The Territory of Hawaii's building, designed by C. W. Dickey, an architect raised on Maui and then practicing in Oakland, stood among tall trees at the edge of the Fine Arts lagoon. The Official Guide describes a cross-shaped plan with a rotunda at the crossing. Over the entrance, stained-glass lunettes showed Honolulu harbor between Diamond Head and Waianae Mountain. Gordon Usborne carved friezes of Hawaiian legends and a "Surf Riders" group for the central arch.
The attraction was the aquarium. Tanks around three walls of the main hall held reef fish so brightly colored that Todd thought a painter's palette had fallen into the sea and come to life. Their water was renewed each week from the ocean beyond the Farallones. Crowds had to be admitted in lines and kept moving by guards, and as many as 34,000 people are said to have come through in a single day. A lecture room showed films of Kilauea, Haleakala and surfing at Waikiki, and a Hawaiian quintet sang among tree ferns from Kilauea. The Territory was young: American businessmen, backed by U.S. Marines, had overthrown Queen Liliuokalani in 1893, and the United States annexed the islands in 1898. On Hawaiian Day, June 11, Governor Lucius E. Pinkham called the islands 'this great military and naval outpost', existing 'for the protection of your Pacific Coast.'
