[2] It was later part of the former Bernice Pauahi Bishop estate (until 1912), and was also the childhood home of Duke Kahanamoku and his many cousins from the Paoa family.

In 1954, Kaiser and developer Fritz B. Burns bought the 16 acres (6.5 ha) Kalia estate of John Ena Jr. and combined it adjacent properties,[8] including the Niumalu Hotel,[5] to construct the Hawaiian Village, converting the flat to a lagoon.

[16] Today, the Hilton Hawaiian Village Hotel sits on over 22 acres (8.9 ha) of beachfront property, near the Ala Moana Center.

It features the largest swimming pool in Waikiki, over twenty-two restaurants, exotic wildlife, and botanical gardens, Duke's Lagoon and historical exhibits on loan from the Bishop Museum.

In the village plan, various sections of the development were designed in specific types of motifs indicative of the culture of the hotel's surroundings.

Other animals that live on the grounds include several types of ducks, lesser flamingos, sacred ibis, black-crowned night herons, koi fish, chameleons, macaws, and parakeets.

As of 2014, Hilton Hawaiian Village relocated their 3 remaining South African black-footed penguins to the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore.

Wanting an auditorium at the Honolulu village, Henry Kaiser acquired the license to produce geodesic domes following the design work of Buckminster Fuller.

An aluminum-skinned dome with a 145 ft (44 m)-wide span was manufactured at the company's plant in Oakland, California and shipped to Hawaii in 1957.