The Merchant Street Historic District in

Honolulu, Hawaii Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island o ...

, was the city's earliest commercial center.

Location

Bounded roughly by Fort Street at the southeast end and Nuuanu Avenue at the northwest, its older, low-rise, brick and stone buildings, surrounded by contemporary, concrete high rises, serves as an open-air, human-scale

architectural Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing buildings o ...

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make these ...

of the city's commercial development between the 1850s and the 1930s. Its architectural styles range from nondescript 19th-century commercial through

Richardsonian Romanesque Richardsonian Romanesque is a style of Romanesque Revival architecture named after the American architect Henry Hobson Richardson (1838–1886). The revival style incorporates 11th and 12th century southern French, Spanish, and Italian Romanesque ...

Italianate The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian R ...

, and

Mission Revival The Mission Revival style was part of an architectural movement, beginning in the late 19th century, for the revival and reinterpretation of American colonial styles. Mission Revival drew inspiration from the late 18th and early 19th century ...

. It was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1973. Directly to the north is

Chinatown A Chinatown () is an ethnic enclave of Chinese people located outside Greater China, most often in an urban setting. Areas known as "Chinatown" exist throughout the world, including Europe, North America, South America, Asia, Africa and Austra ...

, another historic district.

Notable buildings

Melchers (1854)

The earliest structure is

Melchers Building The Melchers Building is a historic commercial building in Downtown Honolulu, Hawaii. Located at 51 Merchant Street, it is the oldest commercial building in Honolulu. Designed in the Classical Revival style by an unknown architect, it was construc ...

at 51 Merchant Street, built in 1854 for the retail firm of Melchers and Reiner. Its original coral stone walls are no longer visible under its layers of stucco and paint, and it now houses

city government Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of public administration within a particular sovereign state. This particular usage of the word government refers specifically to a level of administration that is both geographically-loca ...

offices, not private businesses.

Kamehameha V Post Office (1871)

The

Kamehameha V Post Office Kamehameha V Post Office at the corner of Merchant and Bethel Streets in Honolulu, Hawaii was the first building in the Hawaiian Islands to be constructed entirely of precast concrete blocks reinforced with iron bars. It was built by J.G. Osborne ...

at the corner of Merchant and Bethel Streets was the first building in Hawaii to be constructed entirely of precast concrete blocks reinforced with iron bars. It was built by J.G. Osborne in 1871 and the success of this new method was replicated on a much grander scale the next year in the royal palace, Aliiōlani Hale. The old post office building was separately added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.

Bishop Bank (1878)

The Bishop Bank Building at 63 Merchant Street was the earliest of the Italianate (or

Renaissance Revival Renaissance Revival architecture (sometimes referred to as "Neo-Renaissance") is a group of 19th century architectural revival styles which were neither Greek Revival nor Gothic Revival but which instead drew inspiration from a wide range o ...

) structures on the street, built in 1878 and designed by Thomas J. Baker (one of the architects of

Iolani Palace Iolani is a masculine Hawaiian name meaning "royal ''hawk''." It comes from the Hawaiian words ''ʻio'', meaning "Hawaiian hawk," and ''lani'', meaning "royal." It may refer to: *ʻIolani School, a private school located in Hawaii *ʻIolani Palac ...

). Its distinctive features include a corner entrance, arched windows and doors, fine masonry work, and brick

pilaster In classical architecture Classical architecture usually denotes architecture which is more or less consciously derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or sometimes even more specifically, from the ...

s below an ornamental

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, around the top edge of a ...

and

parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an extension of the wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/breast'). Whe ...

along the roofline, all of which are obscured to some extent by its current exterior of monotone white

stucco Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and a ...

. In 1925, Bishop Bank moved to much larger quarters along "Bankers Row" on Bishop Street, and later changed its name to

First Hawaiian Bank First Hawaiian, Inc. is a bank holding company headquartered in Honolulu, Hawaii. Its principal subsidiary, First Hawaiian Bank, founded in 1858, is Hawaii’s oldest and largest financial institution headquartered in Honolulu, Hawaii, at the Firs ...

, now one of the largest in the state.

T.R. Foster Building (1891)

The T.R. Foster Building at 902 Nuuanu Avenue was built by Thomas R. Foster, one of the founders (in 1882) of the

Inter-Island Steam Navigation Company Inter-Island Steam Navigation Company was headquartered in Honolulu and ran steamship passenger and cargo service between the Hawaiian Islands from 1883 until 1947. Inter-Island constructed the Kona Inn in 1928, the first hotel in Kona on the Big ...

. In 1880, Foster had purchased the estate of the renowned

botanist Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek wo ...

William Hillebrand Wilhelm or William Hillebrand (November 13, 1821 – July 13, 1886) was a German physician. He practiced medicine in several different countries, including for over 20 years in the Hawaiian islands. In 1850, Hillebrand lived at what is now Foste ...

