Crown Point: The Highway That Was Art

Crown Point stands seven hundred thirty-three feet above the Columbia River, and the octagonal stone building at its edge is Vista House, built between nineteen sixteen and nineteen eighteen as a rest stop and memorial to Oregon pioneers. It was designed by Portland architect Edgar Lazarus in an Art Nouveau style, faced with ashlar-cut sandstone and lined inside with Alaska marble. The road that brought travelers here, the Historic Columbia River Highway, was itself a landmark: the first paved scenic highway in the United States, completed in nineteen sixteen and engineered by Samuel Lancaster, who placed Vista House here because no other spot in the Gorge matched the view. The structure was formally dedicated on May fifth, nineteen eighteen, closed for a five-year, four-million-dollar restoration beginning in two thousand, and reopened as a museum and still-functioning comfort station.