Qualla: ʻIolani Palace

ʻIolani Palace: Introduction

Thu, 12 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jeff Kern from Orlando, CC BY 2.0. There is only one royal palace on American soil, and it stands in downtown Honolulu beneath a canopy of banyan trees. ʻIolani Palace was home to the rulers of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi from 1845 until the monarchy was overthrown in 1893. It had electricity before the White House did. Its throne room hosted coronation balls and, later, the trial of a deposed queen. Today it is a museum, a National Historic Landmark, and one of only four places in Hawaiʻi where the Hawaiian flag can fly alone without the American flag beside it. Even the name carries layers: ʻIolani, after the ʻio, the Hawaiian hawk — a solitary raptor found nowhere else on Earth.

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Image: Jeff Kern from Orlando | CC BY 2.0

ʻIolani Palace: Sacred Ground Before the Palace Rose

Thu, 12 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit credited to Hawaii State Archives, Public domain. The palace sits on land that was significant long before Western-style buildings arrived. An ancient burial site called Pohukaina once occupied the area, a sacred resting place for aliʻi — the Hawaiian ruling class. After King Kamehameha II and his queen Kamāmalu died during a vi...

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Image: credited to Hawaii State Archives | Public domain

ʻIolani Palace: Kalākaua's Grand Ambition

Thu, 12 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit billsoPHOTO, CC BY-SA 2.0. By the time King David Kalākaua took the throne, the original palace was rotting from termite damage. Kalākaua was the first monarch to travel around the world, and the grand palaces of Europe gave him an idea: if Hawaiʻi was to be taken seriously as a modern sovereign state, it ...

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Image: billsoPHOTO | CC BY-SA 2.0

ʻIolani Palace: A Queen Imprisoned in Her Own Palace

Thu, 12 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit SCFoxJD, CC BY-SA 4.0. The overthrow came on January 17, 1893. The Committee of Safety, a group of mostly American and European residents, deposed Queen Liliʻuokalani with the backing of U.S. Marines. Troops of the provisional government took control of ʻIolani Palace, renamed it the "Executive Buildin...

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Image: SCFoxJD | CC BY-SA 4.0

ʻIolani Palace: Restoration and Remembrance

Thu, 12 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit SCFoxJD, CC BY-SA 4.0. After more than seventy years of government use, ʻIolani Palace was in poor condition. Governor John A. Burns began restoration efforts in the 1960s. The building was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1962, and government offices finally moved out in 1969 when the new Ha...

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Image: SCFoxJD | CC BY-SA 4.0

ʻIolani Palace: A Symbol Still Contested

Thu, 12 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Cliff, CC BY 2.0. On January 17, 1993, the centennial of the overthrow, thousands gathered on the palace grounds for a torchlight vigil. The building was draped in black. In 2008, a group of Native Hawaiians calling themselves the Hawaiian Kingdom Government occupied the palace grounds in peaceful...

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Image: Cliff | CC BY 2.0