The Museum of San Juan is the city history museum, housed in a restored nineteenth-century market hall on Calle Norzagaray. The exhibits trace the development of the city from its Taíno-era beginnings through Spanish colonisation, the 1898 American invasion, and the twentieth-century population shifts that emptied Old San Juan and turned it into a heritage district.
Admission is usually free or a token amount. The galleries are not huge — count on an hour — but the photographs of San Juan in the 1900s and 1940s are remarkable, and the section on the city walls and gates puts the rest of a walking tour into perspective. The arcaded patio is a quiet place to take a break from the noise of Calle Norzagaray.