Address
735 Bishop Street, Honolulu, HI 96813
TMK
(1) 2-1-014:003
SHPD Historic Site Number
80-14-9900
National Register of Historic Places
#79000756
Abstract
Built in 1929, the Dillingham Transportation Building is significant under Criterion A for its association with commercial development of downtown Honolulu, as the first large commercial building designed entirely for rental tenants, and as the site of the FBI field office investigations into Japanese and Japanese Americans prior to and after the 1941 Pearl Harbor attack. The building is significant under Criterion B for its association with Walter F. Dillingham, an important business and civic leader, who commissioned and built it in memory of his father, B. F. Dillingham. It is significant, too, for its association with Robert L. Shivers, the head of the FBI office in Honolulu, a special agent who was instrumental in preventing the mass internment of Japanese Americans in Hawai’i. It is significant under Criterion C as a good example of an Italian/Mediterranean Renaissance Revival style building with Beaux Arts influences applied to a commercial structure designed by a master architect, Lincoln Rogers. The Dillingham Transportation Building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. This updated nomination serves to provide a more comprehensive survey of the historic property’s architectural and historical significance.
This list of Hawaii’s historic properties is provided as a public service by Historic Hawaii Foundation. It is not the official list of properties designated on the Hawaii State Register of Historic Places. For official designations and determinations of eligibility, contact the State Historic Preservation Division of the Department of Land and Natural Resources of the State of Hawaii at 808-692-8015.