History

Completed in 1914, this two story commercial building of reinforced concrete in the Italian Renaissance

Italian Renaissance

The Italian Renaissance began the opening phase of the Renaissance, a period of great cultural change and achievement in Europe that spanned the period from the end of the 13th century to about 1600, marking the transition between Medieval and Early Modern Europe...

 style is representative of the major structures built in Hilo between 1910 and 1915 as the city grew to be the second largest commercial center in the Hawaiian Islands.
Measuring approximately 60 feet by 90 feet and fronting on Waianuenue Avenue, the structure occupies the site of the former Volcano Stables. Three retail spaces on the ground floor each have separate store fronts. The entry stair to the second floor office spaces is located between the first and second retail spaces at the East side. Three separate full basements are located below these spaces. It was the first building built in Hilo to house multiple businesses in the same structure, and the first not constructed for its owner's occupancy.

A vault on the ground floor was probably constructed by the first tenant in the space,
the Peoples Bank of Hilo when they opened on September 1, 1916. Another notable tenant was the C. Brewer & Co.

C. Brewer & Co.

C. Brewer & Co., Ltd. was a Honolulu-based company that was once part of the Big Five companies in territorial Hawaii. The company did most of its business in agriculture....

, which had purchased the Pepeekeo Sugar Company in 1904.

The Hilo Masonic Hall

Hilo Masonic Lodge Hall-Bishop Trust Building

Hilo Masonic Lodge Hall also known as the Bishop Trust Building, is a historic structure in Hilo, Hawaii used for 75 years by a Freemasonry group.-History:The Masonic Lodge in Hilo was founded in 1896 at the home of William W. Goodale...

 was another of the few fireproof buildings built just a few years earlier and a block away, in 1910.
The only earlier commercial building that survives in Hilo is the S. Hata Building

S. Hata Building

Sadanosuke Hata was a Japanese businessman who built a historic structure called the S. Hata Building in Hilo, Hawaii, in 1912. It now contains specialty shops, professional offices, a restaurant, and the Mokupāpapa Discovery Center, a visitors center for the Northwestern Hawaiian...

, built in 1912 by the brother of a board member of the Peoples Bank. The Hilo Federal Building was also built in this part of Hilo in 1915.
In 1922 the first bank disaster in Hawaii caused the Peoples Bank to shut down. The "big five

Big Five (Hawaii)

The Big Five was the name given to a group of what started as sugarcane processing corporations that wielded considerable political power in the Territory of Hawaii during the early 20th century and leaned heavily towards the Hawaii Republican Party. The Big Five were Castle & Cooke, Alexander &...

" corporations controlled by descendants of early American missionaries, might have been a factor in its demise. Although known for the sugar industry, major banks were also controlled by the same families. These include the Bishop Bank which opened in Hilo in 1910 (now First Hawaiian Bank

First Hawaiian Bank

First Hawaiian Bank is a regional commercial bank headquartered in Honolulu, Hawaii at the First Hawaiian Center. It is a subsidiary of BancWest Corporation, which itself is a subsidiary of the French banking company, BNP Paribas...

), and First Bank of Hilo which opened in 1906 (now part of Bank of Hawaii

Bank of Hawaii

The Bank of Hawaii Corporation is a regional commercial bank headquartered in Honolulu, Hawaii. It is Hawaii's second oldest bank and its largest locally owned bank in that majority of the voting stockholders reside within the state...

).

In 1929 the building was purchased by C. Brewer for their subsidiary Hilo Terminal and
Transportation Company there until 1953 when they moved to the Hilo Pier and the parent company moved its Hilo corporate offices into the building. During this period the Hilo Chamber of Commerce used the second floor of the building. In 1961, upon completion of the C. Brewer Building

C. Brewer Building

The C. Brewer Building at 827 Fort Street in Honolulu, Hawaii was built in 1930 to be the headquarters of C. Brewer & Co., the smallest of Hawaii's Big Five corporations. The intimate, almost residential design was begun by Bertram Goodhue and completed by Hardie Phillip...

 in Honolulu as corporate offices, C. Brewer sold the building to Irving Melnick, a clothing manufacturer, who owned the structure until his death, when it passed to the living Melnick Trust. Coyne Mattress Company purchased the property
in 1992, the owners as of 2009.

The building was listed as state historic site 10-35-7507 on September 28, 1992, and added to the National Register of Historic Places listings on the island of Hawaii

National Register of Historic Places listings on the island of Hawaii

This is a list of properties and districts on the island of Hawaii in the U.S. state of Hawaii that are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The island is coterminous with Hawaii County, the state's only county that covers exactly one island...

on January 7, 1993 as site 92001748.
The building is located at 27 through 37 Waianuenue Avenue, coordinates 19°43′34"N 155°5′13"W.