In many of the columns I write, I go back in time and write about what was on a particular spot before the organization that’s there today.
For instance, before the Neal Blaisdell Center, the Ward estate occupied that location. The Hawaii State Art Museum on Richards and Hotel streets was the Armed Services YMCA and, before that, the Royal Hawaiian Hotel.
I decided to curate a list of significant Oahu locations and what was there before. It’s now 18 pages long and has over 220 sites. Starting today, I’ll write about some of them.
Let’s begin with a quiz. What preceded the Marco Polo condo? What was there before the Honolulu Club opened? Can you recall what preceded Servco’s Mapunapuna location? Which school now occupies the site of Princess Ruth’s palace?
Marco Polo
The Marco Polo condo at 2333 Kapiolani Blvd. was built in 1970. I’d bet most residents have no idea what was there before.
The Ala Wai Canal was finished in 1924, and Kapiolani Boulevard was built around 1930. Prior to that the area was marshy as three rivers meandered down to Waikiki. A few farms were scattered about the region.
In 1940 Richard Palmer Smart and his wife, Patricia, built an elegant home on the 4-acre site. Smart was the fifth-generation grandson of John Palmer Parker and inherited Parker Ranch on Hawaii island. Smart was artistic. He had a good singing voice and enjoyed acting.
The Honolulu Star- Bulletin called it a “dream home” with a stunning view of Manoa Valley. A bamboo table enclosed a radio phonograph. Huge, carved Persian chairs adorned the dining table.
The couple moved to California after the Pearl Harbor attack and divorced in 1944.
In 1945 the American Chinese Club bought it for $160,000 and built a dance hall on the site. It could hold 1,000 people. KPOI radio used the place in the 1960s for rock ’n’ roll dance parties, calling it the “Funny Farm” (a term for an insane asylum).
Tom Moffatt mentioned the Funny Farm in his book, “Showman of the Pacific,” and the album “Live at the Funny Farm,” which was recorded there.
Around 1969 the property was sold and redeveloped into the Marco Polo.
Honolulu Club
The Honolulu Club building at 932 Ward Ave. and South King Street opened in 1980. At the time, it said its potential members were “aggressive, gregarious, worked to keep fit for reasons of health, vanity and being fashionable, freely enjoyed the good life, and were conservative although modern.”
On the ground floor, at one time, were TGI Fridays and The Good Earth restaurants.
Before that, Vic Bergeron and Granville “Granny” Abbott Jr. had opened Trader Vic’s in 1940. They served “Cantonese chow,” steaks and rum-based drinks in a Polynesian, thatched-roof grass hut.
Bergeron said it was a combination cafe and museum of Polynesian and marine objects, such as tikis, glass balls, anchors, propellers and lanterns.
In the 1920s a business called the Coconut Hut occupied the site. It was seen as a “bit of old Hawaii in the heart of Honolulu.” The grass hut was a tribute to earlier times and sold Hawaiian curios.
Its specialties were coconut candy, coconut cake and coconut ice cream. Gourd calabashes hung from the rafters. Lau hala mats, poi pounders, seed lei and koa products were popular.
King Prajadhipok of Siam and his party came to the shop directly from Honolulu Harbor in Gov. Lawrence Judd’s car with a police escort in 1925, making headlines. He purchased many items after conversing with the owners, John and Louise Warinner.
Servco
Servco has a large automobile facility in Mapunapuna at 2850 Pukoloa St. It’s been there since about 1992 and was once called Toyota City.
From 1966 to 1992 Gibson’s Discount Center had a 100,000-square-foot retail store on that spot. Gibson’s was a Dallas-based discount chain with 250 stores and annual sales of $500 million.
Prior to that, old-timers might recall the Family Fair Discount Center. George Fukunaga (from Servco), Dan Yonemori (owner of the Shopping Basket chain), John Kunihisa (head of the local Ben Franklin Stores) and several others had founded it in 1962.
They decided to join the Gibson’s chain to better compete with large mainland retail chains.
Before Family Fair the area was the Damon family Moanalua Gardens estate. A railroad spur line brought visitors to the area beginning around 1890.
In the late 1950s they developed an industrial area called Mapunapuna (“numerous water springs”) and moved the Kamehameha V cottage and Chinese home to the public part of the park, mauka of today’s H-1.
Moanalua (“two encampments”) had been held by Kamehameha family members, who threw great luaus there. It passed to Bernice Pauahi, who willed it to Samuel Mills Damon, her husband’s business partner, in 1884.
Central Middle School
Central Middle School on Queen Emma Street is another location with a fascinating royal history. It was once a palace called Keoua Hale.
Princess Ruth Keelikolani was one of the richest women in the kingdom. She built a palace on the site in 1883. It was three stories tall, with a tower, and was larger than nearby Iolani Palace. Stately trees shaded manicured lawns and gardens.
She threw a huge party when it was finished. King Kalakaua, Queen Kapi‘olani, Princesses Likelike and Lili‘uokalani, and a hundred others attended.
Unfortunately, Ruth became ill and died a few weeks later. Her younger cousin Bernice Pauahi and her husband, Charles Reed Bishop, moved in.
Ruth and Pauahi jointly created Kamehameha Schools, and, although most of the land had been Ruth’s, Pauahi gets most of the credit for it.
Meanwhile, a school that began in the Fort Street Church (now Central Union Church) in 1865 was outgrowing its space. In 1895 it moved into Keoua Hale and changed its name to Honolulu High School. It continued to grow and moved again to Beretania, Young and Victoria streets and became McKinley High School.
In 1906 students from nearby, obscure Kaakopua School moved to the site, and it became Central Grammar School. The name was changed to Central Middle School in 1997.
Waikiki Shopping Plaza
At 2250 Kalakaua Ave., in the heart of our tourist center, the six-floor Waikiki Shopping Plaza is on prime real estate. One of its most famous tenants was the Lau Yee Chai restaurant, which called itself the “world’s largest, most beautiful Chinese restaurant.”
The location has an interesting history. Four years after the Ala Wai Canal was finished, which drained the swamps of Waikiki, Henry Inn built the first modern apartments on part of the area. That was in 1929, as the Great Depression was starting.
Henry Inn had arrived in Hawaii from China at 9 years of age, says his granddaughter Linda Louie. At age 28 he purchased the parcel for 90 cents a square foot. He built 105 apartments for $60,000.
In 1961 Inn replaced half the apartments with the Seaside Commercial Center, and in 1977 the remaining apartments were replaced by the Waikiki Shopping Plaza. The land has been leased out for 90 years and will be returned to Henry’s family early this year.
Some renowned tenants included the Jolly Roger restaurant and Crow’s Nest (1956-2007), the Flamingo Royal Lanai restaurant (1961-1975) and the Tropics restaurant (famous for its salad dressing, 1945-1961).
Do you remember what occupied a significant Oahu location or wonder about its history? If so, drop me a line.
The Rearview Mirror Insider is Bob Sigall’s weekly email that gives readers behind-the-scenes background, stories that wouldn’t fit in the column and lots of interesting details. My Insider “posse” gives me ideas for stories and personal experiences that enrich the column. I invite you to join in and be an Insider at RearviewMirrorInsider.com. Mahalo!
