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September 29, 2015 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Walter Murray Gibson Building

In 1834, King Kamehameha III organized the first police force in the Hawaiian Islands. This was only four years after the inception of London’s first police force, and twelve years before that of any American city.

In 1845, the king appointed the first Marshal of the island, and sheriffs were appointed for each island. After counties were organized in 1905, sheriffs were elected for each county.

In 1885, the Minister of the Interior under King Kalākaua purchased property at Bethel and Merchant Streets and began construction of a new Police Court building on the site. The May 21, 1885 Daily Bulletin noted, “The work on the new Police Station building is progressing rapidly.”

The Chinatown fire of 1886 destroyed the old King Street police station so all of the functions of that building were transferred to the nearly completed Merchant Street structure, a two-story brick building.

The cell block was in the basement, the offices of the Marshal, Deputy Marshal, Police Justice and a detention area were on the ground floor. The courtroom was on the second floor.

In 1930, this building was demolished in order to construct the present structure on the site. The earlier brick building on the same site was built during the era of Walter Murray Gibson, so the new structure is also known as the Walter Murray Gibson Building.

While Gibson was in the Legislative Assembly (1878-1882) he became Finance Committee Chairman and under his leadership allocations of public funds showed his concern for the national pride of Hawaiians: $500 to Henri Berger, leader of the Hawaiian Band, for composing the music for Hawaii Ponoʻi, the new national anthem; $10,000 for a bronze statue of Kamehameha I; and $50,000 to begin construction of a new ʻIolani Palace, to house King Kalākaua and Queen Kapiʻolani, and all their successors. (Adler – Kamins)

He was also Member of Privy Council and Board of Health (1880, Health President 1882;) Commissioner of Crown Lands (1882;) Board of Education, President (1883;) Attorney General (1883;) House of Nobles (1882-1886;) Secretary of War & Navy (1886;) Premier and Minister of the Interior (1886) and Minister of Foreign Affairs (1882-1887.)

In his new capacities, Gibson’s first notable accomplishment was his development of a new monetary system for the island nation. The new money was printed in San Francisco and the bills featured Kalākaua. This was followed by the creation of a postal system; Gibson himself designed and printed the postage stamps for the Hawaiian kingdom. (Lowe)

Back to the building …

The later police station cost $235,000 and used eleven tons of French marble, Philippine mahogany and Waianae sandstone. The building, designed by local architect, Louis E. Davis, was occupied on September 29, 1931. (The Nuʻuanu Street addition was constructed in 1986.)

The style is Spanish Colonial Revival, also called Spanish Mission Revival; at the time it was built, the Spanish colonial revival style structure was becoming an accepted style for public edifices in Honolulu.

It is a three-story (with basement) Mediterranean-style reinforced-concrete building with plaster finish and ornate terra-cotta entry and decorative interior detailing. Various window and balcony elements reflect interior stairway. Interesting curved railings of exterior stair in 1939 addition at ‘Ewa end of building.

The vice squad, weights and measures, military police and shore patrol were in the basement, the receiving area, general offices, foot patrol, examiner of chauffeurs and traffic department were on the main floor, the jail was on the second floor, and district courtrooms and offices were on the top floor.

A one-and-a-half-story entrance hall on the ground floor at the Merchant/Bethel Streets corner contains a stairway to the first floor. Access to the second and third floors is via an open core stairway contained in the tower on Bethel Street.

During wartime, the first floor housed the Alien Property Custodian, which confiscated property owned by foreign citizens, beginning with the declaration of martial law on December 7, 1941. (It was this agency that closed the Yokohama Specie Bank across the street in 1941.)

The Police Department left the building in 1967, when they moved to the old Sears store in Pawaʻa. The Old Police Station, or Court Building as it was also known, continued to house the District Courts.

The courts, in turn, were moved in 1983 and the building stood empty for three years in the mid-1980s while the city debated the building’s future.

After a 1985 plan to use it as the vehicle and driver licensing operations center was rejected following public objection, in 1985 the city decided to use the building for the city’s Real Property Assessment and Public Housing Divisions.

