History and Archives
History and Archives
The Palama Settlement Archives supports the mission of Palama Settlement by preserving its cultural heritage and institutional memory since its inception in 1896. The Archives collects, organizes, preserves, and makes accessible original primary source records of enduring value. Records include correspondences, reports, newsletters, architectural drawings, ephemera, artifacts, and photographs of the activities and people who participated in the programs and services offered at Palama Settlement.
In the effort to preserve and make accessible the resources of the archives, Palama Settlement embarked on a digitization project to scan, catalog, and describe over 40,000 documents and photographs. Concurrently, Palama Settlement launched an online public access catalog for researchers and the general public to search, browse, and request materials, making available historically underrepresented stories of people in the Kalihi-Pālama community. The archives digitization project is funded in part by the Cooke Foundation and the Louise and Y.T. Lum Foundation.
Highlights of Palama Settlement’s history from 1896 to 1996.
January 20, 1900
Due to reported cases of the Bubonic Plague, the Board of Health ordered fires to be set to a portion of the Chinatown district. High winds spread the fires, burning the entire Chinatown and neighboring areas and displacing thousands of residents. Tenement houses were built in the Kalihi-Pālama area.
1929
After 22 years of service, Executive Director James Arthur Rath passed away. Under his direction, Palama Settlement grew to operate baby clinics, a general dispensary, specialized medical clinics including chest, dental, dermatological, obstetrical, orthopedic, and eye, ear, nose and throat services, a gymnasium and swimming pool.
1936
Palama nurses offered bedside nursing services, recording 11,694 cases. Recreation facilities included gymnasium, pool, locker rooms, athletic fields, children’s playground, pavilion, club house, carpentry shop, domestic science building, tennis courts, auditorium, game and club rooms, reading rooms, public library annex, and offices.
August–November 1941
Prior to joining Major League Baseball, Jackie Robinson was recruited by the Honolulu Bears, a semi-professional football team. The team practiced on Castle Field at Palama Settlement. Many young fans came over to watch the Bears play and interacted with Robinson, who showed them football techniques.
December 7, 1941
After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the National Defense Program was enacted with Palama Settlement designated as a medical emergency unit. It also became the headquarters for the air raid warden zone and evacuation planner center. The cafeteria and other campus facilities provided recreation and entertainment for national defense workers and soldiers stationed nearby.
July 12, 2023
In commemoration of the 125th anniversary of Palama Settlement, photos, documents, awards, sports uniforms, and other historical items were gathered and placed in a koa box. The time capsule is currently displayed in the lobby of the Rath Building, set to be opened at the 150th anniversary celebration in 2046.
ArchivesSpace is the public online catalog that you can use to search for materials in the Palama Settlement Archives. Note that the ArchivesSpace database primarily contains records describing our archival materials. The photographic collection can be accessed here: palamasettlement.libraryhost.com/repositories/2/resources/14.
To Browse:
Click here to view the Palama Settlement Archives
To Search:
Enter relevant terms in the search field under “Search The Archives.”
Snippets of our memories are shared in these timeless stories from our present and former participants at Palama Settlement.
REMEMBER WHEN…the swimming pool was low tide?
By: Chris Hirayama on May 7th, 2024
In my younger years, I lived in Akepo Lane in the Kalihi-Pālama neighborhood. I was 5 or 6 years old when I first stepped on the grounds of Palama Settlement. I wanted to shoot baskets at the old gym but was immediately kicked out by the older kids. As I got older and bigger, I was allowed to be part of the group. All the kids in the neighborhood played at Palama. Palama was a place where everyone was welcome. It was like a second home.
In the 1950s, when I was 10 or 11 years old, I joined the Palama Swim Club with my brothers Mack and Gary. A lot of kids at Palama didn’t have fathers, and they looked to their coaches like Harry Mamizuka as a fatherly figure. Every year the Hirayama family has a reunion in Waikīkī, and Mack recently invited 81-year-old Mike Harada, who had the national record for the 50-yard butterfly, and Larry Oshiro, 82 years old, who swam the butterfly at Palama and the University of Oregon. After leaving Palama, Harry Mamizuka coached the Mānoa Swim Team with Larry Oshiro until Coach Mamizuka passed away. Larry Oshiro took over and still coaches the Mānoa Swim Team.
A few additional memories: Palama Settlement Director Lorin Gill used to take the kids hiking on the weekends in an old two-and-a-half-ton military truck. We were all packed like sardines sitting on wooden seats and always talking story. Lorin Gill introduced us kids to the mountains and plants of Hawaiʻi. He also had a big influence on our lives.
Prior to the construction of the H-1 freeway, I played hide and seek where the gymnasium currently sits. Back then, it was an open field and old houses with a family-neighborhood store that sold almost everything.
Every Monday the swimming pool would be “low tide,” where the kids could learn how to swim. It was also fun running in the shallow end, trying to body skim on the water.
Palama Team Pictures (5)-002 courtesy of Chris Hirayama
Young swimmers enjoy “low tide” at the Palama Settlement pool. Circa 1950s. Palama
Settlement. Digital ID: 17_03_04-0044
In 2022–2023, stories from community members, business people, athletes, artists, staff, and social workers were recorded as they shared their personal experiences, their ancestry, and their time at Palama Settlement. Their voices provide significant insight to understanding the history of Palama Settlement and its impact on populations that have been historically underserved, while inspiring the next generation with their life learning reflections and resilience of the human spirit.
Click here to access the audio and transcript files from our 15 narrators:
This project is the second in a series; the first was recorded in 1996 during Palama Settlement’s centennial, by the Center for Oral History. Click here to access the transcripts from that collection.
This program is funded by a grant from the Hawai‘i Council for the Humanities, through support from the National Endowment for the Humanities and is in partnership with the Center for Oral History in the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s College of Social Sciences. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in these oral history interviews do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.