During an evening hike, a wrong turn took us to the creepy side of the woods. Although every instinct was telling us to turn around, our curiosity would not let us leave without taking a quick peek inside.
As the jungle had begun reclaiming the forgotten mansion, we could not see an obvious entrance. As we pushed our way through the dense understory, we were able to navigate to a covered patio. Following the walkway around the ruin lead us to this friendly dragon, who showed us the way…
Some savage must of come through here and kicked the door right off of its hinges.
So we began our investigation.
If this was a closet, it was surprisingly spacious. Although walk-in closets are common in the mainland, I had not seen one since I moved to Hawaii. Having a closet the size of a bedroom is a true sign of wealth, especially in the islands.
Although the house was obviously from a former century, I was surprised by how modern the remaining fixtures and amenities appeared.
This was the door we came through.
Interesting how the lighting can totally change the mood of the exact same scene (from junky to creepy).
As we continued, it became clear that this place was in a sever state of disrepair. The roof had been rotting and began caving in. The wooden floor beneath it was very wet and looked quite soft. We would have to proceed with caution. Who knows when this place could come down.
As we our way towards the kitchen, we looked through the door of the pantry. Here the floor had completely given out (perhaps under the weight of a previous explorer). The last thing we wanted was to fall into some compartment beneath an old creepy house and ended up with face full of rusted nails and splinters. So we skipped this room.
There was nothing particularly remarkable about the kitchen, other than it’s overall eerie atmosphere.
Other than mural of the dragons we saw on the walls earlier, I hadn’t really been paying much attention to the graffiti on the walls, until I spotted these little guys.
I began noticing them everywhere. Something about them really helped to break the sinister vibe this house was giving off.
At least the murals were pretty fun. It gets to be a bit much when you’re exploring some really hair-raising place and people have drawn/written all sorts of disturbing things all over the walls.
This must have been the main living/dining room. Some of the features that first stood out to me were the high ceilings (which are awesome) and the presence of a fireplace. If you have ever visited Oahu, there is little to no need for fire places in your house. The island’s annual average temp is about 73° F (± 6° F).
From the outside, we could definitely tell that there was a second floor. But after walking around the place, I was sort of concerned about the structural integrity of the stairs, or if the floor on the second level would even be able to hold us. There was a small compartment beneath the stairs (like the one Harry Potter lived in) and another room still behind the stairs (with a sink in it but no toilet), which was a bit more mysterious.
We very carefully wen up the stairs. On the second was one big room (perhaps the master bedroom).
I’m sure the views of the garden/ranch must have been amazing back in the day, but the jungle’s lush canopy was also a sight to behold.
All I could think of, while we were looking out the windows, was how creepy it would be if someone had been looking out the windows when we first walked up to the house.
Again, we ran into these little sword fighting minions upstairs.
In another corner of the room, a battle was imminent. To avoid witnessing any minion bloodshed, we moved on to the next room of the second floor.
The adjacent room looked like a scene straight out of Texas Chainsaw Massacre… Seemed like a good time to turn around.
Going into another walk in closet, we noticed a very short trap door. Perhaps it lead into the attic or to untold hidden treasures and wealth…
I wasn’t much in the mood for crawling through small compartments in a bug infested, crumbling abandoned house in the middle of the jungle. We might just have to save that for another day.
We went back down the stairs with extreme precaution. We didn’t want any accidents.
The camera flash and our headlamps make a lot of the pictures seem bright and illuminated. But without the camera flash, the house was pitch black inside. I remember seeing this doorway and being overcome with the urge to bolt out of the building as fast as I could. But there was all sorts of debris on the ground, so I would have likely wiped out
A bit further in the woods was another, smaller, abandoned structure. Unfortunately, this old house was completely boarded up and we could not find a way in.
Although all kinds of fascinating stories could be made up about this place, I was really intrigued by it and wanted to find our a little more. As it turns out, the two properties were once known as the Boyd/Irwin Estates. The plantation home we explored was build in 1893 and is now the oldest standing building on this side of Oahu. Many years ago, it was home to William and Fannie Irwin, who had accumulated enormous wealth in the sugar cane industry. For many years, William Irwin’s company was the leading sugar agency in the kingdom and the one originally used by the West Maui Sugar Association. The Boyd estate (property on which the smaller house was located) was established in 1869. Despite appearing more humble than the Irwin house, the Boyd estate would often host lavish parties for dignitaries and aristocrats. The Boyd family would even invite Hawaii’s Royal Kalakaua family to many of their parties. It is thought that the Boyd family’s wealth was made from cattle ranching. Although these places look completely rundown and shabby (due to time and vandalism), you have to imagine these places back in the day. There use to be a long and wide carriageway lined by huge palms on each side. The property used to be immaculately landscaped to resemble a pristine botanical garden. The homes have amazing views of the Koolau mountain range, as well as the Olomana peaks. The homes were probably more like resorts back in their day.
Sadly, without any plans to restore these properties, they will likely fall further into disrepair until they are just an unrecognizable pile of rotten wood amongst the jungle’s understory. We also found out, the hard way, that this place is on private property. As fascinating as these aged ruins are, I cannot in good conscious recommend exploring them. Not just because it’s private property, but because I really believe people could get hurt. If you do decided to check it out realize that you are doing so at your own risk. Be safe!
