The Kaua`i Museum is Located on Rice Street in the Lihu`e Civic Center complex - but it wasn’t always a museum. In a letter dated February 3, 1922, Emma Mahelona Spencer asked the Board of Trustees of the Kaua`i Public Library Association to accept a donation of $75,000 and build a free county library building in memory of her late husband, Albert Spencer Wilcox.

The county library building was dedicated on May 24, 1924 and was named the Albert Spencer Wilcox Memorial Building. Since this building is on the National Register of Historic Places, no changes can be made to the structure. In 1969 the library could not accommodate any more books, so a new library was built. It is Located across from Elsie H. Wilcox Elementary School on Hardy Street. In 1970, the Albert Spencer Wilcox Memorial Building was renamed the Kaua`i Museum. It currently houses historical artifacts and information of old Hawai`i and especially Kaua`i.