Astoria Column Facts for Kids

Quick facts for kids
Astoria Column
U.S. National Register of Historic Places

The Astoria Column in 2016
Location	Astoria, Oregon, U.S.
Built	1926, 99 years ago
NRHP reference No.	74001681
Added to NRHP	May 2, 1974

The Astoria Column is a tall tower located in the Pacific Northwest part of the United States. It stands on Coxcomb Hill in Astoria, Oregon, and offers amazing views of the Columbia River's mouth. Built in 1926, this structure is made of concrete and steel. It is part of a large city park that covers about 30 acres.

The column is 125 feet (38 meters) tall. Inside, there's a spiral staircase with 164 steps that leads to an observation deck at the very top. From here, you can see far and wide! The Astoria Column was added to the National Register of Historic Places on May 2, 1974, which means it's an important historical site.

History of the Column
What You Can See on the Column
Images for kids
See also

History of the Column

The Astoria Column was built in 1926. It was funded by the Great Northern Railway and Vincent Astor. Vincent Astor was the great-grandson of John Jacob Astor. They wanted to remember Astoria's important role in the Astor family's business history.

The column looks a lot like the famous Trajan's Column in Rome and the Place Vendôme Column in Paris. The Astoria Column was officially opened on July 22, 1926. Later, in 1974, it was recognized as a historic place. The beautiful pictures painted on the column were cleaned up and restored in 1995. A new granite plaza, which is a paved open area, was added around the base in 2004.

What You Can See on the Column

The 125-foot (38-meter) tall column sits on top of Coxcomb Hill, which is about 600 feet (183 meters) high. Inside, a spiral staircase takes you up to a viewing deck.

On the outside of the column, there is a long, winding picture called a "frieze." This frieze is like a giant comic strip that wraps around the column. It's almost 7 feet wide and stretches for 525 feet! Artists Electus D. Litchfield and Attilio Pusterla painted this amazing mural. It shows 14 important moments from Oregon's early history. It also has 18 scenes from the region's past.

Some of the scenes include:

Captain Gray discovering the Columbia River in 1792.
The famous Lewis and Clark Expedition.

The frieze begins by showing the "pristine forest" before people arrived. It ends with the railway finally reaching Astoria. At the very top of the column, there's a copy of the State Seal of Oregon.

Near the column, there is a special plaque. It remembers a local person named Leroy E. "Ed" Parsons. He helped build one of the very first Community Antenna Television (CATV) systems. This system allowed people in Astoria to watch TV signals from Seattle, Washington.

The cast-iron spiral staircase inside the column was closed for safety reasons in November 2007. But it was fixed and reopened to visitors in August 2009, just in time for the annual Regatta event.