 And welcome to Dokomomo Hawaii Show here on Think Tech Hawaii. Dokomomo is the fan club, you might say, of mid-century architecture, particularly in the United States, but for us, the Hawaiian Islands. And today we have a guest with us who is an expert in this field, and that is Mr. Don Hibbert, who is an architectural historian and very well experienced in this entire field and a member of Dokomomo. Board member? Yes, indeed. There we are. What are we going to talk about? We're going to talk about subdivisions and suburbs. And that is a subject that goes much further back than the mid-century, but it really exploded in the mid-century, and that's what we're going to tell everybody about. So let's go to our first slide. And what we're going to talk about is part of the American dream, and the American dream was functioning here in the Hawaiian Islands as well as the United States as a whole. And part of that was to own your own home, and that was something that became increasingly popular and increasingly doable for more and more people in the time period after World War II. And here's an idealized 1950s family sitting around in their home in Kailua. And let's go to our next picture. And what we're going to talk about is subdivisions, but subdivisions, while we think of them as being this thing from the mid-century, actually go back much further. Oh, yes. And this is an ad, a newspaper ad from about 1920 for a small subdivision, which as you can see is called Kawananakawa Park, but at this time, a subdivision really is a bigger piece of land that's divided into smaller pieces, and those are either leased or sold individually. And we can see that here, but the difference at this time period is that you just get the land, and everything that you do with it is up to you. So the developer doesn't really offer very much except a street and access for you, and then everything else is up to you to build, of course they put a put in electricity and access to water. Right. And quite often too, the subdivisions had requirements of how much money you had to spend so that you could assure some quality. Yes, that's right. And also things like you cannot operate a liquor store here, because there was no zoning. Right. That's right. That's another huge aspect of this, but we won't get into that for right this minute, because there's so much to talk about. So in our next picture, we're going to see, now here's an early subdivision. This is Kaimuki. You pointed out that this was developed starting in 1898, and it did not initially have any amenities like sidewalks or curbs or even paving, but it was different from subdivisions from this later time period we're going to be talking about because it was serviced by the streetcar system. And so you see a picture of the HRT and L streetcar in the upper right. The name of that company was Honolulu Rapid Transit and Land Company, and they were following a pattern established in the United States in which streetcar systems really existed to sell land. They were providing the transportation for people to get to the land and buy the subdivided properties, but something was going to change very dramatically, which was the introduction of automobiles. And the first cars got here in 1899, even though initially they were very, there were very few of them, though, because they were so expensive. So we don't see a lot of subdivisions yet that are really dependent upon cars. Next. So because Honolulu was already being developed, and because there had been a lot of development already, some divisions began to go up the slopes of the Ko'olau Mountains behind Honolulu, and Pacific Heights being the first one. 1898. Charles Teske was the developer for that. Right, and it had its own electrical streetcar system because people didn't have cars yet, but as you pointed out there was a problem because one day the streetcar lost its brakes. Correct, and after that, it lost favor to think about the real thing. It lost favor to live up there. Well, this picture is Willamina Rise, and this is in 1925, and you can see looking straight up Willamina Rise itself, the road, there's not much developed there yet. And it wasn't going to fill in for quite a while. Yeah, and primarily that's because automobiles at that time were not powerful enough to pull the hill very easily, but by the 1930s, that started to change a lot, and then you start seeing many more houses. Exactly, and we go to the next picture. We'll see, here's a 1960s picture of St. Louis Heights, and you can see by now it's all filled in. And it isn't just that the cars became more powerful. They also became more affordable and more people could have them. And we go to the next picture. This is the reason for lots of these subdivisions. This is the reason for a lot of the growth of Honolulu, the way we know it now, because of automobiles. And this picture is from 1965. And not only did people buy a lot more new cars, but as new cars were bought, there were more used cars on the market. And used cars are really what brought cars to be affordable for almost everybody, because they were