The Carl and Florence Bayer House, which was placed on the Hawaii Register of Historic Places, is an early and excellent example of the simple Craftsman style homes designed by renowned architect Raymond Llewellen Morris of Lewers and Cooke.  The Bayer House, built in 1936, was a collaborative effort between Raymond Morris and Florence Bayer.  The house incorporates the graceful characteristics of the simple "Hawaiian" style house popularized by Morris during this period with its high-pitched roof, extended eaves and lanai, as well as the design aspects of a French farmhouse.   

This home (circa 1930's photo below), which sits predominantly on an expansive lawn on the ocean side of Kalanianaole Highway, is one of the first Lewers and Cooke homes to have been built along  Oahu's southeastern coastline which was pig farms, chicken farms, the Hind-Clarke Dairy, and a lot of keawe trees at the time that the house was constructed. 

The lot on which the Bayer House is constructed was part of the Wailupe ili, a subdivision of the ahuapuaa of Waikiki, in the moku or district of kona.  The area was divided during the Great Mahele between Kamehameha III and Kamaha, the konohiki of the ahupuaa.  The area was most likely a prime settlement area of the early Hawaiians due to the proximity to the ocean and Wailupe Stream.  The residential character of the area was not established until the large farm parcels in the area were subdivided in the mid-1950s.  Today the area is known as Aina Haina, and the alignment of the highway, originally the pre-historic trail, and later known as the "Government Road", was renamed in 1929 to Kalanianaole Highway. 

The Bayer parcel was partitioned in 1923 and was originally owned by a group of prominent members of Hawaii society including Judge Antonio Perry, a Chief Justice of the Hawaii Supreme Court (1926 – 1934) and Judge Alexander D. Larnach, Judge Perry's brother-in-law and a Second District Magistrate of Honolulu. 

The house has an unusual foundation system designed at the request of Carl Bayer.  This foundation is a five-feet thick pad of concrete anchoring the house with steel bolts.  This foundation system has withstood several tidal waves in the area; the worst one was in 1946 when eleven-feet high waves rolled across the yard and through the house. 

After the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, the Army, in fortifying Hawaii's shorelines against further attack, set up temporary installations all around the island of Oahu under the command of Colonel Merrick, a personal friend of the Bayer family.  The coastline near the Bayer home was strategic due to the depth of the flat reefs, shallow enough to easily push up landing craft.  The Army leased the backyard of the Bayer Home for $1.00 to set up an installation.  A telephone communications center, range finders, and telescopes were set up at the Diamond Head makai or southwest corner of the yard and a 75mm French Howitzer placed in the opposite corner. 

The lawn of the house has twelve of the original thirty-two coconut trees germinated from coconuts from the privately owned island of Niihau.  These coconuts were a gift of Carlos Long, a close personal friend of the Robinson family (which owns Niihau).  Because Hawaii has been the recipient of so many different types of coconut trees over the years, there has been a loss of varietal identity (e.g. cross breeding with Samoan coconut trees), and as such, coconut trees from Niihau, while not botanically unique, are historically unique in that they are directly descended from those brought by the early Polynesian settlers to Hawaii.  The missing twenty trees were removed and donated in the early 1970s, some of which were used in connection with the landscaping of the new Aloha Stadium. 

SIGNIFICANT PERSONS

 The architect for the residence was RAYMOND LLEWELLEN MORRIS who was born in New Jersey on October 11, 1892.  His formal schooling ended after he had completed his second year of high school. With a natural talent for drawing, he became an expert draftsman and designed submarines for the Simon Lake Torpedo Boat Company in Connecticut.  In 1921 he moved to San Francisco to work for a millwork shop. While in San Francisco, Morris met Frederick Lowrey, manager of Honoluluâs largest building materials company, Lewers and Cooke, and Guy Rothwell.  He moved to Hawaii in 1926 and went to work for prominent architect, Charles W. Dickey for a brief period.  

Morris was astute in recognizing that there was a great need for affordable housing in Honolulu.  Most of the smaller home design was left to contractors rather than architects with rather pitiful results.  Morris was able to convince Frederick Lowrey to hire him as the "in-house" architect to design these small homes; Lewers and Cooke would provide the financing and the building materials.  By his own estimate, Morris designed 3,000 homes, no two of which were alike.

 The home was designed for CARL BAYER and his wife FLORENCE GURREY BAYER in 1936.  Mr. Bayerâs biography is published in both Men of Hawaii and The Story of Hawaii and Its Builders, a standard reference work and record of men who deservedly occupy a high place in the industrial and cultural history of the Hawaiian Islands.  He was born in Waldkirch, Germany in 1884 to August and Bertha Bayer.  He arrived in Hawaii in 1901 after being recruited by the prominent Honolulu firm of H. Hackfeld & Company.  Mr. Bayer moved to the island of Hawaii in 1908 after accepting the position of store manager for the Hutchinson Sugar Company in Naalehu, then owned by Kau Sugar Plantation.  In 1910 he joined the firm of Alexander & Baldwin as manager of the store for Hawaiian Sugar Company in Makaweli, Kauai.  Under the good organizational skills of Mr. Bayer, the Makaweli store became one of the largest stores of its kind.  Highly dedicated to the growth and organization of business, Mr. Bayer was instrumental in the organization of the Kauai Chamber of Commerce in 1913, and served as a Director of the organization for the first two years.  After moving to Oahu following his departure from Alexander & Baldwin, he became the sole proprietor of Rice Stix Dry Goods Company on Bethel Street in Honolulu. 

In 1915, Carl Bayer married FLORENCE MARGUERITE GURREY, daughter of renowned local artist Alfred Gurrey, and they had one son, Walter Gurrey Bayer.  Their desire to provide their son with the best possible education led the Bayers to move to Honolulu where Walter could attend Lincoln School and then Punahou School.  Florence Gurrey Bayer was an expert horsewoman and a champion of animal rights, serving as a Secretary for the Hawaiian Humane Society.  She, with Lucy Ward (another prominent member of society) was instrumental in forming the Society as a group of people interested in protecting the dray horses of Manoa quarry from abuse by their drivers.

 Her father was ALFRED RICHARD GURREY, SR., an insurance adjuster and secretary of the Board of Fire Underwriters of the Territory of Hawaii.  Although Mr. Gurrey lacked any formal art training, he was a member of the Pallet Club of San Francisco and was elected to the Kilohana Art League and exhibited in their exhibitions from 1900 – 1907.  Many of his paintings depicted ocean scenes due to his love of the ocean and sailing.  Mr. Gurrey was one of the early members of the elite local organization, Outrigger Canoe Club, and was Commodore of the Corinthian Yacht Club of San Francisco prior to his moving to Hawaii.  Florence Bayer hung many of her father's paintings depicting marine vistas in her Aina Haina home.  In 1996, Walter Bayer donated 30 of his grandfatherâs paintings to the Kauai Museum in Lihue, which were featured in the museumâs 1998 exhibition.