HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.C.R. NO.

296

TWENTY-FIFTH LEGISLATURE, 2009

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 

 

 

 

 

HOUSE CONCURRENT

RESOLUTION

 

 

urging the emma kwock chun corporation, the state historic preservation office, and the historic hawaii foundation to apply FOR PLACEMENT of president barack obama's punahou circle APARTMENT on the national register of historic places.

 

 

 


     WHEREAS, the Punahou Circle apartments complex, built in the 1960s, is a modest cinderblock walk-up building in the neighborhood of Makiki; and

 

     WHEREAS, Madelyn Dunham, grandmother of President Barack Obama, rented a tenth-floor unit in the Punahou Circle apartments for forty-one years; close to her apartment is Kapiolani Hospital, where President Obama was born; and

 

     WHEREAS, during President Obama's childhood, he lived with his grandmother in that apartment while attending near-by Punahou School from 1971 to 1979; and

 

     WHEREAS, after President Obama graduated from Punahou School in 1979, he attended Occidental College, Columbia University, and Harvard Law School, before taking up residence in Chicago, Illinois; and

 

     WHEREAS, after marrying his wife, Michelle, in 1992, President and Mrs. Obama spent Christmas in Hawaii, visiting his grandmother at the same apartment where he lived many years as a child; and

 

     WHEREAS, in October 2008, President Obama again made a visit to the Punahou Circle apartment to spend time with his grandmother, who was in poor health; and

 

     WHEREAS, Madelyn Dunham passed away at her Punahou Circle apartment home in her sleep on November 3, 2008; and

 

     WHEREAS, although a rental apartment building, the units in the Punahou Circle apartments include the childhood home of a United States President; and

 

     WHEREAS, the Historic Hawaii Foundation offered the possibility of placing the building on the National Register of Historic Places; and

 

     WHEREAS, even though the Historic Hawaii Foundation acknowledges the unusual nature of placing a condominium or apartment building on the National Register, the Punahou Circle apartment where President Obama and his grandmother lived represents a proud and historic part of history in Hawaii; and

 

     WHEREAS, the Emma Kwock Chun Corporation, owner of the Punahou Circle apartments, has not decided on the future of the apartment or nominating the apartment for placement on the National Register; and

 

     WHEREAS, nomination and registration for the National Register of Historic Places is a lengthy process, requiring review and studies of the property conducted by the State Historic Preservation Office before submission to the National Park Service of the United States Department of the Interior; now, therefore,

 

     BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-fifth Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2009, the Senate concurring, that the Legislature urges the Emma Kwock Chun Corporation, with the assistance and guidance of the State Historic Preservation Office and the Historic Hawaii Foundation, to apply President Barack Obama's Punahou Circle apartment home for placement on the National Register of Historic Places; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the Chairperson of the Board of Land and Natural Resources, the Administrator of the State Historic Preservation Division of the Department of Land and Natural Resources, the President of the Historic Hawaii Foundation, and the Chairperson of the Emma Kwock Chun Corporation.

 

 

 

 

OFFERED BY:

_____________________________

 

 

Report Title: 

Punahou Circle Apartments; National Register of Historic Places