Dedicated staff and volunteers ensure Hawaii’s Plantation Village is keeping its doors open

The 30th anniversary of Hawaii’s Plantation Village is a significant milestone to celebrate this year, especially for the dedicated volunteers who carried on against the odds created by the pandemic to maintain the outdoor history museum in Waipahu.

“The village survived two-and-a-half years of pandemic. We struggled, but we’re still here,” said executive director Evelyn Ahlo, who practically grew up on the grounds.

The museum, operated by the nonprofit Friends of Waipahu Cultural Garden Park and located within the park’s 50 acres, was unable to generate income by hosting tour groups during several months of lockdown. Though the museum was allowed to re-open in November, its activities have been scaled back and the number of tours has not rebounded, Ahlo said.

The museum, dedicated in 1992, consists largely of 25 small homes and community buildings, replicas of humble structures representing what life was like for eight ethnic groups who toiled under grueling conditions on Hawaii’s sugar plantations from the 1900s to the late 1930s. (However, the plantation era spanned the period from 1850 to 1950.)

The groups included Native Hawaiians and immigrants of Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Korean, Okinawan, Portuguese and Puerto Rican descent.

Anniversary celebrations will get rolling June 4 with the first live Japanese bon dance festival in two years, a tradition that started two years before the museum was dedicated, Ahlo said. Last year’s obon festival was livestreamed and included drive-by bento pick-up; 2020’s festivities were canceled in the thick of the lockdown.

The obon event will be followed by a Portuguese Festa (festival) in August and a special observance in September of the 30th anniversary, though details are still being planned. Weekly ghost storytelling tours will run from July through September, culminating in a Haunted Plantation event in October intended as an homage to paranormal incidents reportedly sited on the grounds.

A story to tell

Robert Castro, who grew up across the street from the village, has been a volunteer docent for 15 years. He is a proverbial walking encyclopedia as he conducts a two-hour tour, sharing details of the buildings with the familiarity of someone who once knew the occupants of each home. “Each one has a story to tell,” he said.

By showing people how immigrants lived, including examples of their old-fashioned equipment and accoutrements, all these “little bits of information … keep alive the story of immigrants coming to Hawaii that’s laid the basis for our society today,” he said. The village is a reminder of his own background — “A lot of the docents have similar stories,” Castro said.

His parents’ families included two or three generations of plantation workers who worked on different islands and eventually ended up with the Oahu Sugar Company. “I grew up hearing stories — one of my grandmothers was a stowaway” from Madeira, Portugal, though the rest of the family was on the passenger list.

Castro lived in a three-room home on Waipahu Street, which borders the village, similar to the ones displayed, though electricity was installed by the time he was born and two rooms were later added on.

While giving a tour of the village’s Portuguese house, he pointed out an antiquated sewing machine on cast-iron legs, operated by a foot lever. “So many people can identify with that sewing machine because their grandma had one like that,” he said. He moved on to a quaint, rusting white ice box, opening the door to the section where a block of ice was inserted to keep food cold before electricity was available.

A bread oven called a “forno,” originally from Maui, sits outside. It looks like an igloo made of stone, and it still functions. Nearby is an outhouse with large holes carved into a plank of wood for two toilets.

Glimpse of the past

To create the museum, measurements were taken of original plantation structures all over the state and replicated in the village, and Castro can identify the origin of each building by heart. Most of the hardware, such as doorknobs and hinges, were saved by workmen from original homes. Sinks, bathtubs and other appliances, along with cooking utensils, chairs and personal artifacts (such as a bible or Japanese talisman) were donated by families.

The houses are surrounded by trees and plants used for food or medicinal purposes that were relevant to each particular ethnic group, Castro said.

The Chinese cookhouse (built in 1909 on the property) and the Wakamiya Inari Shrine (built in 1914 in Kakaako) are the only original structures in the village. Other community buildings are replicas of, for example, a general store from Kauai, an infirmary and tofu-making shed from Oahu and a social hall from the Big Island.

A small taro pond nearby now occupies the area where Chinese immigrants once tended rice fields, and Hawaiians later added taro.

In addition to public tours, the museum gets regular visits from school groups, both from Hawaii and the mainland. Its educational material includes an archival collection that is exhibited in its administration building, Ahlo said. The museum draws support from the nearby Hawaii Technology Academy; students provide community service by painting buildings, tending gardens and other tasks.

Family connections

Ahlo became executive director in 2018, but her family has supported the village for decades. In the 1970s, she lived just two minutes away from the site and watched the structures being built. Her father was a Leeward Lions Club member, closely involved with businesses that helped develop the project. Ahlo herself had volunteered in the office for years, and her own kids have enjoyed village festivals, clean-ups and other activities.

“They ran around like it was their playground, like when we went to school,” she said.

The village is part of her home, she said, and in homage to those who worked to keep it going over the years, “I want to make sure it’s taken care of.”

That commitment was the impetus behind maintaining the museum through the pandemic, when the only funding it received came from the federal stimulus payroll program, membership fees and small fundraisers, she said. The museum recently received a state grant requested in 2019 to make renovations.

When the pandemic started, the city Department of Parks and Recreation wanted to close the village down entirely. But Ahlo asked that her staff of three and a group of volunteers be allowed to maintain the buildings and grounds. Almost 20 volunteers, most in their 70s with plantation roots, rose to the challenge.

“Everybody worked hard. Our hearts were in it. We just helped keep the area clean; we asked our volunteers and their families to come — just having everybody stay together,” she said. “We can stand proud that we did this all on our own.”

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32ND ANNUAL OBON FESTIVAL

>> When: 4:30 to 10 p.m. June 4 at Plantation Village

>> Info: Call 677-0110 or go to hawaiiplantation village.org.

Highlights:

>> Food: Booths by KC Waffle Dog, Da Hub, Kona Ice, Da Andagi Guy and more

>> Village gift shop: Craft goods include neck pillows, decorative hairpins and crocheted items; Country Store offers donated Asian wares and dishes, kimono and happi coats, etc.

>> Live performances: Ewa Fukushima Bon Dance Club, Oahu District Bon Dance Club, the Waipahu Soto Mission Bon Dance Club; and the Hawaii Shin Kobukai, Iwakuni Dance Group, among others.

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HAWAII’S PLANTATION VILLAGE

In the Waipahu Cultural Garden Park at 94-695 Waipahu St.

>> Hours: 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays.

>> Guided tours in English and Japanese: 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. (last guided tour of the day). Schedule at 808-677-0110 or email waipahu.hpv@gmail.com.

>> Admission fees: $8 (youth) to $17 (general).