CW Dickey House 3030 Kalakaua Ave 96815
Placed on Historic Register 11/1/84
Honolulu, Hawaii. C.1910. The C.W. Dickey House. Charles William Dickey (1871-1942) was one of Hawaii's most influential architects of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Dickey strove to develop an architecture suitable for Hawaii's climate and designed houses to show that the "culture of the people has asserted itself." Dickey felt that Hawaiian houses should have large...
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CW Dickey House 3030 Kalakaua Ave 96815
Placed on Historic Register 11/1/84
Honolulu, Hawaii. C.1910. The C.W. Dickey House. Charles William Dickey (1871-1942) was one of Hawaii's most influential architects of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Dickey strove to develop an architecture suitable for Hawaii's climate and designed houses to show that the "culture of the people has asserted itself." Dickey felt that Hawaiian houses should have large windows and small wall spaces to let the tropical breezes and trade winds circulate. Porches with wide, projecting eaves were also employed to protect against the frequent showers without needing to shut the windows. The wide, projecting eave added at a shallower angle from the main roof, called a double-pitched roof, became a trademark known as the "Dickey" or "Hawaiian" roof. Here Dickey's home looks out towards Diamond Head in the distance. Charles William Dickey bestowed upon Hawai`i a remarkably rich architectural heritage. As the long list of his designs would attest, he is noteworthy by any criteria: variety, quantity, quality. His legacy includes many of the buildings which, today, are considered among Hawai`i's best architecture and also extends beyond his own work to the influence he exerted on other prominent architects who began their careers in his office.
Born in Alameda, California on July 6, 1871, C.W. Dickey was brought at the age of two to the island of Maui, where his parents established a general mercantile store. His mother, the former Anne Elizabeth Alexander, came from a kama`aina family, her father being one of the early missionaries to arrive in Hawai`i, the Rev. William P. Alexander.
Dickey grew up in Haiku, Maui. Returning to the United States for his education, he attended Oakland High School and graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a BA in architecture in 1894. He worked briefly with two American architectural firms and in 1895 he entered into pa
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