so much cheaper than a new car. And to really appreciate the presence of the automobile in Hawaii, just comparing it with the population. The population, whom the 1945 population was 371,000. By 1960, that had gone up to 500,000. So it was an increase of a little over 40%. In that same period, registered automobiles went from 49,000 to 178,000, tripling in 15 years. So it's just a tremendous new presence in the islands. Absolutely. Yeah. And I was one of those new population people by 1960. Yes. Yes. Indeed. Blame me. OK. Next picture. So we're talking about automobiles. Well, houses had to accommodate automobiles. And as more people got cars, houses were built to accommodate them. So we were talking earlier about how initially a garage, a one-car garage, had been considered adequate. And it was often a separate structure. By this time period, we see that a two-car garage is a requirement. And it's part of the house. It's attached to the house, usually a door leading into the kitchen. So you can keep your groceries directly in the house. And it's more and more people didn't come to the front door. People came to a side door or the garage door or whatever was then the front door, because we all use cars. OK. Next photograph. So more cars means we need more roads. And we started to have a lot more roads. And two of the roads which made a huge difference in the development of the island of Oahu were the Pali Highway with the Pali Tunnels and the Lyke Lyke Highway with the Wilson Tunnels. And they both were completely open by about 1960, where we remember. They opened in stages, certainly the Pali Highway did. And what this allowed was, and these two pictures are, of course, of the Pali Highway, what this allowed specifically for Windward Oahu was a lot more development there. Because this commute, it made it possible for it to become a bedroom community. You could live in the Windward side and you could commute to your job or school in Honolulu and then back. And actually, during the 1950s, Kailua Kaniwi was the fastest-growing neighborhood in Honolulu. I believe it. And later on, in Pearl City, yeah. It began to shift in the other direction, right. And we'll talk about this in a minute. But increasingly, we're seeing large tracts of land which were agricultural or undeveloped, becoming single-family homes. That's the point of what we're talking about. OK, next picture. So Pali Highway and Likilike Highway. But at the same time, the other thing that was happening was just going to spur development. It was the development of the H1 Freeway. So it started as something called the Maoka Arturial. When it began construction in 1952, it then became the Lunalilo Highway slash Lunalilo Freeway. And then it became the H1 Freeway, as we know it today. Well, the point is that as that extended more and more to the west, that opened up more and more land for development and made it develop a bull. So in this picture, we see the H1 Freeway bound Pearl City under construction in 1970. But looking the background up on the ridge there, you can see is a subdivision being built. So you can see these two things going hand in hand. And also, the fact that it is the H1 is a very important fact because when they started building the Lunalilo Highway, federal funds were 50%. The territory had to come up with the other 50%. Once we became eligible for interstate highway funding, then 90% of the highway was paid by federal funds. And only 10% had to come locally from the state. And so that was another major impetus to develop. And I find it interesting, too, that when the Malca arterial was started, the main idea was that it was going to make the commute from the east side of the island into town much easier. And then by the 60s, 70s, no, we have to get the west side. Right. And that's, as I said, these go hand in hand. So as you build the freeway, more gets built and more gets developed. So we've got more people driving on the freeway. So these two things happen together. And sometimes, actually, the subdivisions are anticipating the highways like Millilani. It gets started. But then H2 comes in around four years later. Correct. But by then, as part of the initial selling, you can say, and the planned freeway will be built here so that buyers know that that's going to be something that they can use. OK, next picture. So first, looking at the east side, going development in that direction, which is the first direction, pretty much, that whole world went after World War II, is we see two views of the new fish pond. At the top, you can see the fish pond as it existed in 1930. And of course, this is an ancient Hawaiian fish pond. But two things happen. Well, a number of things happen. But one of them, as you pointed out, was the fish pond caretaker by World War II was ethnically Japanese. And the military dictatorship or martial law, let's say, did not allow a Japanese person to live in a place like that that was considered where they could do sabotage or something along a shoreline. So with that caretaker moved out, the pond would not have been in use as much. But there was