Last week I wrote about several streets in Hawaii and how they got their names. Since then I have been deluged with stories and questions. Here are some of them.
Booth Road
Gaylen Tang said, “For many years I believed Booth Road was named for John Wilkes Booth. I remember reading about him being in Hawaii years before 1865. Do you know if they named the road after him? I live in Pauoa.”
John Wilkes Booth was never in Hawaii, but his brother, Edwin, was. He was here briefly as an actor in 1855, before Abraham Lincoln was president.
However, the street has nothing to do with him, Clarice Taylor and George Miranda wrote in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. In 1956 they wrote 83 columns that explored over 1,300 Honolulu street names.
Booth Road is the newer name for the street. Before 1931 it was called Pauoa Valley Road.
“It was named for Charles Booth, who owned a large tract of land in Pauoa he called Little Greenwich,” they wrote. It was a British sailors hospital managed by his father, Joseph Booth, during the 1840s. It moved to Waikiki around 1848.
Mott-Smith
Russell Loo wrote about a man who helped his family. “Mott-Smith Drive, which starts at Nehoa Street, runs past Roosevelt High School and ends at Makiki Heights Drive. (It) was named after Ernest Mott-Smith, who was born in Hawaii in 1873.
“He was educated in New England but returned to Hawaii and served in several government Cabinet positions. My high esteem for Mr. Mott-Smith derives from personal reasons because he saved my father’s family from destitution and hardship.
“In 1923 my grandfather, fish merchant Loo Goon, died after being struck by a Model T on Kekaulike Street. My grandmother and her 10 children faced disaster because my grandfather did not leave a will. My grandparents had been married according to traditional Chinese practices, and did not have a marriage certificate that was recognized by the government.
“Consequently, my grandmother and her children were not able to claim my grandfather’s estate as legal heirs. My grandfather’s siblings and blood relatives were recognized as the heirs.
“At the time of his death, my grandfather was working with Ernest Mott-Smith on some legal matters. Mott-Smith took it upon himself to help my grandmother.
“He was able to locate all the known heirs recognized by the government and get them to sign quitclaim deeds, even those living in different regions of China.
“He set up a trust to manage the estate, which included the lease to Hanaloa Fishpond on Waipio Peninsula in Pearl Harbor, and served as trustee. He tracked down people who owed my grandfather money and collected those debts.
“He persuaded people to whom my grandfather owed money to forgive those loans. And he did all this work without charging my grandmother a penny.
“Ernest Mott-Smith’s good works remained unknown to me until 2012 when one of my aunts died. Among her possessions that were passed on to me were letters that Mr. Mott-Smith had written and my grandmother had saved.
“In one of these letters, Mr. Mott-Smith wrote: ‘I am very familiar with the fishpond business. It is a business which Loo Goon, for several years prior to his death, struggled very hard.
“‘The business was a very precarious one. It is unfortunate that Loo Goon was unable to secure the fruits of his labor as the fishpond is now producing so that it affords some means of support for Loo Goon’s wife, Sun Luke Loo, and ten children.
“‘I have done such an amount of work on this case which, if performed for others, I would have charged no less than $1,000. I am doing this, however, without charge and agreeing to act as trustee without charge because Loo Goon was my friend and I have sympathy for his family.’”
Ernest A. Mott-Smith (1873-1935) was a trustee of the Lunalilo estate. When the Lunalilo Home in Makiki moved to Koko Head, the property was subdivided and sold.
Two of the new streets were named for trustees. Mott-Smith was one. The other was Clio Street, named for Clio Chamberlain. The two meet where the Mott-Smith Laniloa condo sits.
Frog Lane
Bill Jung wrote, “I always meant to ask you for a background on Frog Lane. So, what’s the story?”
Frog Lane runs mauka from School Street, two blocks Waikiki of Liliha Street behind Kuakini Hospital.
One of my sources for this kind of information is a Star-Bulletin column that ran in 1941 called “Half Minute Holoholo.” The author, Donald Billam-Walker, wrote about one street in each column. Frog Lane was one of them.
“Honolulu went to the frogs to get a name for one of the lanes leading off School Street,” Billam- Walker stated.
“About 1890, someone got the idea that it might be profitable to use the taro patches then in the vicinity of School and Liliha streets for raising frogs for table purposes. The idea succeeded only too well.
“The frogs proved as prolific as rabbits and soon the whole neighborhood was swarming with the hopping, croaking creatures.
“When surveyors were laying out a lane in this district about 1900, one of them noting the profusion of frogs, suggested that it should be named Frog Lane, and it has been so designated on city’s maps ever since.”
Hunnewell
An anonymous reader said, “Hunnewell Street in lower Manoa was named after Capt. James Hunnewell, who was the founder of C. Brewer in 1826.
“My memory is fuzzy, but I recall talking with a very old woman at Kawaiaha‘o Church back in the 1990s who pointed out that a clock inside the church had the Hunnewell name on it.”
Yes, she was correct. The clock, attached to the balcony in Kawaiaha‘o Church, is one of Honolulu’s oldest, having been installed in 1820 in a Moiliili church as the gift of James Hunnewell, sailing captain and founder of C. Brewer & Co.
“The clock was renovated and placed in Kawaiaha‘o Church in 1826 to, as historians say, ‘warn the preacher that he was approaching the deadline for his sermon.’”
On its face the clock bears the inscription “Kamehameha III. Presented by James Hunnewell, Charlestown, Mass. USA.”
Hunnewell Street in Manoa is named for him.
St. Louis Heights
Bob Gillchrest said, “Several years ago, as I was driving up St. Louis heights, I noticed a few streets had the names of my relatives: Frank, Eugene and Robert.
“Since Eugene was in real estate, I wonder if he had a hand in these namings.”
For this I turned to “Place Names of Hawaii,” by Pukui, Elbert and Mookini. They say that “St. Louis Heights was named by Paul Low and James Hara, subdividers of the heights.
“For this area they preferred Biblical names or names of Catholic dignitaries, but finding no name beginning with Q, they chose Quincy at random.”
Brothers Eugene and Frank were instructors at St. Louis College. Brother Robert was a well-known painter at the school.
Alencastre was named for the Catholic bishop for Hawaii from 1924 to 1940. Stephen Alencastre was born in Madeira, Portugal, but was reared in Hawaii.
Maigret Street was named for Bishop Louis-Desire Maigret. He oversaw the construction of Our Lady of Peace Cathedral on Fort Street, and asked local priests to work at the Hansen’s disease colony in Kalaupapa. Saint Damien responded to his call.
Do you wonder how a street got its name or have a story about one? If so, please let me know.
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Bob Sigall’s historical Rearview Mirror column runs each Friday. Send your comments and questions to Sigall@Yahoo.com.
