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Goro Hokama Post Office Building

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2000, Richard Matsunaga and Associates, design architect Glenn Murata. 620 Jacaranda St.
  • (Photograph by Augie Salbosa)

Located half a block off the village green, the modern U.S. post office echoes the historic scale and look of the town center. Its plywood walls replicate the appearance of board and batten, while its imposing, blue metal, hipped gablet roof also captures the essence of earlier forms. The postboxes are accessible from the outdoors off a lanai, whose concrete floors have been imprinted to appear as planks.

In 2001, H.R. 132 designated this post office building to carry the name of Goro Hokama (1928–2004). Hokama was raised on Lanai and graduated from Lanai High School as class president and valedictorian. He immediately went to work for Dole Pineapple as a clerk and remained in this position until his retirement in 1991. Hokama was a very active and highly respected member of the ILWU, declining promotions Dole offered him through the years in order to remain a union representative. In 1954, following his return from the Korean War, he was elected to represent the island of Lanai on the Maui County Board of Supervisors, which was later named the Maui County Council. Part of the so-called Democratic Revolution of '54, Hokama was reelected twenty times, holding his seat for forty-one years, the last sixteen of which he served as council chair.

Design architect Glenn Murata, a partner at Richard Matsunaga and Associates, has been with the firm since 1977; he graduated from the University of Hawaii's school of architecture in 1970.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Don J. Hibbard
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Data

What's Nearby

Lanai Theatre and Playhouse
Lanai Company Administration Building
County Gym
Hotel Lanai
Sacred Hearts Catholic Church

Citation

Don J. Hibbard, "Goro Hokama Post Office Building", [Lanai City, Hawaii], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/HI-01-LA4.

Print Source

Cover: Buildings of Hawaii

Buildings of Hawaii, Don J. Hibbard. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2011, 243-244.

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