Here are a few more photos from my dad’s collection showing the beach at Waikiki in 1951.
The Moana Hotel and the Natatorium are about the only things that would look familiar to today’s visitors. The rest are part of Waikiki’s past.
Just click on the photo to view this small gallery. If you have background information or recollections about any of the specific buildings visible on shore, please leave a comment below.
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The house next to the Moana in the far right picture is that of the Harry Steiner family. He was a district magistrate/judge and the father of attorney Keith Steiner. I believe the house gave way to a bowling alley before the SurfRider hotel was built there in the sixties.
Aloha, I lived in the Steiner Estate in 1957 when I was a kid. The Waikiki Bowling Alley was on the Ewa Side of the Steiner Estate and the Sands Restaurant was on the Diamond Head side. The Moana Surfrider was built in 1903 and was on the Ewa side of the bowling alley. Waikiki in those days was an absolute paradise for a seven year old who had just learned to surf and fifty-five years later is still in the water. Thanks for the memories.
The Steiner Estate was owned by my great grandfather. Robert James, or anyone else who remembers the property, I would love to discuss your memories, as I am working on a book about his life. Not sure how we would get in touch, but I am putting this out there. I can be emailed at JHSteiner123@outlook.com
Awesome pictures Ian! I’m pretty sure I see my Uncle Alex in one of the canoes (he was a beachboy).
My mother came to Hawai’i on the Lurline in September, 1951 and met my father who lived at the Waikiki Tavern soon after. This gives me a chance to see a little bit of what life must have been like at that time. Mahalo a nui loa!
The James Steiner estate is out of the picture here but was to the right of the bowling ally and was built in 1912. The Surf Rider hotel is on what used to be the Hustace Villa which does show in this photo and the Cleghorn beach house which was in between the Hustace house and the Moana. The bowling ally in this photo is where another beach house once stood belonging to the O’donnel family and later Kaiulani, handed down to her brother Tak Cleghorn. The Steiner home became an officer’s club during the war and the Sand’s club after the war until it’s demise.
Marco Angelo’s description is correct. In the mid-thirties I remember well playing at the James Steiner home when my mother used to visit Mrs. Steiner…..and admiring the surfboards stored in
locked racks on the Diamond Head side of the yard. We changed into our bathing suits in the dressing rooms in the very large basement under the makai side of the house where the nets and water equipment were stored. Then we climbed down the iron rungs set in the concrete sea wall to the beach below to go swimming.
Judge Harry Steiner and my father were very close friends.
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