There’s been a lot of coverage of the 175th anniversary of Restoration Day, which took place at Thomas Square in 1843. Over 50,000 attended as British Rear Adm. Richard Darton Thomas restored the sovereignty of Hawaii to Kamehameha III.
I’ve mostly gone to the park for dog shows, plant sales and craft fairs, but there’s a lot of little-known and fascinating history to Thomas Square. That is this week’s topic.
The Plains
When Kamehameha III chose the site for the restoration ceremonies, the area was a dry, dusty wasteland known as “The Plains.” In 1843 Honolulu was pretty much confined to the harbor, Nuuanu Stream and Beretania and Punchbowl streets.
The Plains extended from Punchbowl Street all the way to Punahou, and there “was not a blade of grass nor a shrub of any kind,” a 1938 Hawaiian Historical Society report said.
It was said that mothers, upstairs in the Mission House, could see their children leave Punahou School, about 2 miles away, and begin their trek across the barren area.
By 1846 King, Beretania and Young streets were extended to about where Kalakaua Avenue is today. Lots in the area sold for about $40.
Archibald Cleghorn
The area that is Thomas Square today reverted to its dry, dusty existence following the restoration and sat idle for 40 years as the city grew and streets were laid out.
In 1870 Curtis and Victoria Ward bought 23 acres makai of King Street and developed a huge estate they called “Old Plantation.” Ward planted 7,000 coconut trees and built a Southern- style mansion, about where the Neal S. Blaisdell Center parking lot is today.
Twelve years later, in 1882, Archibald Cleghorn, the father of Princess Kaiulani, was made park superintendent and tasked with beautifying Thomas Square.
A park was needed, leaders argued, because Kapiolani Park, being 4 miles from Honolulu, was inconvenient for the general populace, which could not afford horses and carriages.
An artesian well at one corner of the square furnished a good supply of pure water, which was piped to the entire park. A pool 80 feet across and 18 inches deep was added.
Cleghorn planted many trees on the property, including the banyans, which are cuttings from Ainahau, his Waikiki estate. For the first time, the area had that special something: shade.
“The grass-carpeted earth and the leafy foliage above make it a place of refreshing coolness on the hottest of days,” the Pacific Commercial Advertiser wrote.
After five years the Advertiser said, “Cleghorn has converted the once bare and unattractive Thomas Square into the prettiest and best appointed public pleasure grounds in the kingdom.”
He also built a bandstand for an 1887 grand opening. A large crowd listened to the Royal Hawaiian Band’s performance and strolled the grounds.
In the late 1880s Charles and Anna Cooke built a home mauka of Thomas Square. Their veranda commanded an unobstructed ocean vista from Honolulu Harbor to Punahou School to Diamond Head.
They collected art and antiquities from all over the world and willed them to the Honolulu Academy of Arts, which opened in 1927.
In the next several decades, dark clouds gathered over the square as several groups proposed using it for one purpose or another.
An athletic field
In 1910 came a proposal that the mauka half of Thomas Square be used as a track and athletic field for McKinley High School, which at the time was across the street on the makai/Diamond Head corner of Beretania and Victoria streets. It opened there in 1908.
On its cramped campus McKinley focused on the mental development of its students, but not on their physical development, some argued.
The students had to travel a mile off campus, to the Makiki Parade Grounds, for athletics. This was one reason the school moved, in 1923, to its larger, current campus, which was formerly a rice field.
The College of Agriculture and Mechanical Arts — University of Hawaii — temporarily shared the McKinley campus for five years until its Manoa campus was ready in 1912.
Hawaii State Library
Also around 1910 Andrew Carnegie agreed to donate money to Hawaii to build a library. One possible location considered for it was Thomas Square.
The argument against it was that it would mean abandoning the purpose for which the park was dedicated: a lasting memorial to Thomas and his restoration of Hawaiian independence.
In the end the library took up residence in 1913 at King and Punchbowl streets, and the school on the property — Pohukaina — moved to Kakaako.
Cut the park in half
In 1926 more automobiles were on the road, and traffic was increasing. To deal with it, some planners suggested that Young Street be extended through Thomas Square.
Gov. Charles McCarthy suggested building a road makai of King Street to divert cars heading to Waikiki away from the congestion.
He suggested it be called Missionary Boulevard. The powers-that-be liked the idea but not the name, and changed it to Kapiolani Boulevard.
By 1931, Kapiolani Boulevard had extended to Kalakaua Avenue. Adding sidewalks took another 10 years.
Castle Fountain
The fountain in the center of the park was dedicated in 1932 to the late Beatrice Castle Newcomb. The memorial fountain sat in the midst of the four banyans.
It was dedicated to a woman who in her 42 years “did a great deal for the beautification of the city of Honolulu,” the Honolulu Star-Bulletin wrote.
Newcomb was a founder of the Hawaii chapter of the American Red Cross and president of the Outdoor Circle.
Tina McFarland wrote that when she was a little girl, “my dad would take us to the water fountain in Thomas Square when my mom was at the doctors at Straub. We would play around the fountain enjoying the spray of water in our faces. We would also collect the red seeds from the pods that fell from the trees around the fountain.”
Army barracks
On its 100th anniversary, in 1943, the park was not the site of a celebration. Instead, if you were there you would have found 200 soldiers living in barracks there.
The Army gave back the site in 1945, and the state considered using the barracks to house new federal employees but heeded the Parks Board’s suggestion to “Spare the Square.”
Housing workers there would be like renting rooms in the Washington Monument, The Honolulu Advertiser wrote.
Civic Center
What we call Civic Center today begins at Richards Street and runs east between King and Beretania streets to Alapai Street to include Iolani Palace, the state Capitol, City Hall, the State Library and many government buildings.
Imagine if things had been designed differently. After World War II the city boomed. Iolani Palace was deemed too small for the governor and Legislature. The state needed a larger Capitol, with room for many government agencies and buildings.
Some planners proposed extending Civic Center lengthwise between King and Beretania streets from Iolani Palace nearly to Kalakaua Avenue.
The new state Capitol would be placed Ewa of Thomas Square, where Straub Medical Center and First Insurance are today, and the federal building would be immediately east of Thomas Square, where the Medical Arts building and Academy of Arts school is.
Thomas Square would remain a park, and government buildings would be spread out along a grassy pedestrian mall.
Another plan suggested the state Capitol extend mauka to makai, from Prospect Street on the slopes of Punchbowl, down to the area mauka of the Honolulu Academy of Arts.
The Bishop Museum could be relocated, the Parks Board said, to the area makai of Thomas Square, where the Blaisdell Center is today.
Thomas Square would become a cultural center with a natural history museum for children on its Diamond Head side.
Underground parking
In 1964 the City Council considered building underground parking for the Honolulu International Center (now the Neal S. Blaisdell Center) under Thomas Square. A multilevel parking garage instead was erected in 1999 where a single-story parking lot had been.
Given all those proposals to slice and dice Thomas Square, I think it’s a tribute to our better judgment that we still have a beautiful park that honors its original purpose: a memorial to the restoration of the Hawaiian kingdom in 1843.
Bob Sigall’s “The Companies We Keep 5” book contains stories from the last three years of Rearview Mirror. “The Companies We Keep 1 and 2” are also back in print. Email Sigall at Sigall@yahoo.com
