Merchant Street

April 21, 2022 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Sliver of a Building

In 1841, on the makai side of the road (Merchant Street,) from Nuʻuanu to Kaʻahumanu Street (now the breezeway through the Harbor Court,) were empty lots, with blocks of coral for fences near the corner of Merchant and Fort streets, on the makai side of the street, were the premises of Mr. William French. (Maly)

French first came to Hawaiʻi in 1819. He settled in Honolulu and established himself as a leading trader. Financial success during the next decade made French known as “the merchant prince.” He also had property in Kawaihae, on the Island of Hawaiʻi. There, in 1835, French hired John Parker as bookkeeper, cattle hunter and in other capacities. (Wellmon)

John Parker later purchased 640-acres (1850,) then another 1,000-acres (1851) and leased land in the Waikoloa region from Kamehameha III – these formed the foundation for the future Parker Ranch.

By 1840, French made numerous shipments of live cattle to Honolulu. These cattle were fattened in the pasture close to Waimea then driven to Kawaihae and transported to Honolulu to supply the numerous whaling ships that visited the port each fall. (Wellmon)

French’s Honolulu premises extended from Kaʻahumanu to Fort Street, surrounded by a high picket fence with some hau trees standing just within the line of the fence. The building was quite a sizable one of wood, with a high basement and large trading rooms above. Mr. French was one of the oldest residents and a person of considerable influence. (Maly)

The property was sold to James Austin, who sold it in 1882 to James Campbell, who owned the adjacent land on the Diamond Head side (fronting Fort Street.) He built the “Campbell Block,” a large building that included uses such as storage, shops and offices.

Merchant Street was once the main street of the financial and governmental functions in the city, and was Honolulu’s earliest commercial center. Dating from 1854, the remaining historic buildings along this road help tell the story of the growth and development of Honolulu’s professional and business community.

A great deal of the economic and political history of Hawaiʻi was created and written by the previous occupants of these buildings. Ranging from banks to bars and post office to newspapers, they have paid silent witness to the creation of present day Hawaiʻi. (NPS)

Today, we still see these remnants of the past: Melchers (1854,) the oldest commercial building in Honolulu; Kamehameha V Post Office (1871;) Bishop Bank (1878,) now known as the Harriet Bouslog Building; The Friend Building (1887 and 1900,) the site of the Oʻahu Bethel Church established in 1837; Royal Saloon (1890,) now Murphy’s; TR Foster Building (1891,) forerunner to Hawaiian Airlines; Bishop Estate Building (1896;) Stangenwald Building (1901,) the tallest structure in Hawaiʻi until 1950; Judd Building (1898;) Yokohama Specie Bank (1909) and Honolulu Police Station (1931,) one of the earliest police forces in the world, dating to 1834.

Then, in 1902, near tragedy struck when “One of the hardest fights in the history of the Honolulu Fire Department was experienced Saturday afternoon, when a fire broke out in the middle of the Hawaiian Hardware Company’s warehouse. For two hours the whole block bounded by Merchant and Queen, Fort and Kaahumanu streets, was in danger.” (Hawaiian Star, August 25, 1902)

“The fire is said to have been caused by an accident with gasoline in the warehouse. An order for gasoline for Young Bros. launch had been received and was being filled.” (Hawaiian Star, August 25, 1902)

The Campbell Block survived (at least that fire.)

Then, on October 11, 1964, the Sunday Star-Bulletin and Advertiser noted, “Office-Parking Building Planned by Campbell Estate on Fort Street.”

Plans called for a combined office and parking structure to replace the 2-story Campbell Block on Fort and Merchants Streets; this new building was considered an important part of the redevelopment of downtown Honolulu. (Adamson) The new building was completed in May 1967.

So, the Campbell Block is gone … well, sort of.

You see, a fragment of the Campbell Block remains. It was interconnected with the adjoining Bishop Estate Building and removing it all would harm its neighbor; so, a part was retained in-place.

As you walk down Merchant Street, between Fort and Bethel (across from the Pioneer Plaza loading and parking structure access,) take a look at the (now obvious) sliver of a building; it was once the Campbell Block (and the area of the former establishment of merchant William French.)

