I’ve worked out with a group called Pau Hana Pumpers at CHART (Comprehensive Health and Rehabilitative Therapy) on King Street next to Straub for 20 years.
That means I’m in the Ward Avenue and King Street area quite a bit. There’s a lot of history on that corner, and I thought you might like to hear some of it.
Let’s start with the oldest corner, the Diamond Head/mauka side of the street.
There you’ll find Hawaii’s first park, Thomas Square. Its story starts on Feb. 11, 1843 — 173 years ago — when Capt. George Paulet, under threat of artillery, “captured” the Hawaiian kingdom for Britain.
When his superior, Rear Adm. Richard Thomas, found out, he came to Hawaii and on July 31, 1843, restored Hawaii’s independence.
The ceremony took place at a dusty area called “the Plains.” Several thousand attended as the Union Jack was lowered and Hawaii’s flag raised.
Kamehameha III designated that day Restoration Day and named Hawaii’s first park in Thomas’ honor. That day he uttered the phrase “Ua mau ke ea o ka aina i ka pono”: The sovereignty of the land is perpetuated in righteousness.
You might not know it, but from an aerial view you can see that the park looks like the British Union Jack.
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Crossing King Street/makai, we come to the Neal S. Blaisdell Center.
Victoria and Curtis Perry Ward built an estate they called “Old Plantation” here in 1882, 134 years ago. It occupied more than 100 acres.
With most of the population living in the downtown area or Waikiki, the Wards lived “out in the middle of nowhere,” some said.
The Ward Estate extended from King Street down to Kewalo Basin and into the ocean. Ward Avenue began as a meandering street that originated near the water and, over time, was straightened out to meet King Street.
But that’s where it ended. One hundred years ago, mauka of King Street, was called Kapiolani Street.
Kapiolani Street was not named for King David Kalakaua’s wife, Queen “Julia” Kapiolani Napelakapuokakae. It was named for her great-aunt, High Chiefess Kapiolani, who was famous for becoming a Christian and defying Madam Pele at Kilauea.
“Kapiolani” means “the heavenly arch.”
Ward Avenue came to King Street a little Ewa of Kapiolani Street. A driver had to turn right, then left to go mauka of King Street.
The city bought the Ward Estate for $2 million in 1958 and erected what was first called the Honolulu International Center in 1964. Ward Avenue was widened and connected to Kapiolani Street, which was renamed in 1959.
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Across the street, Ewa from the NBC Concert Hall, is the Honolulu Club. At one time it was a Trader Vic’s. Vic Bergeron was a world traveler and opened a South Seas-style restaurant there in 1940.
His partners, Granville “Granny” Abbott and Fred Mosher, soon bought him out.
Trader Vic’s was a thatched roof, single-story building surrounded by trees. A giant anchor stood in front of it. Inside were tikis, glass marina balls and netting, bamboo tables, with tapa cloth on the walls.
Despite its South Seas theme, for some reason it served “Cantonese chow” and curries, besides teriyaki chicken and steaks and other local fare.
In 1967 the restaurant was bought by Spencecliff and moved to the International Market Place. Annette La Mariana recalled that when it closed she bought many of their tikis and glass balls, and you can see them today at her Sand Island restaurant.
Jim Anderson told me he tore down the Trader Vic’s building. “A worker called me over at one point and showed me a hole in the ground. We dropped a rock and a second or two later heard a splash.
“A flashlight revealed an underground river running mauka to makai under Straub and under the Honolulu Club. ‘What should we do?’ the worker asked. ‘Seal it up,’” Anderson told him.
Oahu has several underground rivers. Another runs down Bishop Street, I’m told. If you know anything about them, please drop me a line.
Anderson says the Trader Vic’s site was empty for several years. The Hawaii Corp. initially planned to construct a medical office building there, but few doctors and dentists wanted to have an office next to a cemetery.
Gene Axelrod and Frank Tokioka took control of the site and developed the Honolulu Club in the late 1970s. They projected about 1,500 mostly male members. Instead, about 4,000 joined and 50 percent were female.
TGI Fridays restaurant was considering a lease in Kahala, but Axelrod flew to its headquarters in Texas and came back with a signed deal.
TGIF stood for Thank God It’s Friday and was first created by Alan Stillman in New York in 1965. He hoped it would help him meet women. It did.
It opened in 1981, on the ground floor of the Honolulu Club building. It was famous for its loaded baked potato skins. Yum!
TGIF benefited from its proximity to the NBC Arena and Concert Hall and was usually busy when events happened there.
For a brief time around 1981, another restaurant, called The Good Earth, was also on the ground floor. It belonged to a chain of upscale health food restaurants based in Reno, Nev. The restaurants were famous for their Good Earth Tea, which still exists.
TGIF on Ward closed suddenly in 2007, but the franchise is thriving today with nearly 1,000 restaurants in more than 60 countries.
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Straub Clinic is on the mauka/Ewa corner of the street. Straub is named for George Straub, who founded the clinic in 1919 in his home at 401 S. Beretania St. — where the state Capitol is today. It moved to its present site in 1933.
Straub is interesting in that its front entrance has shifted from facing mauka to facing Thomas Square and finally facing King Street.
In “Straub: Four Generations of Excellence,” Carol Chang wrote, “Every dozen or so years, the place seemed to heave itself up and take a turn to the right. The clinic acquired five different street addresses without moving an inch!”
The mauka address was originally 881 Young St. Then city officials changed the name to Hotel Street. In 1950 the Milnor Building went up, and the entrance faced Thomas Square. The address was 1020 Kapiolani St.
When Kapiolani Street was renamed Ward Avenue, Straub “moved” again to 1000 Ward Ave., without budging an inch.
In 1963 Straub added the Palma Building, and the entrance then and now faces King Street. The new address is 888 S. King St. This must have driven the mailman crazy!
Hopefully, the next time you pass Ward Avenue and King Street, you’ll think of some of this interesting history.
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.
