The eastern areas of the fort were in the district called Moanalua. It was royal land won by conquest by Kamehameha I in the 1790s and eventually passed to Bernice Pauahi Bishop (named "Bishop's Point") and then inherited by Samuel Mills Damon in 1884. The western side known as Halawa, was the former beach-front estate of Queen Emma of Hawaii. The sandy dunes had been used as a burial site.[2] It was used for the U.S. Army in 1901, and acquired by the U.S. federal government in 1907 by condemnation from Emma's estate. It was sometimes called "Queen Emma Military Reservation" or "Queen Emma Point".
In addition to armaments, a row of officers' houses would be built in 1916, and a chapel added in 1940.
First phase (1907-1920)
Batteries were placed behind massive reinforced concrete walls about 20 feet (6.1 m) thick, which were in turn behind 30 feet (9.1 m) of earth. From east to west the sites built in the first phase were:[4]
At the west end of Fort Kamehameha, coordinates 21°19′53″N157°58′6″W / 21.33139°N 157.96833°W / 21.33139; -157.96833 (Battery Chandler) Battery Chandler had two 3-inch (76 mm) guns named for Lt. Rex Chandler who died in an airplane crash in 1913. Battery Barri had two 4.7-inch (120 mm) guns, was named for Captain Thomas O. Barri who died in the Civil War in 1863. Construction on these was started in September 1914. Barri was dismantled in 1925 and both no longer exist.[9]
Batteries Adair and Boyd
Each of these had two 6-inch (152 mm) Armstrong guns in casemates located on Ford Island. They were constructed starting in August 1916 and named for Lt Henry R. Adair (died 1916) and Captain Charles T. Boyd (died 1916). A few years later an airfield called Luke Field was built on Ford Island, and the site is now owned by the Navy.[9]
Battery Closson (1920-1945)
Within a few years the armaments of the first phase were obsolete. In 1920, two 12-inch (305 mm) M1895 guns on a new style M1917 barbette carriage that could traverse a full 360 degrees were installed and named after Civil War General Henry W. Closson.[10] This design had a 975-pound (442 kg) projectile with elevation up to 35 degrees and range of 17 miles (27 km). It was located about 21°19′9″N157°56′3″W / 21.31917°N 157.93417°W / 21.31917; -157.93417 (Battery Closson).[4] Anti-aircraft guns were also added to protect from attack from above. In 1942, concrete shielding was added above the guns.[9]
Use
Cockpit of the "Zero" shot down in 1941 Pearl Harbor attack
At the end of World War II, the coastal batteries had become obsolete, and most of the military installations at the Fort were subsequently demolished.[11]
Preservation
None of the large caliber guns were ever fired except in practice about once a year. They were salvaged after the war. Some other sites within the fort besides the ones listed above were destroyed.[12]
The area around Selfridge and Jackson batteries are now used for the Hawaii Air National Guard.
The eastern side of the military reservation (where Battery Closson was located) became the Mamala Bay Golf Course.
The "Artillery District of Honolulu" (state historic site 80-13-1382)[13] was added to the National Register of Historic Places listings in Oahu on June 5, 1984.[1]
In the 1970s the Fort Kamehameha Wastewater Treatment Plant was built on the western end of the fort. On October 1, 1992 its 506 acres (205 ha) became part of Hickam Air Force Base.[15] The residents were forced out of the homes by the U.S. Air Force and the historic homes were abandoned in 2008 since they were near the runway of Honolulu International Airport despite belonging on the National Register of Historic Places.[16]
^U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (March 1996). "Collections Summary for Fort Kamehameha, Hawaii"(PDF). U.S. Army Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act Compliance Project, Technical Report No. 87. Archived(PDF) from the original on June 4, 2011.
^ abcdWilliam H. Dorrance (1995). "Land Defenses of O'ahu's Forts, 1908-1920". Hawaiian Journal of History. Vol. 29. Hawaiian Historical Society. pp. 147–161. hdl:10524/622.
