The Alexander Young Hotel was one of the first hotels in downtown

Honolulu Honolulu ( ; ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, located in the Pacific Ocean. It is the county seat of the Consolidated city-county, consolidated City and County of Honol ...

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

, opened in 1903. The hotel closed and was converted to offices in 1964. The structure was demolished in 1981.

History

The Alexander Young Hotel was constructed from 1900 to 1903, at a cost of $2 million, by Scottish-born Honolulu sugar and iron works magnate

Alexander Young Alexander Young may refer to: *Alexander Young (bishop) (died 1684), 17th century Scottish prelate *Alexander Young (engineer) (1833–1910), Scottish engineer and businessman who became a citizen of the Kingdom of Hawaii *Alexander Young (musician ...

. The 192-room hotel was designed by California architect George W. Percy. It was his last major commission before he died on December 14, 1900. The hotel opened on July 31, 1903, with a gala reception attended by 2000 people. It quickly became a social center for the city. Young expanded his hotel empire, the Territorial Hotel Company, by purchasing the

Moana Hotel The Moana Hotel is a historic hotel building in Honolulu, Hawaii, located at 2365 Kalākaua Avenue in the Waikiki neighborhood. Built in the late 19th century as the first hotel in Waikiki, the Moana opened in 1901. It is listed on the Nation ...

on Waikiki Beach in 1905 and later the first Royal Hawaiian Hotel in downtown Honolulu. After his death, in 1910, the company also purchased the Honolulu Seaside Hotel, adjacent to the Moana. Young "became known as the father of the hotel industry in Hawaii." In 1917, the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...

used the second floor of the Alexander Young Hotel, while

Fort Shafter Fort Shafter is a census-designated place Page 4/ref> located in the City and County of Honolulu, Hawai‘i. It is the headquarters of the United States Army Pacific, which commands most Army forces in the Asia-Pacific region with the exceptio ...

was completed. Later that year, the Army & Navy YMCA purchased the first Royal Hawaiian Hotel from the Territorial Hotel Company. The interwar years saw the hotel's Roof Garden become one of Honolulu's most fashionable social venues. Hawaii's first post-

Prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic b ...

cocktail lounge license was issued to the hotel in 1933, and the hotel opened Hawaii's first air-conditioned dining room in 1937. The

Matson Navigation Company Matson may refer to: * Matson (surname) * Matson, Gloucester, England, a suburb of Gloucester * Matson, Missouri, an unincorporated community * 2586 Matson, an asteroid * Matson, Inc., a shipping company, formerly Matson Navigation Company * Matson ...

and

Castle & Cooke Castle & Cooke, Inc., is a Los Angeles-based company that was once part of the Big Five companies in territorial Hawaii. The company at one time did most of its business in agriculture, including becoming, through mergers with the modern Dole F ...

bought a controlling interest in the Territorial Hotel Company in 1925, in order to demolish their Honolulu Seaside Hotel and construct the modern

Royal Hawaiian Hotel The Royal Hawaiian Hotel is a beachfront luxury hotel located in Waikiki in Honolulu, Hawaii, on the island of Oahu. It is part of The Luxury Collection brand of Marriott International. One of the first hotels established in Waikiki, the Royal ...

on the site. Matson also acquired the Moana with this purchase, but the Alexander Young Hotel's ownership was transferred to the Alexander Young Building Co. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

the military occupied most of the hotel. The Alexander Young Hotel closed and was converted to offices in 1964. The structure was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

on August 5, 1980 as the Alexander Young Building. The building was demolished in 1981. The site was removed from the National Register in October 2009.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Building, Alexander Young Buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Hawaii Hotel buildings completed in 1903 Hotels established in 1903 Hotels in Honolulu Office buildings in Hawaii National Register of Historic Places in Honolulu Demolished buildings and structures in Hawaii Demolished hotels in the United States Buildings and structures demolished in 1981 Former National Register of Historic Places in Hawaii