Hawaii Theatre
The 1922 'Pride of the Pacific', Honolulu's last historic theatre, restored and back in use.
The Hawaii Theatre opened on Bethel Street on 6 September 1922 and was quickly dubbed the Pride of the Pacific. Walter Emory and Marshall Webb gave it a neoclassical shell with Byzantine, Corinthian and Moorish detail, and a Beaux-Arts interior of Corinthian columns, gilded dome and marble statuary; a mural by the painter Lionel Walden sits above the proscenium. It opened with about 1,760 seats, a Robert Morton organ for silent films and a pit orchestra for vaudeville, and gained a large neon marquee in 1938.
As audiences moved away from downtown the theatre declined, closing in 1984. The non-profit Hawaii Theatre Center bought the building in 1986 and reopened it in 1996 after a long restoration, with further exterior work continuing into the 2000s. It is the only historic theatre still operating in Honolulu and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. The programme now covers concerts, hula and Hawaiian music, comedy, film festivals and touring theatre.
Highlights
- Beaux-Arts interior with a gilded dome and Lionel Walden's proscenium mural
- Robert Morton theatre organ retained from the silent-film years
- Neon marquee added in 1938, once the largest in the islands
- Closed in 1984 and reopened in 1996 after a long community restoration
