Chun Afong arrived in 1849 and got right to business

Walgreens has opened at the Nuuanu Shopping Plaza, completing the latest transformation of a historic property. Many people my age remember the Chun-Hoon Supermarket, which occupied much of the site from 1935 until 1983.

Another tenant on the property was The Hungry Lion restaurant, which opened in 1982.

The history of the site goes back even further, to the 1860s, when Chun Afong, Hawaii’s first Chinese millionaire, built a house there.

Chun Afong started his business career by helping his uncle deliver a shipload of goods to Hawaii from Hong Kong in 1849, when he was 24. He invested in the sugar industry, which was just beginning to take off, and in rice, coffee, retailing, real estate and opium.

He built an estate in Waikiki, where the Army Museum is today, on three acres of oceanside property.

He threw grand parties for Hawaii’s royalty, dignitaries and diplomats.

He had a villa in Macau and another on Nuuanu Avenue and School Street. Some say he planted Hawaii’s first two Chinese banyan trees there, naming them Yin and Yang.

Afong married into Hawaiian royalty. He and his wife, Julia Fayerweather, were wed at his Nuuanu residence on June 18, 1857. He was 32. She was 17. They had four sons and 13 daughters.

Afong died in 1906. A great deal has been written about him, most notably Bob Dye’s book “Merchant Prince of the Sandalwood Mountains.” The Chinese called Hawaii the Sandalwood Mountain, as timber was at one time our leading industry.

Also, Bob Magoon Jr., Afong’s great-grandson, put on a Broadway musical in 1961 titled “13 Daughters” about Afong’s life.

I lived in the Punchbowl area in the early 1970s and often shopped at Chun-Hoon Supermarket. Chun (last name) Hoon (first name) was a peddler who came to own vegetable farms, on the military bases, and little grocery stores all over Oahu. He and Chun Afong were not related.

In 1920 he purchased the old Chun Afong property at Nuuanu and School. He may have thought the house would be a good fit for his seven children, and the eight more still to come.

Chun Hoon and his children started a retail store there in 1935. It was one of Hawaii’s top markets for almost 50 years until it closed in 1983.

He was the exclusive provider to the military of fruit and vegetables from 1927-41 and he had post stores at Schofield Barracks, Fort Shafter and Hickam Air Force Base.

The family opened a larger store in 1940, and nine years later added a pharmacy with a soda fountain and patio under the banyan trees that Chun Afong had planted.

Next week I’ll continue with more on the Nuuanu Shopping Plaza, including how The Hungry Lion got its name, plus a bit of Walgreens’ history.

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Bob Sigall is the author of “The Companies We Keep” books. His third book is now available in the Amazon Kindle store. Email him at Sigall@Yahoo.com.