Fort Street Mall

Description of site.

Discussion of community and its culture as seen through site.

Analysis of intercultural and communicative dimensions.

Articulate theoretical concepts.

Material and interviews from culture or experts on site.

Fort Street Mall cuts through the heart of downtown Honolulu, spans the historical arc of Hawaii, displays the diversity of the world’s cultural spectrum in its various shops and cafes, and captures the eclectic cross-section of people who trace their origins from Oceania, Asia, Europe, and Africa. The casual sightseers who visit Fort Street Mall readily gain access and insight into the community and culture of authentic Honolulu and Hawaii, yet at the same time experiences the uniqueness of Fort Street Mall. For the observant visitor, the full dimension of the cultural history, stories, identity, values, and meaning are revealed through the people who inhabit, the buildings that line, and the shops and cafes that make up the Fort Street Mall.

Fort Street Mall, which takes its name from one of the oldest streets in Honolulu, honors the Honolulu Fort that once stood at the intersection of Queen and Fort Streets. The old fort originally was a Russian-American Company defensive blockhouse that was built to protect trade through the Honolulu Harbor. King Kamehameha, concerned that the close proximity of the Russians endangered his palace, ordered a contingent of his Hawaiian soldiers to persuade the Russians to leave. Threatened by the large number of Hawaiians, the Russians hastily abandoned their blockhouse and retreated to Kauai. After the capture of the blockhouse from the Russians, King Kamehameha used the old fort to protect Honolulu Harbor and perform a number of administrative functions, including many years service as a prison. The old fort was demolished 1857, and Walker Park, created in 1951, now occupies the site and serves with its paved walkway, benches, sculpture, and historic wrought-iron centerpiece sign as the gateway to Fort Street Mall.

Fort Street Mall extends from Walker Park, located across Nimitz Highway from Aloha Tower on Honolulu Harbor’s waterfront, seven blocks northeast toward the Ko’olau Mountains to end at the twin flagstaffs on Beretania Street, where fireman from the historic Central Fire Station each morning start the new day by hoisting the American and Hawaiian flags. Fort Street Mall is divided by Hotel Street into a lower and upper mall, each with its own distinct character. Four historic streets cross the lower mall: Queen Street, the narrow Merchant Street, bustling multi-lane King Street, and Hotel Street, which now is exclusively dedicated to the transit of city buses. The upper mall extends for three-city block with no crossing vehicular traffic since the narrow Pau’ahi Street and Chaplain Lane dead-end into the upper mall and permits no cars.

The history of Hawaii is contained in the historic and modern buildings that line Fort Street Mall: The Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace (1843), Judd Building (1898), Sacred Hearts Convent School (1901), Pantheon Block (1911), McCorriston Building (1914), C. Brewer & Co. Building (1930), Central Fire Station (1935), Topa Financial Center (1968), and the newer, sleeker financial and banking office buildings towering over the lower mall. But the history also needs to be considered in the context of the geographic positions these buildings occupy on the mall and the function they serve.

The character of Fort Street Mall changes as one journeys from Walker Park to the Central Fire Station. Lower Fort Street Mall is an attractive pedestrian walkway that connects to the Aloha Tower on the Honolulu waterfront. Visitors arriving in Honolulu can walk to this pedestrian mall from the cruise ship terminal. This tree-lined mall is a popular place for office worker to meet and enjoy the shade and ocean breezes. Serenity and quiet solitude dominate the plaza-like mall south of Hotel Street. This part of Fort Street Mall is surrounded by financial buildings: the Bank of Hawaii headquarters (second largest Hawaii bank), an American Savings Bank tower, and the Pioneer Plaza hosts other office buildings. Tenants of these office buildings frequent this part of the Mall.

The Topa Financial Center--originally called the AmFac Center--(745 Fort Street) and The C. Brewer & Co. Building (827 Fort Street) are reminders of the history of Hawaii’s Big Five, a close-knit oligarchy of companies that for well over a century once controlled much of Hawaii’s economy and society. All five companies grew out of merchant houses established during the early days when Honolulu served as port of call for whalers and as a hub for the early seal pelt and sandal wood trade. The Big Five fortunes grew during the expansion of sugar production that followed the 1876 enactment of the Reciprocity Treaty, which provided favored trading status for Hawaii-based sugar growers. The Big Five contributed as key players to the transformation of Hawaii from an independent kingdom through territorial era to the present day where many still play a role as some of the world’s prominent agro-businesses, Hawaii’s largest corporate landholders, and mainstays of Honolulu’s business establishment. Although the Big Five stabilized the status quo in Hawaii throughout the 20th century and contributed to the state’s economic growth, today, following the closure of sugar plantations and divestment of land-holdings, the influence and visibility of the Big Five is considerable lessened.

 

Once across Hotel Street, the businesses and people on the Mall show a dynamic identity change due to the prominent dual presence of the International Food Court (area between Hotel Street and Chaplain Lane) and Downtown Campus of Hawaii Pacific University (HPU). The International Food Court--fronting the former Blaisdell Hotel with its "birdcage" elevator--hosts an early morning and lunchtime crowd and is comprised of a mix of distinctive, eclectic hole-in-the-wall cafes. Patrons eat and lounge around the outdoor, umbrella-covered tables while student pedestrian stream by to and from classes. The diversity of food choices is fantastic.

