Aloha Tower, Honolulu
The lighthouse clock tower that greeted every ship to Hawaii in the Boat Days era – for forty years the tallest building in the islands, with ALOHA written on all four faces.
At a glance
- Type
- Lighthouse and harbor tower
- Period
- 1926
- Style
- Hawaiian Gothic / Art Deco
- Location
- Honolulu Harbor, Hawaii, USA
- Coordinates
- 21.3070, -157.8660
- Architect
- Arthur Reynolds
Overview
The Aloha Tower rises ten storeys above Pier 9 of Honolulu Harbor, a white reinforced-concrete campanile whose four clock faces – among the largest in the United States when installed – each carry the word ALOHA to welcome arriving ships. Completed in 1926, it was the tallest structure in Hawaii for four decades and the first sight of the islands for a generation of travellers.
History
In the Boat Days of the 1920s and 30s, every Matson liner arrival was a festival: crowds with leis, hula troupes, and the Royal Hawaiian Band filled the pier beneath the tower. On 7 December 1941 the tower watched the attack on Pearl Harbor and was painted in camouflage for the war. As aviation ended the liner age the tower faded, then revived as the centerpiece of a marketplace and, today, of Hawaii Pacific University’s waterfront campus.
Architecture and Design
Arthur Reynolds blended a Gothic-derived octagonal lantern and balconies with Deco massing and the great bronze-handed clocks. The 12th-floor observation deck, reached by the original elevator, gives a 360-degree view of harbor, mountains, and the Waikiki shoreline. A US Coast Guard light still operates in the lantern.
Cultural significance
The tower is Hawaii’s Statue of Liberty – the emblem of arrival, printed on menus, matchbooks, and memories of the liner era. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, it preserves the romance of trans-Pacific travel before the jet age.
Visiting today
The observation deck is open daily with free admission; the surrounding marketplace offers dining on the water where cruise ships still berth on Boat Days revived.
Getting there
The tower is at Pier 9, a short walk from downtown Honolulu and the Hawaii State Art Museum; TheBus routes along Ala Moana Boulevard stop at Aloha Tower Drive.
Sources and resources
Find it on the map
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