The terra-cotta-framed, eighteen-foot-high entrance of this Spanish Colonial Revival building anchors the corner of Bethel and Merchant streets. Nonfunctional masonry and wrought-iron balconies further invoke

the Spanish accent. The almost playful spirit of the balconies is complemented by the swirling stairway, part of an addition in 1939 to the Nuuanu Avenue end of the building. Tile work in the first-floor main room and the stairwell to the upper floors, lavish by Hawaii standards, is worth a look inside. French Roja Alicante marble graces the first-floor counter-tops and Italian Portoro marble frames the top floor's courtroom portals. The police outgrew the building in 1967, and the courts moved in 1983. Since that time the building has housed city and county government office space.