Hi Pahonu,
I agree, always fun to discuss anything Pahonu!
Yes, I was also mulling over the possibility of the court being clay or grass, but was thinking the close location to the ocean and the abundance of sand under it not to mention salt in the air might make maintaining such a court a little trickier and way more costly......i.e. great drainage with the sand, but it might need to be watered on a ongoing basis, not to mention mowing it, fertilizing, rolling, more mowing and then dealing with the potential for disease where the whole court could be lost....golf greens are high maintenance so I'm guessing a true grass court would be just as much work. I wouldn't rule it out, as Mrs. Wall did have the money to do whatever she wanted. Maybe she went this route or maybe she had a more basic grass court (standard grass & net and just for fun), but based on the rest of the build, it's probably not the case. I know that Maui has a few synthetic grass courts (no idea what the bounce would be like on one of those), but I can't think of one grass court in Hawaii today (does anyone know of one?), so I'm guessing it's not worth the hassle not to mention the expense ( today or back then) - a total guess. As for clay, I'm thining there was a better chance for clay than grass......BUT not convinced they went this route either.....again I think the drainage would've been good at Pahonu for clay, but I'm wondering if it was too good and caused issues with drying out the surface.....again, a complete guess. Like you said Pahonu......the courts were not the same back in the 30's as what we see today. If there is anyone out there who builds courts for a living please fill us in!!!
I vaguely remember reading a comment Eve made about Pahonu's construction and saying it was built to last and the stone used was very hard/solid she may have said blue stone.... I also remember one of the realtors mentioning the walls were quite thick and very solid which supports your comment about the bones being there and being built to last. I know Mrs. Wall's first house (closer to the Pali) burned down (built of wood) and was probably the reason Pahonu was made fireproof. I'm sure it wasn't completely fireproof, but within reason. My guess the rafters weren't steel, thinking of the exposure to the salt air and visually not as appealing as wood....but having said that, I do like your theory about the rafters being sheathed in wood....now that would've been really expensive and right up Mrs. Wall's alley! The use of just redwood sounds more correct though and like you said termite resistant, etc. which is definitely a problem over there. The concrete construction was well thought out for where they were building.....just imagine if it was all built out of wood.....I doubt it would still be standing.....thank goodness for deep pockets!!!
Hey Pahonu, you mentioned the two balconies made of wood (ocean and driveway side).....I've been wondering about those for a while now.....your sheathing theory might've come into play with at least the joists/supports under those balconies or the redwood is actually cantilevered going inside the wall and beyond, making it structural and not fun to replace if they are rotten and not exposed on the inside of the building (i.e. hidden the ceiling)....if we could only get a quick look inside the place we could solve all of these mysteries and then some. I agree with you, Pahonu is a good candidate for restoration....long live Pahonu!
I'll comment on your gate house comment later...sorry for the delay! RG should be back from her trip to Hawaii soon and will probably have something to share as well.