Makaweli Community Hall, which was constructed in 1917 on the site now occupied by the Kaumakani Recreation Center, was for many years a mecca for indoor sports on Kaua‘i’s Westside.
During Kaua‘i’s sugar plantation basketball league heyday of the 1920s, indoor basketball games were played at Makaweli Hall by competing plantation men’s teams from Waimea, Makaweli, Lihu‘e and Kapa‘a.
A team from Kaua‘i High School also competed in this senior league, since Kaua‘i High’s basketball team had no local scholastic competition. Waimea High School wasn’t established until 1936 and Kapa‘a High School dates from 1941.
Willie Opio was the tallest basketball player in those days at 6 feet 4 inches.
Another was Douglas Magers, who later taught at Waimea High School before becoming Rev. Magers at the Lihu‘e Union Church, now Lihu‘e United Church.
Team rosters were filled with local surnames like Jardin, Aguiar, Rodrigues, Ferreiro, Lizama, Souza, Victorino, Dias, Panui, Palama, Lydgate, Camara, Montgomery, Nagai, Ishii, Malina, Arakawa and Seto.
Makaweli Hall also served as the training headquarters of the Makaweli boxing team during the 1920s and 1930s, regarded as the “Golden Age” of boxing on Kaua‘i.
Among the outstanding amateur Makaweli boxers of that era were Jose Omakanim, Robert Riola, Benny Mactagone, Placido Valenciano and Johnny Dias.
Kaua‘i professional boxers of the time, such as Little Pancho, Yasu Yasutake, Lefty Kondo, Kid Ventura, Kid Short, Filipe Papac and Kapa‘a’s Javellana brothers, earned $20 for winning a preliminary bout and $10 for losing. The purse for a main event could be as high $100 at a time when a dollar was considered good money.
Before Hanapepe’s Aloha Theater and the Waimea Theater were built in the 1930s, Westsiders would travel to Makaweli Hall to see the weekly movies.
In May 1974 the dilapidated Makaweli Community Hall was razed.
