George Lycurgus
Encyclopedia
George Lycurgus was a Greek American
businessman who played an influential role in the early tourist industry of Hawaii
. He ran afoul of the government of the Republic of Hawaii
and was accused of treason. Later he was instrumental in the development of the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory
and Hawaii Volcanoes National Park
.
). In 1877 he traveled in steerage class to New York, New York, and worked his way across the country.
A relative convinced him to join a wholesale fruit business trading between Hawaii and California
in 1881. In San Francisco, California
he shipped California produce and wine to his cousin in Honolulu, who shipped Hawaiian bananas to the mainland. He became friends with Claus Spreckels
, whose family owned the Oceanic Steamship Company and a sugar cane business in Hawaii.
In 1889 he was supervising shipment being loaded at the docks, when some of the Spreckels family invited him on board for a poker game. By the time he noticed, the ship was on its way across the Pacific. He spent only a week in Hawaii, but must have enjoyed the stay, since he took more trips and spent more time on the islands.
In 1892 he sent for his nephew Demosthenes Lycurgus, who would help him manage his Hawaiian enterprises. Along with other recent immigrants, he formed the Pearl City Fruit Company. Their competition was the Hawaiian Fruit and Packing Company, owned by established descendants of American missionaries such as Lorrin A. Thurston
, who was also a powerful politician. Eventually he would sell his restaurant in San Francisco and move to the islands.
Lycurgus leased the small guest house of Allen Herbert in 1893 on Waikīkī beach
in Honolulu. He expanded it and renamed it the "Sans Souci" (French for "without care") for the Sanssouci
Palace in Potsdam
. It became one of the first beach resorts and the area at coordinates 21°15′49"N 157°49′17"W is still called "Sans Souci Beach". Celebrities such as Robert Lewis Stevenson stayed there on his second trip later that year, and it became a popular destination for tourists from the mainland.
In 1894 Lycurgus made his first trip to the Kīlauea
volcano with Admiral Royal R. Ingersoll
, sailing to Hilo aboard the USS Philadelphia. The volcano impressed him and he took note of the future possible business opportunities.
A friendship had evolved between Lycurgus and the Hawaiian royal Kalākaua
family, who were regulars at his resorts. This earned him the nickname "Duke of Sparta". Despite being a commoner, he felt more comfortable with monarchy than the Americans.
In 1893, after the death of Kalākaua, Thurston and other Americans led the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii and declared a Republic of Hawaii
, hoping to join the United States of America. The new government, controlled by conservative missionaries, fined Lycurgus for selling liquor at his resort. Lycurgus hired a band of Hawaiians who played music honoring Queen Liliuokalani instead of the Star Spangled Banner.
After the failed 1895 counter-revolution
, he was accused of smuggling guns to the Royalists. Several leaders had meetings in the Sans Souci hotel. By January 20 the leaders were all captured. Lycurgus was arrested, charged with treason, spent 52 days in jail, but was never tried.
By 1898, the Spanish American War had increased American interest in the Pacific. He entertained press correspondents on their way to the Philippines
at his Sans Souci hotel. Hawaii was annexed as a territory of the United States that year and the practical Lycurgus applied for American citizenship.
He opened a restaurant called the Union Grill in Honolulu in 1901 and would hold "Jailbirds of 1895" nights which were not popular with the new government. He phased out of the politics of Honolulu over the next few years. Lycurgus invested in a logging venture in 1907, and bought the Hilo Hotel from John D. Spreckels
in 1908.
In 1903, when he returned to Greece to visit his mother, he met and married Athena Geracimos from Sparta, the second of nine children. She was probably the first Greek woman in Hawaii.
hotel on the more remote Big Island of Hawaii
. His nephew Demosthenes always introduced him as "Uncle George" to the guests, which earned him his new nickname.
Kīlauea had been inactive for almost a year, but Lycurgus had other enterprises to keep himself afloat. Two months after the Lycurguses acquired the business, the volcano erupted.
He eventually made peace with Lorrin Thurston, who worked with him for ten years, starting in 1906, to have the volcano area made into Hawaii Volcanoes National Park
. However, the Lycurgus family kept a shrine to deposed Queen Liliuokalani at the Volcano House and related the legends of Ancient Hawaii
to the visitors. Prayers were made to the fire goddess Pele, said to live in Kīlauea, to provide spectacular eruptions. They were better for business.
In January 1912, geologist Thomas Jagger
arrived to investigate the volcano. The Lycurgus family raised money to build a small building next to the hotel for scientific instruments. By February 1912 construction was begun on the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory
. Jaggar resided there the next 28 years, often giving scientific talks to guests at the hotel.
While visiting Greece in 1914, World War I
prevented him from returning. In 1919, Demosthenes Lycurgus traveled to Athens to marry Maria Yatrakos, but died of influenza
within a week of his wedding in the 1918 flu pandemic. Finally George was able to return to Hawaii in 1920 with his sister-in-law Poppy Detor.
