Honolulu, Hawaii · Founded 1934
A reported 1934 Honolulu bar long associated with Pearl Harbor sailors that permanently closed in June 2026.
Smith's Union Bar operated at 19 North Hotel Street in Honolulu's Chinatown from the 1930s until June 1, 2026. Recent reporting described it as Hawaii's oldest bar and linked it to sailors from the USS Arizona, while also reporting that the bar closed after its lease was not renewed. Its historical association with individual Arizona crew members is widely repeated but not fully documented in the sources reviewed.
Recent closure coverage dates Smith's Union Bar's opening to 1934, after the end of national Prohibition.
Source: Hawaii News Now, "Hawaii's oldest bar closes in Chinatown after 92 years," 2026
A community history identifies Leroy Holley as owner from 1958, though this ownership chronology requires confirmation from licensing or business records.
Source: First Friday Honolulu, "Smith's Union Bar"
Leroy Holley dies, according to a community history of the bar.
Source: First Friday Honolulu, "Smith's Union Bar"
Dwight Lockwood reportedly purchases Smith's Union Bar, becoming its fourth owner in approximately 92 years according to later closure coverage.
Source: Pacific Historic Parks closure summary; contemporary closure reporting
Smith's Union Bar permanently closes after its lease is not renewed.
Source: Hawaii News Now, "Hawaii's oldest bar closes in Chinatown after 92 years," 2026
Every claim gets rated. A business's own website can never earn "documented."
Hawaii News Now and other modern accounts described Smith's Union Bar as Hawaii's oldest bar and dated it to 1934. This review did not locate the claimed licensing-record audit or an authoritative comparative inventory proving that no older eligible bar existed or that operations were uninterrupted.
The association is repeated in historical and closure coverage, and recent accounts report that photographs connected with USS Arizona survivors were displayed at the bar. The sources reviewed do not provide contemporaneous military, diary, bar, or named oral-history records proving which crew members visited or that they drank there on December 6, 1941.
Several accounts attribute the 1934 opening to Joe Holley, but one community history gives a 1935 opening date and family oral tradition reported in 2025 questions the early ownership narrative. A primary business or liquor-license record is needed for a documented rating.
Hawaii News Now and multiple contemporaneous closure accounts report that Smith's Union Bar locked its doors for good on June 1, 2026 after its lease was not renewed.
Smith's Union Bar is still open.
Smith's Union Bar permanently closed on June 1, 2026 after its lease was not renewed.
Source: Hawaii News Now, "Hawaii's oldest bar closes in Chinatown after 92 years," 2026
USS Arizona crew members were documented at Smith's Union Bar the night before Pearl Harbor.
The bar's connection with USS Arizona sailors is a repeated historical association, but the sources reviewed do not establish named crew visits or a December 6, 1941 visit through contemporaneous records.
Source: HuffPost, "Remembering Pearl Harbor at the Oldest Bar in Hawaii," December 2, 2016; Pacific Historic Parks closure summary, 2026
The bar's 130-plus-year age is established by the building's age.
The bar itself is generally reported to have opened in 1934; this review did not verify a construction date for the Hotel Street building or evidence that a 130-year claim is historically grounded.
Source: Hawaii News Now, "Hawaii's oldest bar closes in Chinatown after 92 years," 2026
This field is retained only for archival context. Smith's Union Bar lasted for decades as a Chinatown neighborhood bar with a strong military-memory association, but it did not survive its most recent lease dispute and permanently closed in 2026.
No. Smith's Union Bar at 19 North Hotel Street permanently closed on June 1, 2026. Hawaii News Now reported that the reported 1934 bar closed after its lease was not renewed.
Recent closure coverage dates Smith's Union Bar to 1934, shortly after national Prohibition ended. A separate community history gives 1935, so the exact opening date and founding documentation remain unresolved.
Modern reporting frequently called Smith's Union Bar Hawaii's oldest bar. That designation is credible as a longstanding public claim, but this review did not locate a state licensing-record audit or comparative historical inventory sufficient to independently prove uninterrupted operation and statewide priority.
Smith's Union Bar was widely associated with USS Arizona sailors and displayed photographs connected with survivors. However, the sources reviewed do not identify individual crew members in primary records or establish the repeated claim that sailors drank there on the night before the December 7, 1941 attack.
Closure-era accounts identify Dwight Lockwood as the most recent owner; they report that he bought the bar in 2013. This concerns ownership of the bar business, not a separately verified ownership interest in the Hotel Street property.
19 N Hotel St, Honolulu, HI 96817
(808) 538-9145
None on file
Closed permanently June 1, 2026; do not publish as an active venue.