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Established by Act 324, SLH 1989 from two predecessors.

Two agencies, the Historical Commission and the Historical Sites Commission, established 30 years apart, were made responsible for historic preservation. For approximately 16 years after the second agency was established, responsibility for historic preservation resided in two places until it was unified in the Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) in 1967.

The Historical Commission was established by Act 120 of 1921.

The function of the Commission was to accomplish four tasks: to write a comprehensive general history of Hawaii, to revise an apparently existing elementary history of Hawaii for use in the public schools, to compile a history of Hawaii's role in World War I, and to report to the legislature on places of historical importance for the purpose of marking them.

The law provided for a three-member commission and the employment of "such competent persons as are necessary for the compilation of the said history." The Commission wanted a trained historian to fill this job, involving as it did, the planning and writing of so much history, and in April, 1922, offered the position of executive secretary to Ralph S. Kuydendall. Kuykendall accepted and began work in September, 1922.

The Commission's authorizing legislation was amended by Act 139 of 1923.

The Commission began first the writing of the elementary textbook. When that had been well started, they began the longer-term work of writing the comprehensive history. This project eventuated in Kuykendall's three volume History of the Hawaiian Kingdom, 1778-1893. In response to Kuykendall's idea that the history should place Hawaii in a world context, rather than concentrate purely on island affairs, the Commission first surveyed what records existed in Hawaii for the purpose, and then began concerted searches elsewhere. Kuykendall personally examined libraries in the United States and Canada with major holdings relating to Hawaii, especially the Bancroft Library at the University of California at Berkeley, the provincial library of British Columbia, the Oregon Historical Society library, Harvard College Library, and the U.S. State Department archives.

The Commission also contracted for copy work in the British and French government archives, again, for diplomatic correspondence relating to Hawaii. In addition, the Commission secured copies of documents relating to Hawaii from the Mexican government archives, and copies of the correspondence of David S. Gregg, Peter A. Brinsmade, Robert G. Davis, William L. Lee, and Sanford B. Dole. The law provided that it was to deposit all the documents it collected in the Territorial Archives.

The Commission was abolished in 1932 and its functions transferred to the Board of Regents of the University of Hawaii (Act 9, Second Special Session, 1932).

Some of the historic preservation functions assigned to the Commission date from 1921, when they were created by statute and assigned to the earlier and separate Historical Commission upon its establishment and transferred to the Board of Regents of the University of Hawaii in 1932, when the Historical Commission was disestablished.

These same functions were assigned to the Commission on Historical Sites when it was created in 1951, but remained concurrently assigned to the Board of Regents.

It was succeeded by the Division of Territorial (later State) Parks in 1959, which also absorbed the related functions of the Board of Regents in 1967.

Since the creation of the city and county of Honolulu in 1907, the city charter was amended by numerous acts of the legislature and the charter revision commission of 1937 - 1938. The restriction and interference by the legislature, rapid growth of the municipal and suburban areas leading to increasing complexity in local government, and a desire to keep tax revenue in Honolulu led to a sentiment favoring home rule. Bills to form a charter commission were introduced in both houses of the legislature in 1951, but were subsequently defeated. The Twentieth-sixth Legislature in 1955 enacted Act 225, which authorized the Mayor of Honolulu to appoint a charter commission of nine members. The commission was charged with the task of formulating a charter for the city and county of Honolulu "adapted to the requirements of such city and county and designed to provide for the people of such city and county a more efficient, economical, and representative form of government." Act 225 further stipulated that the commission be required to submit the proposed
charter to the Board of Supervisors, who could propose alternative provisions. At the next general election the proposed charter would be approved or disapproved by the electorate. Upon approval of the proposed charter, the County Clerk was to submit -the proposed charter to the Secretary of the Territory, who would submit it to the legislature for ratification. Act 225, however, prohibited the commission from altering the status of the Board of Water Supply. Mayor Neal S. Blaisdell appointed J. Ballard Atherton, president of the Hawaiian Telephone Company, as chairman of the-Honolulu Charter Commission; other commissioners were Thomas D. Murphy, Suyeki Okamura, Allan J. McGuire, Raymond Y. C. Ho, Robert G. Dodge, Mrs. Eureka Forbes, William F. Quinn, and A. S. Reile. Later, C. Nils Tavares was appointed to replace William F. Quinn. The commission hired Charlton F. Chute of the Institute of Public Administration as a consultant and Nils K. Ueki as executive secretary. Act 225 was amended by Act 277 in the 1957 session of the legislature to enable the city and county to submit the charter to the electorate for approval at a special election. It also allowed the commission to prescribe the form of ballot for the election and deleted the reservation held by the legislature on the Board of Water Supply. The commissioners held 142 meetings over a period of twenty-eight months, sixteen of which were designated as public hearings. They listened to testimony by officials of the city and county, other public officials in Hawaiʻi, members of civic organizations, interested individuals, and visiting personnel who were cognizant in municipal affairs. The commission prepared six drafts of the proposed charter. The fourth draft, the preliminary draft, was printed and widely circulated for comments to authorities on municipal government and to interested local individuals. It also served as a basis for a series of public hearings. On the advice of consultants who recommended an educational campaign lest the charter be defeated at the polls, the commission worked with the Citizens' Charter Committee. Organized in July, 1956 and headed by Joe C. Harper, the committee sought to inform the public about the issues involved in the formulation of and to stimulate interest in the proposed charter. While the Citizens' Charter Committee functioned concurrently with the Charter Commission, the Citizens' Charter Forum, composed of prominent members of the community, was organized in April, 1958 to aid in the drive for approval of the proposed charter at the polls. On April 3, 1958 the proposed charter for the city and county of Honolulu was submitted to the Board of Supervisors for examination and proposed alternatives. The proposed charter, as originally submitted by the commission, was approved by the electorate at the special election held on June 14, 1958, whence the terms of office of the commissioners expired. The proposed charter was then submitted to the Secretary of the Territory
by the Count y Clerk on July 11, 1958, who submitted it to the legislature on March 6, 1959. With a few amendments, it was passed as Act 261. The bill was signed by Governor William F. Quinn on June 5, 1959, and the charter took effect on July 1, 1959.

