STAR-BULLETIN / 2003
The 119-foot pagoda at Honolulu Memorial Park has been placed on the Hawaii Register of Historic Places. The deteriorating pagoda houses niches for urns but has been closed due to safety concerns.
Nuuanu pagoda
on historical listThe designation requires state
review of all renovations
A Nuuanu cemetery's deteriorating 119-foot pagoda, at the center of an ongoing dispute, has been placed on the Hawaii Register of Historic Places.
The Hawaii Historic Places Review Board placed the Honolulu Memorial Park's concrete Sanju Pagoda, Kinkaku-ji Temple and the Mirror Gardens on the register.
The three-tiered concrete pagoda, built in 1966, is a replica of the wooden Minami Hoke-ji Temple near Nara, Japan, and is said to be the largest pagoda in the United States.
The pagoda, which houses niches for urns, has been closed because of safety concerns.
The Friends of Honolulu Memorial Park expect the property will also be placed on the National Register of Historic Places by the end of the year, allowing them to pursue federal grants to restore the pagoda.
However, by placing the pagoda on the state historic register, all significant renovations become subject to state review.
The cemetery was in Chapter 11 bankruptcy, but the case was dismissed Sept. 9 after the Friends, a group of plot and niche owners, agreed to take over the cemetery. However, attorney Nils Katahara, whose family owns 10 percent of the park, has held out his shares in the park, seeking an expanded membership structure and to have all the plot and niche owners decide whether to demolish or repair the pagoda.
The previous cemetery owners said costs to repair the pagoda were too high, and had proposed a bankruptcy reorganization plan to demolish the structure, but niche and plot owners objected. Restoration costs are estimated at about $1 million.
The cemetery was closed Sept. 5, but water and electricity has been turned back on. Interment has not resumed.
