Visting Kalakaua Ave & Paʻū Street in Honolulu, Hawaii in 1971 and now


Aloha! I just found this cool old pic of Honolulu in 1971 on the Duke University Digital Libraries site, and since I could read the street signs, I thought that it would be fun for us to visit there in our imaginations, and with the help of the nice people at Google Street View, see what it looks like nowadays. It's Kalakaua Avenue and Paʻū Street, looking south.

I've never been to Hawaii, although I'd like to visit there some day, and the only images that I have in my mind are from when I was a kid watching "Hawaii 5-0", which was a cop show. Considering that Hawaii is a beautiful and exotic place, it seems to me that my memories of them driving around Hawaii was that it looked pretty ordinary, 1970s cars, gas stations, hotels.

And usually when I look at old photos, the new photos look pretty sad by comparison, but I gotta admit that when I did a Google Street View of this intersection I was very impressed by how beautiful it is today.


The gas station is gone, of course, but those wonderful palm trees are still there, and are just a little taller. It looks like there's a new roof on what used to be the Ensenada, and is now a Tony Romas, and of course there are more buildings, and there's more traffic. Of course the Google Street View photos are in color, but overall it just looks cleaner and brighter. If you've been in Honolulu since the days of Jack Lord as Steve McGarrett, I'd love to hear your opinion!

Book 'em, Dann-o!

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