The kou wood pipe she smoked, the koa rocking chair she sat in to read her Bible every morning and evening, the second-place medal she won for a filly named Cora at a horse exhibition — such treasures in Washington Place provide rare glimpses into the life of Queen Lili‘uokalani, Hawaii’s last reigning monarch (Sunday marks the 180th anniversary of her birth).

Once a week, visitors can tour the stately white house, named after America’s first president. Then-Princess Lili‘uokalani, moved into it in 1862 when she married John Owen Dominis, the son of sea captain and merchant John Dominis, who commissioned the home. Sadly, the elder Dominis never lived there; he was aboard a ship bound for China that was lost at sea in 1846, the year before construction was completed.

To make ends meet, his widow, Mary, took in boarders and offered set-menu meals to the public; this apparently continued until she died in 1889. John Owen Dominis, who was appointed governor of Oahu three times, inherited Washington Place, but he died in 1891, just seven months after Lili‘uokalani became queen. He left everything he owned to her, including Washington Place.

Two years later, the monarchy was overthrown. In 1895, after an attempt to restore her to the throne failed, the queen was placed under house arrest at Iolani Palace for eight months. When she was released, she returned to Washington Place, where she lived until her death in 1917.

From 1918 to 2002, Washington Place was the home of Hawaii’s governors (thereafter, they have resided in an adjacent house on the property built with private donations, a project spearheaded by former first lady Vicky Cayetano). Owned by the state of Hawaii, Washington Place was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973 and declared a National Historic Landmark in 2007.

“Multiple additions and renovations were made between 1922 and 2017,” said docent Rianna Williams, who wrote the book “Queen Lili‘uokalani, the Dominis family and Washington Place, their home.” “Every room in the original section that visitors see is furnished with items that were actually owned by the queen or her husband, as well as 19th-century pieces on loan from the Hawaii State Archives and private collections that help to show what an upper-class home in Hawaii was like at the time.”

Per Lili‘uokalani’s request, many of her possessions were auctioned after her death to fund a trust for Hawaii’s children in need (onipaa.org). When Jean Ariyoshi was the state’s first lady (1974 to 1986), she led efforts to catalog the furniture and art that remained at Washington Place and to find and bring back artifacts that had been sold. Her search yielded, among other things, feather lei, upholstered chairs and a covered coconut container for storing tobacco (the queen enjoyed smoking and often handed out cigars and cigarettes to her servants on pay day, along with money).

The beautiful grand piano in one parlor supposedly was never moved from Washington Place. Crafted from a single koa tree from Hawaii island, it was a gift to Lili‘uokalani from 70 local businessmen in 1892 as a token of their “truest friendship” and “loyal homage,” as the documentation for it states.

“She had other homes with other pianos, but this was her favorite,” Williams said. “She was a talented musician; she played the piano, organ, zither, ukulele and guitar and said that to compose was as natural to her as breathing. Some of the men who gave her the piano were involved with the overthrow just a year later, so I think it must have been bittersweet for her to know that when she played her beloved piano.”

From 1883 to 1900, Punahou Preparatory School was next to Washington Place. One day, a ball that students were playing with soared over the fence between the properties, and a boy went to retrieve it. Walking toward the back lawn, he came upon Lili‘uokalani sitting in a large rattan chair. Knowing who she was, he stopped in his tracks, bowed and said he was looking for a ball.

“The queen pointed to where it had landed and told him while he was getting it, he could pick a bunch of ripe bananas off a tree to share with his friends,” Williams said. “Who would’ve thought that the boy, Lawrence McCully Judd, would grow up to be a territorial governor who would live in Washington Place himself from 1929 to 1934!”

Lili‘uokalani no doubt was amused rather than annoyed by that incident, as she loved children even though she could have none of her own. In fact, she raised three hanai (adopted) children at Washington Place — a girl and two boys, one of whom, John ‘Aimoku Dominis, was fathered by her husband with another Hawaiian woman.

Louise “Gussie” Schubert, a granddaughter of ‘Aimoku, is president of the nonprofit Washington Place Foundation, which works with the state to care for the collections.

Second-floor exhibits focus on the historic residence’s history, Hawaii’s state governors and personal belongings of the queen, her husband and the Dominis family. Among items on display are Lili‘uokalani’s 1889 diary, her gold thimble, amethyst ring, palaoa (whale-tooth pendant), silver calling-card case, official stationery with her embossed royal seal and a koa umeke (calabash), one of two presented to her on her 53rd birthday, Sept. 2, 1891, the year she ascended to the throne.

“Those are things that were passed down through my family,” Schubert said. “We kept the umeke clean but put all kinds of things in them — tennis balls, dog collars and leashes, little flashbulbs for our cameras. Because they belonged to the queen, my great-grandmother, people cringe when they hear that, but we weren’t being disrespectful to her. The umeke were meant to be used, and so they were, even in her time.”

The tour’s narrative is peppered with fun, fascinating anecdotes. For example, Lili‘uokalani had a pet Galapagos tortoise, and she kept a cow in the backyard so she could have fresh milk. She loved swimming, riding horses and playing croquet. She baked cakes, gardened and was adept at embroidery, needlepoint, quilting and sewing, even making curtains for Washington Place as a young bride.

“Washington Place is part of my family’s legacy, and I’m glad visitors can see it and learn about its important place in Hawaiian history,” Schubert said. “In addition to appreciating the significance of the objects, it is hoped they will gain an understanding of the people who lived there, because it was not built as a museum, it was built as a home.”

Cheryl Chee Tsutsumi is a Honolulu-based freelance writer whose travel features for the Star-Advertiser have won several Society of American Travel Writers awards.