The Hawaiian Room: early basement lounge in KC

I had this in "TIki Finds" but have been told that it deserves it's own thread, so here goes . .

I'm an architectural photographer by trade, and I work mostly in historic preservation. This means that I photograph a lot of buildings before, during and after restoration. Today I was in a house doing pre-restoration documentation and found some scrapbook pages enlarged and taped to the living room wall for the new owner to enjoy. Among them were these:

Having not been in the basement yet, I was itching to see how much of this may still be there!

There had been some flooding in the basement, so the floor had a lot of dirt on it, but sure enough, a LOT of the Hawaiian Room was still there!

Now this is really not much considering what you might find in old basements in CA, but for Kansas City, this is RARE! And for most of it to still be intact ? Even RARER! I seriously doubt the new owners will want to save any of it, but after I went crazy for it, who knows?

Thanks for the pictures
What a great start for a tiki bar and lounge that would be! and it has history as well!
Trader Bob

Urban archeology at its finest! Doesn't that make one curious about the whos and hows of this place!

On 2010-04-29 20:25, SilverLine wrote:
I'm an architectural photographer by trade, and I work mostly in historic preservation. This means that I photograph a lot of buildings before, during and after restoration.

So SL, where does one apply for such a job? I think I could do it! :)

FANTASTICA!

That is so cool. I can only imagine what took place there back in it's heyday.

Thanks for posting this!

Chris

http://www.westadad.blogspot.com

[ Edited by: WestADad 2010-04-30 07:02 ]

What's in that cabinet over there on the left in the last pic?

Hey, Ed Sullivan was in there. You gotta keep that!

On 2010-04-30 09:11, Swanky wrote:
What's in that cabinet over there on the left in the last pic?

It's less interesting than it looks . . the doors cover the electrical fuse and breaker boxes.

What a treasure! This place should be preserved and restored in the best manner possible with the pictures on display in a prominent place. This could be one heck of a swanky tiki pad!

Aloha,

I love this thread.