Last week, La Pietra-Hawaii School for Girls asked me to speak to their students about the Dillinghams. Walter and Louise Dillingham’s estate, La Pietra, is now the campus of the school.
There are many interesting things about Walter and Louise Dillingham and La Pietra that I thought the students might not know. I thought my readers would find them interesting as well.
Benjamin Franklin Dillingham — "Frank" as he was called — built the Oahu Rail & Land Co. I’ll write about him in a future column.
Frank’s son, Walter, was born on April 5, 1875 — 138 years ago this month.
When he was just 27, Dillingham founded Hawaiian Dredging and Construction in 1902. Hawaiian Dredging was involved in some of the most important building projects in Hawaii and the world.
Its first job was dredging the shallow entrance to Pearl Harbor, in 1902, and building the first dry dock there. This allowed the Navy to establish a base at Pearl Harbor.
In 1928 it built the Ala Wai Canal. This diverted several streams away from Waikiki and dried up the swamps there. This paved the way for tourism to develop as our top industry.
Hawaiian Dredging built the first Honolulu airport, Ala Moana Beach Park, the Federal Building, Ala Moana Center, the Honolulu Academy of Arts (now Honolulu Museum of Art), theaters, schools, homes, office buildings, banks and power plants.
Outside the state, it helped clear the Suez Canal, built the Griffith Park Observatory in 1935 and helped build BART in San Francisco and the Metros in Washington, D.C. and Atlanta.
Walter was called Hawaii’s Empire Builder and the Baron of Hawaii Industry for these activities. He was, in my opinion, one of the most impactful people to ever live in Hawaii.
Louise Gaylord was on an around-the-world trip in 1909 with her mother and brother and stopped in Hawaii for a few days. They went by horse and buggy to Moanalua Gardens to watch a polo match. Walter Dillingham was captain of the team.
Walter told an interviewer that "one day a good-looking girl walked off the boat wearing a yellow straw hat with a row of daisies on it. I had a sporty red car then" — one of the first in the state. "I was parked in it not far away, so I had a chance to look her over."
That night they went to a party at the Pleasanton Hotel, at Wilder and Punahou streets. When Louise told him who she was, he said, "Weren’t you the young lady I saw coming off the ship today with a straw hat with daisies?" She was.
"I took her horseback riding on Tantalus; then we went surfing in front of the Moana. Louise wore more bathing clothes than you’d wear in a snowstorm."
"There was not a soul on Waikiki but us. Hard to imagine now. Some boys came over and serenaded us. The moon came up." Her mother was furious that she came home so late — 11 p.m.
"I never expected to see her again, but I was down at the boat the next day."
"When I got to the ship," Louise continued, "I said to myself, ‘Walter Dillingham is the only person in the world I would ever marry — and here I am going away!’"
"In 24 hours you won’t remember my name," Louise told him. "Some other girl will come along."
Walter admitted that was probably true, but the next day he sent her a wireless radio telegraph. "24 hours up. No change."
"I’d only known the girl three days, our families were strangers and I couldn’t keep her out of my mind."
He sent her another wire telling her he missed her and asking her to marry him. She accepted, also by wireless.
"Within days," Walter recounts, "I was receiving cables of congratulations from all over the world. I was floored — until I learned ours was the first engagement by wireless."
The Dillinghams wed and honeymooned in Italy. Walter built her a beautiful estate on the then-remote slopes of Diamond Head. It was modeled after the Villa La Pietra, where they honeymooned.
Two hundred years ago the La Pietra site was occupied by Papa‘ena‘ena, one of the most significant heiau on Oahu. It was dedicated to an activity that was important to ancient Hawaiians: surfing.
Surfers came to the heiau to offer sacrifices and learn about surfing. Kahuna flew kites to alert nearby residents when the surf was up.
La Pietra was completed in 1922 and was the social center for Hawaii’s elite for more than 40 years. Franklin Roosevelt, Walt Disney, presidents and royalty were among the guests there. More than 1,000 attended Walter’s 80th-birthday party in 1955.
The Dillinghams did have their eccentricities. Walter opposed Hawaii statehood because he feared the state would be dominated by the then communist-led International Longshore and Warehouse Union.
Louise was sometimes kept up at night by the roaring of the Honolulu Zoo’s lions. She suggested the mangy creatures be replaced with a movie about lions.
Walter died in 1963 and Louise the following year. La Pietra was left to Punahou School.
That same year, Barbara Cox Anthony and Lorraine Cooke founded Hawaii School for Girls on the grounds of Central Union Church. By an interesting coincidence, Central Union Church was given the property by Walter Dillingham’s mother, Emma. It had previously been her and Ben Franklin Dillingham’s estate, Woodlawn. Benefactors of the Hawaii School for Girls bought La Pietra from Punahou.
In 1969 the school moved to La Pietra. Today 195 girls attend classes on one of the most beautiful and historic properties in the state.
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Bob Sigall is Hawaii’s business historian. His business, Creative-1, helps local companies tell their stories. Contact him at Sigall@Yahoo.com.
