Waikiki Natatorium War Memorial

Crumbling 1927 saltwater war memorial pool on the edge of Waikiki

The Waikiki Natatorium War Memorial is one of Honolulu's most compelling ruins — a 1927 salt-water swimming pool and grandstand built as a living memorial to Hawaii's World War I veterans, slowly disintegrating in plain sight of the luxury hotels that flank Kaimana Beach. The structure, an Art Deco arch over a 100-metre open-air pool, has been closed since 1979.

It is worth walking past for the combination of its architectural ambition and its state of decay, which together tell a more interesting story than most intact monuments. The beach immediately in front — Kaimana Beach, also called Sans Souci — is one of Waikiki's quieter stretches, favoured by locals over tourists. Robert Louis Stevenson reputedly swam here when he lived nearby in 1893.

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A story
The Natatorium was built in 1927 as a living memorial to Hawaii's casualties of World War I — a saltwater swimming facility open to the public as a monument that could be used rather than merely observed. Duke Kahanamoku competed in its inaugural races. It closed in 1979 and has been slowly crumbling ever since, despite decades of debate about whether to restore or demolish it. The city of Honolulu has proposed demolition; community groups have fought for preservation. It remains in legal and physical limbo, a monument to institutional inaction.

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