Vista House

Built in 1916 (Art Nouveau architecture). Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.

From the record

“Vista House is a museum at Crown Point in Multnomah County, Oregon, United States, that also serves as a memorial to Oregon pioneers and as a comfort station for travelers on the Historic Columbia River Highway. The site, situated on a rocky promontory, is 733 feet (223 m) above the Columbia River on the south side of the Columbia River Gorge.”
Wikipedia article Vista House, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 650 National Register listings published here for Multnomah County · listed in 1974 · category: Building · built in 1916, Art Nouveau architecture, by Edgar M. Lazarus.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 building as contributing to the listing.
Still standing. The Park Service records this property as extant.
Address. Columbia River Scenic Hwy., Crown Point, 97019
When was it listed? November 1974
Category. building
Census division. Corbett
When was it built? 1916
Architectural style. Art Nouveau architecture
Architect. Edgar M. Lazarus
National Register reference number. 74001705 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Fires near this property

44 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 44 fires within 5 miles of Vista House between 1992 and 2019, burning about 174 acres in total. 2 started naturally. 2 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Debris and open burning	10
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	7
Equipment and vehicle use	5
Railroad operations and maintenance	5
Smoking	4
Recreation and ceremony	3
Fireworks	3
Arson/incendiarism	2
Natural	2
Other causes	2
Power generation/transmission/distribution	1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
29 September 1993	Railroad operations and maintenance	under an acre	Washington State Department of Natural Resources Headquarters	not named
24 September 2005	Smoking	10 acres	Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area	VISTA
22 September 1994	Smoking	1.0 acres	Molalla Unit	TUCKER RD
20 September 1995	Smoking	under an acre	Molalla Unit	PALMER MILL #2
2 September 2011	Equipment and vehicle use	under an acre	Molalla Unit	I-84 MP 26
2 September 2002	Arson/incendiarism	under an acre	Molalla Unit	DEVERELL RD FIRE
19 September 1999	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Washington State Department of Natural Resources Headquarters	not named
16 September 1992	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Northwest Oregon District	LONG HIKE

Every fire recorded in Multnomah County

Mines and quarries near this property

10 of 19 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 19 workings within 5 miles of Vista House: 11 past producers, 6 producers, 2 occurrences. 6 still produce. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken, Stone, Sand and Gravel, Construction, Geothermal. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Site	Commodity	Status
Camp Collins Ymca	Geothermal	Producer
Corbett	Geothermal	Producer
Larch Mountain Clay	Clay	Occurrence
Larch Mountain Clay	Clay	Occurrence
Gensman Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Unnamed	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Unnamed Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Basalt Quarry	Stone	Past Producer
Bridal Veil	Stone	Past Producer
Quarry	Stone	Past Producer

Every working recorded in Multnomah County

Map coverage status

No historic map-sheet match is published for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary. Browse the county's mapped places while that work is pending.

Listed places nearby

6 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Property	Distance	Listed
View Point Inn	0.5 miles	1985
Columbia River Highway Historic District	0.6 miles	1983
Andreas Graf House	2.7 miles	1980
Springdale School	4.3 miles	2011
Columbia River Highway Historic District	6.4 miles	1983
Columbia River Highway Historic District	6.4 miles	1983

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 74001705 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Multnomah County	All 650 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.