The earliest records of shipping and harbor affairs date from 1841 and were kept by the Officer of Customs, entitled the Harbor Master, and placed under the Treasury Board in the Ministry of the Interior. In 1845, an act to organize the Executive Departments, the Treasury Board was dissolved and its functions were taken over by the newly created Ministry of Finance.

Act 53, Session Laws 1896, called for the Kapiolani Park Association to transfer the control and management of Kapi'olani Park along with its lease to the Honolulu Park Commission which was specifically created for this purpose. The Commission was composed of six members: Cecil Brown, E. S. Cunha, and William Irwin were elected by the Kapiolani Park Association to represent it while Paul Isenberg Jr., Lorrin A. Thurston, and Frank Hustace were appointed by Sanford Dole, President of the Republic of Hawai'i. William Irwin was elected chairman at the first meeting held on November 4, 1896. In 1904, Governor Robert Carter reorganized the membership of the Commission and also included the Superintendent of Public Works as an ex-officio member in compliance with the Appropriation Bill of 1901, which alloted $12,000 to the Commission. The new Commissioners elected Archibald S. Cleghorn, former president of the Kapi'olani Park Association, as their chairman on February 4, 1904. He passed away 6 years later and was succeeded by William Giffard. Prior to 1901, the Territorial Legislature had appropriated funds to the Honolulu Park Commission and continued to do so until 1905. These funds were supplemented by private donations and revenue received from selling firewood chopped from park trees and licenses to individuals for cutting grass or gathering algaroba beans.
Territorial appropriations were discontinued in June, 1905, and from July, 1905, Oahu County (later City and County of Honolulu) began to grant subsidies averaging about $700 a month to the Commission. In July 1906, the Honolulu Board of Supervisors entrusted certain lots in Waikiki known as the Kunst Estate to the Commission for use as a public park subject to the sue terms and regulations as governed Kapiolani Park and also passed a resolution appointing the Honolulu Park Commissioners along with its ex-officio member, the Superintendent of Public Works, County Park Commissioners. Although members of the Commission were now County Park Commissioners and the Commission received financial support primarily from the County instead of the Territory, the governor still retained his appointive power over the Honolulu Park Commission. H. McCullom served as Superintendent of the Park under the Honolulu Park Commission, followed by E. M. Stone in 1900 and Alexander Young in 1902. They lived on the park grounds and were responsible for maintaining and improving the grounds and supervising the Asiatic and later prison labor in this task. Some of the projects undertaken by the Honolulu Parks Commission. especially in the first decade of the l900's, were the building of concession and bath. houses, deliberating over requests for use of the grounds for baseball, racing
and polo and building and expanding a plant nursery. In 1913, the Territorial Legislature passed Act 163 which transferred control and management of Kapiʻolani Park from the Honolulu Park Commission to the City and County of Honolulu and repealed laws relating to it.