Keep Hawaii Hawaii is a monthly column on island architecture and urban planning. Robert M. Fox, president of Fox Hawaii Inc., studied architecture in California and Japan. He was one of the founders of the Historic Hawai‘i Foundation in 1974. David Cheever, owner of David Cheever Marketing, has served on the boards of the Historic Hawai‘i Foundation and the Hawaii Architectural Foundation. Comments can be sent to keephawaiihawaii@ staradvertiser.com.
According to one source, the site for the historic Waterhouse home on Wyllie Street in the 1880s was "a place of leisure country living. Nuuanu Street was little more than a buggy lane twisting and following Nuuanu Stream past ranch lands and taro patches."
What a change the area has gone through since the late 1800s. But what hasn’t changed is the home John T. Waterhouse Jr. built at 420 Wyllie in 1884. Through two individual owners — the Waterhouse family as original owners and then the Borthwick family, which bought it in 1943 and lived in it for 50 years — this graceful dwelling was beautifully preserved.
What is fortunate is that preservation can often lead to what is called adaptive reuse. That’s what took place in 1992 when the Borthwick family sold the house to Girl Scouts of Hawai‘i as its headquarters. The organization had its offices and meeting rooms spread throughout the living and bedroom areas of the house. But through 10 years of good stewardship, the house remained much as it was when built.
A couple of years ago, Girl Scouts of Hawai‘i decided it needed less space and in turn sold the property to Hawaii Baptist Academy. Again it is in adaptive reuse as the administrative offices for the school’s two campuses in Nuuanu. The school has continued the top-notch preservation.
The man who built the home in the first place, John Thomas Waterhouse Jr., was born in Tasmania and brought to Hawaii in 1850 when he was 11. His father established a string of successful enterprises that included local and international land development. He also had a sizable mercantile business that was tied in with Amfac. The family still has extensive holdings in Hawaii and on the mainland.
One of Hawaii’s most famed architects, C.W. Dickey, who designed the historic A&B Building downtown, described the Waterhouse home as atypical of the Hawaiian vernacular style of residences.
"All the architectural ostentation is lacking and the houses are simple, airy, livable habitations surrounded and nearly obscured in many instances by a species of luxuriant foliage," he observed.
Old photos of the house show trees, plants and shrubs that practically hid the building from the street. Most of that is gone, replaced by lawn and a low hedge, but the property is still basically without ostentation even though it was home to one of Hawaii’s most successful businessmen.
The huge monkeypod tree in the front yard still spreads its branches over nearly a third of the land the house sits on. This tree is one of the oldest monkeypods — if not the oldest — in Hawaii, as told by Marion Wilcox, daughter of Elizabeth and John Waterhouse Jr.
The Waterhouse home was placed on the national and state registers of historic places in 1975. Its nomination form — the source that described the "leisure country living" in the area — said it qualifies because it is the second oldest home in Nuuanu Valley and one of the oldest wood-frame structures in the state. The record went on to say it is an existing, unique example of "second generation Hawaiian Grand Vernacular Architecture," adding, "Of particular interest are the floor to ceiling windows and broad open porches that express a design concern for the Hawaiian climatic and life-style conditions."
Our community should be very grateful that this simple but elegant home has been preserved for nearly 130 years by two families and two nonprofits. That isn’t always the way historic structures are treated in Hawaii.
