The Honolulu Iron Works was established by machinist David Weston on Queen Street, Honolulu, in 1852, as a manufacturer of sugar mills and machinery for Hawai‘i’s sugar plantations.
The company prospered, and by 1900 it was also supplying sugar mills for plantations in Louisiana, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Formosa and the Philippines.
Besides building and repairing sugar mills and fabricating other mill machinery such as steam engines, boilers, coolers, and iron, brass and lead castings, Honolulu Iron Works was capable of repairing iron ships and steamers.
At its zenith at the beginning of the 20th century, it employed 500 to 600 men in its various shops and, all told, Honolulu Iron Works would eventually manufacture over 200 sugarcane mills.
Its buildings fronting Queen Street were comprised firstly of a large, two-story building with a general office located on the bottom floor and a drafting room upstairs.
Another building housed the foundry and three machine shops, and in still another was the blacksmith’s department, while the company’s boiler shop occupied the lower yard of the iron works.
In 1900, Honolulu Iron Works moved to the shore at Kaka‘ako, now the location of Waterfront Plaza.
Its successor company, Honiron, closed its manufacturing operations on O‘ahu in 1973.
Of note is Christian Hedemann (1852–1932), an engineer employed by Honolulu Iron Works who was also an amateur photographer whose pictures of Hawai‘i and its people provide a fascinating pictorial record of Hawai‘i during the late 19th century.
What follows is an account of some work performed by Honolulu Iron Works for Kaua‘i’s sugar plantations: 1853 — water wheel manufactured for Koloa Plantation mill; 1883 — Kapa‘a Mill roller repaired; 1884 — mill manufactured for Waimea Sugar Co.; 1886 — sugar boiler manufactured for ‘Ele‘ele Sugar Plantation; 1887 — juice-heater and four juice pans manufactured for Lihu‘e Plantation; 1888 — repaired broken roller and manufactured one vacuum pan each for the Kekaha sugar mill and Hanama‘ulu Plantation; 1899 — McBryde Sugar Co. acquired ‘Ele‘ele Plantation sugar mill manufactured by Honolulu Iron Works; 1912 — furnished materials, machinery and buildings for Koloa Plantation’s new factory.
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Hank Soboleski has been a resident of Kauai since the 1960s. Hank’s love of the island and its history has inspired him, in conjunction with The Garden Island Newspaper, to share the island’s history weekly. The collection of these articles can be found here: https://bit.ly/2IfbxL9 and here https://bit.ly/2STw9gi Hank can be reached at hssgms@gmail.com
