“As you drive through to Palama your eyes, accustomed to the barren land, or sordid stores that line the roughened way, turn with Involuntary pleasure toward a splendid residence that suddenly looms before your vision. It is set well back from the roadside. Its gates are wide open, as if inviting visitors; its beautiful lawns refresh one’s senses, and its trees and fernery call up many a pleasant memory of other trees and other ferneries in a far distant land. For this is the Ka‘iulani School!”

Princess Ka‘iulani, who was the heir apparent to the Hawaiian throne; Ka‘iulani’s mother passed away when she was just 11 years old, she was later sent to England to be educated. Ka‘iulani died unexpectedly on March 6, 1899 at the young age of 23. That same year, a new school was opened in Kalihi-Palama and was named Princess Victoria Ka’iulani Elementary School. A cutting of Ka‘iulani’s banyan was taken from her home, ‘Āinahau, and given to the school when it opened, April 25, 1899.