Honolulu's historic Aloha Tower celebrates its centennial birthday this year.
To mark the milestone, there will be a grand reopening of its viewing deck, which had been closed for the past five years for repairs.
Doug Askman is an associate professor of history at Hawaiʻi Pacific University, and he saw the occasion as the perfect opportunity to work with his students to research the tower's long history.
Over the years, the tower has long served as both an iconic landmark and a beacon of Hawaiʻi's welcoming spirit.
“In some sense, we are at what was the airport,” Askman explained.
“Prior to the jet age, everyone would have come here. So the first thing they would have seen was Aloha Tower.”
In its heyday, Aloha Tower dominated Honolulu's skyline as the state's tallest structure, standing at a commanding 184 feet. It was originally built to resemble and act as a lighthouse in an architectural style described as “Hawaiian Gothic.”
More important than the facts and figures, however, is what the tower has come to mean to the community around it.
“I think it has, for a lot of people, connections to their own lives about immigrants coming here, visitors coming here, and even for older folks being kids who maybe came here on the ships,” Askman said.
“People would come here and greet friends or relatives,” he continued. “And it would have been a real place for people to gather at a time where this really was the center for the visitor industry.”
Time has turned the Aloha Tower from a bustling hot spot to a bit of a beloved relic, but for Askman, the tower still has as much life now as it did a hundred years ago.
“It's not just the centennial. I think it's the beginning of a new phase in the tower's history,” he concluded.
State transportation officials will hold a grand reopening ceremony on Oct. 15. The public will be able to take the elevator up to the top floor to take in the tower's historic view.
This story aired on The Conversation on Oct. 14, 2026. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. Jinwook Lee adapted this story for the web.
