The Robin Masters Estate (Pahonu)

[Rembrandt's Girl]

As I write this it just occured to me that the entrance side of the units are quite austere as we discussed above, with only a single window and door, while the water-view side is literally a wall of glass. I have know idea if the architect had that element in mind during the design. Funny that just came to me as we have lived here for 15 years! That's why I like these discusiions so much. They get you thinking and making connections. Lots of fun.

I agree with you 100% on this one Pahonu!!!

Thanks for the link to your beautiful community!
You live in a very nice place indeed!!

Yes, it's lovely! Now you'd better look out because whenever we're in the area you're going to have to take us out on your boat!

[Pahonu]

Glad you both like it. I feel very fortunate to be able to live where I do. Now if only a wealthy novelist was paying the bills...

[KENJI]

Hey Pahonu,

What do you think of this theory.....I've always found the location of the bath house very strange.....back of the main house and no where near the ocean other than the long route around via the breezeway....I know we've gone back and forth on when it was built and I think you said it was built later on and not part of the original build (correct me if I'm way off base here).....assuming the grounds were bigger on the east side or there was nothing else on the other side back then, a bath house would be ideal back there, assuming there was an opening in the wall (or no wall at all).

What are your thoughts?
Anybody else?

[Pahonu]

Hey Pahonu,

What do you think of this theory.....I've always found the location of the bath house very strange.....back of the main house and no where near the ocean other than the long route around via the breezeway....I know we've gone back and forth on when it was built and I think you said it was built later on and not part of the original build (correct me if I'm way off base here).....assuming the grounds were bigger on the east side or there was nothing else on the other side back then, a bath house would be ideal back there, assuming there was an opening in the wall (or no wall at all).

What are your thoughts?
Anybody else?

This could very well be, although I was thinking it was added much later, as the house became used more for social gatherings rather that as a primary residence. When the house was used mostly by the owners and their few guests, they would simply use the bathrooms in the house. However, once these larger gatherings started, having dozens and dozens of people needing to go into the main house to use a bathroom could be a problem. You also wouldn't have to walk all the way around the house to get to it. If you went in the gate from the tidepool and walked along the lawn by the seawall, you would turn right at the end of the house and into the courtyard where it's located. You would go through the same gate Magnum went through in Distant Relative.

[KENJI]

Hi Pahonu,

I realized that I missed the other route to the bath house after I sent it and never bothered to fix it. To me it's still too far away and that's why I was thinking that back in the day there might've even been a rear gate or something near the bath house location...more guesses. It makes sense to have it for all of the functions she once had. Having it tucked away out of sight is good too, hmmm....now you have me thinking that Eve may have had it put in for the MPI film crew. The realtor might know when it was installed, but I doubt she will take our call!

[Pahonu]

Hi Pahonu,

I realized that I missed the other route to the bath house after I sent it and never bothered to fix it. To me it's still too far away and that's why I was thinking that back in the day there might've even been a rear gate or something near the bath house location...more guesses. It makes sense to have it for all of the functions she once had. Having it tucked away out of sight is good too, hmmm....now you have me thinking that Eve may have had it put in for the MPI film crew. The realtor might know when it was installed, but I doubt she will take our call!

Mine are guesses too. The crew set up at the Shriners when they filmed there. They would have had "honeywagons", as the trailer portable toilets are called in the industry. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honeywagon

It is a long walk to the location, but it's out of site, and I think that might have been the priority. It also just occured to me that the boathouse has a bathroom that could possibly have been accessed by guests using the tidal pool. That is, if it wasn't a staff quarters, which I had always assumed. Maybe that's what the upstairs of the boathouse was designed for. It has a terrace for relaxing after a swim, and a single (perhaps lounge-type) room with a bathroom to shower off and change. Again, more questions than answers.

