This Hidden Gem in Honolulu is More Than a Vintage Clothing Shop; It’s a Sports Museum

Tucked on Merchant Street in Downtown Honolulu is a treasure chest filled with decades-old relics and tokens from Hawaiʻi’s sports scene. At first glance the spot might look like the coolest vintage shop you’ll ever set foot in, but it’s a museum first.

Here, history is on display, including jerseys from various University of Hawaiʻi sports teams, as well as memorabilia from the Hawaiʻi Islanders—the baseball team that played in the Triple-A Pacific Coast League from 1961-1987. The collection even includes a ball from the last game the Islanders played in 1987.

The founders of Old Queen Street Stadium, Kevin Faller and brothers Chester and Kevin Sebastian (left to right), are guardians of a unique slice of Island history.
Photo: Aaron K. Yoshino

The founders of Old Queen Street Stadium, Kevin Faller and brothers Chester and Kevin Sebastian, are guardians of a unique slice of Island history. Here, they share stories with different generations of people—for some, it’s like reliving the past; for others it’s a revelation. “Good stories become medicine,” Faller says. “We like to share stories and heal.”

Whether it’s older folks reminiscing about chapters from their own lives, or younger ones peering into a past they’ve never experienced, Old Queen Street Stadium welcomes everyone to not just view history, but to touch it as well. Unlike other museums that keep their artifacts under glass or section them off from viewers with ropes and stanchions, visitors here can quite literally feel the fabric of old jerseys—the same kinds that they, their siblings and maybe even their parents and grandparents once wore. “It’s a beautiful phenomenon when brothers and sisters see what their childhood was like,” Faller says.

Old Queen Street Stadium welcomes everyone to not just view history, but to touch it as well.
Photo: Aaron K. Yoshino

Collectors Faller and Chester Sebastian first connected back in 2020 over a 1990s Les Murakami baseball jersey that Sebastian had posted on Instagram. Murakami, who died in 2015, was a celebrated UH baseball coach who ran the program from 1971-2000; the baseball stadium at UH Mānoa is named in his honor. Sebastian says Faller wanted to buy the Murakami jersey from him—but despite Faller’s persistence, it was a piece that he wasn’t about to part with. But with that connection came a realization: There are people out there who are interested in collecting Hawaiʻi sports memorabilia and swapping stories of the past.

In 2020, Faller and the Sebastian brothers started organizing pop-up events on Queen Street in Honolulu. Collectors and sports fans came together to sell, buy and talk story. The events fostered the idea of creating a permanent place to preserve all of this history.

Along with sports memorabilia, Old Queen Street also has a collection of old-school aloha attire.
Photo: Aaron K. Yoshino

As a passion project, the trio opened Old Queen Street Stadium in 2022, tucked on the second floor of a building in Kakaʻako. It quickly drew collectors and curious sports fans from across Oʻahu. In March 2025, the team moved to Downtown Honolulu, where it continues to share history and sell vintage goods, along with new throwback pieces. As I walk through the spot on Merchant Street , the team reminds me that because it’s a museum first, not all of the pieces are for sale. Some of the items, they say, are invaluable and will be preserved, providing visitors both a connection and a learning experience.

At Old Queen Street Stadium you’ll find local high school jerseys and old-school aloha shirts, as well as esoteric pieces like a pair of boxing shorts worn by Antonio Pascua, an international boxing champion  in the 1950s. Pascua graduated from Farrington High School in the late 1950s; after his time as a professional boxer, he became a Honolulu firefighter and eventually worked his way up to captain.

Palaka, the traditional work shirts worn by local plantation laborers and paniolo (cowboys).
Photo: Aaron K. Yoshino

Old Queen Street Stadium even has some palaka, the traditional work shirts worn by local plantation laborers and paniolo (cowboys). Those laborers and cowboys helped shape Hawai‘i’s local identity and its resilient culture. “My favorite athletes are working-class folks,” Faller says. “Their field wasn’t a hardwood floor or the pitch or turf. But their goal was to win,” just like the athletes and teams that the museum celebrates.

79 Merchant St., Honolulu, hawaiisportsmuseum.com.

Grace Maeda is the editor of HAWAIʻI Magazine.