After walking around Waikiki I headed down to the Royal Hawaiian Shopping Center to catch the Waikiki Trolley. I had a free all day pass to ride it anywhere it goes since I had purchased a tour from them that I would take later in the week. I didn't take this picture, I stole it from another website. Shhhhhhhh.
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A statue of Hawaii's greatest leader King Kamehameha I. This statue, located in front of Ali'Iolani Hale, was dedicated in 1893 as part of King Kalakaua's coronation ceremony. Ali'Iolani Hale is the the oldest government building in Hawaii. It is also known as the Parliament Building.
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King Kamehameha V initiated the planning and construction of Ali'Iolani Hale as the official palace. It was completed in 1874. But after King Kalakaua built a new palace, Iolani Palace, this building was redesigned to house the Legislature and the Supreme Court. Today, the State Supreme Court still convenes in these same historic courtrooms.
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Here is Iolani Palace, the only true royal palace in the United States and the last official residence of the kings and queens who ruled Hawaii. King Kalakaua and Queen Kapiolani completed the palace in 1882. It had electricity before The White House or Buckingham Palace. It served as the monarch residence until the dethronement of Queen Liliuokalani in 1893 by the US Marines under pressure from American businessmen.
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This is a statue of Queen Liliuokalani. She only ruled from 1891-1893. When the US Marines invaded in 1893 to take over the island the Queen surrendered to the United States to prevent the bloodshed of her people. After that Hawaii became a US territory and later a US state.
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The other side of Iolani Palace. After the dethonement of the Queen the building served as the Capitol, first for the Territory and then the State. The new State Capitol was built in 1969 and the palace was restored to its royal grandeur. This was also the fictional headquarters of Hawaii Five-0 on that old TV show.
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Iolani Barracks, located right next to Iolani Palace. Looking like a small medieval fortress it was used as barracks for the Royal Guard when Hawaii was ruled by Kings and Queens.
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Here is The State Capitol building with a Waikiki Trolley in front of it. The building is supposed to look like Hawaii itself. It is surrounded by water, the columns on the building are supposed to look like palm trees and the atrium is open to the sky and shaped like a volcano.
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Replicas of the State Seal, each 15 feet in diameter and weighing 7,500 pounds, hang from the Capitol's mauka (mountain) and makai (ocean) entrances. The seal shows the year Hawaii became a state, 1959, and has the state motto in Hawaiian - Ua mau ke ea o ka aina i ka pono - which means "The life of the land is perpetuated in righteousness".
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A statue of Father Damien in front of the State Capitol building. He ran a leprosy colony on the Hawaiian island of Molokai starting in 1873. He accomplished many things while there. Six chapels were built there by 1875. He constructed a home for boys and later a home for girls. He bandaged wounds, made coffins, dug graves, heard confessions, and said Mass every morning. He contracted leprosy himself and died there in 1889. He was buried in the shade of the puhala tree under which, 16 years earlier, he had spent his first night on Molokai.
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A war memorial framed by pretty scenery. Rows of palm trees on each side of it and lush green Hawaiian mountains behind it.
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A closer look at the War Memorial.
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The Hawaii Governors House, also called Washington Place. It was built in 1846 by Sea Captain John Dominis, a New England trader. Queen Liliuokalani married John Owen Dominis, son of the sea captain, in 1862 and moved into Washington Place shortly thereafter. She would live there for a total of 55 years, first as an heir to the throne, then as a political prisoner of the new republic and later as a citizen of the U.S. territory.
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A registered National Historic Landmark, St. Andrew's Cathedral was the gift of King Kamehameha IV and Queen Emma to the people of Hawaii. Begun in 1867 and completed in 1957, the Cathedral showcases Gothic revival architecture, English and American stained glass, and intricate stone carving from both Christian and indigenous Hawaiian floral motifs.
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