WHEREAS, there are but a handful of historic water tanks in the United States that were constructed to represent a certain industry, and the Dole pineapple-shaped water tank located in the district of Iwilei, erected in 1927, was regarded as a particularly significant and symbolic architectural structure; and

WHEREAS, the Dole water tank was more famous than the peach water tower in Clanton, Alabama, and the Brooks Foods ketchup bottle water tower in Cillinsville, Illinois; and

WHEREAS, the original pineapple water tank was an attractively painted work of art, weighed 30 tons and held 100,000 gallons of water that was used to drive the cannery’s sprinkler system, and stood as a prominent Honolulu landmark next to the now-defunct cannery in Iwilei; and

WHEREAS, the famous and beloved old water tank was finally taken down in 1993 and placed in storage because it had become frail, badly corroded, and apt to topple in a strong wind; and

WHEREAS, pineapple and sugar were the two major agricultural crops upon which the economy of Hawaii rested before the onset of tourism; and

WHEREAS, the thousands of Hawaii residents who worked in the pineapple industry, their lives intertwined and affected by this mainstay of Hawaiian agriculture, include:

WHEREAS, numerous Nimitz Highway motorists can recall the aromatic emanations from the cannery at the height of the pineapple canning season until its closure in 1991; and

WHEREAS, the replacement of the pineapple water tank would serve as an attraction for today’s tourists and educate people about the importance of pineapple in Hawaii’s history; and

WHEREAS, most importantly, the water tank would stand as a memorial to the thousands of residents who earned a living through "pine" and were part of a great industry that represented a long-gone era; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-third Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2006, that the Chair of the House Committee on Tourism and Culture is requested to designate a member of the House Committee on Tourism and Culture to conduct informal discussions on ways to replicate the historic Iwilei pineapple-shaped water tank; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Resolution be transmitted to the Administrator of the State Historic Preservation Division within the Department of Land and Natural Resources, Chair of the American Studies Department at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, ILWU, Honolulu Chamber of Commerce, Chairperson of the state Department of Agriculture, Historic Hawaii Foundation, Hawaii Farm Bureau, Hawaii Agriculture Research Center, Pineapple Growers of Hawaii, Castle & Cooke Hawaii, and the Chair of the House Committee on Tourism and Culture.

Report Title:

Dole pineapple-shaped water tank; Replication