George Lycurgus
| George Lycurgus | |
|---|---|
c. 1892
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| Born | 1858 Vasara, Greece |
| Died | 1960 (aged 101–102) Volcano, Hawaii |
| Nationality | Greek |
| Occupation | Businessman |
| Spouse(s) | Athena Geracimos |
| Children | Georgina, Leo, Nicholas |
George Lycurgus (Greek: Γεώργιος Λυκοῦργος) (1858–1960) was a Greek American businessman who played an influential role in the early tourist industry of Hawaii. He ran afoul of the government of the Republic of Hawaii and was accused of treason. Later he was instrumental in the development of the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory and Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park.
He was born in 1858 in Vasara (near Sparta, Greece). In 1877 he traveled in steerage class to New York City, and worked his way across the country. A relative convinced him to join a wholesale fruit business trading between Hawaii and California in 1881. In San Francisco he shipped California produce and wine to his cousin in Honolulu, who shipped Hawaiian bananas to the mainland. He became friends with Claus Spreckels, whose family owned the Oceanic Steamship Company and a sugar cane business in Hawaii. In 1889 he was supervising shipment being loaded at the docks, when some of the Spreckels family invited him on board for a poker game. By the time he noticed, the ship was on its way across the Pacific. He spent only a week in Hawaii, but must have enjoyed the stay, since he took more trips and spent more time on the islands.
In 1892 he sent for his nephew Demosthenes Lycurgus, who would help him manage his Hawaiian enterprises. Along with other recent immigrants, he formed the Pearl City Fruit Company. Their competition was the Hawaiian Fruit and Packing Company, owned by established descendants of American missionaries such as Lorrin A. Thurston, who was also a powerful politician. Eventually he would sell his restaurant in San Francisco and move to the islands.
Lycurgus leased the small guest house of Allen Herbert in 1893 on Waikīkī beach in Honolulu. He expanded it and renamed it the "Sans Souci" (French for "without care") for the Sanssouci Palace in Potsdam. It became one of the first beach resorts and the area at coordinates 21°15′49″N 157°49′17″W / 21.26361°N 157.82139°W is still called "Sans Souci Beach". Celebrities such as Robert Louis Stevenson stayed there on his second trip later that year, and it became a popular destination for tourists from the mainland.
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