[KENJI]

Good point about the MPI crew and the Shriners location.....ample parking, there are actual bathrooms facilities they could've used etc.. I also remember reading somewhere that The Shriners made them lunch too...who knows, but it might've been away to drum up donations....$5 for a burger etc....money goes to the kids, on top of what they would've charged to park there. The boat house bathroom theory is a very good one too...I could seeing it double as the (tidal) pool house (bathroom, shower, change room and covered terrace). When you look at the side of the boat house you can see that the internal area upstairs is very tiny almost too tiny for living quarters, but perfect for the pool house amenities. Having said that staff were given the very basics back then so a bed and bathroom might've been the standard....hey, I would take it with that kind of view! Like you said Pahonu..."More questions than answers"....we need Eve for this one!

[Pahonu]

I don't why I didn't think of it earlier. One of the two homes I gave you links for, the Adamson House in Malibu, has a bathhouse arranged very similarly. I've visited there several times. It is located next to the saltwater swimming pool and the famous Surfrider Beach, of Gidget fame. It has a covered terrace with a fireplace, and on either side, a small lounge/changing room and a bathroom. The two sides were for men and women, but the concept is identical. Of course the Adamson House also has a boathouse on the opposite side of the property adjacent to Malibu Lagoon, but it only has an uncovered terrace above. This just makes more sense than the Pahonu boathouse being a single isolated room and bath for a servant, especially when the gatehouse has five servant bedrooms. It also has direct access from the beach as we saw so many times on Magnum!

[Rembrandt's Girl]

Here's a glimpse into the life of Eve's mother, as well as a mention of their "country place" so I'm going to post this under the Pahonu thread as well as the Eve Anderson thread.

Eve's mother attended Lasell College (http://www.lasell.edu) just outside Boston, which at that time was an all girls school, and she started there at age 15. Upon graduation the excerpt below was printed in the school newspaper dated June 1932. Note that this is a year before the completion of Pahonu, so this leaves questions. Does this mean there was another house on their property while Pahonu was being built...or maybe their country home was somewhere else?...

"Best aloha," closes Eva Grossman's, ('27-
'29, '30-'31), recent report of herself to Mrs.
McDonald. "What am I doing? I can hear
you asking that question. Well, to be really
definite I truly couldn't say. As usual I am a
lady of leisure—attending meetings, parties,
etc. I am now in the throes of moving over to
our country place where we will spend the rest
of the summer as well as a few months before
it. I have been asked to join the Junior League
here in Honolulu, so for the past weeks have
attended lectures as every provisional member
is wont to do. Our exam comes shortly so
then I shall become, an actual active member.
This summer am giving two hours a week
for social service work which should prove
intensely interesting. This, of course, counts
for hours for the League Member. Have
just taken up kindergarten work, nutrition,
etc., which all have been extremely interesting
work." Busy and happy seems to sum up
the informal note of this far away "old girl."

[KENJI]

Great find RG!
A few guesses come to mind.
This letter was from June 1932, Pahonu could've been completed as early as Jan. 1933 (making it finished in 1933) which is only 6 months away so maybe the gatehouse was complete by then and they were staying there or the main house was complete, but the boathouse and gatehouse weren't done. Another theory Pahonu wasn't started until 1933 making the complete build take much longer (I'll guess late 1933) which opens the door to your theory that an old summer place may have existed before Pahonu was started. You also can't rule out another summer home located somewhere else. Guesses at best! I would love to know when they purchased the property as that might give us the clue we need to answer this mystery.

[Rembrandt's Girl]

Here's a glimpse into the life of Eve's mother, as well as a mention of their "country place" so I'm going to post this under the Pahonu thread as well as the Eve Anderson thread.

Eve's mother attended Lasell College (http://www.lasell.edu) just outside Boston, which at that time was an all girls school, and she started there at age 15. Upon graduation the excerpt below was printed in the school newspaper dated June 1932. Note that this is a year before the completion of Pahonu, so this leaves questions. Does this mean there was another house on their property while Pahonu was being built...or maybe their country home was somewhere else?...

