From the mountain to the sea, our ahupua'a is that of Pālolo and is sometimes mentioned as that of Waikīkī. Extending from the ridge of Awaawaloa (2447 ft.) and Pu'u Lahipo (2621 ft.) and descending the ridges of Wa'ahila and Kalaepōhaku to the wetlands of Kapahulu and Waikīkī, and including the off-shore surf sites such as Kalehuawehe ("Populars"), and comprised of smaller sub-sections, this ahupua'a has its own rich collection of oral traditions, or mo'olelo, that speak of the significance of this area in earlier times.

Saint Louis School stands on a prominent land feature—“the rocky promontory”—in Hawaiian, Kalaepōhaku. Nineteenth-century records indicate that this section, or 'ili of the Pālolo 'ahupua'a was granted to High Chief Abner Kuhoʻoheiheipahu Pāki, father of Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop. Earlier traditions speak of this as a fertile and productive region, enough to sustain a population center during the time of the 16th-century ali'i 'aimoku or king of O'ahu, Kākuhihewa.

This roughly triangular wedge juts from the Ko'olau range, and is divided into three major segments: Wa'ahila running along the east wall of Mānoa valley, Kūmauna or Kaumana at the center summit, and Kalaepōhaku bordering Pālolo valley. The foot of the ridge is bordered by Pālolo stream where the ancient lava of the Kaimukī cone pushes against the older Ko'olau slopes.

In 1922, the Society of Mary--the Marianists--purchased this parcel of 204 acres from the Estate of Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop for $62,000. Construction of the first five main buildings of St. Louis College was completed by 1929, serving grades 1 through 12.

Heiau

Archaeological surveys and earlier accounts refer to several heiau in this area, as well as a number of petroglyphs, burial caves, and agricultural structures--the remnants of which still exist today. Mau‘oki, a healing heiau said to have housed a spring from where curative waters flowed, was one of seven sites of worship that existed in ancient ahupua‘a of Waikīkī. The location of this heiau is uncertain, though one possible location is where the SGT. Joseph Silva Rifle Range stands on the Saint Louis campus. Mau‘oki was an agricultural heiau dedicated to the god Lono, and early accounts indicate that menehune had transported rocks from Pu‘u Kawiwi at the head of Wai‘anae valley to constructed this three-sided structure that opened to the west. Around 1883, Mau‘oki was dismantled and its stones used for road construction. 

Petroglyphs

Evidence of early human habitation along the stream that borders the Kalaepōhaku campus is not limited to agricultural structures. A 1933 Bishop Museum survey by McAllister and Emory documented petroglyphs or ki‘i pohaku as having existed on a bluff above Pālolo stream on the ma uka bank just where the St. Louis Drive bridge stands today:  

Destroyed by a new bridge on the Palolo Stream. The figures of the two groups are indistinct and crude. The groups were about 25 yards apart; one group, according to Emory, were "eight human figures, all solid, triangular, bruised, except one linear"; the other group were "five figures, all solid, triangular, bruised, all careless of execution, but old and certainly the real thing."

http://data.bishopmuseum.org/HAS2/index.php?b=d&ID=9230&r=s

Pālolo Stream  

There were possibly extensive taro terraces along the banks of the Wai'oma'o, Pukele and Pālolo Streams. Pālolo Valley as having "extensive wet-taro lands" (Handy and Handy 1972:483). Pālolo Stream was "large and capable of irrigating terraces along its course on both sides...(and) there were terraces... all along Wai'oma'o and Pukele Streams, which join to form Pālolo Stream. Far back in these little valleys wild taro was found in abundance in 1935" (p.483). Pālolo Valley is the "clay valley"(Pukui et al. 1974:178). The clay sediment traps water which makes ideal growing conditions for taro.

The stream bends westward on its downward flow, just at the east end of the Saint Louis campus, looping around the base of the campus and diverted in the 1930s to join Mānoa Stream in a conjoined man-made channel to the Ala Wai.

To get an idea of how drastically the streams in the Waikīkī ahupua‘a have been altered in the past 100 years, see this map of Waikīkī streams and their original routes:  

http://totakeresponsibility.blogspot.com/2013/01/waikiki-streams.html.                   

Pālolo Stream originally headed ma kai approximately where the Public Storage building stands today. It joined the Pahoa Stream and then entered the sea where now Ohua Avenue intersects Kalākaua Avenue. Along with the Mānoa and Makiki Streams, these “three waters” or Nā Wai ‘Ekolu fed a vast complex of wetland taro fields and fishponds as early as the 15^th century A.D. 

Kalaepōhaku

A part of what makes history real is that it is not just in books or locked away in boxes. It surrounds us in our environment. It forms us and is also made over the span of our own lifetime. The lands which are known by the name, Kalaepōhaku, are actually part of the Ahupua‘a of Waikīkī. One native tenant, Kamakani, was granted the entire ‘ili (land division) of Kalaepōhaku as a Royal Patent Grant (No. 224), by Kamehameha III in 1850.

For hundreds of years prior to Kamakani receiving the land grant in fee-simple interest, people lived at, worked, and died in the Kalaepōhaku vicinity. As a result, several types of cultural features are known to have occurred on the land, and include, but are not limited to: house sites (platforms and walled enclosures); dryland agricultural terraces and mounds; lo‘i kalo (taro pond fields); walls; habitation and burial caves; trails; shrines and storied places.

The historical record leads one to believe that the naming of Kalaepōhaku  is associated with supernatural beings of various body forms. Most notably, traditions of mo‘o, beings who could take human and “lizard-like” water forms (mo‘o were fierce protectors of water features). While there is apparently no direct account which has survived the passing of time, it appears that the place name, Kalaepōhaku, is tied to the residence of a “mo‘o” who would at times rest upon the rocky promontory which is the source of the name, “The-stone-point.” Piliamo‘o, Pāhoa, and Kalaepōhakuokamo‘o are key names in this history.

One would expect, that in undertaking a level of documentary research, that traditions of this place would be uncovered, while at the same time, historical accounts leading up to the establishment of  Saint Louis at this site would be re-discovered. An oral historical component would also help fill in the gaps where written sources have been left unpenned.

Periodic exercises in cultural anthropology and natural history—where students work in the field around the school—would enrich the student experience, and expose them to a sense of place that would strengthen their connection to Saint Louis, and their island home.

From Cultural Historian Kumu Kepā Maly, November 10, 2010

Ahupua‘a o Pālolo weebly and map: https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/viewer?mid=1HTJGWFLt8ivnLAVcOIShYMfpuuE&ll=21.318096285741465%2C-157.78774573969466&z=15