Capitol Modern: the Hawaii State Art Museum

Before it was a museum, this building's footprint held Hawaii's first hotel, opened in 1872 under King Kamehameha the Fifth and later renamed for the monarchy itself. The guide traces what termites did to that structure by the 1920s, the Spanish mission style clubhouse that rose in its place in 1928, and the wartime servicemen who danced in its courtyard before shipping out to the Pacific. It follows the building through decades as a government office on the way to becoming the free art museum you're standing in now. Notice the arched walkways as you move between galleries.