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Melchers Building

1854 establishments in HawaiiCommercial buildings completed in 1854Commercial buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in HawaiiHistoric district contributing properties in HawaiiNational Register of Historic Places in Honolulu
Neoclassical architecture in Hawaii
Honolulu Merchantst51 Melcher bldg
Honolulu Merchantst51 Melcher bldg

The Melchers Building is a historic commercial building in Downtown Honolulu, Hawaii. Located at 51 Merchant Street, it is the oldest commercial building in Honolulu. Designed in the Classical Revival style by an unknown architect, it was constructed in 1854 of white coral blocks. The original structure's qualities are no longer visible beneath outer layers of stucco and paint. The building's structure is similar to other commercial 19th Century buildings in Honolulu. The Melchers Building is a simple structure just 400 feet from the ocean, with two floors and minimal ornamentation. Its original purpose was to house the offices of Gustav C. Melchers and Gustav Reiner, traders who were originally from Bremen. Subsequently, it served for a time as the office of the City Prosecutor. At one point, the windows along the Merchant Street side were bricked up and an iron frame was placed around the door. The bricked windows and blocked doorway have since been removed and the building is now in use as an office annex by the City and County of Honolulu.The building is a contributing property to the Merchant Street Historic District.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Melchers Building (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Melchers Building
Queen Street, Honolulu Chinatown

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Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 21.309458 ° E -157.863354 °
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Address

Harbour Court

Queen Street 66
96813 Honolulu, Chinatown
Hawaii, United States
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Honolulu Merchantst51 Melcher bldg
Honolulu Merchantst51 Melcher bldg
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Stangenwald Building
Stangenwald Building

The Stangenwald Building at 119 Merchant Street, in downtown Honolulu, Hawaii was the city's first high-rise office building, with its own law library, and one of the earliest electric elevators in the (then) Territory when it was built in 1901. It was also advertised as "fireproof" because it was built of concrete, stone, brick, and steel, with no wood except in the windows, doors, and furniture, and because it had fireproof vaults and firehoses on every floor. Fireproofing was an important selling point because of the fire that had devastated nearby Chinatown the previous year.) Apart from a few exceptional structures like Aloha Tower (1926) and Honolulu Hale (1929), it remained the tallest building in Honolulu for half a century, until the building boom of the 1950s.Young local architect C.W. Dickey designed it with features of Italianate architecture: arched windows, terra cotta ornaments, and a wide balcony with fine grillwork above the entrance. Every floor had a unique exterior. The interior vestibule and hall were decorated with mosaic tile floors and marble panelling, while the stairways had slate and marble steps. In 1980, another local architect, James K. Tsugawa, completed an award-winning restoration.Dr. Hugo Stangenwald was an Austrian physician and pioneer photographer who arrived in Honolulu in 1853. In 1869, he bought the 5,303-square-foot (492.7 m2) property and built his medical offices there, in partnership with Dr. Gerrit P. Judd next door. Not long before he died in 1899, he leased the land to a group who planned a fine structure to match the quality of the Judd Building (1898) next door, designed by Oliver G. Traphagen, who had just arrived from Duluth, Minnesota.