It is hard to believe there is a gem of a 10-acre park above Kaneohe Bay that is owned by neither the government nor a corporation. Instead, it is mostly the vision of two individuals who over time have preserved this mini ahupuaa for enjoyment of the public.
Jack Gillmar, a retired teacher at La Pietra, and his wife, Janet, a licensed landscape architect, have been the stewards of what is called Friendship Garden for many years.
Like a lot of projects in Hawaii, it started as a land deal. In 1927, Theodore and Mary Atherton Richards bought what was called the Kokokahi Tract from Kaneohe Ranch. At the time it was about 100 acres that sprawled down a valley toward the bay.
What’s hard to believe is that in that time period — the late 1920s — the 87 lots were distributed by lottery according to the island’s ethnic makeup. It’s wondered how that scenario would go over with today’s anti-discrimination laws and customs. But they went ahead and sold the lots, while keeping the steeper valleys above the subdivision for a park.
Professional attention came to the gardens in the 1930s, when the well-known landscape architect Richard Tong, assisted by Francis Bowers, helped lay out Hawaiian, Chinese and Japanese areas within the garden. Could that have been to reflect the housing below? But that landscape work seriously deteriorated in the 1950s and 1960s.
That’s when Jack and Janet stepped in.
In 1974 they leased the 10 acres for $1 a year for 50 years from the Kokokahi Community Trust. The lease was written so that if the Gillmars restored the garden and set up a nonprofit foundation to care for the garden’s future, the ownership of the garden’s land could be transferred to the foundation.
That happened in 1979 when The Friendship Garden Foundation was established and the lease transferred from the Gillmars to the foundation.
Today, Friendship Gardens remains a "nature" garden, which means the planting, bushes and trees are in their natural state rather than formal garden plots. If you are looking for beds of flowers and/or trimmed trees, those are best found at places such as Foster Gardens.
Access to a good portion of the park is available via two trails that make a figure-eight. Just off the roadway, the quarter-mile loop Main Trail starts from the hiker’s gathering steps. Those semi-circular steps were designed by Janet as a mini amphitheater, and the stone came from curbing along Beretania Street between Punahou and McCully streets.
The upper Dudley-Talbott Trail is about a half-mile long and winds through areas such as Banyan Valley and Bamboo Grove. Because the terrain is pretty steep, the short distance belies the cardiovascular effort it takes to enjoy the spectacular views of Kaneohe Bay below and the Koolaus beyond. Sturdy shoes are recommended.
The upper trail got its name from two stalwart volunteers. Ted Talbott donated his time during the better part of a decade to realign and rebuild the upper trail. Throughout the years various Eagle Scouts and others have donated their time for trail maintenance and what Jack calls overall "gentle" maintenance. In other words, there are no raked trails or manicured areas. In fact, Jack, Janet and their son, Ben, go out to the park almost every weekend to clean up any brush that might have fallen across a trail somewhere.
The park is a gem, and its finest facet is a small, simple Japanese pavilion midway on the upper portion of the main trail. Here are benches where visitors can sit, relax and take in the incredible views of Kaneohe Bay below.
Jack and Janet are to be thanked for their continuing preservation effort at the gardens. It is open every day and free to the public.
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Keep Hawaii Hawaii is a monthly column on island architecture and urban planning. Robert M. Fox, president of Fox Hawaii Inc., studied architecture in California and Japan. He was one of the founders of the Historic Hawai‘i Foundation in 1974. David Cheever, owner of David Cheever Marketing, has served on the boards of the Historic Hawai‘i Foundation and the Hawaii Architectural Foundation. Send comments to keephawaiihawaii@staradvertiser.com
