At the beginning of each year, I often stop to explore the companies and organizations that have important anniversaries this coming year. It’s something special for a company to have staying power in the community, and I want to tip my hat to them.
I’m starting with 40 years, but many well-known organizations are coming on 100 years old, or even more, in 2017. A few listed below are no longer in business, but are still in our memories.
40 YEARS AGO — 1977
>> Big Island Candies is famous for its chocolate-covered shortbread cookies. Allan Ikawa founded Big Island Candies in 1977 and it’s become the gift of choice from Hilo.
>> The Tony Group is in Hawaii because of asthma. Tony Masamitsu began as a Honda dealer in Tokyo in 1967, from a showroom that was only 8 by 8 feet. His son, Stan, had asthma. When the family made a trip to Hawaii, they noticed that Stan’s asthma disappeared. They soon moved to Hawaii for Stan’s health and opened Hawaii’s first exclusive Honda dealership on 7/7/77.
50 YEARS AGO — 1967
>> KPOI went on the air at 1380 on the AM dial as Hawaii’s first rock ’n’ roll station.
>> Pearl Country Club opened as the Francis I‘i Brown Golf Course. Brown was one of Hawaii’s greatest golfers. At one time he held course records in Hawaii, California, Scotland and Japan. He won nine Manoa cups. Today, the course is owned by the Soichiro Honda family of Japan and is open to the public. Honda (founder of the motor company that bears his name) said it is a golf course for “ties of friendship between Hawaii and Japan.”
60 YEARS AGO — 1957
>> Chaminade University was founded as St. Louis Junior College. Radford High School, named for Navy Adm. Arthur Radford, opened the same year.
>> The retail store Gem opened, and Kaiser built its geodesic dome at the Hawaiian Village in Waikiki. Both are now gone.
65 YEARS AGO — 1952
>> The year brought Hawaii’s first television broadcasts from KONA (now KHON) and KGMB. Leonard’s Bakery began making malasadas (which means “badly cooked”), and Hamura’s Saimin Stand opened on Kauai.
>> The first FM radio station, KVOK (Voice of Kamehameha), broadcast at 10 watts from Kapalama.
>> The predecessor of L&L Hawaiian BBQ — L & L Dairy — opened on Oahu. It opened a milk depot in Liliha that became a soda fountain and later a plate-lunch place.
70 YEARS AGO — 1947
>> Outrigger Hotels is celebrating its 70th anniversary this year. It took its name from the Outrigger Canoe Club, which used to be next to the Royal Hawaiian Hotel. The Outrigger Waikiki is now on the site.
>> McKinley Car Wash will also be 70.
80 YEARS AGO — 1937
>> Beretania Florist was founded by Shigeichi and Yukie Nakamoto.
>> Hormel invented Spam. Some think it’s a contraction of “spiced ham” or “shoulder of pork and ham,” but the company says Kenneth Daigneau came up with the name “Spam” as if “it were nothing at all.”
>> The Kodak Hula Show opened near Sans Souci beach so that tourists could take pictures of hula dancers in good light. (The show closed in 2002, when it was known as the Pleasant Hawaiian Hula Show.)
85 YEARS AGO — 1932
>> President Theodore Roosevelt High School was founded in Makiki. The school’s Rough Rider mascot originated from “Buffalo Bill’s Wild West and Congress of Rough Riders of the World.”
95 YEARS AGO — 1922
>> Radio came to Hawaii with both KGU and KGMB going on the air.
>> That same year, James Dole, president of Hawaiian Pineapple Co. (later renamed Dole Food Co.), purchased the island of Lanai for $1.1 million.
>> Also, the Waioli Tea Room in Manoa opened as a training facility for orphans. Waioli means “singing waters.” The tea room closed in 2014.
100 YEARS AGO — 1917
>> Consolidated Theatres took that name in 1917. It had been operating as the Honolulu Amusement Co. since 1914, and its founder, Joel Cohen, went into the theatrical business in 1899. The five theatres that were “consolidated” were the Hawaii, Liberty, Palama, Bijou and Empire.
