Iolani, The Living Palace
Iolani Palace is a powerful symbol for modern Hawaiians more than a century after the overthrow, and remains a living treasure for all who walk its halls today. With all of the recent controversy at Iolani Palace, MidWeek took a tour last Monday of the only official residence of royalty left in the United States.
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building in 1969. The first tours were of an empty palace, where the only piece of furniture was a trojan carpet, Cup Choy recalls. Thanks to a photograph in Kalakaua’s bedroom of how the room was originally furnished, some original palace items have been returned.
“In 1980 a couple from Oklahoma City came through and saw this photo and saw the table in the photo and it looked a lot like one they had at home. They returned it to the palace. A year or two later, a director from a museum on Kauai came on a tour, saw the table, thought it looked like one in his collection,” recalls Cup Choy. “The one in his collection turned out to be a palace table, which has since been returned and is now on display in this room.”
Friends of Iolani Palace are always looking for more palace items to be returned. Recently a window bench was returned by a family. Even though it had become a family heirloom, Cup Choy says, they were gracious enough to return it to the palace.
“Because we’re a nonprofit, we do not have a lot of funds to acquire furniture. So our primary goal has always been to find out where it is and how it got there in the hopes that it will eventually come home,” says Cup Choy.
Friends of Iolani Palace hosts the annual Royal Garden Party 2008 on Saturday, Oct. 18 from 5 to 10 p.m. on the palace grounds, Guests are taken back to the Victorian era, enjoying fortune-telling, palm-reading and caricatures as well as dinner, dancing, a silent auction and a cake walk. Guests must RSVP by Friday, Oct. 3, by calling 522-0822.
Tours of Iolani Palace are given Tuesday through Saturday. Docent guided tours are from 9 to 11:15 a.m. and cost $20 for adults ($15 for kamaaina) and $5 for ages 5-12. Audio tours, which are available in English, Hawaiian and Japanese, are from 11:45 a.m. to 3 p.m. and cost $13 adults and $6 for ages 5-12. Take a self-guided gallery tour from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., which costs $6 adults and $3 for ages 5-12. The audio tour is not available on Kamaaina Sundays, when only docent guided tours are given.
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