HistoricHawaii

By Kelsey Walling, Hawaii Tribune-Herald | June 8, 2022 (republished with permission) After over two years of planning, four gardeners from Japan traveled to Hilo and built two suhama, or stone beaches, at Lili‘uokalani Park and Gardens. K.T. Cannon-Eger has been working with multiple county administrations to help restore the park to what it looked like nearly 100 years ago. Years ago, Hilo resident Roanne Nip shared a photo of her grandmother on the social media page, Big Island History in Photos, to see if someone recognized the location of a stone beach she was sitting on. Cannon-Eger immediately recognized Lili‘uokalani Park and realized there were stone beaches when the photo was taken in the 1930s, before the 1946 tsunami that destroyed much of the area. Rev. Sohko Kuki performs a blessing in front of the Japanese landscaping team and other attendees for the new suhama, or stone beaches, at Liliuokalani Park and Gardens in Hilo on Tuesday. Kelsey Walling/Tribune-Herald “When I saw the photo, I knew I wanted to work to restore this part of the park with help from expert Japanese gardeners,” Cannon-Eger said. “I started talking about this project when Billy Kenoi was mayor, and now with Mitch Roth as mayor and Maurice Messina in the parks department it was finally able to happen.” Cannon-Eger received the first grant from the Japan government’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, or MLIT, in March 2020. MLIT has been supporting the restoration of Japanese gardens around the world since 2009. The grant was gifted just before the parks closed during the first COVID-19 stay-at-home order. While the pandemic raged, Friends of Lili‘uokalani Park continued to apply for grants and raise funds [...]

  By Wendy Tolleson, MA On May 25th, I toured the Judd Building at 851 Fort Street in downtown Honolulu with Columnist and Consultant Bob Sigall.  The building is located on the corner of Fort and Merchant and was erected in 1898.  The architect, Oliver Traphagen, also designed The Moana Surfrider around the same time.  Bank of Hawai‘i, First Federal Savings, and Alexander & Baldwin have each occupied the building at some point in the past. Mark Davis of the law firm Davis, Levin, Livingston and Grande was our host.  The firm moved in in 2000 and occupies the fourth and fifth floors today.  Davis’ office was, at one time, the Honolulu Stock Exchange, from 1898-1977.  The original desk and six of the ornate chairs from that time (see below) are still in his offices. Our tour guide, Mark Davis. Mark was gracious and deeply knowledgeable about the building’s history.  Although I already knew a little of the building's history and learned more from the National Register of Historic Places nomination form, the tour Mark provided of the interior really delivered a view into the history of the past businesses that occupied the building that wasn't included in the nomination. The basement is an extraordinary space that includes architectural features and artifacts representing the former occupants.  These included the two vaults used by the Bank of Hawai‘i and Alexander and Baldwin, a working dumb waiter, and the mechanical “guts” of the first electric elevator of its kind installed in Hawai‘i's first "skyscraper".  One architectural element in the basement -- cut basalt stone bases that supported the pillars of the building—is a material that was used in construction of buildings in Chinatown that are [...]