The Puunēnē School, also known as Puunene School, is a historic school building in the community of
Puunēnē in the central part of
Maui
Maui (; Hawaiian language, Hawaiian: ) is the second largest island in the Hawaiian archipelago, at 727.2 square miles (1,883 km2). It is the List of islands of the United States by area, 17th-largest in the United States. Maui is one of ...
,
Hawaii
Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...
, United States. Built in 1922 by the Hawaiian Commercial and Sugar Company (a division of
Alexander & Baldwin
Alexander & Baldwin, Inc. is an American company that was once part of the Big Five companies in territorial Hawaii. The company currently operates businesses in real estate, land operations, and materials and construction. It was also the last ...
), which
ran the community, it was erected on of land donated by the company in 1913. Upon completion, it replaced an earlier four-room school on the site that was built to hold 350 students. The
Classical Revival
Neoclassicism, also spelled Neo-classicism, emerged as a Western cultural movement in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiquity. Neoclassic ...
1922 two-story concrete building became Maui's largest elementary school with about 1000 students. In the 1950s the area went into decline, and the building was used for special education classes. In 1979 it became an administrative annex for the
Department of Education
An education ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for education. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of Education, Department of Education, and Ministry of Pub ...
. It was added to the
National Register of Historic Places listings in Hawaii
This is a list of properties and historic districts in Hawaii listed on the National Register of Historic Places. More than 370 listings appear on all but one of Hawaii's main islands (Niihau being the exception) and the Northwestern Islands, a ...
on August 22, 2000.
In 1937 Puunene School science teacher
Soichi Sakamoto
Soichi Sakamoto (, January 23, 1906 – August 2, 1997) was a Hall-of-Fame American swimming coach for the Hawaii Swim Club from 1946 through 1981, the University of Hawaii from 1946 through 1961 and the U.S. Olympic team in 1952 and 1956. He p ...
began training boys in a Three Year Swim Club to compete in the
1940 Summer Olympics
The 1940 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XII Olympiad, was a planned international multi-sport event scheduled to have been held from 21 September to 6 October 1940, in Tokyo City, Japan, and later rescheduled for 20 July t ...
, which were originally scheduled to be held in
Tokyo, Japan
Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...
. Jose Balmores,
Keo Nakama, "Bunny" Nakama,
"Halo" Hirose, and
Bill Smith swam 50-yd sprints against the 15 mph current (much clearer in those days) and went on to compete nationally but were never able to participate in the canceled 1940 and 1944 Olympics. However, Smith was finally able to win gold on the 400- and 800-meter relay team in the 1948 Olympics.
The coach and team were described in a 2015 book.
References
School buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Hawaii
Schools in Maui
School buildings completed in 1922
National Register of Historic Places in Maui County, Hawaii
1922 establishments in Hawaii
Hawaii Register of Historic Places
Alexander & Baldwin
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