Calling all history buffs! 

The Oʻahu Historic Preservation Commission, which was founded three years ago, is putting together Honolulu’s first-ever complete inventory of city-owned historic properties. 

City officials and commissioners are pulling information from a number of sources, including property tax records, documents from the State Historic Preservation Division and historic register nominations.

And they’d love to hear from local residents about city-owned properties that they might have overlooked. They are interested in learning more about parks and places that may have significant buildings on them or where historic events occurred. 

“People may have stories we don’t know about,” preservation commissioner Mahealani Cypher said. 

Ideas showcases stories, opinion and analysis about Hawaiʻi, from the state’s sharpest thinkers, to stretch our collective thinking about a problem or an issue. Email news@civilbeat.org to submit an idea or an essay.

Read More

Creating such an inventory is a step that was taken by most major American cities decades ago. But Honolulu fell quite a bit behind other metropolitan areas in recognizing its historic places and taking steps to preserve and maintain them. 

In 1993, amid widespread public concern that many of the city’s iconic buildings and sites were at risk of destruction, the Honolulu City Council unanimously passed an ordinance to establish the historic preservation commission.  

Real estate developers didn’t like the idea and said it would inhibit construction. Despite pleas from local historians, a series of mayors declined to establish it, from Frank Fasi to Jeremy Harris, to Mufi Hanneman, Peter Carlisle and Kirk Caldwell. During those years, a number of significant properties were demolished. 

But 30 years later, in 2023, Mayor Rick Blangiardi finally set up the board and appointed nine commissioners to serve on it. One of the commission’s specific duties is to establish an inventory of historic places the city owns. 

The commission started its investigation in 2024, first by identifying 32 properties that have already been nominated to the state or national register of historic places.  

This includes fire stations at Makiki, Kaimukī and Waialua; Foster Botanical Gardens; Honolulu Hale; the Mission Memorial Building; Mother Waldron playground; the Ojizo Stone Monument; Pahukini Heiau; and Tsoon Nyee Society Cook House and Wakamiya Inari Shrine in Waipahu. 

Now the city is casting its net wider. They have identified about 63 sites that are more than 50 years old and are known to be historic, and 89 more that are more than 50 years old, have not been identified as historic but that deserve further consideration. Some are archaeological sites without modern structures on them.

Paki Hale in Kapiʻolani Park, built about 1921 and once the home of C. W. Winstedt, a Swedish architect who built Aloha Tower, is a recent proposed addition to the list. It is now used by the city’s Department of Parks and Recreation and as community event space. 

The city owns a number of properties in Chinatown, which are part of a historic district, and several at ʻEwa Plantation. Not all are individually significant, however, but are identified as contributing to an area’s historic character.

At a recent board meeting, commissioners mentioned the Honolulu Zoo as having historic significance. Commissioner Glenn Mason suggested that the city-owned beach parks also have features that would make them historic.

Cypher has singled out Nāonealaʻa a Kāneʻohe, which means “the sands of Laʻamaikahiki,” after the romantic Tahitian chief, Laʻa, who traveled to the Hawaiian islands, introducing many new customs and becoming the ancestor of many chiefly families. The property was formerly known as Kāneʻohe Beach Park. In 2021, a historic marker was placed on the site explaining the ancient traditions associated with the site and Laʻa’s arrival there.

The goal here is to help city officials become more aware of what properties they own and help provide guidance to city workers about how best to care for them. They are proposing developing a training video that could explain what city workers should know about the places where they work or do work.

For example, it would be helpful to provide more specific information for city workers who encounter human remains and are not sure what to do.

The city has come under considerable criticism in the past for allowing valuable old buildings to fall into disrepair.  Advocates for restoring ʻEwa Plantation have asked the city to take action to renovate it. Kailua residents have decried the deterioration of the historic Boettcher estate. In October, the city announced it planned to move forward with a long-overdue roof repair. The work has since been completed.

There is reason to believe that some historic buildings the city owned went unrecognized and may have been unthinkingly demolished.  In some cases, buildings that were known to be historic may have been destroyed before the city took ownership of the sites.

But the problem here is that, in fact, nobody really knows.

Cypher said this is an opportunity for history enthusiasts to share what they know about Oahu and important events that have happened here, and she asked people to come forward. 

“Think about where you live,” Cypher said. “What are the historic places where you are?” 

Feel free to share your ideas in the comment section below, or to do so by email, at dpp-ohpc@honolulu.gov, to the attention of Katie Stephens, the historic architect who chairs the commission. 

The commission meets monthly at the Frank F. Fasi Municipal Building downtown and welcomes public participation.