Harbors

History – Kapālama Military Reservation

Kapālama Military Reservation

Source: USGS Aerial Photo, 1952

The Kapālama Military Reservation was developed to support military efforts in the Pacific during World War II. As the threat of war in the Pacific heightened in the beginning of 1941, the United States government worked to fortify wartime infrastructure in Hawai‘i and identified Honolulu Harbor’s docking and loading facilities as inadequate. The Army Quartermaster Corps exercised their wartime right to seize private property for the war effort and acquired 62 acres of land, a portion of which was Hawaiian Dredging property at Kapālama Basin, to develop a storage and supply base. The Army entered into a contract with Hawaiian Dredging and Pacific Pier Company for the construction of piers, a terminal, and warehouses in June 1941. Work on the $5,360,000 Kapālama Military Reservation commenced in the following month, July 1941. Plans called for two piers, a hostess house, an administration building, and nine temporary steel frame warehouses set on concrete slabs with 6’ concrete platforms running along their sides. ‘Auiki and Libby Streets were widened in the fall of 1941 to accommodate the new facilities.

In early 1942, following the United States’ entry into World War II after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Army terminated the contract with Hawaiian Dredging and Pacific Pier Company and took over construction at the new military reservation. The federal government also condemned and purchased an adjoining 25.86 acre parcel of Hawaiian Dredging land. By October 1943, construction had completed on the office building, mess hall, and four warehouse buildings, and another warehouse and an office building were under construction. Over the next two years, an additional sixteen warehouses were constructed to help disperse the twelve million tons of cargo which passed through the Kapālama Military Reservation during the course of World War II.

Kapālama Military Reservation remained in operation after the conclusion of World War II and continued as a Quartermaster facility through the Korean War. In 1956, Army Secretary Wilber M. Brucker ordered Kapālama Military Reservation, as well as Fort DeRussy, Fort Shafter, Helemano Military Reservation, Wai‘anae Military Reservation, Āliamanu Military Reservation, and the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl, to be given permanent status, indicating that the Army would make plans for the reservation’s long term use. A mortuary was added to Kapālama Military Reservation after the Korean War and served casualties of the Vietnam War. The supply depot supported efforts during the Vietnam War and continued to be utilized by the Army until 1988. In 1988, the Secretary of Defense selected the Kapālama Military Reservation and other facilities across the US for closure, and the property was deaccessioned, broken into four parcels, and sold. The State of Hawai‘i purchased the largest two of these parcels which included the Kapālama Military Reservation buildings. The State of Hawai‘i began demolishing the buildings of the former Kapālama Military Reservation in the 2000s.