Thomas Charles Byde Rooke - Rooke House

Rooke House

Rooke built a house some time in the 1830s. The house faced the Nuʻuanu Valley and with each of its two floors measuring approximately fifty by fifty feet (floor area of 5,000 square feet (460 m2) or 460 square meters) was one of largest private homes in Honolulu at the time. It was used for medical practice, a large library, and for entertaining guests. It included a coach house and living quarters for kahu ("servants"). A wide veranda swept the front of the house, and four pillars supported the roof. The ground floor was Rooke's clinic and dispensary. The family lived upstairs, in a style redolent of a British manor house, with red Kashmir carpets, mahogany and dark oak furniture, and framed oil paintings. It was on the ma kai-Waikiki (southwest) corner of Beretania and Nuʻuanu Avenue and bordered by Fort Street and Chaplain Lane, 21°18′41″N 157°51′36″W / 21.31139°N 157.86000°W / 21.31139; -157.86000 (Rooke House)Coordinates: 21°18′41″N 157°51′36″W / 21.31139°N 157.86000°W / 21.31139; -157.86000 (Rooke House). The one-and-a-half-acre parcel, called Kaopuana ("Raincloud"), was probably the gift of Kamehameha III.

On December 16, 1835, Grace's father John Young died, mostly likely in Rooke House, with the Young and Isaac Davis family present. Dr. Rooke had been caring for the nonagenarian British sailor during his illness. Three weeks after the Young's death, a girl Emma was born, the granddaughter of Young, daughter of Fanny Young and the hānai (adoptive) daughter of the Rookes. Much later, the house witnessed the death of two others of the Young family: James Kānehoa, Grace Rooke's half-brother, and Kaʻōanaʻeha, her mother.

Popularly known as "Rooke House", the residence was known throughout Honolulu for its hospitality. Grace Rooke, steeped in her mother's aliʻi tradition of hoʻokipa (hospitality), was a gracious hostess. Dr. Rooke, always elegantly attired, complemented his naturally shy wife with his open, gregarious, and forthright manner. Rooke House, for most of Emma's childhood, was a place of elaborate dinners, parties, teas and receptions. Visiting families included those of Abner Paki, John Owen Dominis, Captain John Paty and Skinner, and the King. This affirmed their high status in business and political circles.

Isabella Bird, who visited Queen Emma in 1873, described as Rooke House as "the most English-looking house I have seen since I left home, except Bishopscourt at Melbourne." During the Royal Election of 1874 between Emma and David Kalakaua over who would succeed William Charles Lunalilo, Rooke House served as a gathering place for the supporters of Queen Emma, called Emmaites or Queenites. The residence was the scene of mass gatherings of Hawaiians and some British with chants celebrating Emma’s rightful claim to the throne.

During the 1900s it was a kindergarten named Queen Emma Hall in honor of the last owner of the house. Later the site of Rooke House was occupied by the Liberty Theater (which closed in 1980) and now it's a parking lot.