The Avenue du Crepe Café, occupies the north corner next to a sign-post bearing the signs Do-not-enter and One-way, which perfectly captures the hauteur of the owner. Jo Jo Coffee and Espresso is home to fat spam musubis and the breakfast bentos with glorious yellow scrambled eggs; the Ohana Bento and Sushi offers hand-roll and California-roll among other choices; the Fort Street Café has spicy Thai chicken and Vietnamese pho; the La Taqueria Ricardo offers the best downtown breakfast burrito, made with chorizo, egg, refried beans and guacamole and served by a Korean woman; and next door is a no-name steak, chicken, and fish hole-in-the wall food service noted only for its stylish menu glued to the wall. On the south corner of the building is the Dreamer Home-style Café. Outside, propped against the café’s graffiti-tagged doorway, stands the multi-page menu that features an amazing list of breakfast and lunch choices of every imaginable combination, which makes us wonder what the proprietor’s home life must be like.

Nevertheless, the International Food Court exudes the charm of any European pedestrian mall; a charm that is only furthered by the exotic bodega and cafes that could have been transported intact from the back alleys of Seoul, Manila, or New York City. And the people, we challenge you to find a racial or ethnic type that is not represented.

Also on the upper mall are the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace and Sacred Hearts Convent School (1183 & 1159 Fort Street) embody the presence of the Roman Catholic Church in Hawaii. The first Catholic missionaries arrived in Honolulu in 1827. King Kamehameha III provided a parcel of land for the construction of a chapel, and the cathedral was subsequently built on the site where it remains the center of Roman Catholic worship in Hawaii. The Sacred Hearts Convent School during the late 19th and early 20th century served as a primary education school for many of Hawaii’s children and brought many students into downtown Honolulu. The convent school population increase led to the construction of a new school building in 1901, but continued growth forced the convent school in 1909 to move away from Fort Street to a new Sacred Hearts Academy in Kaimuki.  The Sacred Hearts Convent School building now serves as a small chapel and museum honoring the historic saintly work by Roman Catholic priest and nuns in the leprosy colony on the Kalaupapa Peninsula of Molokai. And adjacent church buildings now provide charity services to the new “lepers” of American society--the homeless, the underprivileged, and the downtrodden that inhabit Fort Street Mall by day.

The Pantheon Block building (1102-1122 Fort Street) started as the Pantheon Stables. However, the stables were a victim of the nearby Chinatown Fire of 1900 when the stables were burned in an effort to contain the fire. The more impressive brick and concrete structure Pantheon Block building was subsequently built on the corner.  Many independent small stores and cafes now occupy this building, including the fresh and healthy Ahi and Vegetable café; a tiny, crowded no-name bodega that spills out onto the street; the King Fort Magazine Shop; the Local Fever Clothing that’s always hosting a 50%-off red-tag sale; and the Nayong Filipino and Local dine-in, sit-down café. The franchise Subway sandwich shop that anchors the upper corner of the building is exotic and alien in compared to its neighbors.

Across the street, The McCorriston Building (1107 Fort Street) is another remnant of Fort Street’s glory days as the retail center of Honolulu. Today it only houses undersized cafes: Vicky's Filipino Fast Food carry-out; Rada's Piroscki, home of Russian deep-fried, meat- and cheese-filled ball of dough; the garishly purple, orange, and yellow painted Vita Juice that flaunt its all-natural and healthy juices and smoothies; and an express branch of the local L&L Diner carry-out chain, also claims to have healthy food. On the corner of Fort Street Mall and Hotel Street is perhaps the funkiest McDonald’s in Hawaii: its grit reflects its clientele, and its griminess matches the paving stones and dispirited planter-contained tree outside.

Throughout the 1800s, historic Fort Street grew as the center of commerce for Honolulu. By the 1950’s, Fort Street was the focal point for shopping and hosted most of the major large department stores in Hawaii. However, the 1959 opening of the Ala Moana Shopping Center, which was closer to the emerging Waikiki tourist hotels, started the gradual decline of the street’s fortunes with the slow migration of Fort Street’s retail businesses to the new shopping center. Until the construction of the Ala Moana Shopping Center, Fort Street was the shopping center of Honolulu. Unfortunately, the decline of Fort Street Mall as fashion or clothing destination is nearly complete with the recent closure of Macy's.

Only a bargain basement-priced Ross Dress For Less Store and Fisher Hawaii Office and Home Product Warehouse still survive and occupy opposite sides of the mall just below Hotel Street. Combined with the adjacent Hotel Street Longs Drugs, this trio of stores has a wide-range of choices to satisfy every need of the downtrodden urban dweller. In an effort to arrest seediness of the area, civic leaders sponsor on Tuesday and Friday mornings a farmer’s market on the mall adjacent to these stores. Here the careful shopper can find prepared food, fresh fruits and produce, and various assortments of hand-made crafts and gift items. In addition, a diminutive, subterranean Satellite City Hall lurks under King Street to provide government services such as vehicle registration and renewal transactions.

