Exploring Historic Wailuku (Small Town) - Softcover

George Engebretson

9780963115430: Exploring Historic Wailuku (Small Town)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 096311543X ISBN 13: 9780963115430

Publisher: Watermark Publishing, 2004

Saloons and schoolhouses. Horseless carriages and sugar cane trains. Bustling streets lined with mom-and-pop stores. Discover the story of old Wailuku town with this handy site-by-site guide, featuring 100 photographs of people, businesses, schools, churches, homes and public buildings. Many of these photos, dating from the 1870s through the 1960s, are previously unpublished family pictures revealing rare vignettes of this historic Maui town. Each photo is keyed to a location on a detailed foldout map, offering a unique, hands-on way to explore Wailuku's rich history. Foreword by Maui County Mayor Kimo Apana.

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About the Author:

Honolulu native George Engebretson writes and publishes books about Hawaii.

Review:

These slim volumes in the "Small Town Series Maui" aren't so much written as assembled by the respective authors, but that doesn't mean they aren't useful works. They are particularly for those visiting these locations for the first times, or for regulars wanting to know more about local history.

Each book is essentially an annotated photo album, and the casual nature of many of the images adds to that impression. Many are family snapshots.

The captions, however, place the images in historic and cultural contexts. Even more useful, the back cover of each volume is a fold-out (and vastly simplified) "walking map," so that the book is a kind of field guide.

There are many, many "then and now" photos so it's up to you to compare and contrast, confirming this is a book to be used on-site. The authors also chose colorful bits of oral history, and the volumes are well-printed and designed. If you're going to these locations, the books are recommended. And, oh, by the way, "historic" takes us into the 1970s. --Burl Burlingame, "Honolulu Star-Bulletin" (copyright 2002)

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