Hulihe`e Palace in Kailua-Kona is a former vacation home of Hawaiian royalty. Built by High Chief, John Adams Kuakini, Governor of the island of Hawai‘i, using blocks of black lava. Present day appearance of the building was given around 1885 by King Kalākaua, who had the palace plastered over the outside. After the anexation of Hawai'i by USA, the palace fell into ruin, premises were overgrown by foliage. In 1925, the Territorial Legislature purchased Hulihe‘e and set it aside for the Daughters of Hawai'i to use and maintain as a museum. They opened the museum in 1927 and resisted all offers to sell the premises for a water front hotel.

Images of 2007:
Show damages done to the building in the 2006 earthquake. Proximity to Mauna Hualalai, so much less known than Mauna Loa or Mauna Kea and now considered "dangerous" by the US Geological Society, exposes Kailua to tremors. One of the tremors in 2006 has severely damaged the Hulihe`e Palace. Our images show the extend of the damage. All artifacts were already removed and the building will be retrofitted to withstand tremors. This was the only occasion to photograph the interior of the palace.

Images of 2016:
Hulihe`e has been restored and we saw every day lots of visitors. Daughters of Hawai'i have still the "no photography" policy, thus we cannot show the artifacts collected in the museum.

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