Wai'anae History
Wai'anae Sugar Plantation
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In 1878 work at Wai'anae plantation started with twenty local Hawaiians, and 60 Chinese laborers, among others. 

 

The mill was manufactured in Scotland, and shipped from Glasgow. On January 16, 1880 steam was brought up in the mill boilers. The Hawaiian Gazette reported the event by saying, "Great credit is due to Messrs. Widemand and Richardson for their energy in  accomplishing so much in so short a time..." In 1884 the Hawaiian Directory reported, "Waianae is the largest settlement on the island outside of Honolulu. It possesses several stores kept by natives and Chinamen. There are two churches, two schools and a club house... The Waianae mill is one of the finest in the kingdom, lacking nothing that ingenuity can invent to make it run smoothly and economically."
August Ahrens was the second manager of Waianae Sugar Company. Ahrens planted the first coffee trees on the Wai'anae coast in 1886. Coffee grew very well on the upper slopes of Wai'anae and Makaha Valleys. In the 1880's the Wai'anae Coffee Plantation existed in the lee of Kaala Mountain.
David Center was manager of Waianae Plantation from 1897-1899. 
In 1899 Frederick Meyer become manager of Waianae Plantation and in 1910 Meyer built a new mansion which replaced the Julius Lyman Richardson home.

 
The San Francisco Chronical described Wai'anae Plantation on July 18, 1910 as this: "Seven-hundred and fifty laborers are employed at Waianae Plantation. Of these, 500 are Japanese, 150 are Chinese and the rest principally Portuguese and Hawaiians. The Asiatics when employed as day laborers receive from $18 to $22 a month... The Portuguese and Hawaiians receive an average of about $25 a month... The company has 100 apartment houses for the free use of Asiatic families. Each building contains accommodations for two families in addition to which there are seven large houses for single men. White families are furnished with detached cottages of which there are about 40 on the plantation. All the dwellings are surrounded with ground that may be cultivated by the occupants, and the villages in which the houses are laid out are supplied with laundries, bath houses for men and women, cook houses, running water, sanitary appliances... Employees are furnished wit wood and water without charge."
In September 1888 B.F. Dillingham secured a franchise signed by King Kalakaua to build a railroad. The Wai'anae railroad extension opened on July 4, 1895, servicing the leeward side of Oahu and then beyond. 

Robert H.A. Fricke, was the last manager of Wai'anae Plantation from 1931 to 1946.

Due to war, lack of water, and market pressures Waianae Sugar Plantation announced on Friday October 18, 1946 that it would close. The Wai'anae Plantation enjoyed its moments from 1878-1946.

An era had vanished as a new one started to unfold.