In 1921 George Lycurgus sold the Volcano House and moved to Hilo, Hawaii. The Inter-Island Steam Navigation Company
bought the property and invested $150,000 into expanding it.
In 1932 during the Great Depression
the Inter-Island Steam Navigation Company was going bankrupt after expanding the Volcano House to 115 rooms. Lycurgus bought it back for $300 in a receivership sale, but very few guests showed up until an eruption in 1934. He started the tradition of tossing gin bottles into the volcano, a practice certainly not approved by park officials.
In 1937 his wife Athena died of cancer in Hilo. A fire destroyed the hotel in 1940, ironically from a kitchen oil burner, not volcanic lava. Only a few artifacts, such as a koa
wood piano were saved. Embers from the fire were taken to the 1877 Volcano House building to claim the fireplace had burned continuously. The old structure was used again for guests; it now houses the Volcano Art Center.
At the age of 81, he traveled to Washington, D.C.
and convinced influential friends, many of whom (including Franklin D. Roosevelt
) had stayed in the Volcano House, to assign the Civilian Conservation Corps
to construct a park headquarters building farther back from the cliff. That allowed him to build a more modern hotel at the former Hawaiian Volcano Observatory site. He reopened the new Volcano House (designed by Charles William Dickey
) by November 1941.
After another eruption in 1952, at the age of 93, he arranged a publicity stunt involving riding a horse to the rim of the erupting vent and tossing in his ceremonial bottle of gin. Despite the efforts of park officials, the event went off as planned, pleasing the spectators and the press. The Volcano House was renovated and expanded again in 1953. He died in 1960 at the age of 101.
Greek American
Greek Americans are Americans of Greek descent also described as Hellenic descent. According to the 2007 U.S. Census Bureau estimation, there were 1,380,088 people of Greek ancestry in the United States, while the State Department mentions that around 3,000,000 Americans claim to be of Greek descent...
businessman who played an influential role in the early tourist industry of Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
. He ran afoul of the government of the Republic of Hawaii
Republic of Hawaii
The Republic of Hawaii was the formal name of the government that controlled Hawaii from 1894 to 1898 when it was run as a republic. The republic period occurred between the administration of the Provisional Government of Hawaii which ended on July 4, 1894 and the adoption of the Newlands...
and was accused of treason. Later he was instrumental in the development of the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory
Hawaiian Volcano Observatory
The Hawaiian Volcano Observatory is a volcano observatory located at Uwekahuna Bluff on the rim of Kīlauea Caldera on the Island of Hawaii. The observatory monitors four active Hawaiian volcanoes: Kīlauea, Mauna Loa, Hualālai, and Haleakalā...
and Hawaii Volcanoes National Park
Hawaii Volcanoes National Park
Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, established in 1916, is a United States National Park located in the U.S. State of Hawaii on the island of Hawaii. It encompasses two active volcanoes: Kīlauea, one of the world's most active volcanoes, and Mauna Loa, the world's most massive volcano...
.
Early life
He was born in 1858 in Vasara (near Sparta, GreeceSparti (municipality)
Sparti is a municipality of Laconia, Greece. It lies at the site of ancient Sparta. The population in 2001 was 38,079, of whom 15,828 lived in the town itself.-History:...
). In 1877 he traveled in steerage class to New York, New York, and worked his way across the country.
A relative convinced him to join a wholesale fruit business trading between Hawaii and California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
in 1881. In San Francisco, California
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
he shipped California produce and wine to his cousin in Honolulu, who shipped Hawaiian bananas to the mainland. He became friends with Claus Spreckels
Claus Spreckels
Claus Spreckels, formally Adolph Claus J. Spreckels , , was a major industrialist in Hawai'i during the kingdom, republican and territorial periods of the islands' history...
, whose family owned the Oceanic Steamship Company and a sugar cane business in Hawaii.
In 1889 he was supervising shipment being loaded at the docks, when some of the Spreckels family invited him on board for a poker game. By the time he noticed, the ship was on its way across the Pacific. He spent only a week in Hawaii, but must have enjoyed the stay, since he took more trips and spent more time on the islands.
In 1892 he sent for his nephew Demosthenes Lycurgus, who would help him manage his Hawaiian enterprises. Along with other recent immigrants, he formed the Pearl City Fruit Company. Their competition was the Hawaiian Fruit and Packing Company, owned by established descendants of American missionaries such as Lorrin A. Thurston
Lorrin A. Thurston
Lorrin Andrews Thurston was a lawyer, politician, and businessman born and raised in the Kingdom of Hawaii. The grandson of two of the first Christian missionaries to Hawaii, Thurston played a prominent role in the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom that replaced Queen Liliuokalani with the...
