HONOLULU (KHON2) — You’ve heard about Hawaiʻi’s plantation past when sugar and pineapple helped shape the islands, brought workers from around the world and changed communities for generations. But where were those plantations? What neighborhoods grew around them? And what can you still see today?
The answer is written into the landscape. From Waipahu and ʻEwa to Kunia, Wahiawā, Pāʻia and beyond, communities built around industries that are now gone still carry pieces of that history in their homes, neighborhoods, roads, schools, stores and town layouts.
These neighborhoods outlived the business that built them where sugar, pineapple, dairies, fishing, military operations. While the clues can be easy to miss, they’re found in the old plantation houses and roads; former schools, churches and stores; railroad corridors; and community layouts…