Yesterday’s post about my uncle, which included a 1949 photo of him next to an “M’s Coffee Tavern” sign, got me interested in what it was located.
The only solid clue—the Star-Bulletin building in the background. The evening newspaper was produced there from 1916 until around 1963, after it entered into a joint operating agreement and moved to the building on the corner of Kapiolani and Cooke shared with the Honolulu Advertiser.
A detailed history of the building is included in a 2009 application to place the building on the National Register of Historic Places.
So I started a search.
Google turned up a vintage placemat showing M’s original location at 112 Merchant Street.
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I then entered the address (112 Merchant Street) into Google Maps, and it returned this photo of the same approximate location today.
The former 2-story Star-Bulletin building is down the block on the right, with the light pole in front, with the taller Alexander & Baldwin building looming up behind it. That makes sense, since Matson was closely associated with A&B, which either handling its logistics or were both part of a single company. Off the top of my head, I’m not sure of the relationship. The alley shown in the 1949 photo would have been just about here, now the back of the BOH.
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Here’s another view showing the former Star-Bulletin building location immediately next to A&B.
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Anyway, it’s fun to dig around through the old records to get a fuller appreciation of the simple snapshot.
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We used to make the long (pre-freeway) drive from Wahiawa to St. Andrew’s Cathedral on Sunday mornings in the late 40s-early 50s. My dad was in the Cathedral choir and we kids attended Sunday school classes while the folks were in church. Once a month or so, the after-church treat was family lunch at M’s on Merchant Street. I remember it as dark inside – which to me connoted High Class as opposed to coffee shop locations. Admittedly it was M’s Coffee Tavern, not coffee shop. Tavern sounded a cut above as well.
I walk by every day since I work in the old Melcher building at 51 Merchant Street. I often wonder about the many businesses, cars, and people who have come and gone over the years, so thanks for filling in a few pieces of the historical puzzle.
I worked at the paper for three years in the early to mid ’50s and took my coffee breaks at M’s daily. The entrance to the “City Room” was at a mid-point of that alley way while the rear had the old telatype machines. Once I spotted a local publicist deliver his material directly to a compositor bypassing the editorial department entirely.