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| Lobby today. |
Take a look at this hotel from the mauka side of Kalakaua Avenue.
Imagine you are standing in a dirt path worn by mules, later to be an H.
T. & L Co. electric street car line and roadway for Model A's.
Imagine the land behind you is a swamp of duck ponds and taro fields
that will become rice paddies. Before you is a row of fancy homes for
Honolulu's wealthy and Hawaiian royalty, some could be considered
mansions even by today's local standards.
Walter Peacock had one
such home here near a pier built in 1890. He conceived of "The First
Lady of Waikiki" - so named not because it was the first hotel ever
built in this area, but because it was the first intended to cater to
wealthy foreign tourists who had heretofore commuted from Honolulu on
day trips - in 1896, two years before Hawaii's annexation to the U.S.
Thus, the Moana's opening in 1901 marks the beginning of Waikiki as a
world-renowned tourist destination.
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| Waikiki beach ca. 1900. I believe the structure in the background is the Moana Hotel restaurant, but not sure. Photo credit: UH Manoa Hamilton Library. |
An early plan by architect
Oliver G. Traphagen, who Peacock's The Moana Hotel Company, Ltd. had
hired for the project, envisioned renovating the Peacock mansion and
expanding the property's capacity and amenities through separate
additions. Instead the mansion was relocated along the beach in the
Diamond Head direction, and a single four-story building was constructed
by the same contractor that built 'Iolani Palace (The Lucas Brothers).
It
opened near the turn of the last century equipped with modern
technology, including elevators, rooms with telephones and private
baths, and its own power plant for lighting, refrigeration, ice-making,
and laundry service. The furniture on each floor were of different
hardwoods: second floor, oak; third, mahogany; fourth, maple; fifth and
sixth floors, koa.
Local songwriter, drummer, pianist, and
bandleader Johnny Noble entertained Moana's guests in the 1920s with
hits like "Hula Blues" and "Ala Moana" (he is buried at Oahu Cemetery in
Nu'uanu;
listen to his music).
The guest list included the Prince of Wales, who enjoyed "Hula Blues",
Amelia Earhart, Walter Chrysler, and later (?) Frank Sinatra and Lucille
Ball, among others.
A year before Peacock died, he sold the
property to Alexander Young, who died a few years later. Matson bought
the hotel in 1928, a year after Matson's lavish Royal Hawaiian Hotel
and Waialae Golf Course (now Waialae Country Club) opened and the same
year Walter Dillingham completed the Ala Wai Canal.
Demand
prompted the hotel to add two wings, which opened in 1918 and created a
beach-front courtyard anchored by an Indian banyan that was gifted to
Peacock by the Paty family in 1885. The tree today bears the official
City designation of "Exceptional Tree".
At some point, cottages
were constructed on the present site of the Princess Ka'iulani Hotel,
initially to house workers, then for guests. These are gone now, as are
the waterfront restaurant, bathhouse, and pier.
Webley Edwards
hosted "Hawaii Calls", a radio show aired (live?) on 750 stations around
the world at its peak, broadcasted from the Moana's Banyan Courtyard
from 1935 to1975 (
here's a brief clip).
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| "Hawaii Calls" was broadcasted from here. The banyan tree was gifted in 1885 and planted here in 1904. |
The
Moana continued to operate throughout the war. There is war-time
memorabilia (menus, money, etc.) and photos in Cohen's book "The First
Lady of Waikiki: A Pictorial History of the Sheraton Moana Surfrider",
which I believe they have for sale in the hotel (possibly in the spa).
The
Jet Age transformed travel, and Matson ended up selling the hotel to
the Sheraton, which later sold it to Kyoya, who contracted with Sheraton
to manage it, who's parent company Starwood was just bought by
Marriott.
The hotel went through major architectural alterations
over the years, from deco styling to the replacement of the port cochère
with a (green?) awning. In the 1950s, the eight-story SurfRider Hotel
was built on the Diamond Head side of the Victorian-era structure on
land that had been deeded in 1839 to a missionary doctor by Kamehameha
IV. This was later renamed the Diamond Wing because a new
twenty-one-story TheSurfrider was constructed in the 1960s on the 'ewa
side of the Victorian-era structure. This tower is now called the Tower
Wing.
From the photo below, it appears additions were added in the 1950s on either side of the original structure to
maintain symmetry, the 'ewa tower later demolished to make way for TheSurfrider.
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| Moana Hotel ca. 1930s to 1950s with addition(s). The lawn in the foreground is roughly the site of the Princess Ka'iulani Hotel. Photo credit: UH Manoa Hamilton Library. |
The entire property underwent a $50 million restoration in
the late 1980s that is said to have taken longer than the original
construction. The port cochère was rebuilt using original 1915 plans of
the 1918 additions found at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel. Porthole windows
and other architectural elements were uncovered or reconstructed. The
Victorian-era core structure is on both the Hawaii and National
Registers of Historic Places. The pool is a modern addition.
Great
guided tours of the property and second floor small museum at 11 am
every M, W, and F are free and recommended. Self-guided tours can be
done any other time. See Cohen's excellent book mentioned above and the
Moana's website for more history.
