 and you are watching the Human Humane Architecture Series here on Think Tech Kauai. I am the historian here at Bishop Museum in Honolulu and I'm also the curator for the Archives Department. And our show today is going to be a special one which is a two-part show. This is the first part of it. It's gonna be Remembering the Town of Lahaina and it was a week ago and one day on August 9th, 2023 that almost the entire town of Lahaina was destroyed by fire. And this is an unprecedented disaster and tragedy in the history of the Hawaiian Islands. And so having access to a number of historic photographs of Lahaina, I want to go back and look at the town of Lahaina to see what is no longer there. The images you're gonna see here, some of them are from Bishop Museum where I work and the rest of them are from my personal collection. And while Lahaina has a very significant history going back into centuries in the past, I'm just gonna be focusing on the mid-century from the 20th century onwards for the story of how Lahaina developed into what it was. So let's go to the first slide. Here's an aerial view of Lahaina which is probably from the 1960s, perhaps in the early 1970s. And in it, you can clearly see the town itself which of course grew a great deal by the time it was contractually destroyed in 2023. But you can see the features of the center part of town. You can see the harbor and the lower right. You can also see the red roof of the Pioneer Inn which was a historic hotel. You can also see the giant banyan tree that's located in the center of Lahaina. Next slide. Here's another aerial view which is probably a little bit older than the one you just saw. But the important thing here is not just the layout of the town which you can see but look at the slopes above the town. This is, these are the West Maui Mountains. That's what this volcano is called. And it rains a great deal on the top of the West Maui Mountains and the highest point there is called Puku Kukui. And all of that rainfall has been used or was used in the past to irrigate sugarcane because sugarcane was the main crop of the island of Maui. So all of the slopes in this picture you can see are green with sugarcane. Now it is true that the sugarcane fields used to be burned before they were harvested. And those burns however were not like the fire that occurred just a short time ago. Those burns were controlled. Those burns were overseen. Those burns, they were fire breaks in the fields between patches of sugarcane. So when a fire was lit in those fields it was under control. It did not have a chance to go out of control. Plus it was burning mostly green material. That ended with the end of the sugar industry on Maui. And what had been sugar fields, which were irrigated became dry grassland. That's where the fire was able to start. And that's why the fire was able to sweep down the hill to destroy city or the town of Lahaina. Next photo. Here again, another aerial photograph from 1978. Again you can see this is obviously from in looking towards the ocean. You can see the harbor. You can see the pioneer in with the red roof. You can see next to the pioneer in to the left of it is the banyan tree. There are some other features which I'm gonna be talking about in the second part of this program that you can see in this picture. There's a brown wooden structure, a sort of a complex which is just a little bit below to the left of the pioneer in. That was the Worf shops or the Worf Cinema Center. And finally in the lower right corner, the Maria Lanakila Catholic Church. And we'll be looking at that next time I do our second program. Next photograph please. So Lahaina originally was a town developed for the people who lived there. And in the 20th century, the people who lived in Lahaina mostly were people who worked in the sugarcane and pineapple industries. Both were being grown. Both of those crops were being grown in this area. So the town of Lahaina served those residents. And as such, it was a little small town that had appliance stores and markets and barbershops and things like that in it. And this photograph from 1960 of Front Street shows you what I'm talking about. The buildings may look familiar, but the merchants in those buildings are not like the ones that would be eventually located in them that most of us are familiar with. Next picture. And here's an example of how much of a small town Lahaina was in a rural area. This is a picture from 1965. And this is the branch of one of the major banks in Hawaii. This is called the First National Bank in this picture. But this is today's first Hawaiian bank, which again is a very large multi-branched bank. But you can see in Lahaina in the 1960s, it was just this simple frame building, not even a concrete building. Next photo. And again, a photo from 1960 of Front Street, another bank right there, the Bank of Hawaii, right on Front Street to serve the people who live there. Across the street, a photograph, I mean, they assigned for the Beneficial Finance Company. Again, there aren't any tourists. There are very few tourists coming here at this point in Lahaina's history. And the Bank of Hawaii building is something that I'll be talking about in a little bit. When we discuss what remains in Lahaina and what might be redeveloped, because the bank has a little classical facade of, you can see there are two pillars on either side of the entrance. That still survives today even after the disaster. And that's something that people were gonna be wanting to look at as potentially being a refurbishable or renovatable building. Next picture. What happened to Lahaina that turned