, who was also a powerful politician. Eventually he would sell his restaurant in San Francisco and move to the islands.
Political miscalculation
Waikiki
Waikiki is a neighborhood of Honolulu, in the City and County of Honolulu, on the south shore of the island of Oahu, in Hawaii. Waikiki Beach is the shoreline fronting Waikīkī....
in Honolulu. He expanded it and renamed it the "Sans Souci" (French for "without care") for the Sanssouci
Sanssouci
Sanssouci is the name of the former summer palace of Frederick the Great, King of Prussia, in Potsdam, near Berlin. It is often counted among the German rivals of Versailles. While Sanssouci is in the more intimate Rococo style and is far smaller than its French Baroque counterpart, it too is...
Palace in Potsdam
Potsdam
Potsdam is the capital city of the German federal state of Brandenburg and part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. It is situated on the River Havel, southwest of Berlin city centre....
. It became one of the first beach resorts and the area at coordinates 21°15′49"N 157°49′17"W is still called "Sans Souci Beach". Celebrities such as Robert Lewis Stevenson stayed there on his second trip later that year, and it became a popular destination for tourists from the mainland.
In 1894 Lycurgus made his first trip to the Kīlauea
Kilauea
Kīlauea is a volcano in the Hawaiian Islands, and one of five shield volcanoes that together form the island of Hawaii. Kīlauea means "spewing" or "much spreading" in the Hawaiian language, referring to its frequent outpouring of lava. The Puu Ōō cone has been continuously erupting in the eastern...
volcano with Admiral Royal R. Ingersoll
Royal R. Ingersoll
Rear Admiral Royal Rodney Ingersoll was a United States Navy officer whose career extended from the late 1860s through World War I.-Biography:...
, sailing to Hilo aboard the USS Philadelphia. The volcano impressed him and he took note of the future possible business opportunities.
A friendship had evolved between Lycurgus and the Hawaiian royal Kalākaua
Kalakaua
Kalākaua, born David Laamea Kamanakapuu Mahinulani Nalaiaehuokalani Lumialani Kalākaua and sometimes called The Merrie Monarch , was the last reigning king of the Kingdom of Hawaii...
family, who were regulars at his resorts. This earned him the nickname "Duke of Sparta". Despite being a commoner, he felt more comfortable with monarchy than the Americans.
In 1893, after the death of Kalākaua, Thurston and other Americans led the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii and declared a Republic of Hawaii
Republic of Hawaii
The Republic of Hawaii was the formal name of the government that controlled Hawaii from 1894 to 1898 when it was run as a republic. The republic period occurred between the administration of the Provisional Government of Hawaii which ended on July 4, 1894 and the adoption of the Newlands...
, hoping to join the United States of America. The new government, controlled by conservative missionaries, fined Lycurgus for selling liquor at his resort. Lycurgus hired a band of Hawaiians who played music honoring Queen Liliuokalani instead of the Star Spangled Banner.
After the failed 1895 counter-revolution
1895 Counter-Revolution in Hawaii
The 1895 Counter-revolution in Hawaii was a brief war from January 6 to January 9, 1895, that consisted of three battles on the island of Oahu, Hawaii...
, he was accused of smuggling guns to the Royalists. Several leaders had meetings in the Sans Souci hotel. By January 20 the leaders were all captured. Lycurgus was arrested, charged with treason, spent 52 days in jail, but was never tried.
By 1898, the Spanish American War had increased American interest in the Pacific. He entertained press correspondents on their way to the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
at his Sans Souci hotel. Hawaii was annexed as a territory of the United States that year and the practical Lycurgus applied for American citizenship.
He opened a restaurant called the Union Grill in Honolulu in 1901 and would hold "Jailbirds of 1895" nights which were not popular with the new government. He phased out of the politics of Honolulu over the next few years. Lycurgus invested in a logging venture in 1907, and bought the Hilo Hotel from John D. Spreckels
John D. Spreckels
John Diedrich Spreckels , the son of German-American industrialist Claus Spreckels, founded a transportation and real estate empire in San Diego, California in the late 19th and early 20th centuries...
in 1908.
In 1903, when he returned to Greece to visit his mother, he met and married Athena Geracimos from Sparta, the second of nine children. She was probably the first Greek woman in Hawaii.
Volcano House
In December 1904, George and Demosthenes Lycurgus became principal stockholders of the Volcano House Company and took over the management of the Volcano HouseVolcano House
Volcano House is the name of a series of historic hotels built at the edge of the Kīlauea volcano, within the grounds of Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park on the Island of Hawai'i. The original 1877 building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and now houses the Volcano Art Center...
hotel on the more remote Big Island of Hawaii
Hawaii (island)
The Island of Hawaii, also called the Big Island or Hawaii Island , is a volcanic island in the North Pacific Ocean...
