North Shore NewsLittle Known North Shore Historic Hotels
By Boyd Ready, Local Historian
The former Haleiwa Hotel is well known. Less so were the ‘Seaside Hotel,’ the ‘Doi Hotel,’ the ‘Fujita Hotel,’ and the large hotel at the Kahuku Marconi Transmitter. All were accessible by railroad. Let us focus on two of these.
The ‘Seaside’ hotel that the Jodo Mission bought for a temple and school in 1913, started out as the ‘Waialua Beach Hotel.’ Twelve rooms, sea breezes and sea bathing, fine food, and a wine cellar that ‘never runs out’ was advertised in 1901-1903. It was right near the Waialua Train Station (near today’s Ali’I Beach Park, at the south end). Compared to the $4.00 per night at the Haleiwa Hotel, the fee of $2.50 per night was more reasonable. The hotel had cash flow problems though. The Haleiwa Hotel attracted most of the well-heeled clientele. A few honeymooners and other travelers proved not enough: it had its furnishing nearly repossessed in 1902, and then it was foreclosed upon in 1903 by Lewers and Cooke, Ltd., who put it up for sale. Little is known after that until 1913 when the enterprising Rev. Jitsujyo Muroyama and his congregation went door to door on horseback and raised $1,500 to buy it. The Haleiwa Jodo Mission continues today, 111 years later, and is well known island wide for the annual floating lantern ceremony in Waialua’s calm midsummer waters. It was placed on the Historic Registers in 2019.
Who knew there was a hotel at the Marconi Transmitter site in Kahuku? The huge doublebacked- up, steam-powered generators and giant ‘spark’ transmitter, with 500-foot-tall steel masts and guidewires required a hundred employees to operate. It took nine ‘riggers’ to keep the masts secured and painted every six months against salt corrosion The hotel had twelve rooms, a library, reading room, kitchen, and servants’ quarters. There were six remnant buildings on the Kahuku site when it went on the National Register in 2012. The hotel was in good enough condition for restoration or adaptive re-use. A similar hotel at the Marconi 1914 facility on Koko Head is still in use as the Lunalilo Trust care home. Adaptive re- use is the key to preserving our historic buildings!
To learn more about the Society, please visit www.waialuahistoricalsociety.org