it from a little town into a tourist destination? Well, what happened was the development of the Kahana Pali Resort area. And if you look at this jeep in the photograph on the left, you'll see that it says, Kahana Pali Resort Development On It, a picture taken in 1960. The picture on the right is a picture from the large rock outcropping that's in the middle of the Kahana Pali District or the Kahana Pali area. Looking over this, what was at that time a completely unbuilt on beach, a completely undeveloped beach. And the Alexander Baldwin Company, A&B, is what developed Kahana Pali as kind of an answer to Waikiki being a heavily built up resort area. Kahana Pali instead was going to be a resort area that wasn't as urbanized as Waikiki. Next picture. In 1964, the first of the hotels at Kahana Pali opened and it was this one, the Royal Lahaina. The Royal Lahaina was adjacent to the golf course which was developed first as part of the entire Kahana Pali development. And this was something that was being done at the time starting in the 1960s. You didn't just build a resort out in the middle of a rural area. You built the attraction of the golf course first. So the Royal Lahaina at that point consisted of a group of two story cottages adjacent to the golf course. And you got around within this development on golf course which were provided to you as guests. Next photograph. The more famous and larger hotel developed at Kahana Pali was the second one to open in 1964 and that was the Sheraton Maui. And this was the first branch of the Sheraton hotels outside of Waikiki. And it was built on that rocky outcropping that I mentioned earlier in a, it was the prime spot of the whole development. And this was an architecturally distinctive hotel because it was built right up next to a connected to that rocky outcropping. And you drove up to the top of the rocky outcropping, went into the lobby and then you went down in an elevator to your hotel room rather than going up in a high rise. And it's also a very mid-century architectural type of building as you can see. So all of a sudden next to close to Lahaina there were these multi-roomed hotels where hundreds of tourists were going to be staying. And that meant that people were going to be going to Lahaina for recreation. And that in turn is what made Lahaina begin to turn into a tourist attraction. Next photograph. Here's evidence of what I'm talking about. The small stores and the small businesses of Lahaina began to change from just regular everyday businesses into tourist-related businesses. So here's a photograph in the 1960s of one of those storefronts, which is now the Lahaina Art Gallery, which also sells fashions and gifts. And on the left is one of the artists who is now living in Lahaina painting a picture out in public so that you would be as a passerby on the sidewalk, you might say, hey, I want to buy that painting. Where do you sell your paintings? That's what Lahaina was turning into. Next picture. This may look like just some dead branches of dead bushes. And you may wonder why they have kind of pictures of this. Well, in fact, these are not dead shrubs. These are black coral. Black coral is a type of native coral, which is found in the quite deep depths off of Lahaina and that coastline of Maui. And starting in the late 1950s, people said, hey, we can go down and break these things off, bring them up to the surface, and turn them into jewelry. So a jewelry industry began to grow in Lahaina, again, with the increasing tourists particularly. So black coral became a specialty that was found in Lahaina. The problem with harvesting all of these, what appear to be bushes of black coral is, these did not grow quickly. These are not like a plant growing in the soil. These took hundreds, if not thousands of years to grow to this size. So nobody at the time realized you were depleting a resource that could not easily be redone. However, the tourists would buy it, let's go harvest it and turn it into jewelry. Next photo. This part of Front Street is the most famous part. This is the part that most people think of when they think of photographs of Lahaina. And as you can see, the street is built right up on the shoreline with the buildings facing right directly across the street to the ocean. This is very scenic and it is very distinctive. It has a tragic story today because some of you are sure, are familiar with how people attempting to flee from the fire tried to drive away on Front Street that caught in a traffic jam could not move and had to literally jump into the ocean here to save themselves from the fire. Some of these people stayed there for hours and hours before it was safe for them to get out of the water. And some of those who tried to take refuge here, refuge here did not survive. Well, regardless of the tragic story that has developed since these pictures were taken, then the last, this is a very important part of Lahaina and the most possibly photogenic part. Next photo. So as Lahaina began to develop into a tourist town, these older buildings began to be rehabilitated, redesigned, repainted and fixed up. But first, these new merchants had to move into these existing buildings. And as you can see, these buildings were again, very inexpensively built at the beginning. They were never meant to be architecturally significant. They were just vernacular architecture of people building things just for utilitarian purposes. But it was those, it was the old fashioned appearance of these buildings which made Lahaina interesting for tourists. So here are two of these original Lahaina buildings looking pretty worn out and very