Rearview Mirror: Discover more street names and the stories behind them

Last week I wrote about several streets in Hawaii and how they got their names. Since then I’ve been inundated with stories and questions. Here are some of them.

stand road

Gaylen Tang said, “For many years I believed Booth Road was named after John Wilkes Booth. I remember reading that he was in Hawaii years before 1865. Do you know if the street was named after him? I live in Pauoa.”

John Wilkes Booth has never been to Hawaii, but his brother Edwin has. He was here briefly as an actor in 1855 before Abraham Lincoln became President.

However, the street has nothing to do with him, wrote Clarice Taylor and George Miranda in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. In 1956 they wrote 83 columns examining over 1,300 street names in Honolulu.

Booth Road is the newer name for the street. Before 1931 it was called Pauoa Valley Road.

“It was named after Charles Booth, who owned a large tract of land in Pauoa that he called Little Greenwich,” they wrote. It was a British seaman’s hospital run by his father, Joseph Booth, in the 1840s. It moved to Waikiki around 1848.

Mott Smith

Russell Loo wrote about a man who helped his family. “Mott-Smith Drive, which begins at Nehoa Street, passes Roosevelt High School and ends at Makiki Heights Drive. (It) was named after Ernest Mott-Smith, who was born in Hawaii in 1873.

“He was educated in New England but returned to Hawaii and served in several government cabinet positions. My high regard for Mr. Mott-Smith comes from personal reasons for saving my father’s family from hardship and hardship.

“In 1923 my grandfather, Loo Goon, a fishmonger, died after being hit by a Model T on Kekaulike Street. My grandmother and her 10 children faced disaster because my grandfather left no will. My grandparents were married according to traditional Chinese tradition and did not have a government-recognized marriage certificate.

“Consequently, my grandmother and her children could not claim my grandfather’s estate as legal heirs. My grandfather’s siblings and blood relatives were recognized as heirs.

“At the time of his death, my grandfather was working with Ernest Mott-Smith on some legal matters. Mott-Smith took it upon himself to help my grandmother.

“He was able to locate all known government-approved heirs and get them to sign deeds of resignation, even those living in different regions of China.

“He formed a trust to administer the property, which included the lease to Hanaloa Fishpond on the Waipio Peninsula at Pearl Harbor, and served as trustee. He tracked down people who owed my grandfather money and collected those debts.

“He persuaded people my grandfather owed money to forgive those loans. And he did all this work without charging my grandmother a penny.

“I was unaware of the good works of Ernest Mott-Smith until one of my aunts died in 2012. Among her belongings which were passed on to me were letters written by Mr. Mott-Smith and kept by my grandmother.

“In one of these letters, Mr. Mott-Smith wrote: ‘I am very familiar with the fishpond business. It’s a business that Loo Goon struggled very hard with for several years before his death.

“’The business was very precarious. It is unfortunate that Loo Goon has not been able to secure the fruits of his labor as the fishpond is now producing so it provides some means of supporting Loo Goon’s wife, Sun Luke Loo, and ten children.

“‘I did so much work on this case that if it had been done for others I would not have asked for less than $1,000. However, I do so without charge and agree to serve as trustee without charge because Loo Goon was my friend and I have sympathy for his family.’”

Ernest A. Mott-Smith (1873-1935) was trustee of the Lunalilo estate. When the Lunalilo Home in Makiki moved to Koko Head, the property was divided up and sold.

Two of the new streets were named after trustees. Mott Smith was one. The other was Clio Street, named after Clio Chamberlain. The two meet where Mott-Smith Laniloa’s condo stands.

frog way

Bill Jung wrote: “I’ve always wanted to ask you for some background on Frog Lane. So what’s the story?

Frog Lane operates mauka off School Street, two Waikiki blocks off Liliha Street behind Kuakini Hospital.

One of my sources for this type of information is a Star Bulletin column that ran in 1941 entitled “Half Minute Holoholo.” The author, Donald Billam-Walker, wrote about a street in each column. Frog Lane was one of them.

“Honolulu went to the frogs to get a name for one of the alleyways off School Street,” explained Billam-Walker.

“Around 1890 someone got the idea that it might be profitable to use what was then taro land near Schul and Liliha streets to raise frogs for table purposes. The idea worked only too well.

“The frogs proved just as prolific as rabbits, and soon the whole neighborhood was teeming with the hopping, croaking creatures.

“When surveyors laid out a lane in this neighborhood around 1900, one of them suggested the abundance of frogs and suggested it be called Frog Lane, and it has been so referred to on town plans ever since.”

Hunnewell

An anonymous reader said: “Hunnewell Street in Lower Manoa was named after Captain James Hunnewell who was the founder of C. Brewer in 1826.

“My memory is fuzzy, but I remember speaking to a very old woman at Kawaiaha’o Church in the 1990s who pointed out that a clock in the church had the name Hunnewell on it.”

Yes, she was right. The clock mounted on the balcony of Kawaiaha’o Church is one of Honolulu’s oldest, having been installed in a Moiliili church in 1820 as a gift from James Hunnewell, sailing captain and founder of C. Brewer & Co.

“The clock was renovated and placed in the Kawaiaha’o Church in 1826, as historians say, ‘to warn the preacher that he was nearing the deadline for his sermon.'”

The watch bears the inscription “Kamehameha III. Presented by James Hunnewell, Charlestown, Mass. UNITED STATES.”

Hunnewell Street in Manoa is named after him.

St. Louis Heights

Bob Gilchrest said, “Some years ago, as I was driving up the heights of St. Louis, I noticed that some streets bore the names of my relatives: Frank, Eugene, and Robert.

“Since Eugene was in real estate, I wonder if he was involved in these naming conventions.”

For that, I turned to Place Names of Hawaii by Pukui, Elbert, and Mookini. They say that “St. Louis Heights was named by Paul Low and James Hara, dividers of the heights.

“For this area, they preferred biblical names or names of Catholic dignitaries, but couldn’t find a name beginning with Q and chose Quincy at random.”

Brothers Eugene and Frank were teachers at St. Louis College. Brother Robert was a well-known painter at the school.

Alencastre was named after the Catholic Bishop of Hawaii from 1924 to 1940. Stephen Alencastre was born in Madeira, Portugal but grew up in Hawaii.

Maigret Street was named after Bishop Louis-Desire Maigret. He oversaw the construction of the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace on Fort Street and asked local priests to work at the Hansen’s Disease colony in Kalaupapa. Saint Damien answered his call.

Wondering how a street got its name or have a story about one? If so, please let me know.

———

Bob Sigall’s historic Rearview Mirror column runs every Friday. Send your comments and questions to [email protected]