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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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| Moana Hotel ca. 1900. Photo credit: UH Manoa Hamilton Library. |
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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.
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| Moana Hotel ocean side, ca. 1924. Photo credit: UH Manoa Hamilton Library. |
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.