The reversing of the decline of Fort Street started in 1965 when Hawaii Pacific University was granted a charter as an independent, nonsectarian liberal arts college, established its main campus on upper Fort Street, and became the anchoring tenant. And in 1968, Honolulu converted Fort Street into a pedestrian mall. Since then, the institution has grown on Fort Street Mall to become a culturally, racially, and ethnically diverse campus with a student population that geographically represents all 50 states and more than 100 countries. In addition, the students and faculty engage in a variety of intercultural relationships that span difference in age, physical ability, gender, ethnicity, class, religion, race and nationality. HPU encourages many diverse professional, friendly, and romantic relationships, and this creates an understanding of how the mixing all cultures is beneficial our personal lives. Through these intercultural relationships, we learn about the world, break our stereotypes, and acquire new interpersonal cultural skills.

Although HPU students bring differing languages, histories, and economic backgrounds to HPU, the end result of the mix does not resemble the melting-pot analogy where: “…immigrants enter and blend into the American society.” This clearly is not a realistic analogy for the HPU student population. The HPU student population is better represented by the tossed-salad analogy, an analogy that parallels the history, the character, and the mix of people and small shops and hole-in-the-wall cafes that make-up the mall. Although many diverse cultures come together and mix, despite mixing all retain their own unique cultural identities. Thus, differencing student cultures can be seen streaming and mixing together throughout Fort Street Mall, but in the end the students still hold onto their original backgrounds, languages, norms, values, and beliefs. To honor these differences, HPU celebrates the multiple cultural diversities through intercultural days and other on-campus activities that accentuate the tossed-salad character that makes HPU a truly unique school.

Still, the variety of languages spoken of Fort Street Mall and in Hawaii can be an issue. With so many cultures and differing languages coming together, this can lead to difficulty and frustration in shopping, ordering food, making friends and coordinating course work. Expressions used in Hawaii and mainland United States often have different meanings; this difference is even more pronounced between people of differing countries when languages and cultures are interpreted differently. For example the expression, “how are you today?” Some people may think you actually want to know how they are doing, whereas most often it is simply being used as a greeting. But the struggle joined to conquer the language differences is a struggle ultimately won.

On Fort Street Mall, the varied cross-section of people includes not only the HPU students of the upper Mall, the office-workers of the lower Mall, and the transiting cruise-ship tourist. During the day, the drab homeless men and women who inhabited the mall bring their own distinctive temperaments and sorrow to the mix. Some mornings, a distinguished elderly local man sits on the flower shop ledge near the flag-poles, and he greets all who pass by in a deep booming voice; the message he proclaims over and over again to no one in particular is: “my love for love is deep and everlasting.” Each morning a trio of scruffy, beaten-down men, one in a wheelchair due to an amputated leg, trek down the mall to McDonalds for coffee. They pass at the newspaper stand next to me so the wheelchair-bound man can read the headlines, before they continue their journey. Although all wear faded, mismatched military uniforms, none was wounded on the battlefield; all are casualties of the daily battle of survival on the street.

Down the mall near Ross’s, a disheveled man writhes on the ground, two women squat and transfer their belongings from a rain-soaked cardboard boxes to cast-off plastic bags, while another man jiggle the garbage in a trashcan in his search for redeemable cans. Across the Hotel Street at the bus stop, a street trumpeter plays a mournful tune that we slowly realize is Eleanor Rigby. The lyrics come to mind--“all the lonely people, where do they all come from?”--and captures the mood. We finish our breakfast bentos, drink the remainder of our coffees, and hand the empty cups to the man at the trashcan so he can get the free refills. The presence of these lonely people is a constant reminder that dogs live better in America than many of our fellow human beings.  

In the 1970s, Honolulu completed the conversion of Fort Street into a pedestrian mall. Fort Street Mall, a street once better known for its vagrants and pigeons than for its growing urban charm, remains Honolulu’s sole walking street. And as the mall continued to improve over the last few decades, it offers an exceptional strolling and browsing experience for pedestrians. Food, the people, and the building that surround Fort Street Mall all represent the historical and cultural diversity that can be seen not only at HPU, but in Hawaii as well. It is ‘tossed’ together: North, Central and South American, Asian, European, African, Oceanic and Hawaiian influences can all be found on Fort Street Mall.

For the observant visitor, the community and culture of the real Honolulu and Hawaii are readily displayed to sightseers who visit Fort Street Mall. Fort Street Mall is the beating heart of downtown Honolulu. The historical arc of Hawaii is contained in its surrounding building; and the contemporary history is being written every day by the people who inhabit, work and study around, and prowl its length. The Mall holds up for examination and engagement the broad cultural spectrum of all the diversity the world has to offer, and this is embodied in its eclectic mix of shops and cafes. And the diverse cross-section of people who inhabit buildings that enclose Fort Street Mall, only serves to completes and reveal the full dimension of the cultural history, stories, identities, values, and meanings.