Will the Maritime Museum ever return? Probably not, at least not in the way it is remembered.
The question entered my mind a few weeks ago. I found myself walking along the waterfront, and there the abandoned building’s faded signs reminded me of the past.
The Hawai‘i Maritime Center, now closed for nearly two decades, looks like an ideal setting for a Scooby-Doo-style mystery. My imagination wandered for a few minutes.
The museum, like the now-scuttled Falls of Clyde, started out with a great deal of promise. In the 1980s, the Maritime Museum and the Falls of Clyde looked like newfound attractions fit to complement a broader push to revitalize the area under the direction of the Aloha Tower Development Corporation (ATDC), a state agency that exists to this day.
In a vein akin to the State’s establishment of the Hawai‘i Community Development Authority (HCDA) for the purpose of redeveloping Kaka‘ako, the ATDC’s purpose was to “strengthen the international economic base of the community in trade activities, to enhance the beautification of the waterfront, and, in conjunction with the department of transportation, to better serve modern maritime uses, and to provide for public access and use of the waterfront property.”
As part of those efforts, the Maritime Museum took shape. Bishop Museum began operating the museum in 1988 but ultimately closed it in May 2009 amid the economic impacts of the 2008 recession. Since then, the State of Hawai‘i’s Department of Transportation (DOT) has struggled to articulate proper plans for the site.
In 2023, the Star-Advertiser reported that the DOT was seeking bids for the potential redevelopment of the site. The story arrived on the heels of the Honolulu Harbor 2050 Master Plan issued by the DOT. The site’s outlook was not ideal.
“The former Maritime Museum structure at Pier 7 has extensive termite damage and is recommended to be examined for any reuse potential via a structural condition assessment,” the plan found. “Should the structure be deemed unsalvageable, a new structure with a potential redevelopment footprint of 18,000 SF could be built on the pier. Future uses may include office or retail space, exhibit area, or [a] cultural education center.”
It is sobering, at this point, to know that no amount of nostalgia will guarantee the return of the old Maritime Center, as far as it existed as a museum until 2009. The building is not what it used to be. In October 2025, the Falls of Clyde was taken out to sea and sunk to the depths.
No amount of effort will bring the Falls of Clyde back. It now rests in the ocean off the coast of O‘ahu, at peace with the pace of decay. Its delisting from both the state and national registers of historic places shows that time does move along, even when we’re afraid of time’s passage.
What remains is a possibly better future. In February 2024, the Star-Advertiser reported that the DOT had selected a bidder to redevelop the site. Two years later, we can only hope that such a plan is still in the works.
Some people want to hold onto the past until it is nothing more than a sad and hollow shell of the promise it once seemed to offer. The tragedy of that lost promise is the source of much nostalgia, and such nostalgia can arrest long-overdue development.
The old Hawai‘i Maritime Museum is left to sit. The termites eat the wood. One day, the building will either be rehabilitated at great expense, collapse into the ocean, or face demolition at the expense of a yet-to-be-determined entity.
Perhaps a developer will come and reinvent the site. Pier 7, with enough time, will find a new purpose. In the meantime, we’ll see if Scooby-Doo and the Mystery Machine manifest along Honolulu’s waterfront.
Perry Arrasmith can be reached at hello@perryarrasmith.com.
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