Even if it’s leveled off, Ushuaia’s economic boom provided the wherewithal to preserve and even restore some of the city’s historic buildings. Two of them are now museums: Dating from 1903, the waterfront Casa Fernández Valdés (Avenida Maipú 175) houses the historical Museo del Fin del Mundo, while the 1896 Presidio de Ushuaia (Yaganes and Gobernador Paz) is now the misleadingly named Museo Marítimo (while not insignificant, its maritime exhibits are less interesting than those on the city’s genesis as a penal colony).

Three blocks west of the Casa Fernández Valdés, dating from 1894, the classically Magellanic Poder Legislativo (Maipú 465) once housed the provincial legislature; it’s now open to the public 10 a.m.–8 p.m. weekdays, 3–8 p.m. weekends. Five blocks farther west, prisoners built the restored Capilla Antigua (Avenida Maipú and Rosas), a chapel dating from 1898. The municipal tourist office occupies the Biblioteca Sarmiento (1926), the city’s first public library, at San Martín 674. At the west end of downtown, the waterfront Casa Beban (Avenida Malvinas Argentinas and 12 de Octubre) is a reassembled pioneer residence dating from 1913; it now houses the municipal Casa de la Cultura, a cultural center.