November 18, 2021 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

James Campbell Building

A story in the July 26, 1916 Honolulu Star-bulletin had more impact than a simple subject of road widening, “The Hotel street widening project took on new life when Supervisor Charles N Arnold, chairman of the roads committee, requested that it be referred to his committee.”

“We have a new project, or rather we have dug up an old one, and want to carry it through,” he said. “We intend to straighten Hotel street, not only on the Ewa side of Fort street, but also on the Waikiki side.”

“A piece about eight feet deep of the property occupied by the Mott-Smith building will be condemned as well as the 12 foot piece of the Campbell building. The cost will be distributed among the benefited property owners up and down Hotel street and along Fort street.” (Honolulu Star-bulletin, July 26, 1916.)

In 1917, buildings housing Hollister & Company, wholesale and retail druggist, tobacconist, and photographic retailer and Benson, Smith & Company, seller of drugs, medicines, and chemicals were demolished to make way for the new James Campbell Building on the makai-ewa corner of Fort and Hotel Streets. (honolulu-gov)

Then on September 28, 1917, the Honolulu Star-bulletin reported, “On the corner of Hotel and Fort streets, the new Campbell Estate building will soon be under construction. The workmen are still excavating, and some of the foundation work has been started, but it will be several months before definite results begin to show.”

“The walls of the Hollister Drug company’s buildings are down and the scaffolding that the workmen have erected is practically all that remains of the front of the old building. When complete: the new Hollister building will be three stories high, with a grey-white exterior, similar in appearance to the new Ehlers’ building.”

It’s not clear if World War I delayed construction, but the building helped with the war effort. The Hawaiian Gazette on May 14, 1918 noted the Campbell building served as the War Savings and Thrift Stamp committee’s demonstration for its “dig it up in our dug out” campaign.

“The new headquarters are a replica of a dug out on the western front, copied from a photograph of General Leonard Wood’s conference with Genera) Mandolon of the French army on one of General Wood’s visits to the front.”

“The dug out occupies the corner of the unfinished Campbell Building. It is revetted with sand bags and camouflaged with green boughs but the committee hopes that, in spike of the camouflage, the people of Honolulu will find its range, and the heavier the bombardment, the better.”

“The dug out is the work of Jay Elmont, whose window displays in behalf of the Red Cross at Ehlers, Lewers and Cooke, and the Red Cross Drive headquarters have drawn much attention during the last week.” It was set up to encourage savings and buying War Savings Stamps and Baby Bonds. (Hawaiian Gazette, May 14, 1918)

By the next year, merchants in the new Campbell Building were advertising for customers to visit them in the new building.

This building is not to be confused with the “Campbell Block” (which was also on Fort Street, but closer to the Harbor between Queen and Merchant Streets.)

The lower town Campbell Block building started out as Mr. William French’s (the “merchant prince”) Honolulu premises extending from Kaʻahumanu to Fort Street. It was surrounded by a high picket fence with some hau trees standing just within the line of the fence.

The building was quite a sizable one of wood, with a high basement and large trading rooms above. Mr. French was one of the oldest residents and a person of considerable influence. (Maly)

Today, we still see these remnants of the past in lower downtown: Melchers (1854,) the oldest commercial building in Honolulu; Kamehameha V Post Office (1871;) Bishop Bank (1878,) now known as the Harriet Bouslog Building; The Friend Building (1887 and 1900,) the site of the Oʻahu Bethel Church established in 1837; Royal Saloon (1890,) now Murphy’s; TR Foster Building (1891,) forerunner to Hawaiian Airlines; Bishop Estate Building (1896;) Stangenwald Building (1901,) the tallest structure in Hawaiʻi until 1950; Judd Building (1898;) Yokohama Specie Bank (1909) and Honolulu Police Station (1931,) one of the earliest police forces in the world, dating to 1834.

The Campbell Block survived a fire, but on October 11, 1964, the Sunday Star-Bulletin and Advertiser noted, “Office-Parking Building Planned by Campbell Estate on Fort Street.”

