A post here on Sunday asked for help in identifying this high-rise building under construction back somewhere in the 1970s (“A 1970s condo under construction“). You an click on the photo to view a larger version.

I’ve been making some progress today, but haven’t gotten to a clear answer that accounts for everything in the photo.

One problem is that the photo was taken with a telephoto lens of undetermined length, which compresses distances and distorts relative locations.

I did make a small step forward.

• The low-rise building behind the construction site is quite distinctive. It appears to be the apartment building at 2873 S King St. There is a smaller building that fronts King Street, and 2873 is right behind it, just off of church lane.

Here is how it looks today in a photo lifted from a real estate ad, with the Contessa right behind it.

Screenshot

At first, I thought the high rise under construction had to be the Contessa, which is right next door to 2873 S. King.

I still think this is most likely.

However, I can’t figure out a vantage point from which the photo could have been taken, and from which the Contessa lines up with 2873 S. King in the same manner, and the street in front–whether a section of King Street, Kapiolani Blvd, or Kapahulu Ave–appears as it does in the original photo. It seems to me all those pieces have to fall into place before we have the answer.

Then I found myself considering whether it night be the Regency Tower, as suggested in a comment by Clyde Kobatake.

But if that’s the Regency, then where is the Contessa (built in 1971)? It should be visible elsewhere in the photo. Where is it?

I’m thinking the photo might have been taken from a spot along the west-bound Kapiolani off-ramp from H-1, which could approximate the perspective.

Other info. Before I hit a daily limit, I asked ChatGPT to identify buildings seen in the original photo. It made several obviously incorrect identifications, but after a back-and-forth with me, it offered this annotated version.

I don’t have much confidence in it, but still this might be useful.

Screenshot

I’m hoping all you amateur sleuths are going to contribute to finding the answer!

My parents and their friends certainly knew how to party back in the day! Several old photos I ran across a few days ago confirm other earlier evidence, including my mother’s recipe for “scorpions for 20.”

The photos capture a BBQ complete with pig being roasted over open coals. It had to have been a special occasion. I believe it was either later in 1940 or early 1941 at the house my parents were renting at 1018 Kealaolu, much later the scene of the now infamous staged theft of then-HPD Chief Louis Kealoha’s mailbox, the faked crime that brought down the chief, his wife, and several HPD officers in what is considered one of Hawaii’s most significant corruption cases. At that time, there were farms or undeveloped land behind that house and others along Kealaolu. My parent’s dog, Kiki, seems in the photos to be very much at home, consistent with my belief that the party was at their home.

This was not long after my dad’s arrival in Hawaii, formation of the Hawaiian Surfing Association, and my parents’ wedding, all in 1939, and
the group seems to include a number early Waikiki beachboys.

The caption handwritten on the back of one photo identified the people gathered on the deck of the house. From left to right, they are identified as Joe, Ox, Charlie and Libana, and Fred.

Charlie Crabb and Libana Furtado were married in October 1939, two months before my parents. Libana and my mom became friends while students at the University of Hawaii, and my dad met Charlie soon after arriving in Hawaii in May of that year.

“Ox” was pretty easy to identify as Wiliam “Ox” Keaulana who was, among other things, a lifeguard at the Natatorium, and the uncle of revered waterman Richard “Buffalo” Keaulana.

I haven’t been able to identify Joe and Fred, or Eddie, who appears in another photo (according to its caption).

At the barbeque: Joe, Ox, Charlie and Libana Crabb, and Fred.