Astoria

I visited Astoria, Oregon last week.  The town has intrigued me for many years...It's kind of a mini San Francisco, a port city with many Victorian buildings perched on hills overlooking the Columbia River estuary.  It's old by northwestern standards, founded in 1811 by John Jacob Astor's fur trading company.  Historically a fishing and lumbering port, as those industries have declined Astoria has become an art and tourism center.  This has given the city an upbeat vibe, though its population is still a bit lower now than it was a century ago.  This is the Astoria column, on a hill overlooking the city and the broad Columbia.  I climbed the 164 steps to the top...for the first time in about a half century.  I did it as a kid at least once.  The exterior of the column, patterned after Trajan's column in Rome, has murals featuring Northwest history...at least up to 1926, when the column was built.  BTW, I will probably be checking out Trajan's column in about a month, so will compare the two!

The view from the top of the Astoria column, looking down on the Astoria-Megler bridge.  I'm old enough to remember the ferry that ran across the river before the bridge was completed in 1966.

Downtown Astoria has been refurbished in recent years, even the wastebaskets.

A riverwalk runs for several miles along the Columbia, making it easy to absorb the sights and smells of this port city.  Here the cormorants are drying their wings.

Seagulls at the ready.

The Flavel house, built by a lumber baron in the 1880s.

A slightly later design...mansion with Corinthian columns, dating from around 1900.

Sidewalks were constructed at about the same time as in Portland.  This is the oldest one I found.

If this house could talk....huge and obviously elegant long ago.  Will it ever be refurbished?

The boxy Italianate home on the left was constructed in 1870.  In the background is a Masonic hall.