File:Ford Island Control Tower and Ford Island Operations Building, Ford Island, Pearl Harbor, Honolulu, HI - 52268493939.jpg

English: Built between 1939 and 1942, the Ford Island Operations Building and Ford Island Control Tower stand alongside what was then Naval Air Station Ford Island, which had opened as Luke Field in 1917 under the United States Army Air Service, with the Army Air Service moving to Hickam Field (now Hickam Air Force Base) in 1939, with the Navy subsequently undertaking major upgrades and construction on the facilities at the field in response to growing international conflict in Europe and Asia. The Operations Building was completed by 1941, but the Ford Island Control Tower was still under construction at the time of the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor by Japanese forces, only standing at about 80% complete. The building was strafed by attacking aircraft during the attack, but was left mostly undamaged. Elsewhere on Ford Island, massive damage was done to hangers, moored ships, and other military assets by the surprise attack, leading to the deaths of 2,403 people. The building originally housed a garage for service vehicles, administrative offices and operations offices, a small number of barracks, an aerological monitoring tower, a large water tank, and an aircraft control tower. The operations building was built of concrete and features broad concrete canopies, steel awning and pivot windows, a semi-circular bay window on the front, two garage bays at one end of the first floor, an aerological tower on the roof, and streamline moderne styling. The rear wing of the operations building is a utilitarian, unadorned structure with smaller windows and no canopies, with the 156-foot-tall cylindrical steel tube-shaped Ford Island Control Tower, which served as an aircraft control tower and water tank, with multiple balconies at multiple levels on the exterior of the tower, and a control room at the top surrounded by window walls, allowing for sweeping views of the airfield. Originally painted in camouflage three-tone gray, the tower was later repainted in the iconic orange and white color scheme it is now known for in the early 1960s. The Naval Air Station Ford Island buildings and air strip were listed as a National Historic Landmark in 1964, owing to their significance during World War II and the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. With the closure of the airfield by the United States Navy in 1966, the airfield became a civilian general aviation training airport in the 1970s. The building served as a fire station for Ford Island, a chapel for the surrounding Naval base, an air control tower for the civilian landing strip, and a training center for the Naval Station Police Department during the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, before falling into disuse, as the civilian general aviation airport was moved to the former air station at Barbers Point, now known as the Kalaeloa Airport. Following the closure of the airfield and disuse by the naval station, the building languished until the opening of the Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum in the adjacent Hangar 37 in 2006, which led to increased interest in the building’s preservation. Between 2014 and 2020, the Ford Island Operations Building and Ford Island Control Tower were restored with Historic Preservation Grants from the Historic Hawaii Foundation, and have had their exteriors fully rehabilitated, with work ongoing on building systems and the interiors to allow the control tower and operations building to finally open to the public as part of the Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum in the next few years.