also no sense of historic preservation then, or very little, not none, but very little. So in 1947, this fish pond gets developed, it gets filled, and it becomes a upscale subdivision. And also, at that time, there was very little thought about environmental quality. Oh, absolutely. So the fill is from the ocean right around it, which was dredged. Of course. And you fill in. Right. And anyway, that's another huge subject. But yes, that's exactly what it was. No environmental protection. You don't fill out any rules or anything. Just dump it, build on it. Exactly. And that's what they did. Next picture. And continuing in that same direction, the next target was Kuapa Pond, which was a large complex of fish ponds. And you can see what it looked like in the 1950s, in this picture, at the base of Cocoa Crater, and also in that area, a number of small farms. So this was a very agriculturally rich place. And the fish ponds were still in use. All of that would change very shortly, too, in our next picture, thanks to, well, won't get to him yet. But this is what I napped. This is what happened. It became Hawaii Kai. And a number of the parts of the fish ponds were filled in for building houses on, and making more sort of shoreline residences, which are more expensive because you are on the marina. And this entire development totally changed that area. We wiped out all of that agriculture. And also, that's when we had the Kalama Valley protests by about 1970 for farmers in the track of this continuing development, to resisting that development, which ultimately was unsuccessful. And Kaiser also started something else with Hawaii Kai, had the first townhouse. Oh, there we go. OK, well, our next picture, this is the guy who we're talking about, Henry J. Kaiser. And he was a huge entrepreneur capitalist, you might say, very much very successful, had become very successful, particularly during World War II, moved here in the 1950s. First initially developed the Hawaiian Village Hotel. And in 1961, the hotel was sold to the Hilton Corporation. So then he didn't have anything to do. So he started Hawaii Kai. And he actually did have a more altruistic and magnanimous attitude of wanting to help people. And that's why he started the Kaiser Health Insurance Plan and the Kaiser Hospital, which he did in the late 1950s here. But he wanted people to be able to have their own homes. And that's why he was one of his motivations for developing Hawaii Kai, which became a huge bedroom community of itself. And as we all know it today. Next picture. So what I mentioned earlier when I showed you the ad for the Kawana Nakoa subdivision, which was a small one. And I showed you the pictures of Kaimuki. Initially those subdivisions didn't even necessarily pave the roads. They built the roads. But the amenities were not necessarily there. And you pointed out to me, you confirmed to me, that in 1949 an ordinance was passed that required subdivisions after that to install paved roads, curbs, sidewalks, connect to the sewer, connect to the water, all the things that we think of as necessary. And so this photograph from the 1950s shows you this early construction of a subdivision's road. You can see it's got curbs. And you also can see this being built through a sugarcane field. Because decreasingly sugar and pineapple were important. And increasingly we were building subdivisions covering up that land. We're still debating that today here on Oahu and other places as well. And I think it's interesting to note that the Planning Commission at the time, the 1949 law, the Planning Commission was given the authority to regulate subdivisions and approve subdivisions. And in their rules they would say that the developer must give careful consideration to the provision of an adequate area of or areas for playground or park purposes upon the recommendation of the commission. Within a very few years, the commission found that not only were they having to provide adequate areas for parks, but also for schools. And then very quickly they found out the territory or the county could not keep up with developing the park, developing the school. And so then they made it a requirement that the subdivider actually build the buildings or develop the park. And to the benefit of everybody. And because people who aren't even in the subdivision will use those. So that is a situation where we all benefit. And it's all to the better. And I'm glad they did that. Next picture. So also with all of these subdivisions we suddenly have this increase of so many, all these different things that we're using. So we need more roads, we need more sewers, we need more electricity, we need more water. And this picture shows an additional pumping station being installed in the Ina Hina subdivision. And in this particular case it's because there are houses up on a hill. So in order to get enough water pressure they had to additionally add pumping to bring water to those people. But you've got some more information about water and sewage use. Yeah. Sewage was another major problem because all of a sudden the system was