. His nephew Demosthenes always introduced him as "Uncle George" to the guests, which earned him his new nickname.
Kīlauea had been inactive for almost a year, but Lycurgus had other enterprises to keep himself afloat. Two months after the Lycurguses acquired the business, the volcano erupted.
He eventually made peace with Lorrin Thurston, who worked with him for ten years, starting in 1906, to have the volcano area made into Hawaii Volcanoes National Park
Hawaii Volcanoes National Park
Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, established in 1916, is a United States National Park located in the U.S. State of Hawaii on the island of Hawaii. It encompasses two active volcanoes: Kīlauea, one of the world's most active volcanoes, and Mauna Loa, the world's most massive volcano...
. However, the Lycurgus family kept a shrine to deposed Queen Liliuokalani at the Volcano House and related the legends of Ancient Hawaii
Ancient Hawaii
Ancient Hawaii refers to the period of Hawaiian human history preceding the unification of the Kingdom of Hawaii by Kamehameha the Great in 1810. After being first settled by Polynesian long-distance navigators sometime between AD 300–800, a unique culture developed. Diversified agroforestry and...
to the visitors. Prayers were made to the fire goddess Pele, said to live in Kīlauea, to provide spectacular eruptions. They were better for business.
In January 1912, geologist Thomas Jagger
Thomas Jagger
Tommy Jagger is a fictional character in the DC Universe. He first appeared in Checkmate Volume 2 #1, and was created by Greg Rucka and Jesus Saiz.-Fictional character biography:...
arrived to investigate the volcano. The Lycurgus family raised money to build a small building next to the hotel for scientific instruments. By February 1912 construction was begun on the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory
Hawaiian Volcano Observatory
The Hawaiian Volcano Observatory is a volcano observatory located at Uwekahuna Bluff on the rim of Kīlauea Caldera on the Island of Hawaii. The observatory monitors four active Hawaiian volcanoes: Kīlauea, Mauna Loa, Hualālai, and Haleakalā...
. Jaggar resided there the next 28 years, often giving scientific talks to guests at the hotel.
While visiting Greece in 1914, World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
prevented him from returning. In 1919, Demosthenes Lycurgus traveled to Athens to marry Maria Yatrakos, but died of influenza
Influenza
Influenza, commonly referred to as the flu, is an infectious disease caused by RNA viruses of the family Orthomyxoviridae , that affects birds and mammals...
within a week of his wedding in the 1918 flu pandemic. Finally George was able to return to Hawaii in 1920 with his sister-in-law Poppy Detor.
In 1921 George Lycurgus sold the Volcano House and moved to Hilo, Hawaii. The Inter-Island Steam Navigation Company
Inter-Island Steam Navigation Company
Inter-Island Steam Navigation Company was the company headquartered in Honolulu that ran steam boat service between Hawaiian cities from 1883 until 1947. On January 30, 1929 company founded the subsidiary company Inter-Island Airways that was later renamed to Hawaiian Airlines...
bought the property and invested $150,000 into expanding it.
In 1932 during the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
the Inter-Island Steam Navigation Company was going bankrupt after expanding the Volcano House to 115 rooms. Lycurgus bought it back for $300 in a receivership sale, but very few guests showed up until an eruption in 1934. He started the tradition of tossing gin bottles into the volcano, a practice certainly not approved by park officials.
In 1937 his wife Athena died of cancer in Hilo. A fire destroyed the hotel in 1940, ironically from a kitchen oil burner, not volcanic lava. Only a few artifacts, such as a koa
Koa
Acacia koa is a species of flowering tree in the pea family, Fabaceae. It is endemic to the Hawaiian Islands, where it is the second most common tree. The highest populations are on Hawaii, Maui and Oahu...
wood piano were saved. Embers from the fire were taken to the 1877 Volcano House building to claim the fireplace had burned continuously. The old structure was used again for guests; it now houses the Volcano Art Center.
At the age of 81, he traveled to Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
and convinced influential friends, many of whom (including Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
) had stayed in the Volcano House, to assign the Civilian Conservation Corps
Civilian Conservation Corps
The Civilian Conservation Corps was a public work relief program that operated from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men from relief families, ages 18–25. A part of the New Deal of President Franklin D...
to construct a park headquarters building farther back from the cliff. That allowed him to build a more modern hotel at the former Hawaiian Volcano Observatory site. He reopened the new Volcano House (designed by Charles William Dickey
Charles William Dickey
Charles William “C.W.” Dickey was an American architect famous for developing a distinctive style of Hawaiian architecture...
) by November 1941.
After another eruption in 1952, at the age of 93, he arranged a publicity stunt involving riding a horse to the rim of the erupting vent and tossing in his ceremonial bottle of gin. Despite the efforts of park officials, the event went off as planned, pleasing the spectators and the press. The Volcano House was renovated and expanded again in 1953. He died in 1960 at the age of 101.