The Okumura Building

Building 15

Constructed in 1905 by Matsuichi Okumura, the Okumura building is the only two-story building from the plantation era surviving today in Old Kōloa Town. The Okumura family lived above the store. The general store downstairs dealt in general merchandise, chicken feed, dry goods, fertilizer, crop seeds, candies, and other foods. The Okumuras provided goods for workers at the Lāwa‘i pineapple cannery who were their major customers.

Constructed in 1905 by Matsuichi Okumura, the Okumura building is the only two-story building from the plantation era surviving today in Old Kōloa Town. The Okumura family lived above the store. The general store downstairs dealt in general merchandise, chicken feed, dry goods, fertilizer, crop seeds, candies, and other foods. The Okumuras provided goods for workers at the Lāwa‘i pineapple cannery who were their major customers. Mr. Okumura went from family to family to take orders and later delivered the purchases to the workers’ camp houses. They stayed open late to be ready for the pineapple workers when they left their second shift jobs. Most of the orders were charged and paid for later. The entire Okumura family worked at the store, including the young children who sometimes had to help their parents guard against petty theft. The Okumuras regularly extended credit to those who couldn’t pay and three years after the store closed in the late 1950s, all the customers had loyally paid back their debts to the store.

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