05/21/2016
THOMAS SQUARE TIMELINE
1825 Richard Charlton first British Consul General selects a site on the outskirts of town that leads to the street being called Beretania Street.
1826 Kalanimoku grants Charlton a 299 year lease for harborfront land but the land belonged to Queen Ka'ahumanu not Kalanimoku. Charlton organizes 34 British residents with claims of $350,000 involving land and property disputes. This led to the seizure of the Hawaiian Islands by Lord Paulet.
February 1843 Lord George Paulet threatened to attack Honolulu because of disputes between British subjects and the Government of Hawaii. King Kamehameha III, under protest, ceded the Kingdom. Paulet destroys all the Hawaiian flags.
July 1843 Rear Admiral Richard Thomas arrives in Honolulu to undo the act of his subordinate by restoring the sovereignty of the Hawaiian Kingdom in a ceremony at the place now known as Thomas Square. Admiral Thomas ordered the lowering of the British flag and the raising of the Hawaii Kingdom flag. King Kamehameha III speech given that day contained the words that has since become the official motto of the State of Hawaii, "Ua mau ke ea o ka aina I ka pono", The life of the land is restored in righteousness. The Hawaiian flag used in the ceremony which had been used since 1818 becomes the flag of the kingdom and eventually the State flag of Hawaii.
1850 The Privy Council voted to create Thomas Square and dedicated it as a public park.
1873 Thomas Square was fenced and planted in oats and algaroba. After the oats were harvested, the entire area became overgrown in nihau burr.
1876 Blacksmith and machinist C.C. Coleman is granted a year's use of Thomas Square to cultivate jute, an experimental crop.
1882 The Legislature appropriated money for park improvements during Kalakaua's reign and did so every year there after in small amounts. A.S. Cleghorn (Princess Kaiulani's father) was in-charge of the development of the parks landscaping and along with Robert Sterling, laid out the 6.5 acre park with circles and half circles. Walks, tree, flowering shrubs and flower beds were planted. Cleghorn brought in Banyan Trees from his home, 'Ainahau Estate, in Waikiki.
May 1883 The Minister of Interior, John E. Bush reproved Cleghorn for ignoring the dire condition of the treasury.
April 7, 1887 First evening concert by the Royal Hawaiian Band at Thomas Square in the new band stand with seating for several hundred, which was built with private funding.
1906 The Beautifying of Honolulu, pretentious Thomas square in its plain lack of any by Charles Mulford Robinson wrote about ornamental open spaces and in particular to Emma square and Thomas square. "Neither of these squares is good in landscape design......the more comprehensive plan seems haphazard. ............... Considering, too, the origin of the space, it would seem that a flag staff might well be made its dominant feature."
1907 University of Hawaii founded in 1907 under the Morrill Act as a land grant college of agriculture and mechanic arts. The site eventually becomes the Linekona Building.
1920-1922 Tree Planting and Landscape Grouping for the City of Honolulu, cut out."by Louise S. Hubbard wrote: ".......the Banyans in the center of Thomas Square are so beautiful and so well placed, that it would be a very great pity to put a street through them. There are lovely trees in Thomas Square, but many are crowding and I should like to see some
1925 The Territorial Legislature set aside Thomas Square as a public park and placed it under the management of the Park Board of the City and County of Honolulu. Governor Farrington, signs this joint resolution, which prohibits the extension of Young Street through Thomas Square.
April 8,1927 The Academy of Arts is founded by Mrs. Charles M. Cooke. The buildings were designed by nationally known architect Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue. The courtyards are designed by Catherine Richards, Hawaii's first landscape architect. She also designed Thomas Square in 1932 and Ala Moana Regional Park in 1934.
1932 Construction is completed on the formal formal landscape elements of Thomas Square designed by local landscape architects Catherine Jones Richards and Robert Thompson of Thompson and Thompson. The work includes the central fountain, circular walls, Beretania Street Promenade, retaining wall and central stairs, radial coral pathway system, and mock orange hedge.
April 1942 The U.S. Army builds barracks on Thomas Square.
January 1954 Don Wolbrink, head of Honolulu office of Harland Bartholomew & Associates, the planning firm, praised Thomas Square as a leading example of landscape architecture.
1964 The Neal Blaisdell Concert Hall opens.
1967 Architect Thomas Wells, an Ossipof architect, is commonly credited with designing the comfort station. Landscape architect George Walters proposed hardscape improvements that would emphasized the Young Street axis of the park for pedestrian circulation, enlarge the central paving area and change the design to express the grid by removing radial structure of the circle. Walters would straighten the paths giving it the British Jack layout.
February 1972 Draft letter from Governor Burns to The Outdoor Circle cited Congressional policy and Supreme Court decisions that would make it more difficult to take park lands for highway improvements. The Governor concludes by saying," In view of this recent decision the Department of Land and Natural Resources is considering withdrawal of its prior right of entry to the City for the Ward Avenue widening project and a recommendation that Thomas Square be set aside as a State Monument commemorating the Restoration of Hawaiian Sovereignty."
April 1972 Placed on the National Register of Historic Places based on political significance.
February 1978 Thomas Square/ Honolulu Academy of Arts special district is created to protect theses two historic landmarks from the negative impacts of adjacent developments. A key objective is to "preserve and enhance Thomas Square's formal park design by modifying construction projects which would diminish its serene and scenic quality."
1989 Honolulu Museum of Art - Art School opens.
July 31, 2018 La Ho'iho'i Ea, Restoration Day, celebrates its 175th Anniversary.
