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“On February 1, 1913, Mr. A. D. Hills became the next owner of Deborah Kapule’s property. The coconut grove reminded him of the coconut groves in Tahiti where he had been born. He was the manager of the Lihue Ice and Electric Company on Kauai and with his first wife, Eleanor Genevieve O’Connell, he built the home that became the first Coco Palm Lodge on the Kapule estate between the lagoon and the ocean. After his first wife died, Alfred Hills married Veda Warner, who gained a reputation on Kauai for her sharp features, dress and tongue. A.D. Hills, a tall and courtly man, a man of little words, let his new energetic young wife turn his home into a lodge for visiting salesmen…

Hill-house 1933 - Photo Courtesy of the Kaua'i Historical Society

“By 1951, the Hills had renovated their home into a lodge that was most frequented by drummers (salesmen) from Oahu. They advertised twenty-four rooms and had five employees. Alfred Hills died in July of 1952 leaving Veda to operate the hotel on her own….After MGM paid a handsome price to use the coconut grove as a background location for an Esther Williams musical, The Pagan Love Song, in 1952, a desperate Veda Hills advertised in the newspapers that the Coco Palms Lodge was up for sale.”

- David Penhallow, The Story of Coco Palms Hotel, Rice Street Press, Lihue, 2007

For further information regarding this project please contact
Kauai Public Land Trust
www.kauaipubliclandtrust.org  -  808.346.9419  -  jennifer@kauaipubliclandtrust.org