The building is part of the Merchant Street Historical District, occupying four square blocks in downtown Honolulu, containing a variety of interesting old buildings. The area is what remains of “old” Honolulu.

Merchant Street, once the main street of the financial and governmental part of the city, bisects the district and is lined with low-rise, well maintained buildings of character and distinctions. (Lots of information here is from the HABS.)

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Police Station-on right-at Bethel-PP-38-8-008-1911
Police Station-on right-at Bethel-PP-38-8-008-1911
Enterprise Carriage-Police Stn (at Bethel) (r) PP-38-7-040-1892
Enterprise Carriage-Police Stn (at Bethel) (r) PP-38-7-040-1892
Police Station - front, 1931
Police Station – front, 1931
Police Station - rear, 1931
Police Station – rear, 1931
Police Station - side entrance door-(NPS)
Police Station – side entrance door-(NPS)
Police Station - Nuuanu entrance-(NPS)
Police Station – Nuuanu entrance-(NPS)
Police Station - main entry way-(NPS)
Police Station – main entry way-(NPS)
Police Station - door and window-(NPS)
Police Station – door and window-(NPS)
Makai Arterial (later Nimitz) at Bethel PP-39-7-045-1955
Makai Arterial (later Nimitz) at Bethel PP-39-7-045-1955
Old Police Stn-plaque
Old Police Stn-plaque
Honolulu and Vicinity-Dakin-Fire Insurance- 04-Map-1906
Honolulu and Vicinity-Dakin-Fire Insurance- 04-Map-1906
Downtown_Honolulu-Building_ownership_noted-Map-1950
Downtown_Honolulu-Building_ownership_noted-Map-1950
Downtown and Vicinity-Map-1887
Downtown and Vicinity-Map-1887
Downtown and Vicinity-Dakin-Fire Insurance- 4-Map-1891
Downtown and Vicinity-Dakin-Fire Insurance- 4-Map-1891

Filed Under: Buildings Tagged With: Hawaii, Oahu, Merchant Street, Merchant Street Historic District, Police, Honolulu Police Station

September 19, 2014 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Hula Cop

In the heyday of the Queen’s Surf (flagship property for the Spencecliff Corporation,) the Barefoot Bar was ground zero for local comedy and entertainment. Sterling Edwin Kilohana Mossman was the ringleader.

Mossman sang and did comedy and included a lot of others in the evening’s entertainment.  The footprints of many of these Island and internationally known entertainers lined the stairway up to the second floor bar.

A detective with the Honolulu Police Department during the day, after dark he was one of Hawaiʻi’s most popular entertainers. His diversified careers earned him the nickname “Hula Cop”. (TerritorialAirwaves)

But this story is not about that Hula Cop, this is about Pedro Jose, another ‘entertainer’ who earned that local moniker.  Due to his looks and 6-foot, six-inch frame, he was also known as the “Tall and Handsome One.”

Pedro (Peter – Pete) Jose (Hose) was born in Honolulu on September 29, 1881. His father came from the Cape Verde isthmus off the coast of Africa.  Cape Verdeans were of African Portuguese ancestry.

While directing traffic, Pete danced the hula on Downtown Honolulu streets. (Guttman)

“As he motions with his original comical gestures to the drivers of vehicles when to come ahead, Peter wears that everlasting smile.  No traffic is dense enough, no weather is too hot nor is any driver too grouchy to spoil that smile.  And the result is that everybody else smiles, too, and there is no pessimism at Merchant and Fort street.” (Honolulu Star-Bulletin, August 11, 1917)

“Like William Shakespeare, Peter Hose believes that when you smile the world smiles with you, and when you weep you weep alone. Hence it has become Peter’s business to keep the populace of Honolulu smiling when it happens down around, the corner of Merchant and Fort streets during the morning and late in the afternoon.”