totally inadequate. In 1950 we had 371 miles of sewer line in the city and only six pumping stations. By 1960 from 371 it jumped to 557 miles. And by 1969 the number of sewer miles was 1,162. Also by 1960 there was 24 pumping stations. Again, emphasizing yes we're going higher up the heights as well. Correct. So all of these things had to be built, all these things had to be installed, all these things. So it's a combination of the government having to do more as well as private developers doing more. And like one quote from the mid 50s by the water department the man said, we were used to providing a million gallons a day and that was considered adequate. All of a sudden we are now having to start thinking about 10 million gallons a day. And that's a lot more water to develop. And another interesting thing besides water is sewer garbage, getting rid of garbage. And not only did the county have to start getting more garbage trucks, but all of a sudden those trucks had to go further and further away from the garbage dumps from the incinerator. And so there was a lot more gasoline being spent as well. Yeah, and exactly, one of the things that I was saying earlier in terms of water usage it's you're watering lawns. All of these individual lawns are now getting watered. There are a lot more washing machines. A lot more people are taking showers. We were just living a more profligate lifestyle and using a lot more resources to do it as we moved into subdivision. Okay, next picture. So when you bought a lot and you had to build your own house this is an example from the late 1930s of a house built in a subdivision. It has a lot of things in common with earlier houses. It is a post and beam construction. You can see a little bit of lattice work around the base that's to cover up the underneath part that would be an empty space. It looks very much like in a number of ways houses even from the 1920s or a little earlier. It has much more of a horizontal emphasis in its styling and it has a corner window which was a very popular thing at the time. But basically it's still got a lot in common with earlier houses. Next picture. This is from the late 1950s and again you can see that there was a desire to make things as inexpensive as possible. So we see plain basic concrete block at the basis of this two story house. It's got a single wall exterior because we don't need insulation here because it doesn't get cold. But this house like the previous house is unique. It was built specifically for this site undoubtedly with an architect so it isn't exactly like all the other houses. And you can see also in this picture that this is definitely from the 50s the picture window has come in. But still on either side of the picture window for ventilation you had a double hung window. By the 1960s the double hungs have become jealousy windows. Another interesting change that'll happen in the 1960s. You see the single wall always has a gert. The gert all of a sudden in the 1960s will go inside the house. So it's another interesting little change. I would never have noticed that but you're absolutely right. Okay next picture. So a big change you pointed out started in the 1950s and by the 1960s it was absolutely universal. And that is that when you bought a property in a subdivision you no longer built your own house. The subdivider or the developer had a set of standard homes and they had model homes and you went to the site and you went through the different five, seven however model homes they had and you chose one for your lot. This means that the lots all had to be the same. The lots all had to be graded the same. They also had to be able to accommodate model homes so that the developers got to do a lot more work to make everything ready. The other thing and these houses are very standardized. They've got a cement slab. They've got single walls. They've got jealousies like we were talking about. They've got a car port for two cars. And the other thing that I really notice is the picture in the upper left that house is called the Ventura. And nowadays no model home or development would have a Howley name. Nowadays we all use Hawaiian but back then it was the Bel Air and these elegant sounding names had nothing to do with the Hawaiian islands or Hawaiian. Next picture. So here is Kalaniiki Street facing Kalani High School in the 1960s and you see that there's a lot of uniformity. You find that subdivisions become very similar looking initially because they're all using the standard pretty much the same standard type of house. And as you said earlier, there's the picture window. There are jealousies underneath the picture window. Again, a single wall exterior. This is what lots of people moved into in the 1960s. And like I was mentioning before, you see a lot more changes to these houses than to the 20s or 30s. Most of the 1920s, 30s houses stay relatively intact. But after the war, when people are not designing their own home or selecting their own design, they start to modify the home very quickly to suit their needs, to suit their taste, their lifestyle. And so you see