(1821–1886), which was bequeathed to the city as

Foster Botanical Garden Foster Botanical Garden, measuring , is one of five public botanical gardens on Oahu. It is located at 50 North Vineyard Boulevard, Honolulu, Hawaii, United States, near Chinatown, Honolulu, Chinatown at the intersection of Nu'uanu Avenue and Vine ...

at the death of his wife, Mary E. Foster (née Robinson), in 1930. The architectural style of the two-story T.R. Foster Building resembles that of the one-story Royal Saloon Building across the street, which was built in 1890 on the site of a former corner bar. Both are modestly Italianate brick buildings, with pilasters, cornices, and balustrades along the streetside rooflines. The Royal Saloon ceased to be a bar during

Prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic ...

, but both buildings were renovated during the 1970s and now house O'Toole's Irish Pub and Murphy's Bar & Grill.

Bishop Estate (1896)

The bare stone face of the tiny Bishop Estate Building at 71 Merchant Street is a fine example of the stolid

style that was popular when it was built in 1896. Its architects were

Clinton Briggs Ripley Clinton Briggs Ripley (February 13, 1849 – February 13, 1922) was an American architect active in Honolulu, Hawaii, from the 1890s until the 1920s. Ripley was born in Peru, Maine. In 1871, he began his career in Chattanooga, Tennessee, form ...

and his junior partner, C.W. Dickey, a well-connected local boy with a fresh degree in architecture from

M.I.T. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the m ...

, and it initially housed the executive offices of not only the

Bishop Estate Kamehameha Schools, formerly called Kamehameha Schools Bishop Estate (KSBE), is a private school system in Hawaii established by the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Estate, under the terms of the will of Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop, who was a formal membe ...

, but also the

Charles Reed Bishop Charles Reed Bishop (January 25, 1822 – June 7, 1915) was an American businessman, politician, and philanthropist in Hawaii. Born in Glens Falls, New York, Glens Falls, New York (state), New York, he sailed to Hawaii in 1846 at the age of 24, a ...

Trust and the Bernice P. Bishop Museum. Constructed of dark lava from the Estate's own quarries, its notable features include arches above the lower door and window frames, four rough stone

s on the upper level, and a corniced parapet along the roofline.

Judd Building (1898)

The Judd Building at the corner of Merchant and Fort Streets combines elegant features of

Italianate architecture The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian R ...

with businesslike functionalism. Designed by

Oliver G. Traphagen Oliver Green Traphagen (3 September 1854 – 21 October 1932) was an American architect who designed many notable buildings in Duluth, Minnesota, during the late 19th century and in the Territory of Hawaii during the early 20th century. Among h ...

, newly arrived from

Duluth, Minnesota , settlement_type = City , nicknames = Twin Ports (with Superior), Zenith City , motto = , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top: urban Duluth skyline; Minnesota ...

, it boasted Hawaii's first passenger elevator when it opened in 1898. A fifth floor was added on top in the 1920s, the interior was remodeled in 1979, and the ground floor has also been reconfigured. However, the exterior of the middle three floors reflects Traphagen's original design, with arched windows, simulated keystones, and decorative wreaths and floral designs. Built on land that used to house the medical offices of Dr.

Gerrit P. Judd Gerrit Parmele Judd (April 23, 1803 – July 12, 1873) was an American physician and missionary to the Kingdom of Hawaii who later renounced his American citizenship and became a trusted advisor and cabinet minister to King Kamehameha III. He ...

,Wilcox, Gaylord (1972)
Business and Buildings: Downtown Honolulu's Old Fashioned Block
''Hawaiian Journal of History'' 6:3-27. the new building served as the first headquarters of

Alexander & Baldwin Alexander & Baldwin, Inc. is an American company that was once part of the Big Five companies in territorial Hawaii. The company currently operates businesses in real estate, land operations, and materials and construction. It was also the last ...

, and also of the

Bank of Hawaii The Bank of Hawaii Corporation ( haw, Panakō o Hawaii; abbreviated BOH) is a regional commercial bank headquartered in Honolulu, Hawaii. It is Hawaii's second oldest bank and its largest locally owned bank in that the majority of the voting sto ...

until 1927. The bank bought the building in 1998, and A&B repurchased it in 2000.

Yokohama Specie Bank (1909)

Overseas branches of the

Yokohama Specie Bank was a Japanese bank founded in Yokohama, Japan in the year 1880. Its assets were transferred to The Bank of Tokyo (now MUFG Bank) in 1946. The bank played a significant role in Japanese overseas trade, especially with China. The original b ...

( 横浜正金銀行 Yokohama Shōkin Ginkō, est. 1880) were chartered to act as agents of

Imperial Japan The also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was a historical nation-state and great power that existed from the Meiji Restoration in 1868 until the enactment of the post-World War II 1947 constitution and subsequent forma ...

