Historic Davis Levin Livingston Place

Our historic building, Davis Levin Livingston Place, was constructed in 1898 and reflects the quiet elegance of territorial Hawaii’s early commerce. Located in the heart of the financial district of downtown Honolulu, the building was built by Dr. Gerrit P. Judd, a prominent physician and advisor to the Kingdom of Hawaii. The building is considered the finest example of Italian Renaissance style in Hawaii and was designed by well-known Chicago architect Oliver Traphagen, whose other landmark structures include the Moana Hotel in Waikiki.

This four-story building (a fifth story was added in the 1920s) featured the first electric passenger elevator in the Pacific and still features beautifully restored etched brass elevator doors depicting scenes of the arrival to Hawaii of early commercial seaplanes. The building has served as the corporate headquarters of Bank of Hawaii, sugar and agriculture giant Alexander and Baldwin, and First Federal Savings and Loan. The building also housed the historic Honolulu Stock Exchange from 1898 until 1977 where investors would trade Hawaii stocks before modern communications allowed trading on the mainland and foreign exchanges. Several of the original oak seats on the Honolulu Stock Exchange can be found at Davis Levin.

The building, at the Makai-Diamond Head corner of Merchant Street and Fort Street Mall, consists of 20,200 square feet, sits on 5,049 square feet of land, and was extensively remodeled in 1979. In 2000, the building was again restored to its original, historic elegance but with state of the art technology (including a video teleconference facility) to accommodate the law firm of Davis Levin Livingston.

Check out "My Tour of the Historic Judd Building, Hawai'i's First Skyscraper" by Wendy Tolleson, MA.