It’s started. Less than a week after the city and state announced plans to raze the Waikiki Natatorium War Memorial, someone is treating it as an abandoned ruin. This morning, Kelsey Ige spotted graffiti on the Natatorium’s mauka wall: Kelsey, art director at the Waikiki Aquarium next door to the Natatorium, took the photo and sent it to us. We are crushed that someone has defaced this legendary and important war memorial. It may perhaps have been an attempt to honor the edifice (note the “Farewell Natatorium 2013” inscription to the right). Even so, it’s a terrible shame that it’s
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Archives for Images
Natatorium Lifeguards from 1942
Natatorium friend Noe Bell tells us that this lifeguard photo was taken on June 26, 1942. Noe’s father, Hiram N. Goldstein, is the handsome gentleman on the left in the back row, standing on the wall. Who’s who in this photo? Tell us in the comments!
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Down Under Natatorium cousins: Australia's ocean pools
Friends of the Natatorium Vice President Donna L. Ching is just back from a visit to Australia, where she says there are more than 30 ocean pools in the Sydney area alone. She swam in several Aussie “ocean baths,” and brought back photos for us. “They’re everywhere in Australia!” she says. “You’d think we could get it together and fix our one and only Natatorium!” Bondi Baths Perhaps the most famous of Sydney’s ocean pools are the Bondi Baths at the Bondi Icebergs Club at the south end of Bondi Beach. Bronte Beach pool Farther down the famous Coastal Walk
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Veterans Day 2012 at the Natatorium: Photos
Mahalo to all who were able to attend the annual Veterans Day observance at the Natatorium on Sunday. And aloha to all who were there with us in spirit! It was a wonderful occasion, organized as always by Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 8616, with special support this year from the Riders of American Legion Post 17 and their motorcycles. The Friends of the Natatorium are honored to work with these outstanding veterans of service to our nation, some in World War II seven decades ago. A few select photos can be found here. Or you can see our entire
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The fight for the Natatorium: This is why
People ask us all the time why we are so passionate about bringing the Natatorium back to life. Well, they say that a picture is worth a thousand words. This is the picture. This is why: This is what we’ve been missing all these years. This is what the “lost generations” — most folks under age 50, who are too young to have experienced the magic of the Natatorium — have been missing all their lives. Just one look at this image, and you immediately understand what a re-engineered, renewed, reopened Natatorium could be for our families, for kids learning
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Artist's print of Natatorium featured in exhibition
A print depicting the Waikiki War Memorial Natatorium is on exhibit now as part of a show at the South Street Gallery at Frame-Arts Hawaii. The work is by Honolulu artist Laura Smith, who is also executive director of the nonprofit group Honolulu Printmakers. The show, featuring the works of nine printmakers from Hawaii and nine from California, is called “Water’s Edge.” Smith told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that the Natatorium made the right subject for a show with that theme. “I thought ‘That’s perfect, there’s a swimming pool on the edge of the water,'” Smith said. The print is titled “Closed,”
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Images, News coverage, and Uncategorized.
"Closed", "Water's Edge", art, Honolulu Printmakers, Laura Smith, and print.
"Closed", "Water's Edge", art, Honolulu Printmakers, Laura Smith, and print.
Inflight magazine features Natatorium, calls Friends group "Guardians of History"
Check out this spread on the fight to preserve the Waikiki War Memorial Natatorium. It’s published in the latest issue of Innov8, the inflight magazine of go! Mokulele airlines. Open publication The story is a good summary of the decades-long battle to restore and reopen a Honolulu landmark designated, when it opened in 1927, as a perpetual living memorial to more than 10,000 from Hawai’i who served in World War I. In an important way, the photo tells the story too. Seen on this page, it’s a reminder of the Natatorium’s gorgeous design and of how beautifully the 100-meter ocean
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Photos from the Natatorium's Memorial Day Service
Mahalo to everyone who joined us at the Natatorium on Sunday for our 22nd annual Memorial Day observance! It was a beautiful day and a memorable morning: thought-provoking addresses by our speakers, Lieutenant General Benjamin Mixon and Kim Napier; beautiful, meaningful vocal and hula performances; the inspirational participation of our military men and women and the King’s Guard; the presence of so many veterans. Here are just a few photographs from the ceremony. To see more on Flickr, click here. For a slideshow, click here. Another set of photos is available on Picasa here. A Picasa slideshow here. Thanks again!
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Events, Hula, Images, Memorial Day, Uncategorized, and Veterans.
Benjamin Mixon, Kim Napier, and Memorial Day.
Benjamin Mixon, Kim Napier, and Memorial Day.
The Natatorium: The place to be
Here’s a slideshow of some wonderful historic photos of the Waikiki War Memorial Natatorium, unearthed in the collections of the Hawai’i State Archives. Several of them show the Natatorium as it was meant to be: A living memorial to Hawai’i’s honored war dead, a lively, active fun place where families and athletes and all of us could enjoy the freedom preserved for us by our warriors’ sacrifices. For so many years, the Natatorium truly was the place to be. It can be again. It should be again. For so many reasons: Because of the debt of honor we owe to
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Perspective from Honolulu Weekly: The Natatorium at dawn
The Honolulu Weekly has posted a gallery of photos of the Natatorium at dawn, taken by photographer Laura Chartier. She writes of another early morning visitor to the site who saw her shooting her images, approached and began telling her about his memories of “the days of Duke and when his family used to visit.” “I could tell,” Laura writes, “the Natatorium was a special place for him, as it was for so many people.” And as it could — and should, and can — be again. The Natatorium at dawn, photo by Laura Chartier, copyright 2009 Honolulu Weekly
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Images, News coverage, and Uncategorized.
