, Honolulu. Oil on paper by an anonymous artist, ca. 1850–1854 In Honolulu, the Dominises started building a mansion, on lands near the residence of the British consul to Hawaii
Richard Charlton. Between 1841 and 1847, the construction details of the mansion were largely attended to by Mary since Captain Dominis was mostly away on voyages raising money for the building cost. Honolulu had become the political and business capital of the
Hawaiian Kingdom, as during the mid-1840s, King
Kamehameha III relocated the government from
Lahaina, establishing his residence at
ʻIolani Palace on adjacent property facing the Dominis property. In 1846 Captain Dominis sailed for China on the brig
William Neilson, intending to purchase Chinese-made furniture for the house which was nearing completion. The ship was lost at sea, along with the United States commissioner George Brown, and Mary became a widow. After the reality of her husband's death became apparent, Dominis opened up Washington Place to boarders to support herself and her young son John Owen Dominis. Among these tenants was
Anthony Ten Eyck, the US resident commissioner to Hawaii. While boarding with the Dominises, his room became the United States legation in Honolulu. On February 22, 1848, the birthday of the first US President
George Washington, Ten Eyck wrote to the kingdom's Minister of Foreign Affairs
Robert Crichton Wyllie, that he had re-named the mansion "Washington Place". Wyllie replied in agreement the same date.
Kuhina Nui Keoni Ana issued the official proclamation from Kamehameha III, of the renaming on Washington's birthday. Other tenants and guests included
American diplomats Luther Severance,
David L. Gregg and
Elisha Hunt Allen and politicians
William Little Lee and
Robert Crichton Wyllie. Dominis also established the first European-style garden in Honolulu. On September 16, 1862, Dominis' son married the Hawaiian high chiefess
Lydia Kamakaʻeha Pākī, the future Queen Liliʻuokalani. The "small and quiet" wedding was held at Haleʻākala, the residence of
Bernice Pauahi Bishop and her husband
Charles Reed Bishop. The ceremony was officiated by Rev.
Samuel C. Damon in the
Anglican rites. King
Kamehameha IV and other members of the royal family were honored guests. The newly married couple moved to
Washington Place with Dominis. Despite Liliʻuokalani's royal status, Mary Dominis disapproved of the marriage. According to historian
James L. Haley, Mary Dominis was an "arrant racist" toward her daughter-in-law. The married life of Dominis and Liliʻuokalani was a troubled one, however by the time of Mary's death, she had learned to accepted her. In ''
Hawaii's Story by Hawaii's Queen'', Liliʻuokalani revealed a little about her domestic difficulties: As she felt that no one should step between "[Dominis]" and her child, naturally "[Liliʻuokalani]", as her son's wife, was considered an intruder; and I was forced to realize this from the beginning. My husband was extremely kind and considerate to me, yet he would not swerve to the one side or to the other in any matter where there was danger of hurting his mother's feelings. I respected the closeness of the tie between mother and son, and conformed my own ideas, so far as I could, to encourage and assist my husband in his devotion to his mother. Later in life Mrs. Dominis seemed to fully realize that there had been some self-sacrifice, and she became more and more a tender and affectionate mother to me as her days were drawing to a close. Mary Dominis died on April 25, 1889, and was buried at the
Oahu Cemetery in Honolulu. After Mary Dominis's death, Queen Liliuokalani took down the American flag which had flown at Washington Place during Mary's lifetime. This flag wouldn't be raised again until April 1917 when Liliuokalani raised it in honor of Hawaiian casualties in the sinking of the SS
Aztec by
German U-boats.
Christmas in Hawaii Mary Dominis is credited with starting the
Christmas tree and
Santa Claus traditions in Hawaii.
Christmas in Hawaii had been introduced by the
American Protestant missionaries who arrived in the islands in 1820. However, celebrations were never consistent or officially sanctioned until the 1850s since the Puritanic origin of the New England missionaries disapproved of the non-canonical holiday. During the reign of King Kamehameha IV and his consort
Queen Emma of Hawaii, the Christmas tradition received greater support under the influence of the newly established Anglican
Church of Hawaii. On Christmas Eve of 1858, Mary Dominis invited the children of Honolulu and their parents to Washington Place to celebrate the holiday. The party, featuring the first appearance of a Christmas tree and Santa Claus in Hawaii, received significant coverage in local Hawaiian newspapers:
The Pacific Commercial Advertiser,
The Polynesian and
The Friend. The
Advertiser reported: Christmas passed off in good old fashioned style. The eve was ushered in by the assemblage of a large number of children and their parents at Washington Place, the mansion of Mrs. Dominis, where Santa Claus had given out that he would hold his court...A magnificent Christmas Tree had been provided...and the little folks as they gathered about it...found it all lighted up with candles, and the branches bending with the weight of gifts. Prompt as old Father Time ever was, bells were heard at the windows...and in a moment old Santa Claus stood at the door before the youthful group, who greeted him with a volley of merry shouts. He was dressed in the garb in which children love to imagine the saintly old elf...For an hour he bestowed his gifts with princely lavishness among the 100 children present, creating one of the happiest groups ever witnessed in Honolulu...who will long continue to talk of Santa Claus of Washington Place. == Notes ==