Threatened: Waikiki War Memorial Natatorium Pool

By Margaret Foster

If a natatorium’s pool is demolished, can it still be called a natatorium? That’s the question Honolulu is grappling with as it discusses the fate of the saltwater pool at the Waikiki War Memorial Natatorium, a Beaux Arts structure built in 1927 as a monument to World War I veterans.

In his State of the City address in February, Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann said that the "fate of the Waikiki natatorium has dogged the city for decades" and that the city is "seriously considering" removing the 100-meter-long pool. Although the city has not finalized plans, it isn’t considering the demolition of the natatorium’s grandstand or arched facade, which were restored in 2000; it is focusing on the crumbling pool, which has been closed for 30 years.

     Donna L. Ching, board director of the nonprofit Friends of the Natatorium, says that the prospect of removing the pool makes her "angry and ashamed. … Allowing the War Memorial Natatorium to deteriorate this way is a shameful commentary on our own sense of honor and commitment to those who gave their lives to defend freedom," she said in an e-mail.

The natatorium was slated for an $11.5 million renovation in 2000; five years later, the city officially backed away from the project.

The removal of the pool may be illegal, says Brian Turner, a lawyer at the Western Office of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which in 1995 named the site one of America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places. Under an executive order from the State of Hawaii, both the City and the County of Honolulu are required to maintain the site as a memorial and a natatorium. Confirming that order, in 1973 the State Supreme Court ruled that the city must use the site for both purposes.

Some proponents of demolition want to replace the pool with a beach, but Friends of the Natatorium say that without the pool, whose walls created the nearby beach, the sand will erode. "If they demolish the natatorium, that retention system disappears, and the sand beach will disappear," says Peter Apo, Native American cultural consultant and former president of Historic Hawaii Foundation.

The natatorium holds special significance as an Olympic training venue where greats like Native Hawaiian swimmer Duke Kahanamoku and Johnny Weissmuller swam.  The pool later became a community gathering place. "It was an incredibly popular place with local families," Apo says. "There were generations of people who frequented it, so there are a lot of memories. I don’t think we’ll ever see a phenomenon like that again."