PEARL CITY — Next week is an eventful one for Lehua Elementary School.

After all, it's not often that a school celebrates its 100th anniversary.

Lehua Elementary, tucked away in the aging, lower part of Pearl City, "has such a history," said principal Fay Toyama.

The school has been at three different locations and undergone two name changes.

The military used it during World War II. Oahu Railway & Land Co.'s trains used to stop near where the present school is, Toyama said.

The school's centennial celebration next week includes a Royal Hawaiian Band performance and a lu'au, as well as other events for the students.

Sharing the history of the school has been "a good way to build a sense of ownership, a sense of community," Toyama said. That's particularly important to Toyama because 77 percent of the students this year are from military families who stay here only for a few years at a time.

"I wanted them to appreciate what we do have here and just build a sense of history and a sense of place for them so they can leave with a better understanding of Hawai'i," she said.

While it's hard to pinpoint the school's exact opening date — some documents cite the early 1900s — the first documentation of the school that Toyama found in the state archives is dated 1907. Back then it was called Pearl City School and was located in Waiawa. A teacher and a teacher/principal taught 112 students, and teachers earned just $510 a year, Toyama said.

In 1915, the school moved to 2.5 acres on Fourth Street, where the 'Ewa District Court building currently stands, Toyama said. Students in the first through eighth grades attended classes in single-story wooden structures. The military took over the school facilities after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941 until 1944, during which classes were held at the nearby Pearl City Hongwanji.

The school was renamed Pearl City Kai School in 1956, when Pearl City Elementary School was built, to distinguish between the two.

With the next decade came more changes. Pearl City Kai structures eventually became damaged by termites, and the population in the area was growing. That prompted the construction in the mid-'60s of a new school at Lehua's current location, and — at the request of the PTA — the Board of Education in 1969 changed the school's name from Pearl City Kai to Lehua Elementary.

Over the last two months the school brought in former students to share their memories of the school. The speakers included retired Leeward District superintendent Hazel Sumile and retired Lehua Elementary head custodian Harry Omine.

Omine, 69, said his regular route from home to the then-Pearl City School involved cutting across people's backyards. There were no fences around the homes back then, and because everyone in the neighborhood knew one another, no one seemed to mind. He said he went to school barefoot, as did most of the boys in his class.

The children played marbles during recess, and the older students would go across the street to Pacheco Park for physical education class to play sports. He and his friends would also go to the park to play baseball after school. Back then Omine carried only five or 10 cents in his pocket, which he would use to buy soda or candy at a nearby store.

Omine, who worked as a custodian at Lehua Elementary from 1968 to 2005, now volunteers at a kindergarten class at the school and marvels at the technological advances since his school days.

"These kids are lucky now," he said. "They have everything."

Reach Lynda Arakawa at larakawa@honoluluadvertiser.com.