The coconut palms above your head are the reason this entire stretch of coast carries the name Royal Coconut Coast. They were not always here. Long before the marketplace existed, this land was part of the Waipouli ahupuaʻa, used for taro, sweet potato, and small kuleana (family land parcels carrying both rights and responsibilities) farming, with fishing along the shoreline and freshwater springs feeding the marshlands behind the beach. The name Waipouli comes from pouli, meaning dark, a reference some say points to the rich soil and deep shade of the original landscape.

In 1911, a man named Edward H.W. Broadbent planted a commercial coconut grove of around 1,100 trees on this very ground. His goal was to produce copra (dried coconut meat pressed for oil used in cosmetics, soap, and food). The land was considered coral deposits and unfit for anything else, but Broadbent dug his planting holes deep enough to reach groundwater, a method he described in detail to The Garden Island newspaper in 1913. It was one of three commercial coconut groves planted on Kauaʻi in that era, alongside William Lindeman's 1896 grove around Coco Palms and H.P. Fayé's 1920s grove in Waimea.

The copra industry never quite took off the way investors hoped. By the time Coconut Marketplace opened in 1970, the grove had outlived its commercial purpose and become something more valuable: a landmark. Most of Broadbent's original trees are gone now, but some still stand here, well past the typical 80-year lifespan of a coconut palm. They are some of the oldest living witnesses of this part of the coast.