You are here

U.S. Post Office, Custom House, and Court House

-A A +A
1922, 1930, York and Sawyer. 335 Merchant St.
  • (Photograph by Augie Salbosa)
  • (Photograph by Augie Salbosa)
  • (Photograph by Augie Salbosa)
  • (Photograph by Augie Salbosa)
  • (Photograph by Augie Salbosa)
  • (Photograph by Augie Salbosa)
  • (Photograph by Augie Salbosa)
  • (Photograph by Augie Salbosa)
  • (Photograph by Augie Salbosa)
  • (Photograph by Augie Salbosa)
  • (Photograph by Augie Salbosa)
  • (Photograph by Augie Salbosa)

Set back from the street behind a lawn and tropical plantings, this handsome, asymmetrical composition is distinguished by its modified pavilion plan, arcades, and six-story square towers. The open arcades of the Spanish Mission Revival building disguise the scale of its three-story 177 × 143–foot footprint. A flat-roofed, single-story arcade wraps around one corner of the building and leads into a corridor lined with postboxes, a seamless transition between the outside and inside. The front courtyard's arcade furthers the dialogue between the building and the outdoors, while the octagonal terra-cotta columns give a nod to Hawaii by incorporating stylized hibiscus blooms into their tropical Corinthian capitals. A spacious lobby with a marble double staircase also establishes a sense of openness, which is matched by the wide main corridors on the second and third floors, and by the third-floor balcony overlooking an interior courtyard. The ill-proportioned courtyard, whose aesthetic potential is extinguished by its use as a parking lot, is the result of a rear addition in 1930, rendered in a style similar to the original.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Don J. Hibbard
×

Data

What's Nearby

Citation

Don J. Hibbard, "U.S. Post Office, Custom House, and Court House", [Honolulu, Hawaii], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/HI-01-OA50.

Print Source

Cover: Buildings of Hawaii

Buildings of Hawaii, Don J. Hibbard. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2011, 110-110.

If SAH Archipedia has been useful to you, please consider supporting it.

SAH Archipedia tells the story of the United States through its buildings, landscapes, and cities. This freely available resource empowers the public with authoritative knowledge that deepens their understanding and appreciation of the built environment. But the Society of Architectural Historians, which created SAH Archipedia with University of Virginia Press, needs your support to maintain the high-caliber research, writing, photography, cartography, editing, design, and programming that make SAH Archipedia a trusted online resource available to all who value the history of place, heritage tourism, and learning.

,