From Our Files

May archives

In 1888, King Kalakaua issued a royal charter, commissioning a magazine. Then titled Paradise of the Pacific, this publication became HONOLULU Magazine, making it the oldest magazine west of the Mississippi.

Top: Queen Liliuokalani, Bottom:  Lunalilo Home, Right: Samuel Wilder King with his wife.

1917

Senators visit Queen Liliuokalani at her residence, Washington Place. Her guests include senate president Charles Chillingworth and Col. Curtis Iaukea, who was recently appointed secretary of the territory. The queen ordered the U.S. flag flown from the staff in her garden during the visit. “The queen will be 79 years of age next September,” reports Paradise of the Pacific. “Lately she has been in feeble health though she takes an interest in the great events transpiring in the worried world of today.” The queen died at Washington Place in November of that year.

1948

Hawaii’s welfare department is studying ways to fund and create more care homes for the elderly, like Lunalilo Home (pictured), which houses seniors of Hawaiian ancestry. “Not all old folks find their later years spent in desolation and loneliness, but there are still many special services and facilities needed for aged persons which have not yet been developed in Hawaii,” writes Paradise of the Pacific. “There is now … a growing consciousness that aged men and women must not go neglected; that many things can be done to increase their well-being and comfort.”

1953

A new governor was inaugurated at Iolani Palace, reports Paradise of the Pacific. Samuel Wilder King, pictured with his wife, made history in at least two ways that day. “He is the first Republican to hold this high office for 20 years, and, although not the first governor born on Hawaiian soil, he is the first to have the blood of the Hawaiians in his veins, and the first to bring to historical Washington Place … as First Lady one who was born of Hawaiian ancestry.”