Royal Brewery
Royal Brewery is a four-story masonry building located on South Queen Street in Honolulu, constructed around 1900 with steel framing and concrete facing. Its front facade features intricate brickwork with three-story curved arches and decorative corbels that demonstrate the craftsmanship of the period.
Designed by New York architect Hermann Steinmann in 1899 for the Honolulu Malting and Brewing Company, the building began beer production in 1901 and survived Hawaii's 1918 Prohibition and the national ban that followed. The American Brewing Company operated it until 1963, when it was later registered in the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.
The building served as a center of local brewing culture in Honolulu for much of the 20th century. Its presence on Queen Street marked a time when industrial production was part of the city's daily rhythm and identity.
The building sits in a central location near Honolulu's historic district and is easily accessible from Queen Street. As it is now a protected historic structure, visitors can admire the exterior architecture, though interior access is typically not available to the public.
It is the only surviving Romanesque Revival brewery structure in all of Hawaii. The first commercial beer brewed here was Primo Lager, launched in 1901 with advertisements claiming it could cure insomnia and was better than tea or coffee for those living in tropical climates.
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