weathered as they appeared in the 1960s and 70s as they were beginning to change over to being tourist related businesses. Next picture. This particular building, which you can see on the left in both of these photographs is very significant because it is concrete, it is reinforced concrete. On the facade of the building, it says Lahaina store with the date 1916. The picture on the left is probably taken in the teens of the 20th century, not long after the building was completed perhaps. And on the right, it's shown again in 1923 and 24. You can see between these two pictures how more buildings have been built in this particular area. The Lahaina store building is important today because being reinforced concrete, it is one of the few buildings in this entire stretch of Lahaina particularly in front street which was not entirely consumed and destroyed by fire. So this building is still standing. It was made famous because it contained a restaurant bar and entertainment location which was called Fleetwoods, which was the named after the name of, you may be familiar with the name Fleetwood from the 1970s and 80s super group called Fleetwood Mac. Well, Mick Fleetwood is the owner of this building and he lived on Maui and he had turned it into a very successful business. As I say, the building is still standing but obviously the business is destroyed and whether the building gets rehabbed or not, we shall see as time passes. Next picture. So one of the features of this architecture in Lahaina, these projecting second stories which sometimes have balconies. And this is part of the charm of Lahaina. This is why people thought Lahaina was quaint and attractive and a wonderful fun place to go. The building on the left is obviously an original building. The one on the right in a picture taken in the 1980s or 90s looks like it's a new building but built in the style of the older buildings. Next photo. And as all of this tourist development began to happen, Lahaina became more and more crowded. So you can see in this picture in the 1970s, there are a lot of pedestrians, there's a lot of traffic and a lot of cars have to be parked. These are things which the town had to deal with as it evolved into what it became and what we're familiar with today. Next photograph. One of the reasons people enjoy going to Lahaina was because, one, there was a lot to see and do. There were a lot of things to eat, there were a lot of things to drink and that's because the town was compact and a lot of these small businesses were in small spaces that were not very large expansive storefronts or retail spots. So you had a lot of businesses concentrated in one place so it was easy to walk around and you could go to Lahaina and spend a few hours walking around and you could look at all different types of merchandise and end up having cocktails at dinner. That's what you wanted to do. That's why Lahaina was so popular. So you can see as the town changed, it became more and more attractive but it wasn't that somebody set up to say, Lahaina is going to be an attractive tourist town. The existing town was already there. The buildings were already there. It just was an evolution rather than a master plan which is a very important thing to think about. And that's something that is going to have to be kept in consideration as we look forward to the redevelopment and rebuilding of Lahaina after the fire disaster. Next picture. Okay, now there are parts of Lahaina that didn't have anything to do with humans building things, didn't have anything to do with structures, didn't have anything to do with urban planning, all of the types of things that I've just been talking about. And instead, one of the features of Lahaina which have tragically been lost since the fire occurred are the many trees that were grown there. Lahaina had a lot of greenery and had a lot of trees. The major tree which is the most famous and the most beloved of all the trees in Lahaina is this one. This is a banyan tree. It is a ficus bengalensis to be specific. He uses Latin name. The ficus trees which are known as banyans are not native to the Hawaiian islands. They come from Asia. They come from Southeast Asia and India. And this ficus tree again is originally a native of India. This particular tree has just celebrated its 150th year growing here in this location because it was planted in 1873. And that is a long time ago as far as trees go here in the Hawaiian islands. This type of banyan tree of course does grow upwards as all trees do, but it puts more of its energy into growing outwards at the perimeter. So it takes over more and more space as it grows. And this is a view of the tree from outside. But next picture, if we go under the tree we see what a huge structure, what a huge organism it is. And as I said, these types of ficus trees, banyan trees tend to grow outwards. And as they grow outwards, they have these elongated, lengthy branches, horizontal branches. From those branches grow roots. And you can see those roots in all three of these photographs, particularly in the one on the left which was taken in 1947 as this tourist couple is looking at the root that is growing down towards the ground. These are called advantageous roots. They take advantage of growing down to the ground and turning into new trunks for the tree. And interestingly, a really old banyan tree like this sometimes will eventually turn into a cold grove of separate trees as the center part of the banyan ages and eventually can die out leaving a whole grove of separate disconnected trees as this entire huge organism matures and grows. Obviously in an urban setting, you