Back to upper downtown and the “Campbell Building.” Today, the Campbell building (the same building is still there, however with a slightly different look) is home to Fisher Hawaiʻi (for its downtown facility.)

September 25, 2019 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Once the main street of the financial and governmental functions in the city, Merchant Street was Honolulu’s earliest commercial center. Dating from 1854, these buildings help tell the story of the growth and development of Honolulu’s professional and business community.

The variety of architectural styles depict the changing attitudes and living patterns during the emergence of Honolulu as a major city.

Melchers (1854)

The oldest commercial building in Honolulu, erected in 1854, is Melchers Building at 51 Merchant Street, built 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 offices, not private businesses.

Kamehameha V Post Office (1871)

The Kingdom of Hawai‘i instituted a postal system in 1851, issuing 5 and 13 cent stamps for letters and a 2 cent stamp for papers.

Operated as a private concession for many years, the postal service expanded its work in the 1860s. David Kalākaua, later Hawaii’s monarch, ran the service from 1862 to 1865. The Kamehameha V Post Office at the corner of Merchant and Bethel Streets was the first building in Hawaiʻi to be constructed entirely of precast concrete blocks reinforced with iron bars.

It was built by JG Osborne in 1871 and the success of this new method was replicated on a much grander scale the next year in the royal palace, Aliʻiōlani Hale. In 1900, the old Post Office became a unit of the U.S. Postal System.

Bishop Bank (1878)

Charles Reed Bishop moved to Honolulu in 1846; married Bernice Pauahi, in 1850; and Bishop started the first bank in Hawaiʻi, the Bishop & Co. Bank in 1858.

The Bishop Bank Building at 63 Merchant Street was the earliest of the Italianate (or Renaissance Revival) structures on the street, built in 1878 and designed by Thomas J. Baker (one of the architects of ʻIolani Palace.)

In 1925, Bishop Bank moved to much larger quarters along “Bankers Row” on Bishop Street, and later changed its name to First Hawaiian Bank, now the largest in the state. The building, now known as the Harriet Bouslog Building, houses the offices of the Harriet Bouslog Labor Scholarship Fund and the Bouslog/Sawyer Trusts.

The Friend Building (1887 and 1900)

This site was the approximate location of the Oʻahu Bethel Church established in 1837. Reverend Samuel C. Damon (1815-1885) founded the English-language paper ‘The Friend’ in 1843 and ran the paper from this earlier site of the Seamen’s Bethel Church until his death in 1885.

The Chinatown fire of 1886 destroyed the original Seaman’s Bethel building. In 1887, builder George Lucas, erected a single, two-story brick building on the makai (ocean) side of this double parcel to house The Friend and other papers, both English language and Hawaiian, printed by the Press Publishing Company.

Royal Saloon (1890)

In 1862, the Hawaiian Government officially permitted the sale of “ardent spirits” after many years of typically unheeded suppression. An establishment selling alcohol to the many visiting sailors was located on this approximate site as early as 1873.

The bar was only one of scores of similar establishments in Honolulu’s harbor area during the nineteenth century. In 1890, local barkeeper and investor Walter C. Peacock built and probably designed the Royal Saloon, one year after the widening of Merchant Street.

TR Foster Building (1891)

Thomas R. Foster began his company, Inter-Island Steam Navigation Company, in 1878. The TR Foster Building at 902 Nuʻuanu Avenue was built as his headquarters in 1891.

In 1880, Foster had purchased the estate of the renowned botanist William Hillebrand (1821–1886), which was bequeathed to the city as Foster Botanical Garden at the death of his wife, Mary E. Foster, in 1930.

(When airplanes came to the Hawaiian Islands, the Inter-Island Navigation Company founded a subsidiary, Inter-Island Airways. In 1941, Inter-Island changed its name to Hawaiian Airlines and discontinued its steam boat service in 1947.)

Bishop Estate Building (1896)

In 1896, the Bishop Estate purchased the property and built the current building. Bishop Estate offices remained at this location until 1918, when the trust built another building close by on Kaʻahumanu Avenue.

