Astoria - Oregon - History

The Captain George Flavel house has captured the luxury and elegance of the Victorian period. This 1885 Queen Anne Victorian home features original Eastlake style woodwork interiors and exotic hardwood and imported tile fireplaces. Enjoy a walk on the grounds and many trees planted by the Flavels over 100 years ago

Built, as Astoria's City Hall in 1904 is now the Clatsop County Historical Society's regional museum, administrative offices. The galleries feature changing and permanent exhibits about the history of the area, people, industries and more.

The Clatsop County Heritage Museum can be found in a beautiful, neo-classical building, which was built in 1904 and was formerly the Astoria City Hall. The museum's popular rotating and permanent exhibits bring this area's impressive history to life. Displays feature different aspects of Clatsop County's heritage--natural history, Indian artifacts, early immigrants and settlers of the area, important maritime events and art history represent some of the stories the museum has to tell.

After use as City Hall, public library, a USO club for WWII servicemen, and the first home of the Columbia River Maritime Museum, the building was an empty derelict until restored by the Clatsop County Historical Society.

This is just one of the many Historical Museums located throughout Oregon.

An interesting collection of firefighting equipment from 1877 to 1963 from the original Fire Station. There are hand-pulled, horse-drawn, and motorized fire engines and vivid photographic displays of some of Astoria's most spectacular fires.

 It was December 7, 1922, a cool night with a slight southeast wind blowing over Astoria. At 12:15 a.m. the patrolmen called in to report all was quiet. Astoria was settling down. The alarms rang out at the fire department at 2:15 a.m. The fire was said to have started in the basement of Thief Brothers, the pool hall west of Commercial and 11th Streets. There was, unfortunately, no time to investigate the cause of the fire.

The Astoria Column was erected in 1926 at an elevation of 600 feet atop Coxcomb Hill, the location of the first permanent American Settlement west of the Rockies. It has been listed in the National Register of Historic Places since 1974, and was refurbished in 1995. This impressive Oregon Coast historical monument is the only one of its kind in the world!

The historic 1896 building was designed by the famous Portland architect Emil Scratch and originally was part of the popular North Pacific Brewery until it was closed by Prohibition. In 1928 the City of Astoria rebuilt the building as the Upper town Fire Station #2 and it served that purpose until 1960 when it was retired. The City donated the building and much of the classic equipment on display to the Clatsop County Historical Society in 1989