Picture this stretch of Honolulu as its old industrial heart, once home to the story behind Hawaii's most famous beer. The Honolulu Brewing and Malting Company was founded in 1897, and from it came Primo Beer — billed as Hawaii's own beer, brewed with local water and the pride of a territory that was becoming increasingly connected to the mainland American economy. Primo became deeply woven into the social fabric of working-class Honolulu: the laborers on the docks, the plantation workers coming into the city on weekends, the servicemen flooding Honolulu bars during and after the Second World War.
Prohibition, which reached Hawaii as a territory in 1920, dealt the industry a severe blow, forcing the closure of the original operation. Primo was eventually revived and changed hands multiple times over the twentieth century. Today, Honolulu has joined the American craft beer renaissance with a new generation of local breweries reclaiming the tradition of Hawaii-made beer.
What you're seeing was once a Honolulu of factories, docks, and a thirsty working population, long before it became simply a tourist destination.