District Courthouse and Police Station
a.k.a. Old Police Station
141 Kalakaua St., Hilo, HIThe District Courthouse and Police Station were built in 1932 to accommodate Hawaii County agencies. It lies in an area that has been the center of government and civic activities for Hilo since 1817. It is bounded on the northeast by the Hawaii Telephone building, designed by prominent Hawaiian architect, Charles Dickey in 1930. On the southwest side of the District Courthouse and Police Station is the U. S. Post Office/County Building, a National Register site entered on October 1, 1974. Directly across the street is Kalakaua Park established in 1877 c. by the then-ruling monarch King David Kalakaua (1874-1891). The building is a two-story reinforced concrete structure with wooden in- interiors built in an eclectic style.
Plans for the District Courthouse and Police Station were drawn by Frank Futoshi Arakawa (1891-1977), Deputy County Engineer with the County of Hawaii, and one of the first nisei (second generation Japanese in Hawaii) to graduate from Stanford University with a degree in civil engineering. It was the first government building in the County to include accommodations for the automobile in its initial plans."
Completed at the cost of $54,017.49, it was described in the Hilo Tribune-Herald upon announcement of its opening as being "well-planned and attractively decorated", and that "modernistic Hawaiian note pre- vails, with cream (and) brown colors both interior and exterior. Interior walls and ceilings are stippled in rainbow colors".
Shigeru K. Oda, the well-known and long-time contractor in Hilo, was the general contractor; C. M. Yamashita did the painting; and H. Matsuo, "one of the first Japanese plumbers and tinsmiths in Hilo", was credited for the plumbing.
Stephen L. Desha Jr., District Magistrate for South Hilo, and Henry K. Martin, Sheriff, were the first to enjoy the new building.
In 1936 the first radio dispatch system was established with the help of Bill Seymour, and the station was able to contact police autos by voice (one way).
In 1946 part of the Courtroom made way for a fledgling Planning and Traffic Division, then a two-to-three-person office. This division moved to the Hilo Armory in late 1961, when space became too limited.
By February 1969, the present State Building was completed and the District Court and its support staff moved out to new quarters in the State Building. The Police Department expanded its operations to encompass the entire building. The Department soon outgrew its facilities, and in October 1975, moved to new quarters on Kapiolani Street.
The "Old Police Station" has remained vacant since.
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1979.
The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.