Many of us know someone who worked at the pineapple cannery in Iwilei, built in 1907. At its start, pineapple preparation was done by hand, with 10-15 pineapples being processed per minute. With the invention of the Ginaca machine, production increased to about 100 pineapples per minute, peeling, coring, and slicing the tropical fruit for canning.
As trimmers, packers, and can feeders went about their workday, the plant was open to tours, where guests could view workers and machines process canned pineapples. Aside from being one of O‘ahu’s most popular tourist attractions, the pineapple cannery was also one of the island’s largest employers.
During its busiest years, the cannery employed up to 3,000 full-time employees and added up to 4,000 seasonal employees. The seasonal hires were mostly high school and college students looking to make some extra money during the busy summer harvest months. I still have family members who tell stories about working at the cannery.
Because the cannery needed a water tower, the famous giant pineapple was constructed in 1927. The 40-foot fruit stood atop a 100-foot steel tower on the Hawaiian Pineapple Company building and held 100,000 gallons of water. Its unusual design made it one of Honolulu’s most recognizable industrial landmarks. People today still reminisce about that giant pineapple.
The Hawaiian Pineapple Company became Dole Corporation in 1961, following its merger with Castle & Cooke, and the processing plant in Iwilei became Dole Cannery.
While pineapple plantations and canneries were a major part of Hawai‘i’s economy, rising labor and production costs made it increasingly difficult to compete with overseas producers. As a result, the industry suffered major declines, eventually leading to the closure of Dole Cannery in December 1992. Then, in October 1993, the familiar landmark for generations of O‘ahu residents, the iconic pineapple water tower, was dismantled.
Since the closure of the cannery, the buildings have been repurposed as movie theaters, business offices, restaurants, shops, and radio stations. When you walk through the buildings, you’re met with old photos on the walls of the cannery and some of its workers. Although the buildings have been refurbished, the past seems to pop up quite often. Nostalgia for days long past often mixes with the eerie feeling of being watched.
Employees who work there, including a few DJs at the radio stations, have said they often see strange people standing in the halls, but when they stop and focus on the person, they vanish! Dozens of people have shared their own chicken skin experiences when visiting Dole Cannery. Many who work in the building claim to have seen people dressed in period clothing walking in the halls and through walls. One woman shared that she often felt someone playing with her hair, even though she was the only one in the office.
A woman named Denise emailed us with an interesting story. She said that she had never put much stock in stories about hauntings. They were interesting, certainly, but they always seemed to happen to someone else — usually a friend of a friend. That changed one evening when she accompanied her sister to pick up her paycheck.
Her sister stopped to talk with a coworker, so Denise decided to use the restroom. While inside the stall, there was a loud slamming noise, like someone banging on the paper towel dispenser.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Startled, she stayed where she was, waiting to hear footsteps or the restroom door open. She wanted some indication that whoever was making the noise had left. But there was nothing. No footsteps. No door. No sound at all. When she finally decided to exit the stall, she reached for the lock, and something slapped her hand away. She was still alone inside the stall. Terrified, she screamed and began to pray. It took a while before she could bring herself to try the lock again. This time, the door opened without incident. The restroom was empty.
She hurried back to find her sister and the coworker and told them what had happened. They called security, and a guard came to investigate. He didn’t seem particularly surprised by her story. He walked with them to the restroom, opened the door, and called out. When no one answered, he went inside and checked.
There was no one there.
The guard came back out, shook his head, and said, to Denise’s surprise, “It happens a lot.”
Apparently, Denise wasn’t the first person to encounter something strange there. The security guard explained that many women have reported strange experiences in that same restroom.
One story attributes the hauntings at Dole Cannery to its enormous refrigerators.
The attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 exposed a serious gap in Honolulu’s emergency preparedness. Dozens of civilians were killed, but the City and County morgue was not equipped to accommodate so many bodies.
According to numerous accounts, the largest refrigerated space in the Territory was located at the Hawaiian Pineapple Company’s cannery in Iwilei. Legend has it that the cannery’s enormous walk-in refrigerators were used to temporarily store the bodies until they could be identified and their families notified. Although the bodies were reportedly removed as quickly as possible, some believe that the souls of those who died never left the building.
Whether or not the reported hauntings have any connection to the casualties of the Pearl Harbor attack, visitors and former employees have described numerous unsettling experiences, including eerie feelings, moving shadows, and the feeling of being pushed or slapped.
The authors can be reached at hawaii.mysteries@gmail.com
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