Clifford and Violet Spitzer's Honolulu Property

While visiting Honolulu in 1993, my family and I drove our rental car to the neighborhood of Manoa Valley in search of property once owned by Clifford and Violet Spitzer. Armed with the address of 2424 Sonoma Street, we followed family instructions and looked for 100 stairs that ascend a hill from the street level (if the stairs still exist). Sonoma Street is chopped in pieces, and we find the section we are looking for off the cross street of Aleo, historically Adolf Street. Instead of stairs, we find a driveway going up the hill.

The house was gone at the top of the driveway, but there were sensational views from the lot that was higher in elevation than any nearby property. An old lava stone retaining wall shored up the back of the property with a new reinforced concrete retaining wall propping up the land at the front. 

The lot where Clifford and Violet Spitzer's house once stood.

Another lot photo.

View from the lot.

Zoom view from the lot.

We checked our notes of childhood memories provided by a daughter of Clifford and Violet. The property formerly had three levels. The garage and a turnaround driveway were at street level. Part way to the house level via the 100 stairs was a play area for the two daughters of Clifford and Violet. A playhouse, swing, sandbox, terrace, and breadfruit tree filled up that middle level. Those were gone in 1993, and now a house existed on the middle level with the address 2428 Sonoma Street. On the lower and upper levels of the property, the mango trees were gone. 

Clifford and daughter

Clifford and daughter

Daughters of Clifford and Violet

Daughters of Clifford and Violet Spitzer

We talked to the residents at 2428 Sonoma Street, who had lived there four years. They said the driveway was about 15-20 years old. They were buying the top lot and had plans drawn up to build a house and pool. They had recently cleared the overgrowth from the lot. The owners they were buying from were siblings who had inherited the property from their parents. The parents had rented out the property in the 1960's and 1970's. In the early 1970's, a fire destroyed the house and the owners decided not to rebuild.

In 1993, there was another house on the property at 2418 Sonoma Street where the garage used to be. We learned it was once a duplex that was remodeled into a single home with a cottage built behind it.

The original one-story, wood-shingled house owned by Clifford and Violet was built in the 1920's and designed by Clifford's brother-in-law, Herbert Cohen, who later changed his name to Herbert Cayton. At some point in time, a second story was added. A separate cottage and laundry room sat to the left side of the house, and a metal picket fence secured the front of the upper level.

In the 1930 census return, two Japanese girls named Muriel and Mildred, both aged 20, lived with the family as servants. No servants were shown as living with them in 1940 census.

Six months after the attack at Pearl Harbor (December 7, 1941) and during the Battle of Midway (June 4-7, 1942), Violet and her daughters left Hawaii. No passenger records exist for the first half of June, 1942, but I found Clifford Spitzer's departure on a Pan Am flight on June 25, 1942. 

One daughter says they sold the Honolulu house for around $35,000 (inflation calculation shows $486,000 as its value today). The other daughter thinks it might be closer to half that amount. Clifford Spitzer sold the Hub Clothing House and became its buyer. The family moved to New York City.

What happened to the property? The video below shows a lovely house with a pool for sale that was sold in 2013 for $2,425,000. 

References:

Video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Q2DFDva5yg.