worry about that. The question was, who would stay with him, Rev. Hiram Bingham or Rev. Asa Thurston? According to Bingham’s account, the company cast “ballots.” Thurston took the post, and set to work establishing the first church in the Hawaiian islands. His wife Lucy later recalled, “When Mr. Thurston first commenced his Hawaiian labors in Kailua, the new native church was every Sabbath filled to overflowing.” Which isn’t to say everyone present was interested in religion.

Nevertheless, Lucy Thurston reported, “During the second year of our residence at Kailua, the church became too small for the increasing numbers who would fain attend. Governor Adams then erected another, larger and more commodious [180 feet x 60 feet]. It was superior to any house of native workmanship upon the Islands. When this was burned by an incendiary, the Governor erected a large stone house of worship, with galleries and pulpit. The latter cost five hundred dollars.” By then there were about 5,000 people in the congregation.

This church, begun in 1835 on the site of the first thatched church, became known as Moku`aikaua Church. Thus, the oldest church structure in the Hawaiian Islands. Four thousand people were involved in its construction. When fire destroyed the first effort, rebuilding began immediately, with the second church finished in January 1837. Materials included stones taken from an abandoned heiau, formerly used for indigenous worship, and cast off ballast from sailing ships. The stones were held together by mortar mixed from coral and sand. Oil from kukui nuts was used as a bonding agent.

Moku`aikaua Church, with its 112 foot high steeple, is still the tallest structure in Kailu-Kona. The spire is shingled with corner turrets over the rectangular base.

Inside, the interior posts and beams are made of native `ohi`a wood and held together with `ohi`a wood pins. Fifty-foot spanning beams are also `ohi`a wood. The pews and pulpit are koa wood. The church is 120 feet long and 48 feet wide with New England style galleries and a gabled roof. Moku`aikaua Church is a unique structure, both architecturally and historically. In 1978, it joined other unique American structures with a place on the National Register of Historic Places.

PRESENT CRISIS

Moku`aikaua Church is the oldest property on the 2014 List of America’s Eleven Most Endangered Historic Places, a dubious and unfunded honor. The structure suffers from multiple structural flaws and is almost beyond repair. There are cracks in the stone walls caused by the passage of time and occasional earthquakes (most recently in 2006), dysfunctional and faulty electric wiring (not part of the original structure), extensive termite damage, dry rot to steeple beams and wooden window frames, and water damage from the 2011 tsunami.

So, what’s the plan?

• Shore up the original exterior stone walls

• Connect the roof structure and prevent stone from falling inward during an earthquake

• Preserve and strengthen the roof and steeple

• Repair cracks

• Replace dry rot beams

• Restore existing interior beams, walls, ceilings

Um, how do you do all that?

According to Bret Yager’s recent article in the Hawaii Tribune-Herald,

• “The massive roof, built on ohia [sic] beams, must be raised so the walls can be shored up and reinforced with steel before interior and exterior cracks are filled.”

• Wood affected by dry rot and termite damage must be replaced

• And Yager quotes civil engineer Dave Ross who explained “The entire roof must be reinforced with a diaphragm to make it a single rigid unit and tie it to the foundation.”

How much will that cost?

About $3 million in total. $250,000 to repair the steeple. If you’d like to help, go to Moku`aikaua Church website and donate.

For More Information:

Featured photo of Moku`aikaua Church by Author.

About Moku`aikaua Church

Moku`aikaua Church Home Page – http://www.mokuaikaua.org

Moku`aikaua Church, Hawaiian Encyclopedia – http://www.hawaiianencyclopedia.com/timeline-of-honolulus-historic.asp

Erin Miller, “Concern for Isle’s Holy History,” Hawaii Tribune-Herald, June 24, 2014. Erin Miller, “Kona’s Mokuaikaua Church Named to List of Endangered Historic Places,” West Hawaii Today, June 24, 2014. http://westhawaiitoday.com/news/local-news/kona-s-mokuaikaua-church-named-list-endangered-historic-places

Bret Yager, “Mokuaikaua Church Leaders Lay Out Plans,” Hawaii Tribune-Herald, June 25, 2014. http://hawaiitribune-herald.com/news/local-news/mokuaikaua-church-leaders-lay-out-plans

National Register of Historic Places — http://www.nps.gov/nr/

National Trust for Historic Preservation — http://www.preservationnation.org

About Missionaries: Diaries: The Life & Times of Mrs. Lucy G. Thurston, 1881, pp. 211-213

Hiram Bingham, A Residence of 21 Years in the Sandwich Islands, 1849

My book, Sojourners Among Strangers (1990) uses original sources to explain why the first two groups of missionaries came to Hawai`i. More details.  (I agree. The price is outrageous. In fact, it’s embarrassing. The money goes directly to the publisher. But, ask for it at the library — you know, those old buildings with musty books.)

The post MOKU`AIKAUA CHURCH: Historic Past, Present Crisis & Unknown Future first appeared on Sandra Wagner-Wright.