Joseph W. Podmore Building, Honolulu

The Joseph W. Podmore Building, located at the intersection of Merchant and Alakea streets in Honolulu, was constructed in 1902 by Joseph W. Podmore, an English sailor who conducted business in Honolulu during the early 1900s. Mr. Podmore's purpose for building this structure was to lease it for both retail and office purposes. Initially, it housed a tailor and a decorator on the ground floor, while the Mercantile Printing Company occupied the upstairs space.

In 1907, the property owner, Peter Cushman Jones, generously donated the land and the building to the local Board of Missions, which used it as their headquarters until the Mission Memorial Building was constructed in 1916. The print shop upstairs played host to the production of their monthly newspaper, The Friend. Notable occupants of the building over the years included the Honolulu Advertiser and the original Honolulu office of DHL Air Cargo.

Constructed primarily from locally quarried dark lava rock, the building adheres to a simple Richardsonian Romanesque architectural style. The sole arch in the design is located above the side entrance on Merchant Street, with the main entrance situated at the corner, concealed behind a stone column. The building's aesthetics are further enhanced by decorative features such as a stone balustrade along the roofline, lintels and sills made of lighter stone on the second-story windows, alternating bands of stone in two different sizes (8 and 16 inches), and noticeable reddish mortar lines.

This historic building was added to the National Register of Historic Places on March 24, 1983. At that time, the Bon-Bon Cafe was the primary tenant, and the structure was commonly known by this name.