Naomi Weight, 90, cried as she watched her 6-year-old great-granddaughter, Jacelyn-Marie Munoz, place a lei at the foot of the Roll of Honor plaque near the Waikiki War Memorial Natatorium in Waikiki.
Weight’s niece, Nikki DeCaires, brought Muñoz to the Honor Roll during a presentation that was part of Sunday’s Memorial Day ceremony, “Bridges Through Time: Linking Past and Present.”
Weight, whose father was the superintendent of the Walter Napoleon Natatorium, said his mother, Katherine “Kay” Napoleon, started the annual ceremony in 1989. He said his family is looking forward to the day when the event can be held inside the Natatorium for the first time. .
“My eyes filled with tears when I saw (Jacelyn-Marie). I love the Natatorium. When I leave, I told my family to take my ashes and throw them here,” she said.
The Natatorium’s memorial arches, 100-meter saltwater pool and stadium bleachers opened in 1927 as a “living war memorial” to honor Hawaii‘s 10,000 World War I veterans. The Roll of Honor plaque was later added to honor the 101 Hawaii servicemen who made the ultimate sacrifice in the Great War.
The Sunday afternoon ceremony aimed to honor war heroes of the past and relive memories of the Natatorium while honoring the future by maintaining it as a “living monument,” a place to appreciate the freedoms we now have thanks to the sacrifices that they were made.
U.S. Rep. Jill Tokuda, who gave the event’s keynote address, said, “Just as the Waikiki Natatorium is a beacon of remembrance, so are our memories, our stories: they serve as bridges across time that link us to each other. the brave men and women who sacrificed their last measure of devotion in defense of our freedoms. But our duty this Memorial Day extends beyond mere remembrance; It is also a call to action: a challenge to honor the legacy of those who served and sacrificed striving to build a better world and be better people.”
Sarah Fairchild, executive director of the Outrigger Duke Kahanamoku Foundation, told those gathered that when the Natatorium opened to the public, its story became intertwined with that of the great Hawaiian boatman Duke Kahanamoku, who grew up in Waikiki and won three golds and two Olympic Games. . silver medals.
When the Natatorium opened on Kahanamoku’s 37th birthday, Fairchild said he was “probably the most famous person in Hawaii,” and a crowd of 6,000 gathered to watch him swim for the first time in its pool.
“This moment exemplified Hawaii’s prominence in the sport of swimming led by the man who symbolized Hawaii to the rest of the world,” he said. “Over the years, the Natatorium became a center for ocean safety and swimming instruction.”
Fairchild, who is a member of the Hawaii Water Safety Coalition, said nearly 9,000 fifth-graders from 44 schools learned to swim at the Natatorium in 1961, when Oahu’s population was only about a third of what it is. now.
The Natatorium was closed in 1979 due to its disrepair, and Fairchild said swimming lessons in Oahu schools are no longer mandatory. She said drowning is now the leading cause of death among children ages 1 to 17 in Hawaii, which also ranks second in the country for drowning rate among residents.
“When we, as an island community, do not care for places like this, when we do not invest in infrastructure to teach everyone in the next generation critical life-saving swimming skills or to house the offices of our Ocean Safety lifeguards, what Does it matter? Does this say about the values of our island society? Fairchild said. “And when we let a living monument decay into a silent ruin, what are we really teaching our keiki about how to honor sacrifice?”
The Natatorium’s future remains unclear despite a nearly four-decade battle to preserve it. The nonprofit conservation group Friends of the Natatorium began advocating for restoration of the historic structure in 1986 and appeared to gain traction in 1995 when the National Trust for Historic Preservation listed it as one of the 11 most endangered historic places in the United States. Joined. The designation led to a $4 million partial restoration by then-Mayor Jeremy Harris.
In 2013, Governor Neil Abercrombie and Mayor Kirk Caldwell proposed demolishing the pool and bleachers to develop a beach on the site. While that plan was supported by the Kaimana Beach Coalition, it proved unpopular with conservationists.
A year later, preservationists helped get the Natatorium added to the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s list of “national treasures,” a move that has garnered the support of thousands of preservationists from coast to coast. By 2018, the Caldwell administration had pivoted and released a draft environmental statement proposing what at the time was a $25.6 million reconstruction that would keep the historic structure and pool largely intact.
That plan, which was proposed as an alternative to the 2013 plan, proposed demolishing some of the less visible submerged structures at the Natatorium, including the pool’s makai and Ewa jetties. A pool deck would be rebuilt on support piles and surround the pool approximately 4 feet above the water surface at low tide and 3 feet at high tide.
Andy Sugg, Mayor Rick Blangiardi’s chief of staff, who attended Sunday’s event, said, “The mayor and our administration are very committed to rehabilitating the Natatorium, so we’ve been talking to the Friends of the Natatorium with our (Department of Design) and Construction) and we sincerely hope that we can get this project that, as we all know, has been dormant for decades, moving forward again in the right direction. On a day like today, it becomes much clearer. what is such an important monument for the people not only of the city, but of the state.”
Sugg said officials are examining a couple of rehabilitation options that would at least leave the monument’s façade standing.
“If it’s a complete rehabilitation on the back end, it’s a pretty expensive project,” he said. “Our vision is a public-private partnership. “The city has committed money to a feasibility and design study, but we are working with the Friends of the Natatorium.”
Sugg said the preliminary design process has begun, and while he doesn’t have a firm timeline for the project’s completion, “it won’t be 10 years. We hope it will be much sooner.”
The day can’t come soon enough for Weight, who still wears a sterling silver bracelet around her wrist that she calls the “Natatorium bracelet.” She says she has faded with age, but it shines like her eyes as she remembers the occasion she received it and what it still means to her today.
“I was 6 years old and my dad picked me up, put me on his desk at the Natatorium and put the bracelet on my wrist,” she said. “When I was little she always fell off my wrist. I can’t take it off now, but I don’t want to take it off. “It reminds me of such happy times.”
Weight said the “living memorial to the fallen” served its purpose.
“People always said how wonderful it was to come here. It was a place where you could feel the love,” she said. “It saddens me to see him in such a mess.”
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