Built in 1924-1928 in the Spanish Colonial Revival style, the original section of this complex of buildings housing President William McKinley High School was designed by Louis E. Davis of the firm Davis and Fishbourne, and houses the oldest public high school in Hawaii, established in 1865 as the Fort Street English Day School, later moving to the former palace of Princess Ruth Keelikolani in 1869, and being renamed Honolulu High School in 1895, before moving to the building later known as the Linekona School in 1907 and being renamed after President William McKinley.  After outgrowing the old Linekona School building, the High School was moved to a larger site, where the present complex of buildings opened in 1924.  In 1928, the final portion of the original complex was completed, the Marion McCarrell Scott Auditorium and Administration Building, completing the original five buildings of the main quadrangle, all designed by Louis E. Davis, and including a Home Economics Building, Arts Building, Commercial Building, and Beckwith Hall.  The school at the time also included recreational facilities, including several sports fields and a swimming pool, which was partially excavated by students attending the school at the time.  The original sections of the school feature stucco-clad walls, red tile hipped and gabled roofs, decorative terra cotta trim, arched and rectangular multi-lite casement windows with transoms, decorative exposed rafter ends, breezeways between buildings with arches, corinthian columns and pilasters, arched entranceways trimmed with terra cotta, and freestanding terra cotta corinthian columns supporting owl statues flanking the side entrances to the buildings that face King Street.  The Auditorium building features an octagonal multi-tier cupola with decorative arched vents, arched corbeling just below the roofline, a lanai at the front entrance with three arches and two columns clad in terra cotta, extensive terra cotta trim, decorative arched trim panels with multi-colored terra cotta trim pieces at the gable ends on the front and rear of the ends of the wings flanking the front entrance, and large windows in groups of three on the rear wing that houses the auditorium.   In front of the Auditorium is a statue of former US President William McKinley, whom has been the namesake of the school since 1907, but has recently become increasingly scrutinized and controversial due to increased awareness of the actions of the McKinley Administration that ignored the petition of Queen Liliuokalani and annexed the islands as a territory of the United States after 5 years of interim government following the 1893 coup by white American businessmen that seized control of the national government of Hawaii, violating the sovereignty of the Kingdom of Hawaii.  The statue may soon be removed from the campus, as an effort is underway by community activists to remove McKinley’s name and statue from the school, though this has yet to be taken up by local authorities.  The campus was expanded in 1939 with the addition of the Art Deco-style Senior Core Building, designed by Vladimir Ossipoff, and financed with assistance from the New Deal-era Works Progress Administration (WPA).  The building features stucco cladding, a hipped red tile roof, decorative exposed rafter ends, steel pivot and single-hung windows, open-air lanais on the exterior faces of the building oriented to the south and east, decorative terra cotta geometric screens with decorative terra cotta panels below, decorative cast stone friezes over the entrances to the building featuring motifs from traditional Hawaiian lore designed by Margarite Blasingame, balconies at the western ends of the building’s two classroom wings, exterior staircases, and terra cotta spandrel panels with terra cotta decorative elements depicting various fruits that can be grown in Hawaii. The school was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.  The campus was expanded in the mid-20th Century with the addition of classroom buildings, a vocational building, cafeteria, and gymnasium, all built in the Modern style, with the cafeteria being especially notable for its folded cross-gable roof and large curtain walls on the exterior, the Multi-Purpose Classroom Building G for its butterfly roof, and the two-story Classroom Building F for its angled slender concrete columns at the exterior lanais, angled metal railings, and “floating” exterior concrete staircase.  The 1920s buildings on the campus were rehabilitated by the State of Hawaii under the direction of architect Leon Noe, with the rehabilitation of the Marion McCarrell Scott Auditorium being completed in 1998, and being carried out under the direction of Peter Hsi.  In 2019, the Senior Core Building, built in 1939, was rehabilitated under the direction of MASON Architects, Inc. in two phases to allow classes to continue uninterrupted in the building during work, which saw the building’s original windows restored, the exterior terra cotta and trim repaired, and landscaping rehabilitated.  The project won an award from the Historic Hawaii Foundation.  Today, McKinley High School continues to provide high-quality education to the students of Honolulu, housed on a beautiful campus of historic buildings arranged around a beautiful landscaped quadrangle off King Street near the heart of Honolulu.
w_lemay
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