Bookable
An Apollonaut travel guide
The place behind the detail.
A royal residence, a kingdom’s modern ambitions and the events of 1893 and 1895 offer several ways into the story of ʻIolani Palace.
On this page
A palace for a modern kingdom
The cornerstone was laid on 31 December 1879, and the palace was completed in 1882 for King Kalākaua. Its name recalls the ʻio, the royal hawk.
The style is known as American Florentine. Inside, the palace had electric lights, indoor plumbing and a telephone, and by June 1887 it was lit by 325 incandescent lights.
The overthrow of the monarchy
In January 1893 Queen Liliʻuokalani was deposed and the Hawaiian monarchy overthrown. In 1895, after an unsuccessful attempt by royalists to restore her, the Queen was tried in her own Throne Room and imprisoned in an upstairs bedroom for nearly eight months.
These events are told at the palace itself, in the rooms where they took place.
From capitol to museum
The palace served as the capitol of the provisional government, the republic, the territory and the State of Hawaiʻi until 1969. After government offices moved out, the palace was restored and opened to the public as a museum in 1978, and many original objects sold at auction after the overthrow have since been returned.
This history belongs to the place and the people who shaped it. The History page offers a longer introduction, and the timeline gives a short route through selected milestones.
Read at the source
Sources & further reading
Links lead to the original publishers.
