ANTHONY SOMMER / TSOMMER@STARBULLETIN.COM
The guest houses at Waimea Plantation Cottages resort in Kekaha are completely authentic, but it's doubtful any sugar camp in Hawaii had spacious grounds so well landscaped. The resort was built on a former copra plantation, and many of the coconut trees remain today.
Cottages savor
Kauai’s sweet historyThe Faye family turns a potential
loss into a tourism venture with
plantation-era lodging
WAIMEA, Kauai >> What began as a half-dozen refurbished sugar workers' cabins has matured into a unique and popular resort where guests may choose from 60 restored, historic plantation family homes for their vacation.
CORRECTION
Monday, Jan. 5, 2004>> The Waimea Plantation Cottages are in Waimea, Kauai. A photo caption on Page A15 yesterday incorrectly said the cottages are in Kekaha.
The Honolulu Star-Bulletin strives to make its news report fair and accurate. If you have a question or comment about news coverage, call Editor Frank Bridgewater at 529-4791 or email him at fbridgewater@starbulletin.com.Waimea Plantation Cottages turns 20 this year.
Some of the cottages were left behind when the Waimea Sugar Mill Co. ceased operations in 1969. Others were relocated from other abandoned sugar camps in west Kauai. Together, they make up an almost complete history of sugar camp architecture, not only on Kauai but throughout Hawaii.
In 1919, the Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association, the sugar industry trade group, established standards for housing in all sugar camps. The standards changed over the years, and each style is represented at the resort. The newest of the cottages were built in the 1930s. In the 1940s and 1950s, construction of worker cottages gave way to company housing that resembles modern subdivisions and the era of "plantation-style" architecture was over.
All of the old homes at Waimea Plantation Cottages have been renovated and feature modern conveniences such as television sets. But the furnishings have been left simple and austere.
The resort is owned by Kikiaola Land Co., which is wholly owned by the Faye family, a name synonymous with sugar on Kauai.
Hans Peter Faye came to Kauai from Norway in 1880. He and his son and his grandson were professional sugar plantation managers. They served as managers of the Kekaha Sugar Co., which closed in 2000.
Faye also operated his own businesses. Through a long series of stock purchases he gained control of the Waimea Sugar Plantation, the smallest plantation in Hawaii, in the early 1900s.
The resort is built on what was once Faye's beach-front copra plantation and located a short walk down the black sand beach from the mouth of the Waimea River, where Captain James Cook first set foot on Hawaiian soil in 1778.
Mike Faye, who headed the Kikiaola Land Co. when Waimea Plantation Cottages was built, said the idea came in part from his desire as a young man to "somehow package" the experiences he had visiting friends at Pakala Camp on the nearby Gay & Robinson plantation. "This is the real Hawaii, people of every ethnic group living together in harmony. The sugar camps are Hawaii's cultural legacy."
But he could never quite figure out a way to make it happen.
"Any kind of cultural or historic preservation isn't going to last unless you find a way to make money to support it," said Faye, who now heads the Kikiaola Construction Co., which specializes in moving and renovating historic buildings.
In the early 1980s, the Faye family hired consultants to help plan a way to diversify the family's investments and plan for commercial use of family properties in the face of a declining sugar industry.
One of those consultants was architect Robert Fox of Oahu-based Fox Hawaii.
"Bob had designed a resort in India in which the old stone worker cottages on a rubber plantation were turned into resort cottages. He suggested we consider doing the same with our empty cottages," Faye recalled.
"It all came together when Hurricane Iwa in 1982 damaged all of our ocean-front property. The buildings were all busted up and the $230,000 we received from the insurance company was far less than we expected.
"So, we said, "Why don't we see what we can do with this?'
The idea of a resort on Kauai's west side was risky.
"This is Waimea, you have to remember. Not Princeville or Poipu. Just blue-collar Waimea," Faye said. "We didn't have a white sand beach so there would be no pictures of pretty girls in bikinis.
"The water isn't good for swimming because it's too dirty. We never swam in it as kids. The name Waimea means red water and it's red because all the natural erosion from Waimea Canyon has been pouring forever down the Waimea River into the ocean right by our property," Faye added.
"This is really Hawaii history, not just Kauai history. I can go to sugar camps all over the state and point to the Plan A cottages and Plan B cottages. All the plantations used the same plans except Gay & Robinson. The Robinsons are very stubborn, which is why they're still in business," he laughed.
The only part of the design that isn't authentic is the way the cottages are placed to maximize views and take advantage of the broad lawns and huge trees.
What is authentic is the buildings at the resort are bunched together by style, ranging from humble workers' cottages -- 600 square feet, two bedrooms and one bath -- to the plantation manager's mansion. The landscaping accurately reflects the status of the occupant: fruit trees around the workers' homes, decorative trees around the supervisors' houses.
Most of the cottages have family names on them to honor long-time workers at the Waimea Plantation. Although the cottages were company-owned, they definitely were family homes.
"The average -- not the longest, just the average -- use of a cottage by a single family on a Hawaii sugar plantation was 46 years," Faye said. "We think it adds to the visitors' experience when they can know the names of the family who once lived there."
The Waimea Plantation Cottages Web site is at: www.the-cottages.com.