This is so cool. I was born and raised on windward Oahu and as a teenager in the 90’s we would “spook ourselves” in that house for fun! we always thought the little room by the stairs was maybe a butlers quarters or something. around 2001 we decided to sleep there overnight. Scariest dang thing I think I’ve ever done. we slept upstairs. Im not sure there was any sleep, but we tried. There were 5 of us. It was in dissaray even back then, the hole in the pantry already had started, but wasn’t as big, and there was no hole in the ceiling, but one thing prominent is missing, there was a huge, beautiful chandelier in the living room that i always wondered why no one had stolen it because it was obviously expensive! sad its gone now, it made it feel so much eerier! here I am all these years later Im trying to explain it to my husband and was so happy to stumble on your post about it! back then there really wasn’t any graffiti, however I do like the little minion guys. I know the teenagers who put the “blood splatter” in the tub, it was a prank to scare their out of town cousins visiting. how it is still there over a decade later is crazy! and still spooking people! ha! anyways, cool post!
I’m 15 and live on Maui!! I love abandoned places and am planning to going over to Oahu soon to see some there! Reading your comment on this post was so interesting and funny cause that’s the stuff me and my friends do haha
That’s awesome! Well be careful. Oahu has a few more kooks than Maui does.
what’s the street address of this house?
I don’t know. It was not on a main street. We pretty much got lost in the woods and ran into it.
Just came across your article and I am so happy but also saddened. The Boyd Estate is an old family house on my mom’s side of the (Boyd/Mackenzie) family. I wanted to do a research paper on the house but couldn’t come across any pictures to see the condition of the house until now. It’s so sad that one day this estate hosted so many lavish parties and royal families and was the place where Queen Liliu’okalani wrote Aloha Oe’ to now a ruined and abandoned structure. Hopefully one day the structure can be repaired and renovated to what it once was before. Thank you for all of the detailed photos and captions!
Whoa! It’s kind of an honor to get a reader who is related to the estate. It is tragic to see the state in which the property has fallen. If those walls could speak, I cannot even imagine the stories they would have to tell. It was incredible (and a little spooky) to explore its quiet halls. Hawaii has so much history, it would be a shame for it to be forgotten. I’m glad you enjoyed the post 🙂
Damn your ancestors owned mines, I buying this house one day tho.
The house was abandoned around 1983.
I recently went and seen this December of last year 2020. the house had a haunting vibe to it. I wondered as much as the first floor and that was it. I got to take some awesome pictures of the house. I can tell you this, it looks nothing like the pictures in the article. There is way more graffiti all around, and the greens around have taken over. Still I found so much beauty in finding this hidden gem. I will definitely go back and check it out in a year or two..
Very interesting account & good photos, Thank You much for this little report! I punched in “Hawaiian abandoned homes” & came to your site — I did the same a few weeks ago & found the “Mysteries of Hawai’i” site, run by Lopaka Kapanui, “the Ghost Guy” — I think that might be him with above comment from 3 May, 2021 saying this house abandoned around 1983. I e-mailed him about an old murder mystery I’d run across on a website named “OUTCAST EARTH (‘not all who wander are lost’)”, about 10 or 12 years ago. The Outcast Earth website is no longer up, but they did post for awhile that they were discontinuing, before they disappeared. OE seemed to be a bunch of free spirit types who were into any & all things mysterious, arcane, offbeat, supernatural, paranormal, &c, &c. They used nicknames or “handles” such as Atlantis, Polaris, & others I don’t recall. One of their accounts, which seemed to run about 4 or 5 pages with some B/W photos, was
by a member on one of the islands not too far from Oahu, but I don’t recall just which island, or the man’s “handle”. In about 1998 or 9, he had a young son about 5 or 6 years old that he referred to as “Ash” — I believe this also a “handle”. Little Ash played in the forest or jungle near their home, & occasionally a bit late getting home for supper. “Where’ve you been, son?” one day when he got home. “In the woods with my friend Babs.” Parents assumed he’d met another child his own age, but after a time or two more Ash said she was a young Asian woman. His father decided he’d like to meet Babs, so accompanied Ash into the forest. They went about a mile or so in to the ruins of what had once been a rather nice home —- roof fallen in, rotten floors revealing a dirt floor basement. “She’s there, dad” or words to that effect, pointing to a corner of the basement. The father got down to the corner, did just enough digging with hands or a stick to uncover apparently human bones. Little Ash not upset or scared at all, either didn’t know she was a ghost, or didn’t care. They went right home & called the local police, who went out there & recovered the remains, ID’d by crime lab as belonging to a young Asian woman named Barbara “Babs” Hsiao who’d gone missing in 1940. She’d been born about 1920 to a Chinese or Hawaiian prostitute, & in mid – late 1930s had gone into her mother’s profession, with some arrests for prostitution by Honolulu PD. They’d investigated, interviewing friends & acquaintances. Her roommate, who also in the same business, said Babs had told her she had a “sugar daddy” who was married family man, but told her nothing else except what was likely a fake name. Speculation was she’d tried to blackmail him for big money or leave wife & family for her, he’d lured her on his boat, headed out to his island, then killed & buried in basement. Ash’s dad hadn’t even known of this old estate so close to his neighborhood, but found out later from locals the ruins & that part of woods were shunned & avoided. I think it said he found out the place had been built in late 20s – early 30s by wealthy businessman from mainland, who’d died in the 1960s. Not long after, wife & family left to move back to the mainland, so place had been going back to the jungle for 30+ years by ’99. Ash’s dad had found out name of family, but due to privacy & possible legal concerns left undisclosed. Lopaka replied that he hadn’t yet heard anything from his contacts at Honolulu PD.