Dedicated staff and volunteers ensure Plantation Village Hawaii keeps its doors open

Hawaii Plantation Village’s 30th anniversary is an important milestone to celebrate this year, especially for the dedicated volunteers who have continued against the odds created by the pandemic to maintain the Waipahu Outdoor History Museum.

“The village has survived two and a half years of pandemic. We struggled, but we’re still here,” said executive director Evelyn Ahlo, who practically grew up on the pitch.

The museum, operated by the nonprofit Friends of Waipahu Cultural Garden Park and located within the park’s 50 acres, has been unable to generate revenue by hosting tour groups during several months of lockdown. Although the museum was allowed to reopen in November, its operations were curtailed and visitation numbers did not rebound, Ahlo said.

The museum, which opened in 1992, consists largely of 25 small homes and community buildings, replicas of humble structures representing the lives of eight ethnic groups who labored under grueling conditions on Hawaii’s sugar cane plantations from the 1900s to late 1930s. (However, the Plantation Era lasted from 1850 to 1950.)

The groups included Native Hawaiians and immigrants of Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Korean, Okinawan, Portuguese, and Puerto Rican descent.

The anniversary celebrations will kick off on June 4 with Japan’s first live Japanese dance festival in two years, a tradition that began two years before the museum opened, Ahlo said. Last year’s obon festival was broadcast live and included a bento drive-through; The 2020 festivities have been canceled in full containment.

The obon event will be followed by a Portuguese Festa (festival) in August and a special 30th anniversary celebration in September, although details are still being planned. Weekly ghost tale tours will run from July through September, culminating in a Haunted Plantation event in October intended to pay homage to paranormal incidents believed to have taken place on the grounds.

A story to tell

Robert Castro, who grew up opposite the village, has been a volunteer guide for 15 years. He is a proverbial walking encyclopedia as he takes a two-hour tour, sharing details of the buildings with the familiarity of someone who once knew the occupants of each house. “Everyone has a story to tell,” he said.

By showing people how the immigrants lived, including examples of their old-fashioned gear and equipment, all of this “little info…keeps alive the story of the immigrants coming to Hawaii that laid the foundation for our society today,” he said. The village is a reminder of its own history – “A lot of guides have similar stories,” Castro said.

His parents’ families included two or three generations of plantation workers who worked on different islands and eventually ended up with the Oahu Sugar Company. “I grew up hearing stories – one of my grandmothers was a stowaway” from Madeira, Portugal, although the rest of the family was on the passenger list.

Castro lived in a three-room house on Waipahu Street, which borders the village, similar to those shown, although electricity was installed when he was born and two rooms were added later.

While giving a tour of the Portuguese house in the village, he showed an antiquated sewing machine on cast iron feet, operated by a foot lever. “So many people can identify with this sewing machine because their grandmother had one like this,” he said. He walked over to a quaint white and rusty cooler, opening the door to the section where a block of ice was inserted to keep food cold before the electricity was available.

A bread oven called a “forno”, originally from Maui, is located outside. It looks like a stone igloo, and it still works. Nearby is an outbuilding with large holes cut into a wooden plank for two toilets.

Glimpse of the past

To create the museum, measurements were taken of the original plantation structures throughout the state and replicated in the village, and Castro can identify by heart the origin of each building. Most of the hardware, such as doorknobs and hinges, was salvaged by workers from the original houses. Sinks, bathtubs and other appliances, as well as kitchen utensils, chairs and personal items (such as a Bible or a Japanese talisman) were donated by the families.

The houses are surrounded by trees and plants used for food or medicine that were relevant to each particular ethnic group, Castro said.

The Chinese Kitchen (built in 1909 on the property) and the Wakamiya Inari Shrine (built in 1914 in Kakaako) are the only original structures in the village. Other community buildings are replicas of, for example, a general store from Kauai, an infirmary and tofu-making shed from Oahu, and a social hall from the Big Island.

A small taro pond nearby now occupies the area where Chinese immigrants once tended the rice paddies, and the Hawaiians later added taro.

In addition to public tours, the museum regularly receives tours from school groups, both from Hawaii and the mainland. Its educational materials include an archival collection that is on display in its administration building, Ahlo said. The museum is supported by the nearby Hawaii Technology Academy; students provide community service by painting buildings, maintaining gardens, and other tasks.

Family ties

Ahlo became executive director in 2018, but her family has supported the village for decades. In the 1970s, she lived just two minutes from the site and witnessed the construction of the structures. His father was a member of the Leeward Lions Club, closely involved in the businesses that helped develop the project. Ahlo herself has volunteered at the office for years, and her own children have enjoyed village fetes, cleanups and other activities.

“They were running around like it was their playground, like when we went to school,” she said.

The village is part of her home, she said, and as a tribute to those who have worked to keep it going over the years, “I want to make sure it’s taken care of.”

That commitment was the impetus behind keeping the museum going during the pandemic, when the only funding it received came from the federal payroll stimulus program, membership fees and small fundraisers, a she declared. The museum recently received a state grant requested in 2019 to carry out renovations.

When the pandemic started, the city’s parks and recreation department wanted to shut down the village completely. But Ahlo requested that his three-person team and a group of volunteers be allowed to maintain the buildings and grounds. Nearly 20 volunteers, most of whom are over 70 years old and come from plantations, took up the challenge.

“Everyone worked hard. Our hearts were there. We just helped keep the area clean; we asked our volunteers and their families to come – just to keep everyone together,” she said. “We can be proud to have done all of this by ourselves.”