Aliʻiōlani Hale is a building located in

downtown Honolulu Downtown Honolulu is the current historic, economic, and governmental center of Honolulu, the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii. It is bounded by Nuuanu Stream to the west, Ward Avenue to the east, Vineyard Boulevard to the nor ...

Hawaiʻi Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only state ...

, currently used as the home of the Hawaiʻi State Supreme Court. It is the former seat of government of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi and the

Republic of Hawaiʻi The Republic of Hawaii ( Hawaiian: ''Lepupalika o Hawaii'') was a short-lived one-party state in Hawaii between July 4, 1894, when the Provisional Government of Hawaii had ended, and August 12, 1898, when it became annexed by the United States ...

. Located in the building's courtyard is the famed gold-leaf statue of Kamehameha the Great.

Design and history

The Aliʻiōlani Hale was designed by Australian

Thomas Rowe Thomas Rowe (20 July 1829 – 14 January 1899) was a British-born architect, builder and goldminer who became one of Australia's leading architects of the Victorian era. He was also a politician, who was the first Mayor of Manly. Early life ...

in an

Italian Renaissance Revival Renaissance Revival architecture (sometimes referred to as "Neo-Renaissance") is a group of 19th century Revivalism (architecture), architectural revival styles which were neither Greek Revival architecture, Greek Revival nor Gothic Revival ...

as the royal palace for King

Kamehameha V Kamehameha V (Lota Kapuāiwa Kalanimakua Aliʻiōlani Kalanikupuapaʻīkalaninui; December 11, 1830 – December 11, 1872), reigned as the fifth monarch of the Hawaiian Kingdom, Kingdom of Hawaiʻi from 1863 to 1872. His motto was "Onipaʻa": i ...

. In the

Hawaiian language Hawaiian (', ) is a Polynesian language of the Austronesian language family that takes its name from Hawaii, the largest island in the tropical North Pacific archipelago where it developed. Hawaiian, along with English, is an official language o ...

, ''Aliʻiōlani Hale'' means "House of Heavenly Kings". The name "Aliʻiōlani" was also one of the given names of Kamehameha V. Although the building was designed to be a palace, Kamehameha V realized that the Hawaiian government desperately needed a government building. At that time, the several buildings in Honolulu used by the government were very small and cramped, clearly inadequate for the growing Hawaiian government. Thus, when Kamehameha V ordered construction of Aliʻiōlani Hale, he commissioned it as a government office building instead of a palace. Kamehameha V laid the cornerstone for the building on February 19, 1872. He died before the building was completed, and it was dedicated in 1874 by one of his successors, King David Kalākaua. At the time, Hawaiian media criticized the building's extravagant design, suggesting that the building be converted into a palace as originally designed. Until 1893, the building held most of the executive departments of the Hawaiian government as well as the Hawaiian legislature and courts.

Overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy

It was from Aliʻiōlani Hale in 1893 that the Committee of Safety, under the leadership of

Lorrin A. Thurston Lorrin Andrews Thurston (July 31, 1858 – May 11, 1931) was an American lawyer, politician, and businessman born and raised in the Kingdom of Hawaii. Thurston played a prominent role in the Overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom that replaced Q ...

, deposed

Queen Liliʻuokalani Queen or QUEEN may refer to: Monarchy * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a Kingdom ** List of queens regnant * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Queen mother, a queen dowager who is the mothe ...

by public proclamation. After the establishment of the Hawaiian provisional government in 1893 and the

in 1894, some of the offices in Aliʻiōlani Hale were moved to

ʻIolani Palace The Iolani Palace ( haw, Hale Aliʻi ʻIolani) was the royal residence of the rulers of the Kingdom of Hawaii beginning with Kamehameha III under the Kamehameha Dynasty (1845) and ending with Queen Liliʻuokalani (1893) under the Kalākaua Dyna ...

, including the Hawaiian legislature. As a result, Aliʻiolani Hale became primarily a judicial building.