>> Ah Fook’s Supermarket on Maui opened.
>> The first Girl Scout Troop west of the Mississippi River was founded in Honolulu.
>> And the Royal Hawaiian Hotel closed downtown and was converted into the Armed Services YMCA, which now houses the Hawaii State Art Museum.
110 YEARS AGO — 1907
>> The University of Hawaii, then named the College of Agriculture and Mechanical Arts, opened in temporary quarters on Beretania and Victoria streets, across from Thomas Square.
>> The Halekulani hotel’s beginning can be traced to the Hau Tree hotel, which opened in 1907 in Robert Lewers’ home. It became the Halekulani in 1917.
>> Fort Shafter opened near Moanalua and its hospital would be renamed in 1920 for Civil War Brig. Gen. Charles S. Tripler.
>> The first “picture brides” arrived from Japan to marry plantation laborers.
>> Suisan began in Hilo as a hui of Japanese fishermen. Originally it was named Suisan Kabushiki Kaisha — “sui” means “water” and “san” means “products,” while “kabushiki” refers to a publicly traded corporation and “kaisha” means “a business entity.”
115 YEARS AGO — 1902
>> Young Laundry began in the Alexander Young Hotel on Bishop Street. They chose the site because an artesian spring on the property produced 300,000 gallons of water a day.
>> The Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau was born from the bubonic plague of 1899 and 1900, which decimated tourism to the territory. In 1902 funds were raised for W.C. Weedon to give talks and show photos on the mainland about Hawaii.
120 YEARS AGO — 1897
>> Bank of Hawaii was founded by angry customers (Castle & Cooke) who were upset that First Hawaiian Bank’s predecessor bounced a $40 check of theirs and denied them a loan in 1889. Castle & Cooke directors marched into the bank with a wheelbarrow and withdrew their assets in gold and silver. They paraded up and down the streets of downtown before founding Bank of Hawaii two blocks away.
>> Meadow Gold traces its history to 1897 and was originally the name of the dairy’s butter.
130 YEARS AGO — 1887
>> Two cousins conspired to create Kamehameha Schools. They pooled their assets — more than 300,000 acres of land and $100,000 in cash. The two were Princesses Ruth Keelikolani and Bernice Pauahi Bishop. They were the last of the royal Kamehameha line. Bernice Pauahi outlived Ruth and, for reasons I don’t understand, gets more of the credit for founding Kamehameha Schools.
135 YEARS AGO — 1882
>> The Honolulu Star-Bulletin began as the Evening Bulletin. It merged in 1912 with the Hawaiian Star and currently publishes as the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.
>> Matson Navigation Co. launched. William Matson left Sweden at the age of 15 and saw the possibility of luxury ships bringing rich passengers to luxury hotels — the Moana and Royal Hawaiian.
>> The original Wo Fat Restaurant opened in 1882.
>> The current Iolani Palace opened.
150 YEARS AGO — 1867
>> St. Andrew’s Cathedral and Priory School were built by Queen Emma and Kamehameha IV. Emma asked the Archbishop of Canterbury to help combat witchcraft and superstition in Hawaii with schools for girls (the Priory) and boys (‘Iolani).
170 YEARS AGO — 1847
>> Parker Ranch, one of the oldest and largest in the United States, was built by John Parker. Capt. George Vancouver had given Kamehameha the Great several cattle, and over time they multiplied. The ranch traces its roots to the king’s 1812 request that Parker organize the herd.
165 YEARS AGO — 1852
>> The Pacific Club began as “The Mess” and was later called the British Club. It had several locations downtown before selecting its current site on Queen Emma Street.
355 YEARS AGO — 1662
>> And, of course, Shirokiya, the oldest company doing business in Hawaii, was founded in Edo, Japan, a mere 355 years ago. Shirokiya means “White Tree Store.” The retailer’s first outlet outside of Japan opened in 1959 at the new Ala Moana Center.
CONGRATULATIONS TO all the ongoing organizations for having what it takes to stick around for decades — even centuries — and continue to do great work in the islands.
