HISTORIC HONOLULU BUILDINGS 
Hawaii’s territorial executive building stands 
in the historic center of Honolulu. Within a 
block or two of the edifice that served as the 
palace of the last two island monarchs, King 
Kalakaua and Queen Liliuokalani, a number of 
famous structures, in curious contrast to those of 
later times, eloquently recall many significant 
events intimately associated with a century of 
progress. They are Hawaii’s first frame build¬ 
ing, the old Chamberlain House of coral con¬ 
struction, Kawaiahao church, the pretentious 
judiciary pile, Washington Place, and the quaint 
barracks of the days of royalty. 
Adjoining the ancient barracks there is today 
the large modern armory of Hawaii’s national 
guard. Washington Place, long the home of 
Liliuokalani, is now the gubernatorial mansion. 
Next to the judiciary building the scarcely com¬ 
pleted federal building spreads its capacious and 
artistic mass. Across King street from the early 
headquarters of the American missionaries stands 
the handsome Mission Memorial, erected but a 
few years ago. A splendid library is just with¬ 
out the park of the capitol, opposite the clock- 
towered Kawaiahao church of coral stone. 
Today huge electric cars and thousands of auto¬ 
mobiles pass through the civic center and along 
the highway on which but a century ago the first 
American missionaries were sheltered in grass 
houses. 
Built during the reign of Kalakaua, what is 
now the capitol was then lolani Palace. The 
king’s bedchamber is now the private office of the 
governor of the Territory. Kapiolani, Kalakana’s 
queen, had her apartments across the broad hall 
of the second floor, where now the attorney- 
general’s department transacts its business. What 
is today the hall of representatives was once the 
throne room, and the senate chamber was the 
royal dining room. In the basement the former 
kingly kitchen is occupied by the department of 
public works. The major portion of the terri¬ 
torial departments is housed in the one-time regal 
mansion where much of the palace furniture 
does duty in the various offices of the American 
government. 
Tourists usually make the capitol a place of 
visit, and they find much to interest them in 
such of the neighboring historic buildings, pre¬ 
viously referred to, as are open to the public. 
In the hall of representatives, where may still 
be seen the dais that bore the throne for the last 
decade of Hawaiian monarchy, between the time 
of the completion of the building, in 1883, to 
the termination of Liliuokalani’s two-year reign, 
in January, 1893, many paintings of members 
of the royal household adorn the walls. And in 
the senate chamber, and in the upper and lower 
hallways are portraits of personages in one way 
or another associated with the history and de¬ 
velopment of Hawaii. The palace or capitol gal¬ 
lery includes oil likenesses of Louis Philippe of 
France, Marshal Bluecher of Prussia, and Alex¬ 
ander II of Russia, presented to the Kingdom of 
Hawaii, and there are portraits of W. E. Gladstone 
and Lord Beaconsfield. Among the portraits of 
former kings of Llawaii and their consorts are those 
of Kamehameha II (Liholiho) and his wife, both 
of whom died in London of the measles in 1824. 
Pictures of American presidents-—Washington. 
Lincoln, Roosevelt, Wilson, Harding—keep com¬ 
pany with canvases of island chiefs and chiefesses 
and the gift portraits of Old World friends of a 
departed mid-Pacific kingdom. 
The great event of Kalakaua’s reign was his 
bringing to a successful conclusion the reciprocity 
treaty with the United States (1816). 
The capitol park occupies about four city 
blocks, within three blocks of the business center 
and four blocks from the harbor. Several revolu¬ 
tions have staged their principal scenes in these 
grounds, two in the reign of Kalakaua, resulting 
in the establishment of a constitutional monarchy, 
and one that brought about the dethronement of 
Liliuokalani. 
One of the beauties of the former royal abode 
is its interior finish in koa and other indigenous 
O 
hardwoods. 
In the grounds of the capitol, and of the judi¬ 
ciary building opposite, are royal palms, banyan, 
eucalyptus, lauhala (pandanus), poinciana, golden 
shower and other trees. 
Under the monarchy the judiciary building 
housed the government departments as well as the 
judiciary headquarters. It was then known as 
the Aliiolani Hale. At present it contains the 
supreme and circuit courts, offices of the depart¬ 
ment of public instruction, tax offices, and the 
land court. A heroic bronze statue of Kameha¬ 
meha the Great stands in front, facing the capitol, 
surmounting a pedestal whose sides bear relief 
tablets depicting Captain Cook’s discovery of 
the Islands and other important events during the 
reign of the first monarch and first constructive 
lawmaker of the archipelago. 
Kawaiahao church, built of coral stones by 
Hawaiians of the congregation, was completed in 
1842, plans for the building having been made 
six years earlier. The first meeting house of the 
Kawaiahao congregation was made of grass and 
sticks. Erected in 1821, it burned a few years 
later, when a much larger but still primitive 
shelter, capable of accommodating a great gather¬ 
ing, was reared. Monarchs and nobles were asso¬ 
ciated with Kawaiahao. In its graveyard were 
buried the remains of early American missionaries 
and their Hawaiian converts. “The Old Stone 
Church,” as it was called, well repays a visit. 
Within its walls are a number of interesting and 
historic tablets. Its cemetery stones bear many 
