Brown, Francis E. Ii, House

The Francis E. Ii Brown beach residence is significant as an excellent example of a Kona coast beach cottage complex of the 1920s. It is also significant for its potential to yield information about Hawaii's past, and its associations with Francis H.Ii Brown, a prominent sportsman, and politician.

The Francis H. Ii Brown beach residence is a compound of a size and type probably not found anywhere else in Hawaii. Present on the site are archaeological remains of ancient Hawaiians, specimens of rare native flora, natural ponds supporting a variety of fish, and buildings constructed of local lava rock, quarried at the site.

The presence of water, in the form of springs and fishponds, at Keawaiki Bay made it an area where pre-contact Hawaiians could live along an otherwise arid Kona coast. Still visible today are various remnants of these ancient people, including part of a heiau that Dr. Kenneth Emory of the Bishop Museum conjectures to be Lono-kai, most of which was destroyed by the lava flow of 1859. A study of these sites is likely to yield more information on human inhabitation of this area during pre-contact times.

Keawaiki's modern development is due to Francis H. Ii Brown [1892-1976]. Francis Brown was one-half Hawaiian and one-half Caucasian, and a well-known personality for many decades in Hawaii. The grandson of the Kingdom of Hawaii's Supreme Court Judge John Ii, Brown was born with a silver spoon in his mouth and over a million dollars in his pocket. During World War I he served as an ambulance driver in France and won the Croix de Guere. He was an avid sportsman, he was "a legend in the annals of Hawaii's sports history." Proficient in swimming, tennis, baseball, and polo, he excelled at golf. Nine times he won the Hawaiian Amateur championship (the Manoa Cup). He also won the Japan Amateur championship in 1929 and the California Amateur championship in 1930. In 1924 he shot a 67 at Scotland's St. Andrews, setting a course record. He also established a course record at Pebble Beach, shooting a 64 in 1927.

Besides his athletic accomplishments, Brown, a lifelong Republican, also had a long distinguished career in Hawaii's legislature. In 1924 he was elected to the Territorial House of Representatives, and in 1927 he was elected to the Territorial Senate. He continuously held his Oahu seat in the Senate until the conclusion of the 1947 session, with the exception of the 1935-36 session, when an automobile accident hampered his activity.

Brown primarily lived on Oahu but spent much of his time at this beach retreat at Keawaiki. He built a number of homes on Oahu, of which one 1920 Spanish Mission-style house on Pacific Heights still remains. Brown purchased the five parcels of land that make up Keawaiki from the Territory of Hawaii, between 1926 and 1931. The buildings were constructed in the late 1920s. Their masonry exhibits a high degree of craftsmanship and is the product of local stone masons, most likely of Japanese ancestry. The remoteness of the site, which could only be reached by boat until 1974, made the transportation of building materials difficult and probably contributed to the decision to use lava rock which was quarried on the property.

The Brown Beach residence, once completed, functioned as a vacation home for Francis and his guests. During the 1920s and 1930s, it was the scene of many festive parties, with numerous members of Hawaii's high society in attendance. A large staff lived on the property to attend to the Browns' needs and to care for the many animals that were kept in large pens on the property. The compound functioned in this manner until 1941 when World War II forced its abandonment. Brown then turned his attention to other properties, and after World War II relocated to the Mainland.

Both the naturally occurring features of the location and the size and construction of the compound, as well as its associations with a famous personality of the 1920s and 1930s, make this property a significant site.