The Bishop Estate Building at 71 Merchant Street was designed by architects Clinton Briggs Ripley and his junior partner, CW Dickey. It initially housed the executive offices of not only the Bishop Estate, but also the Charles Reed Bishop 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 pilasters on the upper level, and a corniced parapet along the roofline.

(The original Kamehameha School for Boys opened in 1887 on a site currently occupied by Bishop Museum. The girls’ school opened in 1894 nearby. By 1955, both schools moved to Kapālama Heights.)

Stangenwald Building (1901)

At six stories, the Stangenwald building was considered Hawaii’s first skyscraper and one of the most prestigious addresses in Honolulu. Designed by noted architect Charles William Dickey, construction of the steel-frame and brick building began in 1900 and the building was completed in 1901.

This building is of the most modern style of fire-proof architecture, designed with completeness of office conveniences equal to that of any city.” Honolulu’s business community seemed to agree, for its prestigious address was claimed by several of Honolulu’s most prominent company names …

The Henry Waterhouse Trust Company, B F Dillingham, Castle and Cooke, Alexander & Baldwin and C Brewer Companies. The Stangenwald remained the tallest structure until 1950, when the seven-story Edgewater Hotel in Waikīkī took over that title.

Judd Building (1898)

Dr. Gerrit P. Judd (1803-1873), a Protestant missionary who arrived in Hawai‘i in 1826, purchased the lot at the corner of Merchant and Fort Streets in 1861.

The Judd Building, designed by Oliver G. Traphagen, boasted Hawaii’s first passenger elevator when it opened in 1898. The building was the first home for the newly formed Bank of Hawaii, which remained on the ground floor until 1927, when the bank took over new premises on Bishop Street.

A fifth floor was added on top in the 1920s. The name commemorates Dr. Gerrit P. Judd, who became a close advisor to Kamehameha III and served as a minister in government of the Kingdom of Hawai‘i. He was a central figure in the creation of Hawai‘i’s constitution and helped to negotiate the return of Hawaiian sovereignty from Great Britain in 1843.

Yokohama Specie Bank (1909)

Overseas branches of the Yokohama Specie Bank (est. 1880) were chartered to act as agents of Imperial Japan. The Honolulu branch was the first successful Japanese bank in Hawaiʻi.

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. The bank purchased this property, previously occupied by the 1855 Sailor’s Home, in 1907. During its operation, the bank set aside separate reception areas for Japanese-speaking, Chinese-speaking and English-speaking customers.

Honolulu Police Station (1931)

With one of the earliest police forces in the world, dating to 1834 and the reign of Kamehameha III (Kauikeaouli), the Kingdom of Hawaii had an earlier police station on King Street. The old Honolulu Police Station at 842 Bethel Street occupies the whole block of Merchant Street between Bethel Street and Nuʻuanu Avenue.

Built in 1931, it replaced an earlier brick building on the same site that dated from 1885 (the new structure is also known as the Walter Murray Gibson Building.)

At that time, the government also created a new Bethel Street extension, which linked Merchant Street to Queen Street. Architect Louis Davis designed it in a Spanish Mission Revival style that matches very well that of the newly built city hall, Honolulu Hale (1929.)

It served as the headquarters of the Honolulu Police Department until the latter moved to the old Sears building in Pawaʻa in 1967. It was renovated in the 1980s and now houses other city offices.

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Merchant_Street-Historic_District-Map-GoogleEarth
Honolulu_from_Merchant_Street_in_1885
Merchant-Fort_Streets-1898
Bishop Bank Building, 63 Merchant Street, Honolulu-1879
Bishop Bank Building, 63 Merchant Street, Honolulu-after_1878
Bishop Estate Building and Bishop Bank Building-(NPS)
Bishop Estate Building, 1896
Former Honolulu Hale Site
Honolulu Hale-(2) Honolulu Hale with its lookout, razed in 1917- (3) Kamehameha V Post Office, built in 1871
Judd Building (1898)
Judd_Building- Merchant Street & Fort Street Mall
Kamehameha V Post Office
Kamehameha V Post Office
Melchers Building, 51 Merchant Street
Melchers Building, 51 Merchant Street
Police Station – front, 1931
Royal Saloon (NPS)
Royal Saloon Building, 1890
Stangenwald_Office_Building,_Honolulu-(WC)-about_1901-architect C.W. Dickey
Stangenwald-Building-(Mid-PacificMagazine)-1913
T.R. Foster Building-PP-6-4-010
T.R. Foster Building
Yokohama Specie Bank (NPS)
Yokohama Specie Bank (NPS)

