#DowntownHonolulu #MerchantStreet

The Merchant Street Commercial and Civic Historic District located in downtown Honolulu is an excellent example of an early commercial center in post-contact, pre-territorial, and Territorial Hawai‘i. As one of the first official streets in Hawai‘i and one of the city’s first economic hubs, it is significant for its role as ‘Honolulu’s Wall Street’, the location of the Honolulu Stock Exchange, banks, insurance companies, sugar factors, and commission agents. Four out of the five members of the ‘Big Five’ maintained their offices in buildings included within the District. The District retains a notable concentration of intact, historic, commercial, and municipal buildings from the mid-19th to mid-20th centuries. In November 2021 the Hawai‘i Historic Places Review Board approved an update and amendment to the Merchant Street Commercial and Civic Historic District listing on the Hawai‘i State Register of Historic Places. The original nomination was approved in 1973. (Download the nomination forms.) This amended form provides much needed clarification, along with expanded description and significance sections, details the district’s history as well as its architectural character, and has added two buildings to the district (The Honolulu Star-Bulletin Building and the Alexander & Baldwin Building). Other new resources added to this district nomination are the site of the original Honolulu Hale and four objects: granite curbs and sidewalks, lava rock curbs, cannons, and a remnant of a cast-iron storefront. (See detailed descriptions below.) Click below to download a poster with a map of the district sites (the original sites and those added to the amended nomination in 2021 are delineated). DOWNLOAD THE POSTER A Walk Though Historical Merchant Street Historical images of several of the iconic buildings of Merchant Street Historic District photographed between 1879 [...]