The Stangenwald Building at 119 Merchant Street, in downtown

Honolulu, Hawaii 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 ...

was the city's first high-rise office building, with its own law library, and one of the earliest electric

elevator An elevator (American English) or lift (Commonwealth English) is a machine that vertically transports people or freight between levels. They are typically powered by electric motors that drive traction cables and counterweight systems suc ...

s in the (then)

Territory A territory is an area of land, sea, or space, belonging or connected to a particular country, person, or animal. In international politics, a territory is usually a geographic area which has not been granted the powers of self-government, ...

when it was built in 1901.Honolulu Chapter,

American Institute of Architects The American Institute of Architects (AIA) is a professional organization for architects in the United States. It is headquartered in Washington, D.C. AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach progr ...

, ''Exploring Downtown: A Walking Tour,'' April 2009. 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 Chinatown ( zh, t=唐人街) is the catch-all name for an ethnic enclave of Chinese people located outside Greater China, most often in an urban setting. Areas known as "Chinatown" exist throughout the world, including Europe, Asia, Africa, O ...

the previous year.) Apart from a few exceptional structures like

Aloha Tower The Aloha Tower is a retired lighthouse that is considered one of the landmarks of the state of Hawaii in the United States. Opened on September 11, 1926, at a cost of $160,000 ($2,805,206 in 2024), the Aloha Tower is located at Pier 9 of Hono ...

(1926) and

Honolulu Hale Honolulu Hale (originally called the Honolulu Municipal Building), located on 530 South King Street in downtown Honolulu in the City & County of Honolulu, Hawaii, is the official seat of government of the city and county, site of the chambers o ...

(1929), it remained the tallest building in Honolulu for half a century, until the building boom of the 1950s.Wilcox, Gaylord (1972)
Business and Buildings: Downtown Honolulu's Old Fashioned Block
''Hawaiian Journal of History'' 6:3-27. Young local

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs, and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

C.W. Dickey designed it with features of

Italianate architecture The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style combined its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century ...

: arched windows,

terra cotta Terracotta, also known as terra cotta or terra-cotta (; ; ), is a clay-based Vitrification#Ceramics, non-vitreous ceramicOED, "Terracotta""Terracotta" MFA Boston, "Cameo" database fired at relatively low temperatures. It is therefore a term used ...

ornaments, and a wide balcony with fine

grillwork A grille or grill ( French word from Latin ''craticula'', small grill) is an opening of several slits side-by-side in a wall, metal sheet or another barrier, usually to allow air or water to enter and/or leave and prevent larger objects ...

above the entrance. Every floor had a unique exterior. The interior vestibule and hall were decorated with mosaic tile floors and marble

panelling Panelling (or paneling in the United States) is a millwork wall covering constructed from rigid or semi-rigid components. These are traditionally interlocking wood, but could be plastic or other materials. Panelling was developed in antiquity ...

, 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.I.M. Zemlicka (1995): "Beiträge zu den Beziehungen der österr.-ungarischen Monarchie und Hawai'is von 1844 - 1901"(Relations between Austria-Hungaria and Hawai'i 1844 - 1901) In 1869, he bought the 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 Duluth ( ) is a Port, port city in the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of St. Louis County, Minnesota, St. Louis County. Located on Lake Superior in Minnesota's Arrowhead Region, the city is a hub for cargo shipping. The population ...

References

Further reading