September 8, 2019 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Hawaiʻi’s First Skyscraper

At six stories, the Stangenwald building was considered Hawaii’s first skyscraper and one of the most prestigious addresses in Honolulu.

Designed by noted architect Charles William Dickey, construction of the steel-frame and brick building began in 1900 and the building was completed in 1901.

The Stangenwald Building melds Italian Renaissance Revival elements and a hint of the Romanesque Revival Style with arched windows, terra cotta ornaments, and a wide balcony with fine grillwork above the entrance.

Dr. Hugo Stangenwald, the “student revolutionist, Austrian émigré, able practicing physician, and recognized early-day daguerreotype artist (photographic process,)” left Austria in March 1845. After living in California, he arrived in Honolulu in 1853. He married the former Mary Dimond in 1854.

He opened a shop in late-1854 in a one-story frame structure on the site of the present Stangenwald building. His advertisement was well-known: “To send to them that precious boon, And have your picture taken soon, And quick their weeping eyes they’ll wipe To smile upon your daguerreotype.”

Stangenwald bought the Merchant Street property in 1869 and formed a partnership with his fellow-physician neighbor, Dr. Judd.

In January, 1899, Stangenwald leased his property to a hui, a limited partnership firm which was to lease his property from him and erect a building there to match the quality of the Judd Building (1898) next door.

Though the project was named for the well-known physician and photographer, Stangenwald had little to do with it. He died in June of that year.

The hui sold its interest in the land to the Pacific Building Company, newly formed to finance the project.

The building’s earliest occupants were lawyers, many of whom were in the hui and so had a vested interest in the building, so that early conceptions of the building included a law library and a Business Men’s Club, though neither were realized in the final building.

The Stangenwald Building’s steel frame supported a decorative structure, “with dark terra cotta and pressed metal trimmings and cornice, massive in design yet promising a pleasing effect. This building is of the most modern style of fire-proof architecture, designed with completeness of office conveniences equal to that of any city.”

Honolulu’s business community seemed to agree, for its prestigious address was claimed by several of Honolulu’s most prominent company names: The Henry Waterhouse Trust Company, BF Dillingham, Castle and Cooke, Alexander & Baldwin and C Brewer Companies.

It was part of downtown redevelopment plan and construction boom in the wake of the terrible Chinatown fire that destroyed blocks of buildings in 1900.

The Stangenwald remained the tallest structure until 1950, when the seven-story Edgewater Hotel in Waikīkī took over that title.

The building defined Honolulu’s skyline for more than 60 years and it was not until the 19-story First National Bank of Hawaiʻi Building was constructed in 1962 that Honolulu’s downtown would break the six-story mark (the only exceptions being the spires of Aloha Tower (1926) and Honolulu Hale (1929.))

Renovated periodically throughout its life – including alterations to the original ornate cornice, the Stangenwald was the subject of a major rehabilitation in 1980.

Today, the building is home to several architectural firms and the American Institute of Architects (founded in 1926, with Dickey as its inaugural president.)

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April 18, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Yokohama Specie Bank

In 1860, a special Japanese envoy stopped in Honolulu on the way to Washington, DC, thus beginning formal recognition between the Japanese and Hawaiians.

In 1868, members of the Japanese working class came as contract labor to the relatively unpopulated young city of Honolulu to fill job openings in the sugar plantations.