. The Honolulu branch was the first successful Japanese bank in Hawaii. The building at 36 Merchant Street dates from 1909 and was designed by one of Honolulu's most prolific architects, Henry Livingston Kerr, who considered it not just his own finest work, but the finest in the city at the time. The brick and steel structure is L-shaped, with a corner entrance and a courtyard in back. Its

design includes a triumphal arch over the main door, copper window casings, glass

wainscoting Panelling (or paneling in the U.S.) is a millwork wall covering constructed from rigid or semi-rigid components. These are traditionally interlocking wood, but could be plastic or other materials. Panelling was developed in antiquity to make roo ...

, marble trim, and paintings inside by a local artist. Bank personnel received Japanese-speaking, Chinese-speaking, and English-speaking customers in separate areas. On the day that

Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the Naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the Re ...

was bombed, the building was taken over by the

Alien Property Custodian The Office of Alien Property Custodian was an office within the government of the United States during World War I and again during World War II, serving as a custodian to property that belonged to US enemies. The office was created in 1917 by E ...

, the first floor became a warehouse for confiscated possessions, and extra showers, toilets, and holding cells were installed in the basement to accommodate up to 250 drunken military personnel. The bank's former customers spent years trying to get their money back, and never managed to collect interest on their old deposits until the 1960s. The building was renovated in the 1980s by local restoration architect Spencer Leineweber and became home to

Honolulu Magazine ''Honolulu'' is a city magazine covering Honolulu and the Hawaii region. It dates back to 1888 when it was called ''Paradise of the Pacific.'' It is the oldest magazine in the state of Hawaii and is the longest published magazine west of the Missi ...

from 1982 to 2001. It currently serves as a preschool and childcare center.

Honolulu Police Station (1931)

The last significant old structure in the district was the old Honolulu Police Station at 842 Bethel Street, which occupies the whole block of Merchant Street between Bethel Street and Nuuanu Avenue. Built in 1931 at a cost of $235,000, it replaced an earlier brick building on the same site that dated from 1885, during the era of the notorious

Walter Murray Gibson Walter Murray Gibson (March 6, 1822 – January 21, 1888) was an American adventurer and a government minister in the Kingdom of Hawaii prior to the kingdom's 1887 constitution. Early life Gibson was generally thought to be born March 6, 1822 ...

, so the new structure is also known as the Walter Murray Gibson Building. Architect

Louis Davis Louis Davis may refer to: *Chip Davis (born 1947), born Louis F. Davis, American musician *Louis Davis (architect) (1884–1962), American architect * Louis Davis (painter) (1860–1941), British artist See also * Lou Davis (1881–1961), American ...

designed it in a Spanish

style that matches very well that of the newly built city hall,

Honolulu Hale Honolulu Hale (originally called the Honolulu Municipal Building), located on 530 South King Street in downtown Honolulu in the City & County of Honolulu, Hawaii, is the official seat of government of the city and county, site of the chambers of ...

(1929). (Davis had designed the ornately Chinese New Palama Theatre two years earlier. It was leased in the 1970s to show Filipino films and renamed Zamboanga Theatre.) Building materials include 11 tons of marble from France, mahogany from the Philippines, and sandstone from Waianae. It served as the headquarters of the

Honolulu Police Department The Honolulu Police Department (HPD) is the principal law enforcement agency of the City and County of Honolulu, Hawaii, headquartered in the Alapa'i Police Headquarters in Honolulu CDP. Officially recognized as a part of the government of the ...

until the latter moved to the old Sears building in Pawaa in 1967. It was renovated in the 1980s and now houses other city offices.

Gallery

File:Merchant Street in early 1890s.jpg, A photograph of Merchant Street in the 1890s Image:Honolulu-Merchantst51-Melcher-bldg.JPG, Melcher Building, 1854 Image:Honolulu-old-Bishop-Bank-bldg.JPG, Bishop Bank Building, 1878 Image:Honolulu-Royal-Saloon-Murphys.JPG, Royal Saloon Building, 1890 Image:Honolulu-TRFoster-bldg-OTooles.JPG, T.R. Foster Building, 1891 Image:Honolulu-Merchantst-Bishop-Estate-bldg.JPG, Bishop Estate Building, 1896 Image:Honolulu-Judd-building-corner.JPG, Judd Building, 1898 Image:Honolulu-Yokohama-Specie-Bank.JPG, Yokohama Specie Bank Building, 1909 Image:Honolulu-Yokohama-Specie-Bank-facade.JPG, Facade above front entrance, Yokohama Specie Bank Building, 1909 Image:Honolulu-old-Police-Station-front.JPG, Old Police Station (front), 1931 Image:Honolulu-old-Police-Station-rear.JPG, Old Police Station (rear), 1931

References

* Sandler, Rob, Julie Mehta, and Frank S. Haines (2008). ''Architecture in Hawai‘i: A Chronological Survey,'' new edition. Honolulu: Mutual Publishing.

External links

{{National Register of Historic Places Hawaiian architecture Pre-statehood history of Hawaii Louis Davis buildings 1973 establishments in Hawaii Protected areas established in 1973 Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Hawaii National Register of Historic Places in Honolulu