Astoria #14: John Jacob Astor Hotel

1401 Commercial Street

Astoria, like many towns, faced a major fire that destroyed much of the town. Just after midnight on the morning of December 7, 1922, a fire broke out in the business district. Within 6 hours, 32 city blocks over 40 acres were destroyed, including 33 buildings plus roads and utilities, though only 2 lives were lost. The downtown was rebuilt with wider streets and all utilities underground, making it the only city of its size at the time with underground wiring in the business district.

The impressive eight-story John Jacob Astor Hotel, designed by the Tourtellotte & Hummel firm of Portland and built in 1922, was one of the first buildings rebuilt in the business district after the fire and is still the tallest building in Astoria. In 1948, L. E. Ed Parsons set up an antenna on the roof of the Astor Hotel to receive the television signal from KRSC Channel 5 in Seattle, and distributed the signal to others in Astoria through a cable, creating the first cable television system. The initial broadcast was on Thanksgiving Day, 1948. The Astor Hotel was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on November 16, 1979. Today, the upper floors are being renovated into apartments for the elderly.

Continue to 15: Associated Building…