The Kaneohe Ranch Building at Castle Junction, where the

Pali Highway Hawaii Route 61, often called the Pali Highway, is in Honolulu County, Hawaii, United States, that is the main highway connecting downtown Honolulu with the windward side of Oahu island. From downtown, it traverses up Nuuanu Valley and the resid ...

(Route 61), Kamehameha Highway (Route 83), and Kalanianaole Highway (Route 72) intersect on the windward side of Oahu, was built in 1940 to be the headquarters of

Kaneohe Ranch Kaneohe Ranch Management Limited manages the real estate owned by the family of Harold K.L. Castle and Alice H. Castle, and their non-profit charitable foundation, the Harold K.L. Castle Foundation founded in 1962. In 2014, most of its real e ...

, which owned of surrounding land and played a major role in the history of Kāneohe and Kailua. The building is significant both for its association with the Ranch and for its Hawaiian style architecture designed by Albert Ely Ives (1898-1966). Ives' other work on the windward side includes

Plantation Estate Plantation Estate is a single-story, wood-frame, Pacific Ocean-front house at 57 Kailuana Place in Kailua, Honolulu County, Hawaii, which former President Barack Obama rented for use during his Christmas vacations from 2008 to 2016. The house is ...

which is the Winter White House of Barack Obama. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places on 5 June 1987. The building exhibits key features of the style of Hawaiian architecture that developed during the 1920s and 1930s: the double-pitched Dickey roof with overhanging

eaves The eaves are the edges of the roof which overhang the face of a wall and, normally, project beyond the side of a building. The eaves form an overhang to throw water clear of the walls and may be highly decorated as part of an architectural styl ...

, plaster-covered masonry walls, and ample cross- ventilation. Its architect was best known for his residential work; this is one of his few commercial buildings. During the mid-19th century, most of the land in the area belonged to Kalama, Queen Consort of

Kamehameha III Kamehameha III (born Kauikeaouli) (March 17, 1814 – December 15, 1854) was the third king of the Kingdom of Hawaii from 1825 to 1854. His full Hawaiian name is Keaweaweula Kīwalaō Kauikeaouli Kaleiopapa and then lengthened to Keaweaweula K� ...

and later

Queen Dowager A queen dowager or dowager queen (compare: princess dowager or dowager princess) is a title or status generally held by the widow of a king. In the case of the widow of an emperor, the title of empress dowager is used. Its full meaning is clear ...

of the

Kingdom of Hawaii The Hawaiian Kingdom, or Kingdom of Hawaiʻi ( Hawaiian: ''Ko Hawaiʻi Pae ʻĀina''), was a sovereign state located in the Hawaiian Islands. The country was formed in 1795, when the warrior chief Kamehameha the Great, of the independent island ...

. She and Judge

Charles Coffin Harris Charles Coffin Harris (1822–1881) was a New England lawyer who became a politician and judge in the Kingdom of Hawaii who firmly supported the monarchy as an independent nation. After serving in a number of cabinet posts, he became chief justi ...

began a

sugarcane Sugarcane or sugar cane is a species of (often hybrid) tall, Perennial plant, perennial grass (in the genus ''Saccharum'', tribe Andropogoneae) that is used for sugar Sugar industry, production. The plants are 2–6 m (6–20 ft) tall with ...

plantation on the land, but after she died in 1870 and it failed in 1871, the land eventually passed to Harris's daughter, Nannie H. Rice, who in 1893 leased to J. P. Mendonca, who founded Kaneohe Ranch in 1894. Lower-lying wetlands were leased to Chinese rice farmers. In 1907 James Bicknell Castle became the principal stockholder of the Ranch, and 1917 his son, Harold K.L. Castle, purchased the land from Mrs. Rice. Most of the land was used for cattle-ranching until World War II, when the military took over much of it. After the war, former ranch lands have provided room for ever expanding

residential subdivision Subdivisions are the act of dividing land into pieces that are easier to sell or otherwise develop, usually via a plat. The former single piece as a whole is then known as a subdivision. Subdivisions may be simple, involving only a single selle ...

Gallery

Image:Kaneohe-Ranch-bldg-front.JPG, Front across Auloa Rd. Image:KaneoheRanchBuilding-outsidecorner.JPG, Southwest corner Image:KaneoheRanchBuilding-frontfromside.JPG, Southeast corner Image:KaneoheRanchBuilding-maukacorner.JPG, View from uphill Image:KaneoheRanchBuilding&CastleFoundationBuilding.JPG, Castle Foundation Building entrance Image:KaneoheRanchBuilding-annex.JPG, Castle Foundation Building side view

References

{{National Register of Historic Places Commercial buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Hawaii Hawaiian architecture Office buildings in Hawaii Buildings and structures in Honolulu County, Hawaii Commercial buildings in Hawaii National Register of Historic Places in Honolulu County, Hawaii