Yours Truly, Mom and Husband at Washington Place built for my 4x great aunt, Mary (Jones) Dominis |
Most Americans have never heard of Washington
Place. It is a historic house in
Honolulu built by Captain John Dominis for his Boston born wife in the
1840s. At a time when most people were
living in thatched huts, this enormous white mansion became a showplace. No one knows why Capt. Dominis built such an impressive
home, but within a short time of its construction he died at sea in 1846. His
widow was reduced to taking in boarders to help cover the expenses of running
such a big household.
Mary’s boarders were mostly Americans. One of her first boarders was Anthony Ten
Eyck, the American Commissioner to the islands.
Ten Eyck nicknamed the house “Washington Place” in a letter dated 22
February 1848, on an anniversary of George Washington’s birthday. The name stuck when King Kamehameha III liked
the name and wrote a royal decree retaining the name “in all time coming”.
Mary Lambert Jones was born in Boston on 3 August
1803. She married Captain John Dominis
in Boston on 9 October 1824. He was a
native of Trieste, Italy, which is now in Slovenia. Mary was the sister of my 4x great
grandmother, Catherine Plummer (Jones) Younger.
When she was building the house in Hawaii, she enlisted the aid of her
brother-in-law, Enoch Howes Snelling, to send the windows and doors from
Boston. Enoch, a glazier in Boston’s
North End, was married to another sister, Sarah Dargue Jones.
The glass in the windows and doors of Washington Place were sent from Boston by Enoch H. Snelling, husband of my 4x great aunt |
For some unknown reason, the Dominises removed from
Boston to Schenectady, New York where their three children were born. Mary lived with the family of Reverend
Christopher Yates while Captain Dominis went on many voyages to the Pacific.
In 1837 they
sailed on board the bark Jones to Honolulu, leaving two young daughters, Mary,
age 12, and Frances, age 8, at school in Schenectady. They brought their little son, John Owen
Dominis, age 5, with them to Honolulu.
The year after they left Mary died in Schenectady, and in 1842 Francis
also died. Mary Dominis traveled back to
Boston and New York in 1843, but her daughters were already laid to rest in the
Yates family plot at the Vale Cemetery, Schenectady. It is hard to imagine her loss.
But Mary returned to live in Honolulu, and raised
her son there. John Owen Dominis became the
governor of Oahu and Maui. He married
Lydia Kamekeha Paki in 1862, the daughter of an ali’i family. She became Princess Liliuokalani and later
the last Queen of Hawaii. After the
Kingdom of Hawaii was overthrown, she made Washington Place her permanent home.
Liliuokalani lived there for the rest of her life, and died in her bedroom there
on 11 November 1917. She had lived there
for 55 years.
A portrait of Queen Liliuokalani graces the dining room inside Washington Place |
Washington Place was bought from the Queen’s estate
by the legislature of Hawaii in 1921. It
became the governor’s mansion for the territorial and state governors of Hawaii
until 2002 when a new governor’s mansion was built. It is now a historic house museum, and the
site of official events for the state of Hawaii, such as parties, press
conferences, and official visits from heads of states. Tours are free, and
available by appointment.
Although Washington Place is owned by the state of
Hawaii, the funds for maintenance and upkeep are raised by the private
Washington Place Foundation. The house
is now 171 years old, and the tropical climate has caused several maintenance
problems which will be expensive to repair. With state cutbacks and economic measures
being what they are now, the house museum is seeking additional donations
towards major structural repairs. To
make a donation please make a check payable to:
The
Washington Place Foundation
PO
Box 873
Honolulu,
HI 96808
For more information on Washington Place:
Washington Place, A First Lady's Story, by Jean Hayashi Ariyoshi, Honolulu, Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii,
2004
A previous blog post about Washington Place
http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2009/12/advent-calendar-christmas-in-hawaii.html
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Copyright 2012, Heather Wilkinson Rojo
Beautiful home. I really hope that they will be able to raise the funds to maintain the house and property.
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