In the boom years after annexation, the sky was the limit. And as developers' eyes were lifted to heaven, they settled on the steep hills framing Honolulu. Wall built as
cliff side barrier
Heights such as Tantalus and Nuuanu had been settled for some time, but once your horse had plodded all the way up the hill, that was it for the night. Newfangled gasoline-powered automobiles though -- that was the ticket. Steep drives were no longer so daunting.
Which means that new streets and houses sprang up quickly. During World War I, Wilhelmina Rise was plotted straight up Maunalani Heights, criss-crossed by Sierra Drive and other streets named after Matson ships.
Which leads us to today's WatDat, this modest little wall along the 3400 block of Sierra Drive. As the volume of traffic along these hilly suburbs grew steadily, this car barrier was constructed sometime before World War II to keep automobiles from plunging into the (now evaporated) reservoir below, according to the best estimates of the state Historic Preservation Division.
It's only a couple of feet tall, with a pointy top to discourage people from sitting on it. It's within the Department of Transportation's right-of-way -- there's no real sidewalk -- and the age of the wall makes it eligible to be listed as a historic portion of Honolulu's civic infrastructure.
Which makes it doubly interesting that about 20 feet of the wall was recently broken down to create a driveway for a cliff side home now under construction. Automobiles still rule.
By Burl Burlingame, Star-Bulletin
