'Iolani Palace...

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone back home!  I hope you all stuffed yourselves sufficiently full.  Who feels more like the bird now?

I recently visited 'Iolani Palace, which was the official, and last residence of the Hawaiian Monarchy.  It's been restored and acts as a museum now.  I actually pass it all the time since it is located on the eastern edge of downtown's financial district, and I live just a little further east.  It is a very important historic site in Hawai'i.  Unfortunately, the palace was not used long, before the Hawai'i ceased being a monarchy.  I would tell you about it, but I wouldn't transcribe the 'Iolani Palace nearly as good as it's website.  So the pictures are all mine, but the highlighted words are credited to it's website.

‘Iolani Palace, the official residence of Hawaii’s monarchy, is a marvel of opulence, innovation, and political intrigue. Meticulously restored to its former grandeur, this National Historic Landmark in downtown Honolulu tells of a time when their Majesties, King Kalākaua, who built it in 1882, and his sister and successor, Queen Lili‘uokalani, walked its celebrated halls.

'Iolani Palace

'Iolani Palace reminds me of the Alamo in San Antonio, because it seems like this ancient and old landmark plopped right in the middle of a huge urban city that developed around it.  I remember going to the Alamo with my sister Katie.  We were convinced we were lost since we were in the middle of high-rise buildings, then we turned the street corner and there it was - enveloped within the city.  I have a similar feeling every time I pass 'Iolani Palace.

Old gas lights are stationed around the complex 

`Io is the Hawaiian hawk, a bird that flies higher than all the rest, and lani denotes heavenly, royal, or exalted. 

'Iolani is pronounced 'E-o-lawn-E' 

This particular day, touring the palace was free to Hawaii residents.  I started 

downstairs where it serves as a museum with many pictures and artifacts.

Many people looking over photographs of times past. 

View of chairs, a thrown in the foreground that has not be restored and a restored estate chair in the background, along with many other artifacts on the sides. 

Artifacts from times when the Palace served as the King and Queen's home. 

Queen Lili'uokalani, the last monarch of Hawaii 

Lili'uokalani was overthrown by the Committee of Safety (fancy terms for 'a group of businessmen') and wrote a letter to Sanford Dole relinquishing control over Hawai'i:

On January 17, 1893, Queen Lili`uokalani yielded her authority:

. . . Now to avoid any collision of armed forces, and perhaps the loss of life, I do this under protest and impelled by said force yield my authority until such time as the Government of the United States shall, upon facts being presented to it, undo the action of its representatives and reinstate me in the authority which I claim as the Constitutional Sovereign of the Hawaiian Islands.

For the record: President Grover Cleveland did not support this overthrowing and called it illegal.  Sandford Dole would then become president of the Republic of Hawai'i.  The Republic of Hawai'i wanted to be annexed by the United States, but was initially denied.  Hawai'i became a territory of the U.S. under President McKinley in 1898 and, of course, a state in 1959.

Queen Lili'uokalani always fought for the Hawaiian people and is looked highly upon.  She was even put in jail/house arrest for a knowing about a plot to overthrow the Republic of Hawai'i.  That's a long story, so I digress...

This would be the bathroom.

The "Blue Room"  ...really, that's it's name

The Grand Stairs

The back porch 

A mirror outside the backdoor, complete with lights to see how you look before going it to see the king or queen. 

'Iolani Palace was the first place in Hawaii to have eletricity and was always seen as the most up-to-date/modernized building at that time:

The `Iolani Palace was outfitted with the most up-to-date amenities, including indoor plumbing. Gas chandeliers installed when the Palace was first built were replaced by electric lighting five years later (less than seven years after Edison invented the first practical incandescent bulb). The King also installed a modern communications system that included the recently invented telephone.

The Throne Room

The kitchen.  Not that exciting so I played around with contrast and brightness in post production.