Iolani Palace is the only official royal residence in the United States, and one of the most poignant places in all of Hawaii. King David Kalakaua commissioned this palace in 1882, replacing an earlier, more modest royal residence on the same grounds. When it was completed in 1882, Iolani Palace was equipped with electric lights and an internal telephone system before either technology reached the White House in Washington.
It was a statement of sovereign modernity from a king who had traveled the world and understood that Hawaii stood equal to any nation on earth. King Kalakaua reigned here, hosting lavish parties and championing a Hawaiian cultural renaissance. His sister, Queen Lili'uokalani, succeeded him in 1891 and continued to govern from these very rooms.
Then, on January 17, 1893, a group of American businessmen backed by U.S. Marines staged a coup, forcing the Queen to step down under protest. The palace then served as the capitol building of the Territory of Hawaii for decades, its royal past literally buried under administrative desks. Restored to its original splendor since 1969, it stands today as a monument to a kingdom that was taken.