Brick Palace

Artist's conception of the Brick Palace from the Lahaina Restoration Foundation

The Brick Palace was the first western-style structure built in the Hawaiian Islands for Kamehameha the Great to serve as the first Royal Palace.[1] Lahaina became the seat of government for the Hawaiian Kingdom until 1845.[2][3] The king commissioned the structure to be built at Keawa'iki point in Lahaina, Maui.[4] Two foreign, ex-convicts from Australia's Botany Bay penal colony built the home.[5] It was begun in 1798 and was completed after 4 years in 1802.[6][7] The house was intended for Kamehameha's favorite and most powerful wife, Kaahumanu,[8] but she refused to live in the structure and resided instead in a traditional Hawaiian-styled home only feet away.[4]

Kamehameha used the building as part of his encampment in 1802,[9] with over 1000 people in his entourage.[10] The encampment area surrounding the building became a neighborhood known for the chiefly line associated with Kamehameha. Food was grown for the royal family and the area called the "Royal Taro Patch" was connected with this structure.[11] After the unsuccessful war on Kauai, Kamehameha moved his court to Honolulu.

  1. ^ Lonely Planet; Sara Benson; Amy C Balfour; Adam Karlin; Adam Skolnick; Paul Stiles; Ryan Ver Berkmoes (1 August 2013). Lonely Planet Hawaii. Lonely Planet Publications. pp. 732–. ISBN 978-1-74321-788-7.
  2. ^ Glenda Bendure; Ned Friary (2008). Lonely Planet Maui. Lonely Planet. pp. 244–. ISBN 978-1-74104-714-1.
  3. ^ Trudy Ring; Noelle Watson; Paul Schellinger (5 November 2013). The Americas: International Dictionary of Historic Places. Routledge. pp. 315–. ISBN 978-1-134-25930-4.
  4. ^ a b Lahaina Watershed Flood Control Project: Environmental Impact Statement. 2004. p. 214.
  5. ^ Rich Budnick (1 January 2005). Hawaii's Forgotten History: 1900-1999: The Good...The Bad...The Embarrassing. Aloha Press. p. 154. ISBN 978-0-944081-04-4.
  6. ^ Jeanette Foster (17 July 2012). Frommer's Maui 2013. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 144–. ISBN 978-1-118-33145-3.
  7. ^ Patrick Vinton Kirch (1 January 1997). Feathered Gods and Fishhooks: An Introduction to Hawaiian Archaeology and Prehistory. University of Hawaii Press. pp. 318–. ISBN 978-0-8248-1938-5.
  8. ^ David Thompson; Lesa M. Griffith; Joan Conrow (14 July 2006). Pauline Frommer's Hawaii. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 284–. ISBN 978-0-470-06984-4.
  9. ^ William De Witt Alexander (1899). A Brief History of the Hawaiian People. American book Company. pp. 151–.
  10. ^ P. Christiaan Klieger (1 January 1998). Moku'Ula: Maui's Sacred Island. Bishop Museum Press. ISBN 978-1-58178-002-4.
  11. ^ Lahaina Watershed Flood Control Project: Environmental Impact Statement. 2004. p. 129. A large taro pondfleld mauka (inland) of the "Brick Palace" produced this sacred food for the royalty, and is referred to as the Royal Taro Patch in several sources.' Captain Louis Claude Desaules de Freycinet visited the encampment...