Rearview Mirror: UH’s Manoa campus once included a farm and dairy

Four years ago I wrote about Dammit the Dalmatian, a dog who “attended” classes at University of Hawaii at Manoa. Max Urata told me the staff of the student newspaper, Ka Leo, gave Dammit his own column in 1954, and he even ran for student body president. He lost by a whisker, Urata said.

Today I have another story about animals at UH, particularly cows. I graduated from the University of Hawaii in 1975 and never saw one cow on its Manoa campus. Turns out, there were dozens.

While I knew that UH began as the College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts in 1907, my mind visualizes a modern campus, particularly the beautiful pedestrian mall, shaded by monkeypod trees, and the East-West Center.

Earlier this month Ellen Chapman recommended the book “Building a Rainbow: A history of the buildings and grounds of the University of Hawaii’s Manoa campus,” edited by Victor Kobayashi.

I looked through it, and one thing that caught my attention was a photo of the old road that the pedestrian mall replaced. It was a long, narrow, rutted dirt street that ran from the back of Hawaii Hall east into what was called “The Farm” — UH’s agricultural center.

It was named McCarthy Road after territorial Gov. Charles McCarthy. The pedestrian McCarthy Mall replaced the dirt road in 1962.

It was the first step in the university’s long-range campus landscaping plans. Twenty-two monkeypod trees, six hala, three poincianas and 50 coconut trees were planted by landscape architect George Walters. Sculptures and other works of art were displayed along the pathways.

Cows at the opening

Cows were part of UH from its earliest days. Historian Beatrice Krauss said she accompanied her father, agriculture professor Frederick Krauss, to the campus in 1910 before UH had any permanent buildings

When the cornerstone of Hawaii Hall was laid in 1912, Krauss was at the ceremony. “The area was covered with keawe trees, so they had to cut some down to make room for bleachers for the guests,” Krauss said.

“Cows wandered into the area during the ceremony. The ‘Old Quad’ was the hub of the campus,” Krauss said, “and the farms were on the other side.”

Cow-mencement

The College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts became the College of Hawaii in 1911. A year later its first graduating class — four students — held a commencement ceremony.

“We had the graduation on a platform erected on the present Manoa campus,” math professor John Donaghho recalled. “There was a small space cleared to the west of Hawaii Hall, which was under construction.”

The faculty and graduates sat on the platform, and about 100 friends and relatives sat in chairs below.

“And beyond them was a ring of cows, looking peacefully on. Those cows were a joke for years,” Donaghho recalled. “After Hawaii Hall was finished, they mooed beneath its collegiate windows and grazed right by the front door.”

The first president of the College of Hawaii, John Gil­more, told the Board of Regents that nearby farmers refused to stop driving their cattle across campus. They suggested he relax and try negotiating with the farmers.

Chicken Corner

Norman Meller, emeritus professor of political science, came to Hawaii after World War II.

“We lived on campus at ‘Chicken Corner,’” Meller remembered. “There were 12 faculty homes in the area where the agriculture department’s faculty and students raised chickens. We would buy eggs from them every week. And the cows would wander into our backyards at night.” Their milk was sold in the school’s cafeteria.

Cows in Manoa Valley were common. In 1900 there were 10 dairies in Manoa with over 1,000 cows, and fewer than 1,000 residents. But by 1920, increasing home construction was pushing them out.

The water feature at Varney Circle was built in 1934, at what was then the beginning of the Farm. The student newspaper Ka Leo complained in 1943 that cows were “frolicking in its waters” on hot days.

Cows in the classroom

The Farm occupied much of the eastern part of the Manoa campus from the first days until about 1960. Fifty years earlier, in 1910, the first poultry shed and dairy building were constructed. Orchids sprouted in greenhouses. Student farmers tilled open fields and taro patches.

Mac McMorrow said, “I have many memories of the Farm at UH, where the East-West Center, Hamilton Library and the campus mall are now.

“As a freshman in 1957, I had a chemistry class that met on Saturdays in the big Bilger Hall classroom, which had large back and side doors opening to the field adjoining the farm.”

Bilger Hall — the chemistry department — is on the makai side of the mall, across from Hamilton Library. It was named for Leonora and Earl Bilger, who taught chemistry from the 1920s to the 1950s.

“It was always warm in the classroom, so the doors were normally kept wide open,” McMorrow continued. “The smell from the farm was pretty earthy, and you could hear an occasional moooo … but we could handle it OK.

“The flies were the real pest. My friend and I would see how many we could nail with rubber bands while the professor was reviewing the Periodic Chart or something equally spellbinding.

“Our professor was a visiting lady teacher from Vassar. One day there must have been a 4-H show at the field in front of Bachman Hall off University Avenue.

“Suddenly, we heard a few ‘yippee yiyo kayays’ and the rumble of cattle being driven past our classroom. It was a cattle drive just like in the TV show ‘Rawhide,’ but without Clint Eastwood!

“We are all looking through the open door when one of the biggest cows broke from the herd and trotted over to the side door, poked his head in and inspected the class.

“As the cow was standing there looking at our professor, she was looking back at it in disbelief! I heard her say, ‘Where did he come from?’ I guess at Vassar you can’t bring your cows to school!

“A wrangler came over and got the cow back on the trail. Soon there was nothing left but a little dust in the air.

“However, I’m sure our instructor had a tale to tell when she got back to Poughkeepsie, about how the ‘real’ west began in Hawaii.”

“Things have changed at the university since the 1950s. No more beauty contests with all the lovely girls in their ethnic clothes. But I am sure that somewhere there are 4-H judges still giving blue ribbons to the prettiest cow!”

Beauty pageant

McMorrow is referring to the annual Ka Palapala Beauty Contests, which ran from about 1937 to 1969. Coeds competed based on their ethnicity — Hawaiian, Japanese, Chinese, Filipino, Korean, Caucasian and Cosmopolitan.

Kathleen Miller Thomas competed in the 1957 pageant. “I participated in the dress and bathing suit contest.

“I’ve been nearsighted since age 7 but did not wear my glasses during those events. I remember walking in high heels up the wooden staircase in the auditorium, across the stage, pivoting, as we had practiced, and then going down the steep steps on the far side, without breaking a leg or my neck.

“Then, even scarier was the final formal event at Andrews Amphitheater. I walked with my head high, like we were coached, in an off-the-shoulder, green satin gown of my own design, when everyone else seemed to be wearing lacy net gowns. I prayed my high-heeled shoes wouldn’t catch on the hem.

“Blinding spotlights made the long walk on a raised ramp especially precarious.

“Winning would have been great, but participating was a confidence booster, as I had spent most of my life remembering being called ‘four eyes’ in the second grade.”

Prilly Matador

As bizarre as it sounds, a cow was entered in the Ka Palapala contest in 1941. She was sponsored by the Agriculture Club and named Prilly Matador.

When interviewed by The Honolulu Advertiser, the “beautiful bovine contender mooed modestly that she didn’t deserve to win.” The Ag Club pointed out she had “shapely ankles, perfect teeth and beautiful brown eyes.”

Apparently, she received many votes and came in a strong second.

By 1969, women’s liberation groups protested what they called a “ridiculous, humiliating procession of human flesh,” and that was the last Ka Palapala Beauty Pageant.

I hope you enjoyed our look back at Moo-H, I mean UH, and its roots as an agriculture college.

———

Bob Sigall explores interesting Hawaii people, places and organizations each Friday. Contact him at Sigall@Yahoo.com.