Turns out we weren’t the only ones who noticed the Natatorium’s guest appearance in Monday’s Hawaii Five-0 episode.
Over in San Francisco, SFGate’s “Hawaii Insider” blog also was paying close attention.
The blogger, travel writer Jeanne Cooper, says she’d bet that Navy SEAL and Five-0 boss Steve McGarrett would back restoration and reopening of the Natatorium.
Now there’s a Five-0 plotline we’d love to see!
Thanks, Jeanne and SFGate, for telling the Natatorium story to your readers on the Mainland!
Paul Tominac
A swimming pool along the beach, in the ocean, in Hawaii would seem rather absurd, until one considers that San Francisco has a similar set up right on San Francisco Bay, average temperature in the low to mid fifties, with all sorts of questionable chemicals and the occasional nibbling seal. If left to San Francisco’s wiles, our bleachers, attached to the deco Maritime Museum, would be in the same state as your natatorium, and for a long time, they were, but the US Park Service which controls them has just finished their restoration.
With the Waikiki Natatorium the question is, how many people would use the tank if it were restored? One wonders if some other use could be contrived, where all the elegant historic elements could be restored and repurposed for perhaps a terraced ocean side cafe and stage?
Still, given all that Waikiki has lost, in the rush to build a concrete mountain, I can’t help but thinking that all those who made it rich building Waikiki could and should write a nice check that would not only restore the natatorium, but create a trust for its maintenance.