"Best aloha," closes Eva Grossman's, ('27-
'29, '30-'31), recent report of herself to Mrs.
McDonald. "What am I doing? I can hear
you asking that question. Well, to be really
definite I truly couldn't say. As usual I am a
lady of leisure—attending meetings, parties,
etc. I am now in the throes of moving over to
our country place where we will spend the rest
of the summer as well as a few months before
it. I have been asked to join the Junior League
here in Honolulu, so for the past weeks have
attended lectures as every provisional member
is wont to do. Our exam comes shortly so
then I shall become, an actual active member.
This summer am giving two hours a week
for social service work which should prove
intensely interesting. This, of course, counts
for hours for the League Member. Have
just taken up kindergarten work, nutrition,
etc., which all have been extremely interesting
work." Busy and happy seems to sum up
the informal note of this far away "old girl."

More information on Eve's mother at Lasell is in the Eve Anderson thread.

[Rembrandt's Girl]

"I think the Pahonu fans will find this quite fascinating." That’s Higgins speaking, so this is an understatement.....are you sitting down? Today I found two maps of Pahonu with historical information we’ve never seen before.

According to the title of the image below, this map is dated 1949. From this we can see neighboring parcels as well as some faint parcel division lines on Pahonu’s parcel that look perhaps erased. In other words, Pahonu looks like it was a compilation of smaller parcels. This is further evidenced by the second map down below. We can also see the high water line and the estate’s grass edge line are both much further out than present day. The pier is shown as well.



This survey map of Waimanalo from 1916 shows what looks like multiple houses or parcels on Pahonu's parcel behind the turtle enclosure, probably confirming the assumption above. A very interesting side note: the surveyor, Walter E. Wall, is Ormond Wall’s (Eve’s step-grandfather’s) brother! (Thank you Kenji for confirming that!)

[KENJI]

Another great find RG!
It took the Shriners 18 yrs to buy and trade the 10 parcels of land that the Beach Club stands on today(1.25 acres). Pahonu could've consisted of possibly 6 parcels (maybe more) itself. I wonder if Pahonu was 3 acres and totally complete in 1933 or did it follow in the Shriner's footsteps and was slowly added to over a few more years. The same goes for the additional buildings that are spread out on the property i.e. the boathouse and gatehouse. Maybe the boathouse was built a few years later, lets say 1935 after buying that plot of land and then the gatehouse was built a year later when the plot was purchased. All guesses, but it did happen next door. I can`t stop looking at those maps. It`s great to see the pier location that we have also seen on HFO.

[Pahonu]

"I think the Pahonu fans will find this quite fascinating." That’s Higgins speaking, so this is an understatement.....are you sitting down? Today I found two maps of Pahonu with historical information we’ve never seen before.

According to the title of the image below, this map is dated 1949. From this we can see neighboring parcels as well as some faint parcel division lines on Pahonu’s parcel that look perhaps erased. In other words, Pahonu looks like it was a compilation of smaller parcels. This is further evidenced by the second map down below. We can also see the high water line and the estate’s grass edge line are both much further out than present day. The pier is shown as well.



This survey map of Waimanalo from 1916 shows what looks like multiple houses or parcels on Pahonu's parcel behind the turtle enclosure, probably confirming the assumption above. A very interesting side note: the surveyor, Walter E. Wall, is Ormond Wall’s (Eve’s step-grandfather’s) brother! (Thank you Kenji for confirming that!)

Fantastic RG!

[Rembrandt's Girl]

Today I found the approved Land Application Map for Pahonu in the name of Julia Grossman Wall, Eve's grandmother, which was approved on July 25, 1932! Interesting that it's in Julia's name and not one of her husbands', but perhaps she was willed the land from her first husband, Moses Grossman. Another possibility...Julia's father was a prominent and wealthy businessman in the railroad supplies industry in Chicago, so she could have been financially well-off because of this.

The Nohokula Grant parcel (where the boathouse is located) and the R.P. (Royal Patent) Pahanua parcel (approximately where the main house is located) appear to have both been land grants to individuals, "Nohokula" and "Pahanua". (https://www.waihona.com/previewDoc.asp? ... ocId=64386). I found a date for Pahanua's grant, which was September 1851.

To view this map clearly to see more great information, you can download the pdf by going to http://ags.hawaii.gov/survey/map-search/, then in the top box "Land Court Application No." type in 997.