Nob Hill - Ford Island History

Nob Hill, Ford Island

Quarters A, B & C in 1923. Across the street are the servants quarters built that year.

Source: National Archive Still Photo Collection, 71-CA-153E

Quarters A

(Facility #321)

Quarters A was originally the Commanding Officer's quarters and was one of the original 1923 homes built on Ford Island. It is different in configuration from Quarters B and Quarters C (also 1923) because it contains a wing for the kitchen and servants spaces.

This house is considered a simple Craftsman style with common elements with sugar plantation homes in Hawaii.

The design is similar to that of the Hale Alii one-story homes built at Pearl Harbor in 1916.

Other features include:

One story wood-frame house with lava rock and concrete foundation piers.

Diagonal wood lattice between foundation piers.

Board-and-batten siding with 5-inch-wide battens over 12-inch-wide boards

Wood water table

Shingled complex hip roof with wide over handing eaves.

Lava rock chimney

The BOQ in 1923.

Source: National Archives Still Photo Collection, RG71CA, Box 152

By the 1920s, the US Navy was building up its Naval Air Station on Ford Island. As part of this growth, in 1922, the Navy began the construction on three married officers homes (Quarters A, B and C) on the North End of the Island later known as "Nob Hill."

The three homes were of the same style, but Quarters A, designated as the Commanding Officer's Quarters, was a slightly different configuration.

From Left: Quarters A, Quarters B & C in 1923.

Source: National Park Service, USS Arizona Memorial, from 14th Naval District Collection PHOG No. 4561

Quarters K

Hale Loa (Long House) a.k.a. "Quarters K," was the Commanding Officers quarters built on Battery Adair in 1936. Until Quarters K was built, Quarters A was the commanding officer's home.

In 1937, CDR Robert Hickey became the first resident of Quarters K and he returned in 1958 to live in the same house as Rear Admiral. He planted the tree on the front left hand corner of the house during his first tenure.

During the attack on Pearl Harbor, families from the CPO Quarters and Nob Hill dashed to Quarters K for shelter. At the time, Admiral Bellinger and his family lived in Quarters K. Admiral Bellinger was the commander of the Patrol Wing 2 and Task Force 9, thus in charge of the naval air base defense force.

Battery Adair was built by the Army on the North east side of the island. It was named on January 16, 1917 for First Lt. Henry Adair, 10th US Cavalry, who died in Mexico in 1916.

As the Nob Hill homes were being completed in 1923, a large Bachelor’s Officers Quarters and neighboring servants' quarters were built near the married officers' quarters in the Nob Hill neighborhood.

The front of the BOQ included a oval drive encircling a Banyan tree. The BOQ housed the families of Ford Island for days following the Dec.7, 1941 attack.

The BOQ building was demolished by 1952. The banyan tree remains today.

Bachelor's Officers Quarters (BOQ)

As the Naval Air Station on Ford Island grew, so did the need for more housing. In 1936, Sixteen additional houses were built in the Nob Hill neighborhood with two different designs. Both of the designs were of a simplified craftsman/ plantation style. One of the houses, Quarters K, was built on top of the former Battery Adair. More about Quarter's K..

Left: The driveway leading up to Battery Adair in 1923. Note the BOQ in the background.

Source: Nation Park Service PHOG No. Temp 815

The 1930s Nob Hill Homes

The Banyan Tree is all that remains of the BOQ today.

Source: Belt Collins 2002

Ford Island History
Ford Island Homes Timeline
CPO Neighborhood
Nob Hill Neighborhood
On Dec 7th 1941

More About Ford Island

The recently restored Quarters K on Ford Island in June 2009

Jill Radke Photo

Inside Battery Adair, now the basement of Quarters K

Jill Radke Photo, June 2009

The 1936 Nob Hill officers' homes built by the Navy were a simplified craftsman/ plantation style shown here in 1937.

Source: National Archives and Courtesy of Mason Architects.

The 1936 Nob Hill homes as they looked in 2002.

Source: Helber, Hastert and Fee for NAVREG.

A newly-restored 1936 Nob Hill home in June 2009.

Jill Radke Photo

Nob Hill Today

The Nob Hill neighborhood is being restored by Hawaii Military Communities, LLC, as part of the Hawaii Public-Private venture to develop, restore and manage Navy housing in Hawaii. In June 2009, the first of the homes to complete the restoration received a traditional Hawaiian blessing. The event marked not only the completion of the restoration, it celebrated the success of a collaborative effort of many groups including Hawaii Military Communities LLC, the U.S. Navy, the ACHP, the State Historic Preservation Division, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the City and County of Honolulu and Historic Hawaii Foundation. The result of the collaboration is the preservation of this historic and beautiful neighborhood for present and future generations.