This year 2016 is the 200th anniversary of the founding of Honolulu Fort at the waterfront.

Very little remains of the fort, which was started by Russians who were interested in taking over the kingdom. Its enduring remnant is Fort Street, which began as a path from the fort leading mauka.

In the early 1800s Russian fur traders began coming to the islands for fruit, vegetables, meat and other supplies. When Kamehameha the Great found out they were building a fort on land he had given them for a supply house, the king had them removed.

The Russians met with King Kaumualii, the last king of Kauai, and conspired with him to take over the islands that Kamehameha controlled. They built four forts on Kauai. The remains of one, in Waimea, are still visible to this day.

John Adams Kuakini, governor of Oahu, rebuilt the fort and extended its walls to a height of 16 feet and a thickness of 12 feet. It was rectangular and about 340 feet long and 300 feet wide. It enclosed about 2 acres. It was the largest structure in the islands at the time.

The fort was made with coral blocks cut from the nearby reef, similar to those that would later build Kawaiaha‘o Church. A heavy wooden gate hung on massive iron hinges facing mauka, up Fort Street.

It was located slightly makai of where Fort Street meets Queen Street today. Hawaiians referred to the fort as Kekuanohu (“thorny back,” because of the guns on it walls) or Kepapu (“the gun wall”), wrote Walter Judd in the book “Palaces and Forts of the Hawaiian Kingdom.”

A trail to the water’s edge, known as Alanui Papu (“street of the gun enclosure”), would expand in more modern times and take on the name Fort Street.

The fort was designed to defend Honolulu Harbor and nearby royal residences. Kamehameha I lived about where Harbor Court is today. No ship was allowed to enter the harbor unless it was for peaceful purposes.

The side facing the harbor was rounded to deflect cannon balls. In 1838 it was reported to have 52 cannons that could hurl projectiles up to 32 pounds. None was ever used in battle.

Cannon fire was used to salute visiting ships. When the U.S. ship Vincennes arrived in 1829, it fired a 21-gun salute. The Honolulu Fort, the Puowaina (Punchbowl) gun battery and the king’s ship Kamehameha returned the salute. Eighty-four rounds were fired in a 30-minute period, producing a lot of smoke and noise.

An 1846 report said that a gun was fired each night at 10 p.m. to let bars and public places know it was time to close.

The fort was the administrative center of the kingdom. The governor of Oahu had an office and residence there. Soldiers had barracks. A jail housed unruly sailors. Marriage licenses could be obtained at the fort, and taxes paid (in dollars, kapa, sandlewood, fish or poi).

The fort was fought over three times. In 1830 Princess Liliha attempted to overthrow Queen Kaahumanu, who was regent for the young King Kamehameha III. Her father, Hoapili, persuaded her to back down.

In 1843 Lord George Paulet of the British Royal Navy took over the fort and Hawaii for five months until Rear Adm. Richard Thomas overruled him.

The French attacked and sacked the fort in 1849. One man took a sledgehammer to the largest cannon, missed and struck his own foot. Ouch!

They left after 10 days, and the kingdom presented a claim for more than $100,000 in damage — which was never paid. Let’s see, with penalties and interest over 160 years, I calculate they owe … oh, never mind.

By 1850 hundreds of whaling vessels and ships trading in the California gold rush crowded the harbor. The kingdom felt the fort was no longer necessary for defense, and in 1857 it was torn down. More than 1,500 cubic yards of its coral blocks were used to extend the shoreline out onto the shallow reef of the harbor and became a 2,000-foot-long retaining wall, Judd said.

Fifteen acres of waterfront area was added. Some of the coral blocks were used for sidewalks downtown, and some were dropped into Honolulu Harbor and are still visible in the water off Nimitz Highway next to Pier 11.

First paved road

Fort Street became Hawaii’s first paved road in 1881. It was a two-way street when the first cars arrived in about 1900. Every few decades city planners changed it to a one-way street, alternating direction.

Father Damien was ordained at the Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of Peace on Fort Street. Built in 1842, it is believed to be the oldest continuously used Catholic cathedral in the United States.

In 1859 the Queen’s Hospital opened on Fort Street with 18 beds. A year later it moved to its current site, with 124 beds.

Central Union Church once occupied the corner of Fort and Beretania streets. In 1865 an English day school began in the Fort Street Church. It was later named McKinley High School.

Most of the banks were on Fort Street. Shoppers flocked to such stores as Liberty House, Kress, The Ritz, Kramer’s, Ming’s, McInerny, Woolworths, Sato Clothiers and Andrade.

Proposals to turn it into a pedestrian mall were raised in the 1940s, but merchants feared the loss of parking spaces. The concept was tested in July 1961. A “Golden Harvest Celebration” blocked off Fort Street. Live entertainment mixed with sidewalk sales booths proved successful, as did similar tests in 1962.

The mall finally became a reality in 1968, led by the Downtown Improvement Association’s Clarence T.C. Ching.

Difficulty in finding parking downtown, while thousands of free parking spaces adorned the new Ala Moana Center, which opened in 1959, caused a seismic shift in our habits.

Many of the retailers were cautious about moving to Ala Moana, but when Sears agreed to be an anchor tenant, nearly all the stores and banks followed.

Next week I’ll write more about these companies on Fort Street. Do you have a Fort Street story? If so, please send me an email.