Every year about this time, I look back at some of the companies, schools and events celebrating anniversaries in the next 12 months. Hawaii has a rich, interesting history. It makes the events of today more meaningful to remember it.
1831: 190 years ago
>> Lahainaluna School
It always amazes me that Hawaii had several schools before California even had one. Our oldest — and the oldest school west of the Mississippi — is Lahainaluna.
The school began in 1831 as a seminary for young men but became a public school in 1850. Lahainaluna means “above Lahaina.”
The students built the school, maintained it and grew their own food for its first several decades. Classes were taught in Hawaiian for its first 50 years, said John Ferreira Jr. in 1981. He was the first Caucasian admitted to the school and graduated in 1907.
John Kwon, who attended Lahainaluna in 1924, told The Honolulu Advertiser in 1981 that the boarders had a simple diet.
“In the morning we had milk, mush and fruit. Lots of fruit, because we grew our own papayas and bananas. Dinner was another story. We had poi — all we could eat, which was three and four bowls full — a small piece of salted salmon and green vegetables from the garden. You had to like poi or forget it.”
1841: 180 years ago
>> Punahou School
Punahou traces its history to 1841. It was a school for the children of missionaries, started two years after it built a school for the children of alii — the Chiefs’ Children’s School, on the lawn Diamond Head of today’s state Capitol.
Punahou means “new spring” and is named for an artesian spring that produces a lily pond on the campus.
A map of the campus in 1870 shows it surrounded by pastures, taro patches and cornfields.
When I was working on my first “The Companies We Keep” book 20 years ago, there were several rumors I wanted to confirm or dispel. One was that on Dec. 8, 1941 — 80 years ago — the Army Corps of engineers was sent to take over the University of Hawaii as a base.
They arrived at Punahou on Wilder Avenue and thought it was UH, and refused to admit they had made a mistake. The rumor is not correct. The engineers had scoped out Punahou for over six months and had planned well in advance to occupy it, should war break out.
They paid Punahou over $10,000 a month in rent (over $150,000 in 2021 dollars), and that income helped Punahou survive the war. Classes relocated to UH and private homes.
1846: 175 years ago
>> Saint Louis School
Saint Louis began as the College of Ahuimanu in Temple Valley on the Windward side. Ahuimanu means “a flock of birds.”
It was designed to serve the needs of the early Roman Catholic community in the kingdom. St. Damien lived there before he was ordained.
It moved downtown in 1881 and took up residence at the end of Beretania Street on the Ewa bank of Nuuanu Stream. It was renamed Saint Louis College for France’s King Louis IX, who died leading his second crusade (hence the name for the school’s teams, Crusaders).
The school moved again to Kalaepohaku (“stone promontory”), which we now call Saint Louis Heights, in 1928.
1851: 170 years ago
>> Castle & Cooke
Samuel Castle and Amos Cooke were missionaries when the Board of Missions in Boston said they would henceforth have to support themselves.
Castle & Cooke went into business, buying and selling merchandise, in 1851, then became business agents for many sugar companies. They helped Matson build the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, underwrote Dole Pineapple, played a role in founding Bank of Hawaii and built Mililani town.
>> Love’s Bakery
Love’s Biscuit & Bread Co. was founded downtown on Nuuanu Avenue in 1851 by Robert Love Sr., a native of Scotland.
Love’s moved to Iwilei in 1924. Its building is now a Salvation Army thrift store at Nimitz Highway and Sumner Street.
It has been at 911 Middle St. since 1991 and is owned by the Dai Ichiya company of Japan.
1921: 100 years ago
>> Straub Clinic
Straub Clinic is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. A quirk of fate brought George Straub to Hawaii, Dr. Don Carty reported. Straub had just gotten his medical degree and was an enlisted man in the German army.
An older, higher-ranking relative who had a considerable amount of alcohol at a family party in Wurzburg took it upon himself to drill Dr. Straub in marching.
“This was so poorly accepted by George that he struck the relative, an officer. The penalty was either to be court-martialed or leave the country.”
Straub first went to London, then New York and finally Honolulu where Queen’s Hospital put him to work. Queen Lili‘uoka- lani was a patient and friend. The two spent many afternoons at Washington Place playing music together.
Straub could be critical of other doctors who, he felt, had not done their best. His critique of one over an infected leg inspired the humiliated doctor to challenge Straub to a duel in Punchbowl Crater.
Straub could choose the weapons. Syringes? Maybe wooden shoes at 20 paces. Straub was notorious for wearing them during surgery. The duel never took place.
Straub also resisted attaching his name to “The Clinic,” as it was called in 1921, fearing the German name might be a liability. It wasn’t until 1952 that it became Straub Clinic.
The clinic’s original location was 401 S. Beretania and Miller streets, where the state Capitol is today. The original doctors were Straub, Guy C. Milnor, Arthur Jackson, Howard Clarke and Eric Fennel. It moved to its current site in 1933, with nine physicians, 14 ancillary personnel and one administrator.
1946: 75 years ago
On April 1, 1946, an 8.6-magnitude earthquake shook Alaska. It sent waves measuring 55 feet high, traveling 500 miles per hour across the Pacific. In 4-1/2 hours they hit Hawaii.
Over 110 were killed on the Big Island. Six died on Oahu, 14 on Kauai and 18 on Maui.
In Hilo, where the most destruction occurred, 1,400 buildings were demolished or damaged. Over 5,000 were left homeless.
Ten-foot waves hit Waikiki. The Waikiki Tavern, next to the Moana Hotel, was damaged. And the wave traveled up the Ala Wai Canal and damaged the McCully Bridge, putting it out of commission for over six weeks.
Caddies at the Waialae Golf Course found fish on their course, as did sailors on the runway at the Kaneohe Marine Air Station.
The tsunamis measured over 20 feet in Kahuku and 35 feet at Kaena Point.
>> Helena’s Hawaiian Foods
Helen Chock told me her parents had a general merchandise store on North King Street near Houghtailing Street in 1946.
“My brother started a Hawaiian food restaurant next to the store, but he was too young and got tired of it. My mom asked me to take over.
“So we took over the restaurant in 1946, and my husband, Jong Chock, suggested we add an ‘a’ to my name to make it sound more Hawaiian. The restaurant took about three years to catch on.
“We had a lot of the Kamehameha students come after school and football games for saimin or pipikaula, which were 25 cents back then.”
Today they are busier than ever at their North School Street restaurant in the hands of her grandson, Craig Katsuyoshi.
1951: 70 years ago
>> Matsumoto Shave Ice
Mamoru and Helen Matsumoto opened their own grocery store, M. Matsumoto Store in Haleiwa, 70 years ago.
With the birth of their three children, Glenn, Janice and Stanley, they felt a need to expand their business. A cool refreshment was offered to the carloads of tourists and locals coming to the North Shore — shave ice. It became a major tourist attraction, and in normal times they serve over 1,000 people a day.
Do you know of a local company celebrating a significant anniversary in 2021? If so, send me an email.
Have a question or suggestion? Contact Bob Sigall, author of the five “The Companies We Keep” books, at Sigall@Yahoo.com.
