Archibald Cleghorn and Ainahau

Roadway at Ainahau.

In 1851, when Archibald Cleghorn arrived in the islands with his Scottish parents, he was 16. His father Thomas died shortly afterwards, leaving Archibald to run the small dry goods store he had started in Honolulu. Four years later, he was on his way to becoming a powerhouse in the mercantile industry, with stores not only on Oahu but on the neighboring islands as well. By the time he was in this 30s, he had married a Hawaiian lady named Elizabeth with whom he had three daughters and shared a house on Queen Emma Street in downtown Honolulu. If Cleghorn had a knack for business, his knack for things botanical turned out to be equally as great, for the Queen Emma Street home could boast of some of the most beautiful gardens in town.

At 35, Cleghorn married Miriam Likelike, the 19-year-old sister of Kalakaua, soon to be elected king of Hawaii. When their daughter Kaiulani was christened, her godmother Princess Ruth Ke‘elikolani presented her with a ten-acre estate in the middle of Waikiki, which was called Ainahau. With this land, Cleghorn was given an opportunity to indulge his passion for horticulture on an orgiastic scale. Its broad acres were laid out in a maze of dense foliage, date palms, bananas, breadfruit, kukui, kiawe and bamboo, with here and there banks of coral-red hibiscus.

Ainahau quickly became a rendezvous of island society and the scene of frequent parties and entertainments befitting a man of his prominence. When Kalakaua became king in 1874, he appointed Cleghorn to the House of Nobles and upon the death of the Prince Consort John Dominis in 1891, Queen Lili‘uokalani made him governor of Oahu.
 After Kaiulani’s death in 1899, Cleghorn led a less active life, although he became the first parks commissioner for the City & County of Honolulu in 1900 and remained involved in the affairs of Queen’s Hospital. He died of a heart attack in 1910 and was buried in the Royal Mausoleum.

Cleghorn’s will left Ainahau to the Territory of Hawaii, with the stipulation that it become a park in Kaiulani’s memory. The territorial legislature refused this gift, due to the strenuous efforts of Rep. Archibald S. Robertson, a Cleghorn heir who subsequently inherited the estate. The royal residence, after a brief career as a hotel, passed into the hands of a film producer and was destroyed by fire in 1921. In 1955, Matson Navigation Company tore up the Ainahau lands for the development of the Princess Kaiulani Hotel.

Unfortunate though it was to lose Cleghorn’s grand opus, examples of his horticultural skill survive elsewhere in Honolulu. Cleghorn played an instrumental role in the founding of Kapiolani Park in 1877. He served as president of the Kapiolani Park Association and planned the landscaping of the park. And the stately ironwood trees that line Kalakaua Avenue through the park were planted under his supervision, as were the great banyans at Thomas Square.

The Waikiki Jungle

Kalakaua Avenue near Kuhio Beach, 1957.

From the late 1950s through the 70s there was a small bohemian enclave at the Diamond Head end of Waikiki known as the “jungle.” In marked contrast to the manicured shops and hotels further to the west, it was a low-rent area of one- and two-story studio cottages, small hotels, and old homes converted into rooming houses and apartments. Its denizens were a constantly shifting group of mostly young men and women from the mainland, here temporarily — as though on hiatus from another life — who adopted a carefree lifestyle and lived together in relative harmony.

They have been characterized as part of the “now” generation, influenced by the Viet Nam war, among other things, who were suspicious of government and opted for experiential knowledge over received, establishment-disseminated truths. There was sex and dope, of course, and booze to fuel their lifestyle. They suffered the inconveniences of improvised living — inconstant alliances with changing casts of roommates and lovers in tiny, ramshakle digs and unwholesome diets of velveeta and bread or saimin and beer — while avidly pursuing the next beach, the next party, or the next bar. Still, they managed to maintain a genuine feeling of shared adventure until, in the 70s, came the inevitable push by city officials and developers to renovate the area and replace their homes with high-rises.

Most of the expatriate jungle dwellers returned to the mainland after their island interludes to lead normal, conventional lives, though on-line posts from middle-aged “now”-ers suggest their days in the jungle still exert a strong emotional pull and evoke fond memories of a carefree, golden time.

The Ala Wai Canal, c. 1925 and Today

Prior to the dredging of the Ala Wai Canal (1920-1928), Waikiki and its environs were a diverse wetlands of fresh water springs, taro fields, rice paddies, duck ponds and fishing areas. Fed by streams running down from Manoa and Palolo Valleys, they provided rich subsistence for the area’s inhabitants — until the canal diverted the water from these streams and channeled it into the ocean at its west end, radically shifting land-use patterns and initiating the urbanization of Waikiki.

By today's greener standards the Ala Wai Canal would be considered a major environmental blot, leaving admirers of modern Waikiki feeling a little conflicted about this pleasant and familiar waterway. Perhaps nothing underscores this better than the irony that it remains seriously polluted.

Lau Yee Chai

Back in the 40s and 50s Lau Yee Chai, at the corner of Kalakaua and Kuhio Avenues, was one of the premier restaurants and nightspots in Waikiki. The brainchild of legendary chef and entrepreneur P. Y. Chong, it projected a glamorous Hollywood-inflected China with its ornate moon gate, red-gated carp pool and enormous rock garden and waterfall. Unusually for a Waikiki establishment Lau Yee Chai was popular with tourists and servicemen as well as locals, who remember it fondly as a spot for “special occasions,” meaning you wore shoes there.

Like all good things Lau Yee Chai eventually went into decline; the restaurant was sold and moved to the Waikiki Shopping Plaza on Kalakaua Avenue in 1963 and after serving as a venue for band concerts the faded chop suey palace was razed in 1968.

VJ Day in Waikiki, August 14, 1945

Historic color footage of VJ celebrations in Honolulu, with glimpses of Waikiki Beach, the Moana Hotel and Waikiki Theater.

Hollywood and Waikiki

Joan Crawford on the beach in a 1940s publicity shot. Look closely and you'll see the foot of the guy holding up the surfboard.

The Barefoot Bar at Queen’s Surf

During the 1950s and 60s the Barefoot Bar on the beach across from Kapiolani Park was the hottest nightspot in Waikiki. The star attraction was Sterling Mossman whose songs and comic patter caught the antic mood of post-war Hawaii. The fun stopped in 1969 when, despite public outcry, the mayor of Honolulu shuttered the club in order to advance his pet project for beach improvement.

Waikiki Streetcar

View of a streetcar on Kalakaua Avenue and the Moana Hotel, with Diamond Head in the distance. Streetcars ran in Honolulu from 1901 (the year the Moana opened) till 1941. The Moana here lacks the concrete wings that were added in 1918.