Winne Units Lunchbox Cubby (1950)

Architect Vladimir Ossipoff was known for paying attention to every last detail of his beautiful constructions, and the Mary Persis Winne Units were no exception. One feature that triggers memories for generations of Winne students are the colorful wooden lunchbox cubbies in each classroom, where tin lunchboxes, brown paper bags and lunch pails were kept until midday, back when most students brought lunch from home. The cubbies were affixed to the classroom walls by metal rods that intersected circular wells containing oil – a cockroach trap that was added after the cubbies were originally installed. Former Punahou Vice President and Treasurer Paul Wysard’s family lived on campus when Piper’s Pali and Slade Drive were still lined with faculty and staff housing. “We owned a sly and insatiable black dachshund who would occasionally escape and head straight for those spaces. Phone calls would soon follow to Jan at home or me at the office: ‘Uh … hi. Your dog is over here eating the children’s lunches!’”