many changes. Right, and you also see they become multi-generational because the grandparents pass it on to the kids, the kids pass it on to the kids. It's too hard to buy another home, so we add. We add stuff, we add another little room, we add. Anyway, so they don't stay the way they look originally. Exactly. And if you go to Kalaniiki Street now, it's not gonna look exactly like that. I don't think so. No, and there's also a lot more plants around them as well too. Okay, next picture. So, as the subdivisions grow and as the subdivisions spread and we have suburbia spreading, we have to have other amenities come to the suburbs. And so we have things like increasing numbers of gas stations being built, which again are standardized just as the houses are. And then our next picture. And you've got to have food stores. And we shift from smaller individual markets to supermarket. And supermarkets, everybody comes to the supermarket in a car. They can buy more because they can put it in their car and they drive it home to their two car garage and they go in from the garage to the kitchen. But this also means that you've got to have huge parking lots because you've got to accommodate all the cars. The parking lots take up more space than the market does itself. Next picture. We also see for retailing that shopping centers begin to proliferate. Now, the picture on the top is Alamoana shopping center and that's different because it was built in an already urban area, but as Don pointed out to me, it's a regional center, meaning it is much more of an attraction for people from farther away. Whereas the other two pictures, the Moanalua shopping center and the Waipahu town center that you see here were for much more for the neighborhoods than they were for people from far away. And so we find Hawaii, Kai, Aina, Haina, and you all have their shopping center. That's right. Because it was for the residents living in that area Right, right. Next picture. And we also see that the shopping centers come to the Windward side. So as the Windward side is growing, it gets shopping centers. It gets to the Kailua shopping center in the upper corner and the Windward city shopping center in the lower corner. The Kailua shopping center actually predates the Kali highway, but it grew a great deal after that. And the Windward city is from about 1959. Originally, a very mid-century looking place. A lot of it's of course been altered. But the food land still looks like that with that wonderful dome. This is done by Pete Leverly also. And yeah, who was the master of the whole situation. Okay, next picture. So as we're building more houses, we're buying more stuff and we're living a more consumer-oriented lifestyle. We're buying cars, TVs, and all this other stuff. And so that's all part of this general economic boom that was going on at the time. And houses need to be furnished. So as you can see, you have to buy your six-piece living room set, cost only $179.95, and you've got 1,800 free super stamps for your trading stamps. That is a deal. How can you resist? Okay, next picture. So with all of those houses come the baby boom. So this is all going on at the same time as the baby boom is going on. So increasing numbers of kids and these kids look like they are exactly the same age as I am and they look like people I went to school with. They aren't, I don't actually know these kids, but I could be in that classroom right there. And so more kids means, next picture, we need more schools. Yes, and that school, well the school population boomed as well as school buildings. Construction, yes. The Hawaii, not the baby boom happened across the nation, but Hawaii had happened even more intensely. And across America, 23% of the population was of school age. In Hawaii, that was 27% of the population. Including me. Yes. And the DOE in the early 50s projected that for the next six years, they were gonna increase the school population by 4,500 people a year. And in turn, they just needed a ton more classrooms. By 1956, they were completing a classroom every three days. They were strapped to get them designed, nevertheless built. So many times the DOE, well the public construction department of public construction would assign architects, you and you, you work together because then you can put these plants and you can get them done in three months and get this out the door. And so many times you'll find architects collaborating who never did before. Yeah, because of necessity. Yes. Because the client required it. Fascinating. Well, next picture. And that brings us to our final view of suburbia. This is the ideal that people were wanting to live with, of the living room with the television set, which is also something from the time period, and a whole new way of life. Thank you very much, Don Hibbert, for being here. Thank you for having me here. We had lots to talk about. And that was a very good subject for everybody to be enlightened about. And thank you all for joining us for Doko Momo Hawaii here on ThinkDec Hawaii. I am DeSoto Brown, and we will see you again next time until then.