A walk through historic downtown Honolulu

• Historic downtown Honolulu map (graphic)

By Kaui Philpotts
Advertiser Homestyle Writer

The Stangenwald building on Merchant Street was built in 1901. The six-story structure was the tallest in Honolulu for more than 50 years. State archives 1912 Architectural walking tour of historic Honolulu 9-11:30 a.m., Saturdays Begins at American Institute of Architects office, 1128 Nu'uanu Ave. $15 per person (special rates for children and students) For reservations, call AIA Honolulu, 545-4242. Also: Wear comfortable shoes. Bring a hat, water and sunscreen.

When residents and visitors walk the streets of old Honolulu each Saturday morning, fascinating pieces of history and trivia emerge.

The walking tours are led by docents from the local chapter of the American Institute of Architects.

Luckily, says Frank Haines of Architects Hawaii, one of the driving forces behind the tour, the historic city is a reasonable walk. Haines, whose passion and love for historic buildings is well known, walked with me one Saturday on a regularly scheduled tour.

Armed with bottled water, comfortable shoes and hats, we head out from the AIA office on Nu'uanu Avenue. Haines tells me Nu'uanu was the main drag of Honolulu's old town. It was the street that divided Chinatown from the rest of the city. We stop to look at the sidewalks of stone ballast rocks that steadied ships returning from China during the sandalwood trade of the early 19th century.

Haines points out the decorative bric-a-brac on the overhangs of buildings along Nu'uanu. They are a testament to the invention (new at the time) of the jigsaw. Many of the buildings, once brick-fronted, have since been plastered over for a more "modern" appearance. Much of the area is now part of a preservation district, and while interiors can be changed, exteriors have to be kept to historical specifications.

We pass the Nippu Jiji building with its massive dark stone Romanesque exterior, reminiscent of the Bishop Museum, past the old waterfront buildings housing Murphy's and O'Toole's bars, and head down Merchant Street to the corner of Bethel and the site of the Yokohama Specie Bank. Built in 1909, it was once one of the most ornate and expensive buildings in the city, and until recently the offices of Honolulu magazine. The bank ceased to operate after the start of World War II.

The impressive entrance of the old bank is like a Renaissance-style triumphal arch complete with a decorative, canted wall and pilasters climbing up the side of the building. The details of the building, from the ornately plastered ceilings to the wooden windows painstakingly covered with copper, set it apart.

Across the street, the building housing the Kumu Kahua Theatre stands looking somewhat shabby. Built in 1871Êby King Kamehameha V, the building is made of concrete blocks cut to look like the European stone buildings the king loved. Unlike Ali'iolani Hale, built in 1874, the building has not been well maintained. Many coats of paint have since been applied to the concrete blocks and the downstairs open lanai has been boarded up.

Almost directly across the street is a sad little building, stripped of all its decorative elements and dwarfed by the looming Harbor Court. It is the site of Charles Reed Bishop's first bank and offices. Bishop, husband of Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop and founder of what is now First Hawaiian Bank, was one of the most influential Islanders of his day.

Haines passes around a photograph of the original building with its pretty, ornate facade. An aggressive renovation in the 1960s was an attempt to modernize the building. Today such renovation, destroying a building's character, would not be allowed.

We head on down Merchant, take a right onto the Fort Street Mall and plant ourselves in front of the old C. Brewer building, now home to the University of Phoenix campus. This building, which housed one of Hawai'i's "Big Five" companies, is by far one of the most beautiful and influential buildings in town.

Built in 1930 by Hardie Phillips and Bertram Goodhue (also responsible for the Honolulu Academy of Arts), the building was created to have a residential feel. The offices all open to gardens and balconies from which the waterfront was once clearly visible. Its exterior texture is plaster and stucco over a reinforced concrete base. Brewer had its beginnings in the sandalwood and fur trade before it invested in sugar.

Ali'iolani Hale

The building was lovingly restored in 1998 by Janine Clifford of Clifford Projects Inc.

Rounding the corner of Fort Street back onto Merchant, we come to the Stangenwald building with its once-lofty six stories and heavily detailed Italian Renaissance front. Restored in 1980 by Honolulu architect James Tsugawa, the building was the tallest in the city for more than 50 years and boasted of having the first electric elevator in Hawai'i.

Surprisingly, the building was originally designed in 1901 by C.W. Dickey, famous for his hip roofs, which became an island standard. It's a jumble of architectural features, Haines tells us, pointing to two large French cartouches (framed decorative features) on either side of the entrance and the copper awning in the middle.

Hawaii State Capitol

Like the C. Brewer building, the A & B structure borrowed only loosely from outside (especially European) elements. And like the former building, in spite of its massiveness, the look is residential. Wood designed concrete beams under the roof to look like the wood beams of a home. A concrete balcony extends from the executive offices on the top floors, and symbols of sugar cane and water buffalo appear on the facade.

C.W. Dickey was the nephew of one of the founders of A & B. When the building was completed after three years, so was the partnership of Dickey and Wood. However, the integrity of the exterior of the building is such that nothing has been done to it since, and it still looks fresh and substantial.

We continue on down Merchant Street to the Post Office with its Spanish colonial style, which proved very suitable for Hawai'i's climate. The same architectural style is reflected in the Hawaiian Electric Co. building across the street and in Honolulu Hale. An amusing feature of the Spanish style is the bell tower seen on all the buildings. This style originally was created for Roman Catholic mission churches.

By the time we come to the graceful exterior of Ali'iolani Hale, the sun is getting hot and we are thankful for the shade of a huge monkeypod tree.

Ali'iolani Hale originally was commissioned as a palace by Kamehameha IV and designed in Australia by Thomas Rowe to European standards. But the king's brother and successor, Kamehameha V, realized that the government needed an administrative center more than a palace.

It once housed the kingdom's legislature, the courts and ministries, Sanford Dole's offices during the republic era, and treasures of the Kamehameha dynasty. "Hawaii 5-0" fans will recognize the building as the headquarters of the fictional state police agency.

It also was the real-life setting of the notorious Massey trial of the 1930s. Restored in 1911, in 1978 and again in 1987, it is now on the National Register of Historic Places.

The tour continues to Kawaiaha'o Church, with its New England structure made of huge coral blocks carved from a nearby reef and dragged to the site in 1842. Japanese couples are being married almost nonstop within its simple, yet impressive interior on Saturday mornings.

On we march to the houses which housed the first Protestant missionaries, past Honolulu Hale with its open courtyard and the State Library, built with a grant from steel magnate Andrew Carnegie.

On the grounds of 'Iolani Palace, we marvel at the symmetry of the building, noting that the basement of the building is only half submerged, allowing light into its rooms. Restored to perfection after years of misuse and neglect, the building deserves another morning for a tour of its own.

We pass the 'Iolani Barracks, moved from its original site when the Capitol was built in 1968, and Julia Morgan's magnificent YWCA building, with its broken pediment and upstairs rooms where young women once spent the night safe and secure.

Haines is particularly proud of the Capitol building, which he had a part in creating. Like our island state, it's surrounded by water. In a fit of democratic fervor, the design committee for the building determined that all the legislators' offices should only open onto a central hallway, making them accessible to voters (and protesters) on their way into the two legislative chambers.

We walk on past Washington Place, named for an American boarder of Mrs. John Dominis (the deposed Queen Lili'uokalani), to St. Andrew's Cathedral, Our Lady of Peace Cathedral, the Hawaii Theatre with its still-funky front and plush, golden interior, to the AIA office.

Filled with history and a new appreciation for our heritage, we wrap up our morning walk, my perception of old Honolulu marvelously enhanced.