can't allow a banyan tree to grow as big as it wants and to put down as many roots as it wants to turn into a huge grove of trees. So the tree was always under a lot of management and under a lot of care. And it was not allowed to put down as many roots as it wanted. They were selected and people allowed them to grow in certain areas. But the tree was so huge and is so huge that it not only sheltered a lot of people who could sit under it and walk around under it, but there could be events underneath it where people could set up tents and sell things and have a little street fair type of thing under a tree. That's why this tree was so beloved and that's why this tree was so special. That's why this tree was so unique and it was given so much attention. The fire fortunately does not seem to have killed this tree. Ficus trees are pretty tough and it's not that easy to kill them. They are strong and they're pretty robust. So this tree, although singed, although burned and although all of its leaves have been damaged as of right now, a week after the fire has been determined to still be alive. Everybody is hoping that with care, watering and some careful fertilizing, et cetera, the tree is going to resprout and it will be one of the symbols of hope for the redevelopment and the resurrection, if you will, of the town of Lahaina. So everybody's keeping their fingers crossed, including me. And next photograph. So as I said earlier, Lahaina did have a number of other mature trees and they were a real feature of the town because not a lot of urban areas have so many distinctive trees. And some of them were very old too. I mean, they were over a hundred years old. These are three milo trees that were planted along Front Street, along that famous part of Front Street that I just showed you a while ago, in the late 1980s. And Lahaina too, its credit did always have an awareness of keeping itself beautiful, of keeping itself in good condition in order to keep all of its tourist visitors coming. And I have to emphasize, this is not just an aesthetic decision. The amount of money that was generated by the town of Lahaina was very significant for the economy of the county of Maui and the island of Maui. So keeping Lahaina looking attractive and beautiful wasn't just because we wanted to have things look pretty, you have to keep things looking good in order for your customers to come. And in order for them, in turn, to be able to support economically all the people who are living in the town of Lahaina. Well, these three trees are part of a beautification process that occurred in the past, not quite 40 years ago perhaps, but nearly that. And at the time of the fire, they had grown up to be very significant specimens. And they were a very positive and very helpful addition to Front Street because it gets very sunny and very hot in the town of Lahaina and particularly in the afternoons and evening before the sun sets, the sun would be coming directly in and blasting into all of those storefronts that showed you on Front Street. These trees were an abatement of the power of the sun. And I should say that the word Lahaina is a Hawaiian combination of two words and it means the cruel sun, meaning that the Hawaiians centuries ago acknowledged that Lahaina is a hot, sunny place. All of those things have to be taken into consideration when you are building, when you are developing and when you're thinking about people living in a particular place. So to wrap up this first episode of our Remembering Lahaina Hair of Programs, again, the human tragedy of the destruction of Lahaina is unprecedented in the history of Hawaii. Over a hundred people are now confirmed dead. This is the second largest natural disaster toll in our history, the larger one being the tsunami of 1946, which killed approximately 150 people. But this isn't a contest, we're not trying to see which disaster is bigger. What we're facing now is not only the human tragedy and all of the logistical problems of how do you deal with the loss of this economy, this economic factor, how do you find housing for all the people whose homes have been lost. But we can look ahead to what is going to happen to Lahaina and how it's gonna be rebuilt. And one of the things that I think needs to be kept into in consideration at this point is, are there things that can be redone and redone differently for the new Lahaina, which will rise? Certainly keeping the appearance of the original Lahaina is gonna be important if people are gonna wanna come back there. But there also, this is an opportunity to fix things that might need fixing. And in particular, I'm thinking of dealing with ocean level rise because that already has been a problem along this coastline of Maui and in the town of Lahaina itself. This is an opportunity perhaps to pull back from the shoreline with development so that not as many structures are gonna be threatened by the ocean's rise. But all of those are gonna be decisions which will have to be made in the coming years by a number of people with a lot of different input from a lot of involved people, experts as well as people who live there. Anyway, everyone, thank you for joining me for this look back to remember the town of Lahaina. I am DeSoto Brown. This is Think Tech Hawaii. I have, we'll be doing a second show continuation of this one. So at some point in the future, you will be watching this maybe years after this event. Look for the second part of this episode of this particular look back at Lahaina. And again, thank you for joining me. I will see you next time on human human architecture here on Think Tech Hawaii. Aloha for now.