Elevators and Escalators
The first elevators in Hawai‘i were installed in the early 1880s. One was in the Beaver Block, a two-story structure at Fort and Queen Streets, completed in 1882. The building’s occupants initially included G. W. Macfarlane & Co., shipping and general wholesale merchants, and H. J. Nolte’s Beaver Saloon. The elevator was replaced by an electric elevator long before the building was demolished in 1966.
Another pioneering elevator was located near the front of a two-story brick building occupied by Wing Wo Chan & Co., on Nu‘uanu Avenue between King and Merchant Streets. This structure perished in the 1886 Chinatown fire.
The first electric elevators in the Islands were in the Emmeluth Building, on King Street at Bishop, and the Mott-Smith Building, at Fort and Hotel. Both were three-story brick structures completed in 1897. The Mott-Smith lift was particularly impressive, being made of “oxidized metal in a beautiful grill design interior, fitted with bevel-plate glass mirrors.”
The first escalator was installed in the House of Mitsukoshi, a department store at King and Bethel Streets, and dedicated in December 1940. It was limited to upbound traffic between the first and second floors. The building was converted to a USO service center in December 1942; the escalator, dismantled, was shipped to Japan after the war.
The earliest two-way escalator was put into operation in June 1947, when Sears Roebuck & Co. opened the second floor of its Beretania Street department store.