My Pau Hana Pumpers group works out at a gym/rehab facility named CHART on King Street. Blaine Yoshioka, one of the physical therapists there, asked me about the Mid-Pacific Country Club and how it got that name. Was it related to Mid-Pacific Institute, he wondered?
I thought I’d look at the club and the community of Lanikai in this column, since their histories are linked.
The man who developed Lanikai and the country club in the 1920s was Charles R. Frazier. He was one of the last people in the billboard business in Hawaii until the Outdoor Circle bought him out.
Frazier had bought an acre lot on Kailua Beach around 1910 with a number of others and thought the same kind of development could take place at the eastern end of Kailua.
In the 1920s few people lived in Kailua. The road over the Pali was arduous and slow-going. The streets we know today were dirt paths then.
Stewart Wade, who is 100 years old and an active Realtor, told me that before it was developed Lanikai was a wind-swept, treeless collection of fields, where turkeys were raised and watermelons and cantaloupes were grown.
Frazier acquired title to about 300 acres of land from Harold Castle and the Irwin estate for about $250,000 and offered 33 fee-simple beach lots for sale.
It was the first major subdivision in the area, says former Kaneohe Ranch President Mitch D’Olier. The first residents were Honolulu business people buying weekend beach houses.
Frazier called it the "Lanikai Crescent." An advertisement called Lanikai the "Crescent of Content."
"‘Lanikai’ is not how Hawaiians would name a place," former Honolulu Advertiser columnist Wade Shirkey pointed out to me.
"It’s backwards," the former kumu hula at Kawaiahao Church says. "In Hawaiian the modifier — lani — should follow the noun — kai. ‘Lanikai’ should more accurately be ‘Kailani.’
"Lanikai was built as a rich white person’s enclave and was named incorrectly," Shirkey believes.
"Kailani" would mean "heavenly sea." "Lanikai" means "sea heaven."
Hawaiians called the area Kaohao ("tying or joining together"), which I find ironic because the founding of Lanikai and the Mid-Pacific Country club are tied together. Let me explain.
Frazier felt he needed something to help him sell the lots he was offering in Lanikai, none of which had running water or electricity back then. A country club would fit the bill, he thought.
Several other Oahu communities used similar ploys. The developers of Kaimuki created a zoo to attract buyers. The man who developed Alewa Heights in 1915 planned to have a zoo until his first three animals — wallabies bought from a passing circus — escaped to form colonies still found in several valleys.
Originally the club was called the Kailua Country Club, but when it opened on May 5, 1926 — 89 years ago this week — the name was changed to the Mid-Pacific Country Club, says current general manager Tim Dietrich.
"Some members thought that the name Kailua Country Club was too provincial and wanted something grander," Dietrich says. Lanikai Country Club might be appropriate today, but in 1926 it had no name recognition.
Famed golf course architect Seth Raynor laid out the course. It swept "around the hills, crosses Kaelepulu stream twice, approaches a picturesque small lake, and presents remarkable mountain and marine views," the 16-page prospectus said.
Besides golf, Frazier planned for horseback riding, yachting and overnight facilities, Dietrich says.
Frazier also built the lighthouse-shaped pillar at the beginning of Lanikai. Just mauka of it is Alala Point, where Kamehameha the Great once stood, it is said.
I wondered whether the Mid-Pacific name of the country club was related to Mid-Pacific Institute in Manoa (begun in 1908 when Mills Institute and Kawaiahao Seminary joined together). As far as I can tell, they’re not.
The term "Mid-Pacific" seemed to be popular 100 years ago. We used to have a Mid-Pacific Coffee Factory, Curio Store, Equipment, Lumber, Insurance, Painting and Renovating, Traders, Radio, Paper, Airlines and Petroleum companies.
Mid-Pacific Magazine began around 1910 as an arm of the Pan-Pacific Union, begun by Alexander Hume Ford. I wrote about Ford, founder of the Outrigger Canoe Club, a few months ago.
Some of my readers will remember the Mid-Pacific Carnival, famous for its magnificent posters. In 1914 it featured Olympian Duke Kahanamoku surfing.
The Mid-Pacific Carnival was a weeklong series of events including a floral parade, circus acts, hula dancers and sideshows at Aala Park, and was designed to showcase Hawaii’s multi-ethnic culture. It dates to about 1904.
I thought the festival might be associated with the school in Manoa, but it looks like it was independent of it and run by the Mid-Pacific Carnival Co.
There’s still a remnant of the Mid-Pacific Carnival around today: the Kamehameha Day Parade, which began around 1916.
My conclusion is that there were several things named Mid-Pacific 100 years ago but that they were not directly related to each other.
My feeling is that the term "Mid-Pacific" was popular but has gone out of fashion, much like "Territorial" has come and gone. A hundred years ago there were dozens of companies named "Territorial ______." Territorial Savings is one of the few that remains.
The Mid-Pacific Country Club today employs about 90 people and has 777 members, Dietrich says. Besides golf, it offers dining, entertainment, a fitness center, yoga, Pilates and a pool.
"It’s welcoming, comfortable and friendly," Dietrich says. And besides, it has a great view of the Mokulua islands.
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.