Aliʻiōlani Hale since 1900

The growing size of Hawaiʻi's government continued to be a problem for the building, however, especially after Hawaiʻi became a United States territory in 1900. In 1911, the building was extensively renovated to help solve these space problems. The entire interior of the building was gutted and rebuilt, giving the building's interior a completely new floorplan. Since the building was originally designed to be a palace, its floorplan was not adequate for its later usage as a judicial building. The new layout of the building fixed this problem. The size of the territorial government continued to grow. In the 1940s, a new wing was added to the building to help alleviate the growing problem of overcrowding. The architects who designed the new wing tried to blend it in with the original building that dated back to the 1870s. Over the next many decades, most of the state judiciary functions moved out of Aliʻiōlani Hale to various other buildings around Honolulu (including the state district, family, and circuit courts). Today, the building houses the Hawaiʻi State Supreme Court and is the administrative center of the Hawaiʻi State Judiciary. It also houses the Judiciary History Center, a museum featuring a multimedia presentation of Hawaiʻi's judiciary, a restored historic courtroom, and other exhibits dealing with Hawaiʻi's judicial history. The building also houses Hawaiʻi's largest law library. In December 2005, a capsule buried by Kamehameha V when he laid the cornerstone was located, at the direction of the

Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command The Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (often referred to as JPAC) was a joint task force within the United States Department of Defense (DoD) whose mission was to account for Americans who are listed as Prisoners of War (POW), or Missing in Act ...

, by Professor Larry Connors of the

University of Denver The University of Denver (DU) is a private university, private research university in Denver, Colorado. Founded in 1864, it is the oldest independent private university in the Mountain States, Rocky Mountain Region of the United States. It is ...

using ground penetrating radar. The capsule contained photos of royal families and the constitution of the Hawaiian Kingdom, Hawaiian postage stamps, Hawaiian and foreign coinage, newspapers, a calendar and books. The capsule was located to protect it during future renovations, and not retrieved due to concerns of damaging the structure of the building itself. Copper thieves stripped several copper downspouts from the building in 2006. In the 2010 version of

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainmen ...

' ''

Hawaii Five-0 Hawaii Five-O or Hawaii Five-0 may refer to: * Hawaii Five-0 (2010 TV series), ''Hawaii Five-0'' (2010 TV series), an American action police procedural television series * Hawaii Five-O (1968 TV series), ''Hawaii Five-O'' (1968 TV series), an Ame ...

'' TV series, Aliʻiōlani Hale is depicted as the

Iolani Palace Iolani is a masculine Hawaiian name meaning "royal ''hawk''." It comes from the Hawaiian words ''ʻio'', meaning "Hawaiian hawk," and ''lani'', meaning "royal." It may refer to: *ʻIolani School, a private school located in Hawaii *ʻIolani Palac ...

; headquarters for the Five-0 task force with exterior shots of the building being used frequently throughout the series. Aliʻiōlani Hale is one of many buildings in downtown Honolulu listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

. Within walking distance are the

Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace The Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of Peace ( French: ''Cathédrale de Notre Dame de la Paix''; Portuguese: ''Catedral de Nossa Senhora da Paz''; Hawaiian: ''Malia o ka Malu Hale Pule Nui''; Latin: ''Basilicæ cathedralis Sanctæ Mariæ de Pa ...

, Hawaiʻi State Capitol, Hawaiʻi State Library,

Honolulu Hale Honolulu Hale (originally called the Honolulu Municipal Building), located on 530 South King Street in downtown Honolulu in the City & County of Honolulu, Hawaii, is the official seat of government of the city and county, site of the chambers of ...

Kawaiahaʻo Church Kawaiahaʻo Church is a historic Congregational church located in Downtown Honolulu on the Hawaiian Island of Oʻahu. The church, along with the Mission Houses, comprise the Hawaiian Mission Houses Historic Site, which was designated a U.S. Natio ...

Territorial Building The Territorial Building is a government building of the Territory of Hawaii. Description The building is located at 465 South King Street in downtown Honolulu, Hawaii. The Territorial Building was designed by the architect Arthur Reynolds, in the ...

, and

Washington Place Washington Place is a Greek Revival palace in the Hawaii Capital Historic District in Honolulu, Hawaii. It was where Queen Liliuokalani was arrested during the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom. Later it became the official residence of the governo ...

King Kamehameha V Judiciary History Center

The King Kamehameha V Judiciary History Center, located in Aliʻiōlani Hale, focuses on Hawaii's legal history and landmark court cases. Admission is free and the public can tour the exhibits from Monday through Friday from 8am to 4pm. Group tours are offered by reservation.

References

External links