A few weeks ago in my column, John Veltri asked about the history of the Diamond Head Tennis Center at 3809 Paki Ave. Veltri said he heard that it was the site of the horse stables for the Honolulu trolley system. "Any information you could share on this landmark would be appreciated."
Many readers wrote in about that. Dexter Wong said they were not part of the trolley system. He referred me to the book "Hawaiian Tramways," by Roy Melvin and Robert Ramsay, which covers public transportation in Honolulu from 1868 to 1941.
The book places the tramway stable yard at King and Houghtailing in Kalihi, not Waikiki. "The line first went from Houghtailing to Thomas Square in 1888," Wong says. Eventually the line was extended to Kapiolani Park. The tramways evolved into electric streetcars, then buses.
If the tennis center area wasn’t the Honolulu Trolley’s stables, whose were they?
"The stables in Kapiolani Park, located below La Pietra, and taking up, as I recall, the presently unused site of the archery range, the tennis courts and maybe even the tree nursery, were being used in the 1920s, nearly a century ago, by the various teams that played polo in the park," Anna Derby Blackwell says.
"By the 1940s, Town and Country Stables were located there, presided over by a woman named Amy Rich. She had a British accent, and her uniform was polished brown riding boots, riding breeches with the customary flare, and a long-sleeve white dress shirt.
"The horsey set among the teenagers (remember, this was before TV) took lessons there. We rode English saddle, instead of the paniolo-style riding offered in summers on the neighbor islands: no pommel, two sets of reins that one pulled, instead of neck-reining, and shortened stirrups so that the inner thighs did all the gripping.
"Mrs. Rich should have cut a tape of herself saying ‘Shorten your reins!’ since she shouted that phrase every five minutes or so," Blackwell recalls.
"The stables rented out horses by the hour so that visitors and servicemen in town could ride them in Kapiolani Park. I remember Mrs. Rich forcefully chewing out some hapless enlisted man for an infraction, the nature of which I don’t recall. All I can remember was the fury with which she addressed the issue."
Jerry Bacon said his wife, Mary, went to Rich for riding lessons.
"Mary was at that age when she was in love with horses, probably 8 to 10, in the early 1950s.
"Mrs. Rich was a holy terror. She was so rigid and domineering, she scared Mary half to death, to the point that she couldn’t keep taking lessons from her.
"Mary hasn’t thought about it until your column this morning, when she started laughing and told me about her very brief career of riding lessons."
Hawaii Polo Club President Mike Dailey reminded me that Kapiolani Park was built in 1877 for horse racing.
"In the center of the park was a racetrack for horses," Dailey says. "By the 1880s a polo field was established in the middle of the racetrack as well, and polo was flourishing."
The "sport of kings" grew in the next 40 years, and before World War II polo was in its heyday. The fiercest competition was between the Oahu Blues, led by the Dillingham family, and the Maui Gold, led by the Baldwin and Rice families, with the championship of the islands going back and forth between the two from year to year."
"U.S. Army Gen. George Patton, at that time still a colonel, was a frequent player on Oahu in the 1930s and early ’40s," Dailey says. "He was a fierce competitor, and was sent off the field in one match for ‘ungentlemanly conduct.’"
Ezra Crane, then editor of the Maui News, told Blackwell about one match, many years ago.
"Patton’s team played the Maui team at Kapiolani Park," Blackwell recalls, "which starred Frank Baldwin and his sons Edward, Asa and ‘Chu.’"
Patton’s team was soundly trounced. "Great sportsman that he was," Blackwell says sarcastically, "Maj. Patton commandeered a single-wing Army plane. He flew from Oahu to Maui and, using a number of 5-pound bags of flour, proceeded to ‘bomb’ Edward Baldwin’s historic ranch house at Ulupalakua!"
John Walker, whom I wrote about last week as a trustee of Children’s Hospital, remembers that the Hawaii Polo and Racing Club stables included a locker room, an indoor swimming pool and an outdoor tennis court.
"My dad was a member of the club, which was home to the Oahu Blues polo team. After the war, in about 1949, polo was restarted. The stable facilities were again used for polo ponies. I was a part of that startup as a player. To the right of those stables and down the hill in the area delineated by Paki Avenue, Poni Moi Road and the cliffs at the back were the Town and Country Stables, owned by Amy Rich. My wife took riding lessons there starting about 1940, for quite a number of years."
Dailey says in the 1950s, Honolulu was growing, and the forces of urbanization were pushing hard against keeping polo and the adjacent public stables in Kapiolani Park. "Neighbors complained of flies, smells and the crowds that the games attracted. It was a losing battle. By the early 1960s the stables were torn down, and polo in the park was history."
Amy Rich took over the New Town and Country Stables in Waimanalo in 1964, says current owner Katy Gibson. It’s celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.
Rich, she says, was born in Kohala but grew up in England. When she came back to Hawaii in the 1930s, she was very proper and strict because children could get hurt if they did something wrong.
Interestingly, Gibson says, Rich was a distant cousin to Patton.
The Diamond Head Tennis Center opened as a private club with four courts soon after that. The city took it over in 1972 and expanded it to 10 courts. Such luminaries as Andre Agassi, Arthur Ashe, Pancho Gonzales, Bobby Riggs, Maureen Connolly and Stan Smith have played there.
Mike Dailey’s father, Fred, who owned the Waikikian Hotel, started the Hawaii Polo Club at Mokuleia in 1964, where it has thrived ever since.
"Visiting teams from around the world and the continental U.S. come to play and to thrill the local fans. Crowds of thousands or more line the field for the big events and most popular visiting teams."
This year the club celebrates its 50th anniversary. Dailey invites the public out to the country to tailgate, socialize, enjoy the beach and take in a few matches every Sunday through Labor Day.
Bob Sigall, author of the “Companies We Keep” books, looks through his collection of old photos to tell stories each Friday of Hawaii people, places and companies. Email him at Sigall@yahoo.com.
