Seventy-five-year-old Florence Wong of Makiki had driven by Washington Place thousands of times to shop in Chinatown, but until yesterday, she had never been inside the historic, 159-year-old mansion on South Beretania Street, across from the state Capitol.

Wong and her friend, Florence Pang-Prescott, 77, were among an estimated 400 people who took advantage of a rare three-hour open house to tour the former residence of Mary Lambert Jones Dominis, who finished building the mansion in 1847, five years after the work was started by her late husband, Capt. John Dominis.

Washington Place later was home to Queen Lili'uokalani and all of Hawai'i's state governors from 1960 through 2002, when Gov. Linda Lingle moved into a new residence built behind the mansion.

"It's beautiful," Wong said, while sitting in a koa rocking chair. "I loved seeing the historic furnishings, walking on the beautiful hardwood floors and seeing the queen's bed, which was not long but very wide.

"Everything here is unique, and I don't plan to wait another 75 years before coming back," she said.

Before leaving, Wong and Pang-Prescott posed for a photo with Lt. Gov. James "Duke" Aiona and his wife, Vivian. The Aionas served as hosts for the open house and greeted hundreds of visitors at the entrance to the mansion, passing on warm holiday wishes.

Corinne Chun Fujimoto, curator of Washington Place, said, "We want people to experience this house as it was lived in, in particular during the years of Queen Lili'uokalani, its most prominent resident. The queen lived here from the time she was 24 until her passing at 79 in 1917."

This was the third straight year the mansion was open for public tours in December, in part to commemorate the anniversary of the first Christmas gala held in Hawai'i in 1858, she said.

On Christmas Eve in 1858, Mary Dominis invited 100 children to her mansion. According to historical accounts, there was a Douglas fir Christmas tree set up on the second-floor parlor with gifts on the tree for keiki, who for the first time heard carols and sleigh bells signaling the arrival of a man in red.

Then the keiki were sent home, and their parents celebrated Christmas with dinner and dancing at the mansion.

"It must've been a delightful event," Washington Place docent Don Painter said of the first sighting of Santa Claus in Hawai'i.

Mary Dominis "brought America to Hawai'i and the mansion became the hub of American culture here," Painter said.

Four years later, King Kamehameha IV officially proclaimed Christmas as a holiday in his kingdom.

Reach Rod Ohira at rohira@honoluluadvertiser.com.