From royal taro lands to the world's most famous beach

1. Before 1795

   A land of water, taro and fishponds

   Long before hotels, Waikīkī was one of the richest farming areas on Oʻahu. Streams coming down from Mānoa, Pālolo and Makiki valleys spread across the flat land into a huge wetland. Native Hawaiians built a network of loʻi kalo (taro patches) and loko iʻa (fishponds) that fed thousands of people.

   The shoreline was a playground for aliʻi (chiefs), who surfed the breaks at Kalehuawehe and other spots offshore. Heiau (temples) such as Papaʻenaʻena stood near the slopes of Lēʻahi — the volcanic cone later called Diamond Head by British sailors who mistook its calcite crystals for diamonds.

   

   

2. 1795–1893

   The playground of Hawaiian royalty

   In 1795 Kamehameha I beached his fleet of war canoes along Waikīkī before marching up Nuʻuanu to unite Oʻahu under his rule. Waikīkī became a royal retreat, and for the next century Hawaiʻi's kings and queens kept homes here among the coconut groves.

   At Helumoa — today the grounds of the Royal Hawaiian Hotel — a grove of some 10,000 coconut trees was said to have been planted by Kākuhihewa. Kamehameha V kept a residence there. Queen Liliʻuokalani had her beach house nearby, and Princess Kaʻiulani grew up at ʻĀinahau, her family's estate full of peacocks and banyan trees.

   

   

   

3. 1880s–1900

   Old Waikīkī, photographed

   The first photographs of Waikīkī show a quiet shoreline: grass houses, canoes pulled up on the sand, streams like ʻĀpuakēhau winding through to the sea. A mule-drawn tram, and later an electric streetcar, linked the beach to downtown Honolulu.

   King Kalākaua dedicated Kapiʻolani Park, named for his queen, in 1877 — Hawaiʻi's first public park. Hula, banned in public for decades under missionary influence, was revived openly during his reign.

   

   

   

4. 1901–1927

   The first hotels and the beach boys

   The Moana Hotel opened in 1901, a grand white colonial building with a pier into the surf, and the age of tourism began. Steamships brought visitors from San Francisco in about five days.

   On the beach, Hawaiian “beach boys” taught visitors to surf and paddle outrigger canoes. The most famous was Duke Paoa Kahanamoku, who won Olympic gold in swimming in 1912 and 1920 and became the father of modern surfing, spreading it to California and Australia.

   

   

   

5. 1921–1941

   The Ala Wai and the Pink Palace

   Between 1921 and 1928 the Ala Wai Canal was dug to drain the wetlands. It cut off the streams from the sea, and the taro patches, rice paddies and duck ponds of old Waikīkī were filled in with the dredged soil. In a few years, a farming district became land ready for building.

   In 1927 the Royal Hawaiian Hotel opened on the old royal grounds at Helumoa. Painted pink and styled like a Spanish-Moorish palace, it hosted movie stars and millionaires who arrived on Matson's luxury liners. The radio show “Hawaii Calls” broadcast from the Moana's banyan courtyard from 1935.

   

6. 1941–1959

   War years and statehood

   After the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, Waikīkī was strung with barbed wire, and the Royal Hawaiian was leased to the U.S. Navy as a rest home for sailors and submarine crews. Fort DeRussy, an Army post since 1908, sat in the middle of the beach.

   When Hawaiʻi became the 50th state on August 21, 1959 — the same year jet airliners began flying from the mainland — visitor numbers exploded. Hotels went up block after block along Kalākaua Avenue.

7. 1960–today

   The Waikīkī we know

   Today Waikīkī welcomes millions of visitors a year, but its history is still underfoot. The Moana and Royal Hawaiian still stand. A bronze statue of Duke Kahanamoku greets surfers at Kūhiō Beach, where torches are lit at sunset and free hula shows are held. Historic markers along the Waikīkī Historic Trail tell the story of the royal estates, streams and fishponds beneath the streets.

   

Old Waikīkī on film

Real historic footage and a documentary showing Waikīkī the way it looked long ago.