“Peter Hose is the great tall six foot, six inch traffic cop whom everybody who ever passed along Merchant or Fort street when he was on duty remembers. Aside from his broad and everlasting smile, one discovers; upon closer examination, that Peter wears about the broadest brimmed hat made and the largest shoes obtainable in the city about twelves it was said the other day.”  (Honolulu Star-Bulletin, August 11, 1917)

“The sidewalk on Merchant street; from a point in front of the entrance to the savings department of Bishop & Co bankers, to the entrance of the Henry Waterhouse Trust Co on Fort street, opposite C Brewer & Co office, is considered the financial curb of Honolulu for there at almost any time of the day, except during the Exchange session, will be found the brokers, tipsters and stock traders swapping yarns, swapping tips, making bets, and winning the war.”

“But even these pursuits are apt to grow dull at times and in those dull moments Traffic Policeman Peter Hose, better known as “The Tall and Handsome One,” who holds sway at the corner of Merchant and Fort street, supplies the comedy element and keeps the broker throng amused with his Chaplin stunts.”  (Honolulu Star-Bulletin, December 17, 1917)

“Pete Hose, the ‘hula cop,’ … was a traffic cop who could make motorists laugh. To make motorists laugh in a traffic crush is no small accomplishment. …. Pete made the drivers laugh with just a suggestion of ‘the immortal Hawaiian hula dance when he beckoned to traffic.”

“’Hula cop’ was the nickname he went by. Besides being courteous he was efficient. He did favors for people, but never forgot that he was an officer. The people liked and respected him. That little touch of the clown in his makeup won their hearts.”

“A modern electric traffic device was installed recently at one of the busy corners in Honolulu, and the people dedicated it to Pete Hose. At a short ceremony, city officials spoke, and members of the traffic department and friends of Pete Hose praised his work.”

“(T)he courtesy that Hose expressed in his whole life perhaps could be copied with benefit by some of them.  A little touch of humor makes the whole world kin – and often brings humanity’s homage, as in Pete Hose’s case.”  (Manitowoc Herald Times, December 13, 1926)

“Honolulu’s “hula cop,” who has caused thousands of tourists to laugh at his downy antics as he directed traffic through the downtown thoroughfares, has been ‘promoted’ from the ‘stop and go’ job to a position as waterfront policeman.”

“Peter will now direct the tourists as they set foot on Hawaiian soil, and there is little doubt that a few weeks of acquaintance with the new surroundings will set him ‘hula-ing.’”

“Indeed, when the white-suited Hawaiian band strikes up the strains of ‘Honolulu Tomboy’ or ‘Hula Blues’ as the boats come in or sail away, no one who knows Peter Hose would rightfully expect him to make those arms and legs behave. (New Castle News, PA, April 23, 1924)

“He is philosophically inclined, Peter is, and he believes in the plain, honest smile. He first went on the police force about 10 years ago and he has discovered in his long experience that there is one thing that does more to prevent collisions, hard words and ill feeling one thing that keeps the traffic moving smoothly and that as a real smile.”   (Honolulu Star-Bulletin, August 11, 1917)

 “Peter Hose, Honolulu’s ‘Hula Cop,’ big, smiling, hearty, known by nearly every man, woman and child in Honolulu and easily remembered by tens of thousands of world tourists who have passed through Honolulu the last 18 years, is no more.”

“‘Pete’ made a gallant, though a losing, fight with tuberculosis. One morning… he left Lēʻahi for home. ‘I know I am going to die,’ he said, ‘and I am going to die at home, among my own kin folks.’”  (Knowlton, Advertiser, Advertiser January 5, 1925)  The image shows Pedro Jose, Honolulu’s Hula Cop.

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Filed Under: Prominent People Tagged With: Hawaii, Honolulu, Oahu, Downtown Honolulu, Pedro Jose, Hula Cop, Police, Spencecliff

Images of Old Hawaiʻi

People, places, and events in Hawaiʻi’s past come alive through text and media in “Images of Old Hawaiʻi.” These posts are informal historic summaries presented for personal, non-commercial, and educational purposes.

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