The post office in the early years was located at the Abel Harris plantation. It was later located at William Lyngate's office at the plantation. Early postmasters: A. Harris (1859-60), W Lydgate (1879 - 1884). In 1887 volume was 6,000 letters and increased to 9,000 in 1892. Laupahoehoe, the site of the Laupahoehoe Sugar Company (owned by Theo H Davies and William Lydgate) and a busy harbor had two to three thousand inhabitants at one time. The harbor, however, did not allow large ships to be loaded directly. Smaller boats were used to ferry shipments from land to big ships anchored off shore. The establishment of the railroad system for transporting goods to the Hilo Harbor for direct loading of shipments reduced the use of the Laupahoehoe Harbor.

Laupahoehoe (Leaf of Lava) had a thriving little community from the 1800's. There was a Hotel where a 1.00 a day could rent you a room but the hotel had no restaurant. You had to go across the street to the little chinese restaurant where 1.50 could by you a meal. The community was made up of fishermen and taro farmers where the area up to the cliff was terraced with taro fields. There was a church and many homes. The area was a normal nautical landing since there is no other point because of cliffs until Hilo. Laupahoehoe is infamous for April 1st, 1946 when three towering tidal waves roared over the peninsula at 7:00 AM killing many residents including 23 students and four teachers. The children happily gathered fish deposited from the huge, but not deadly, second wave on the school grounds while the teachers were in their cabin changing back into dry clothes when the final huge (some say 50 feet high) and deadly wave hit. No one had noticed all the water being sucked out of the bay until it was too late. Only two children and one teacher survived. They remained in the water 10 hours while people on the cliff could get a boat for rescue since all watercraft had been destroyed by the tidal wave. Other than one mangled body (crushed by the rocks) others were never found. A monument with the names and ages of the children and teachers has been erected on the school site. Most nearby residents including the school were moved to the top of the ridge. Incidently, that one surviving teacher married the doctor that was in the rescue boat within a year. Submitted by: Mike Woodfin

Foundation ruin
Courtesy Mike Woodfin

Monument on the school site to the children and teachers who lost their lives.
Courtesy Mike Woodfin

|These are pictures of the peninsula before the tsunami and shots of the school and teacher cottages. Mike Woodfin

These are pictures of the peninsula before the tsunami and shots of the school and teacher cottages. Mike Woodfin

These are pictures of the peninsula before the tsunami and shots of the school and teacher cottages. Mike Woodfin