Although the arrangement was originally temporary, many stayed, such that by 1908 the Japanese constituted 40% of the population of the Territory of Hawaiʻi, and had expanded to some of the professional fields. (LOC-HABS)

The government-supported Yokohama Specie Bank, founded in Japan in 1880, was international in origin. It developed an extensive network of branches, facilitating trade through its participation in foreign exchange activities, trade financing and even long-term financing of the raw material needs of Japanese industry. (Jones)

The bank was named after the ‘specie,’ a silver coin (as distinguished from bullion or paper money) used as an international currency for settling payments among traders. The word is Latin for “in kind;” we similarly use the term ‘species’ as a class of individuals having some common characteristics or qualities (distinct sort or kind.)

The Yokohama Specie Bank set up its first representative office in Shanghai, associated with the growing triangular cotton trade among Japan, India and China. It did so at the request of Japanese businessmen, who – when India ended free coinage of silver that year – had major difficulties with foreign exchange transactions. (Jones)

Japanese banking came to Hawaiʻi on August 8, 1892, with the opening of the Honolulu branch of the Yokohama Shokin Giriko, the Yokohama Specie Bank, Ltd.

The bank first operated from offices in the Japanese consulate. By 1900, the bank had moved to the Republic Building on King Street between Bethel and Fort Streets. Most of the bank’s depositors were Japanese, although the Chinese and Hawaiians had accounts there in smaller numbers.

It did not come under the monarchy’s jurisdiction in a commercial sense, as it was established as an agency and acted as a part of the Japanese consulate. However, it incorporated in Hawaiʻi in 1895, its increasing business making certification necessary under the Government’s Foreign Corporation Law. (LOC-HABS)

Although the Yokohama Specie Bank conducted a merchant bank business in Hawaiʻi, its principal function remained that of transacting foreign exchange business.

In 1907, the Yokohama Specie Bank bought the property at the corner of Merchant and Bethel Streets. From the mid-nineteenth century, this site had been occupied by the Sailor’s Home, which was a three-story structure whose cornerstone was laid by King Kamehameha IV on July 31, 1855.

The new bank building was the design of architect Harry Livingston Kerr, responsible for more than 900 buildings erected in Honolulu (from 1897 to 1937.)

The cornerstone was laid on October 20, 1908. A group photograph of the staff of the bank was included in the items placed in the cornerstone. It opened on the April 18, 1910, with separate receptions for Caucasians, Japanese and Chinese, and general public.

The brick and steel building was considered the most fireproof building in town, having no exposed wood (it has copper and marble window casings, copper doors and sashes.) The architect Kerr modestly proclaimed it “the finest structure in Honolulu today.”

Visitors to the new building were particularly struck by the steel desks, including roll tops, which were made to look like wood. The vaults, too, received much attention, the one on the first floor being for the deposit of cash, and two in the basement, one for storage and one for the safe deposit, with a capacity for 3,000 boxes.

The bank followed the Japanese teller procedure, in which one main cashier controlled all cash from a central desk. The tellers acted as his agents, working from desktops instead of the customary tellers’ cages.

Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor (December 7, 1941,) the building was confiscated by the Alien Custodian Agency.

During the war, the first floor was used for storing confiscated possessions, while the basement was converted into a 250-man drunk tank for inebriated military personnel. Showers, toilets and cell bars were installed.

In February of 1941 the United States Treasury Department started liquidating the $12,000,000 in assets of the three Japanese banks in Hawaii at that time.

The Yokohama Specie Bank was the hardest hit of the three, because it was the only one solely owned by Japanese interests. Despite claims filed, $1.3 million belonging to Japanese depositors was still impounded in 1943. (Non-enemy aliens and U.S. citizens received their impounded money almost immediately.) The Justice Department authorized payment on March 2, 1948.

By late 1949 it had paid out $1.1 million to Yokohama Specie Bank depositors. However, the government refused to pay any interest on the impounded funds, until forced to do so by lawsuits which were not settled until April of 1967.

The US Justice Department had completed liquidation of Yokohama Specie Bank assets when it was sold to City Realty in 1954. The city of Honolulu then leased the building for the Honolulu Police Department Traffic Citation Bureau. It’s now the downtown site for Cole Academy. It is part of the Merchant Street Historic District. (LOC-HABS) (Lots of information here is from HABS.)

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