IWILEI

NAME: Iwilei COUNTY: Island of Oahu ROADS: 2WD GRID: 1 CLIMATE: Fine BEST TIME TO VISIT: Anytime

COMMENTS: Nothing of the community of Iwilei exists today. Now an industrial area of Honolulu. REMAINS: Nothing

Iwilei, a red light district compound, had it's beginning as far back as Captain Cook's sailors where sailors paid for a Hawaiian woman with one iron nail. The 1800's a half hour was 1.50. With the Hawaiian ladies desimated by veneral disease the Hawaiian legislature stepped in to try to control the area. By the 1900's a stockade with five entrances was built. Police rules were posted near the entrance and policemen patrolled to control the men. Not only was this the dock area but it was also the terminus for the local railroad. As time went on the area expanded to cover several blocks. The area was described as desolate streets full of garish colored houses with loud gramophones playing. Japanese and American "ladies of the evening" would talk to passer-bys. The ladies could not own property, automobiles, could not marry military personnel, could not dance, visit golf courses, sit in the front seats of taxi cabs, visit neighbor island, phone or wire money to the mainland without the "madams" permission. Eventually industry was allowed to move in and the stockade disappeared. Today there is no sign of the area. Submitted by: Mike Woodfin

Iwilei Courtesy Mike Woodfin

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