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3 Aloha Tower
4
Hawaii Maritime
Center
The Aloha Tower is a retired
lighthous e that is considered
one of the landmarks of the
state of Hawaii in the United
States. Opened on September
11, 1926, at a then astronomical
cost of $160,000, the Aloha
Tower is located at Pier 9
of Honolulu Harbor. It has
been, and continues to
be, a guiding beacon welcoming
vessels to the City
and County of Honolulu.
Just as the Statue of Liberty
greeted hundreds of
thousands of immigrants
each year to New York City,
the Aloha Tower greeted
hundreds of thousands of
immigrants to Honolulu.
At 10 stories and 184 feet
(56 m) of height topped
with 40 feet (12 m) of flag
mast, for four decades the
Aloha Tower was the tallest
structure in Hawaii. It
was built in the Hawaiian
Gothic architectural style.
The Hawaii Maritime Center was the principal maritime
museum in the State of Hawaii from 1988
until it closed in 2009. Located at Pier 7 of Honolulu
Harbor east of Aloha Tower, the center was
a campus of the Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop
Museum. The Hawaii Maritime Center was built on
what once was the private boathouse of King David
Kalakaua and was home to the only four-masted,
full-rigged ship in the world called the Falls of
Clyde. The Falls of Clyde was built in 1878 for the
oil industry and is a National Historic Landmark.
Also docked at the Hawaii Maritime Center was the
voyaging canoe Hokulea, a scientific research vessel
of great importance to native Hawaiian culture.
Due to prevailing economic conditions, the Hawai’i
Maritime Center was closed to the public effective
May 1, 2009. In December 2017, the Bishop Museum
transferred its lease between the Maritime
Center and the State of Hawaii to a third party, and
ceased operating the Center. Plans for its future
are unknown.
5
Pearl Harbor
USS Arizona Memorial
The USS Arizona Memorial, at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Hawaii,
marks the resting place of 1,102 of the 1,177 sailors and Marines
killed on USS Arizona (BB-39) during the Japanese surprise attack
on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 and commemorates the
events of that day. The attack on Pearl Harbor and the island of
Oʻahu led to the United States’ direct involvement in World War II.
The memorial, built in 1962, is visited by more than two million
people annually. Accessible only by boat, it straddles the sunken
hull of the battleship without touching it. Historical information
about the attack, shuttle boats to and from the memorial, and
general visitor services are available at the associated USS Arizona
Memorial Visitor Center, which opened in 1980 and is operated by
the National Park Service. The battleship’s sunken remains were
declared a National Historic Landmark on May 5, 1989.
The USS Arizona Memorial is one of several sites in Hawaii and
elsewhere that are part of the World War II Valor in the Pacific
National Monument.
Design
The national memorial was designed by Honolulu architect
Alfred Preis who was detained at Sand Island at the start of the
war as an enemy of the country because of his Austrian birth. ]
The United States Navy specified the memorial be in the form of
a bridge floating above the ship and accommodating 200 people.
The 184-foot-long structure has two peaks at
each end connected by a sag in the center of the
structure. It represents the height of American pride
before the war, the nation’s sudden depression
after the attack and the rise of American power to
new heights after the war. Critics initially called the
design a “squashed milk carton”
The architecture of the USS Arizona Memorial is
explained by Preis as, “Wherein the structure sags
in the center but stands strong and vigorous at the
ends, expresses initial defeat and ultimate victory
... The overall effect is one of serenity. Overtones of
sadness have been omitted to permit the individual
to contemplate his own personal responses ... his
innermost feelings.”
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