History at your feet

Colorful bits of history are all around you in downtown Honolulu. You just have to know where to look. And if you don’t, sign up with Ohana Walking Tours

Wednesday - January 28, 2009
By Kerry Miller
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The author takes notes as Richard Wong talks about Iolani Palace; at left is Nancy Keiper

For history buffs who are looking to start their weekend off with some knowledge and stretch their legs, the Ohana Walking Tour through downtown Honolulu is an opportunity to do both. The two-hour tour starts at the King Kamehameha statue and takes participants on a journey through Hawaii’s past, covering Iolani Palace, Honolulu Harbor, Father Damien statue and more. Tour guide Richard Wong leads the way.

“I enjoy this trip, it’s something I’m a real buff about,” says Wong, who retired from the Honolulu Police Department in 2002. “I kind of like to say my favorite part of that history is my parents came from China to work in the sugar mill.”

Casey Hewes, owner of Ohana Walking Tours, says he’s a history lover as well, and that was his main reason for starting the tour.

“I’ve always been a history buff,” the Lanai native says. “I always enjoyed reading books.What really got me was I went to New York with a friend, the walking tours are big over there.I came over here seeking one out, and something similar didn’t exist. That’s where the whole idea came from.”


 

Hewes found Wong, who’s been giving tours for about four to six weeks now, after interviewing nine to 10 other applicants, who’d responded to his ad on craigslist.com.

“I’m lucky in that aspect.Richard enlightens people about things they didn’t know happened,” says Hewes.

Wong begins the tour with the story of the King Kamehameha statue. A first statue, sculpted in bronze by Boston native Thomas Gould, was on its way to Hawaii from Germany when the ship that carried it caught fire and sank. Gould made a second statue, which currently stands in front of Aliiolani Hale, the intended royal residence turned state Judiciary Building, for which King Kamehameha V laid the cornerstone in 1872 before his death. The first statue was later recovered and returned to the district of the king’s birth, Kapa`au, Kohala, on the Big Island. A third statue was commissioned when Hawaii attained statehood and was unveiled in 1969. It is now on display at Statuary Hall in the Capitol in Washington, D.C.

The seal of Hawaii on the Iolani Palace gate

“These grounds have seen a lot of history over the years,“Wong says of Aliiolani Hale.

Wong also talks of the Naha Stone, a legend in Hawaiian history. The stone, he says, was brought to the Big Island from a Kauai temple and is considered to be the “excaliber of Hawaii.” The legend says that whoever could move the stone would conquer and unite the Islands. At age 14, a young chief named Kamehameha moved the stone and went on to fulfill his destiny.

“In 1809,” Wong continues, “Kamehameha moved his residence from Waikiki to the Honolulu Harbor (Fort Street/Nimitz Highway area) to control the sandalwood trade.” Sandalwood, of course, came via ships pulling into the harbor, which until 1870 came up to where Merchant Street currently is. The area was later filled in and has grown to what it is today. Merchant Street got its name in 1850 because the area was a center of commerce. Also, downtown’s Richards Street was named for a man who had a store on the street selling luggage to tourists.

The name of our fair state capital,Honolulu,was adopted around 1892 and means “sheltered bay.“It was originally called Kou, says Wong,adding that the capital of the Kingdom of Hawaii was Lahaina, Maui.


Moving on, Wong stops at the Our Lady of Peace Cathedral on Fort Street. Completed in 1843, the church was built by French Catholic missionaries. Prior to their arrival in Hawaii,Puritans from Boston had already migrated to Honolulu and had cornered the market on practicing their religious freedom. The French wanted to enjoy the same religious freedoms as the Puritans, but were asked to leave the island by the king and queen. When the French refused, they were imprisoned. They were eventually released from prison,however,with the help of the French government, whose ships sailed into Honolulu Harbor and threatened the king.

Next, Wong recalls the British annexation of Hawaii.In 1887,King Kalakaua was forced to sign the Bayonet Constitution by his minister of interior Lorrin A. Thurston, who used armed guards as intimidation to get the king to sign. The constitution basically stripped Kalakaua of his power and allowed for the creation of a constitutional monarchy like Great Britian’s, as well as establishing a cabinet government. Later, in January of 1893, a group of Euro-Americans under the leadership of the Committee of Safety organized a plan to overthrow Queen Liliuokalani.It was then that the USS Boston sailed into Honolulu Harbor carrying 160 U.S. Marines, who stationed themselves on the Iolani Palace grounds, armed, to intimidate the queen’s guards. On

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