The New Westminster Museum & Archives sits in the Anvil Centre, a practical downtown stop if you want the city to be more than a SkyTrain ride and a riverfront walk. Its exhibitions cover the Fraser River, Indigenous and settler history, civic growth, industry, and the layered identity of a place that was once colonial British Columbia's capital.
It is a compact museum rather than a day-long attraction, but it earns its place because New Westminster has a deeper story than its size suggests. Pair it with Irving House and the quay for a good half-day that explains why this bend of the Fraser mattered so much to early British Columbia.