The Hotel Elliott on Commercial Street in Astoria, Oregon

The Hotel Elliott and Astoria’s bet on its old downtown hotels

ByDana Whitcomb

Photo: Another Believer, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Most of downtown Astoria dates from a short window in the 1920s, and the reason is the fire of December 1922. It started in a restaurant, spread through the wood pilings and planked streets that held up the business district, and burned more than 30 blocks. Nobody died, but the old commercial core was gone.

The rebuilding produced the brick and concrete blocks that still line Commercial and Duane streets, and the Hotel Elliott at 357 12th Street is part of that generation. It opened in 1924 as a modest downtown hotel serving salesmen, travelers off the river boats and people in town on business.

Decline and restoration

Like many small-city hotels, it lost its purpose as highways and motels changed travel. By the late 20th century it was a run-down residential hotel. A restoration completed in the early 2000s turned it into a boutique hotel with about 30 rooms, a rooftop terrace and a wine bar, while keeping the lobby and much of the original woodwork.

A thin lodging market

The Elliott is one of a small number of hotels within walking distance of downtown. Most of Clatsop County’s rooms sit in Seaside and Cannon Beach, and Astoria spent years trying to convince visitors to stay overnight instead of passing through on the way to the beach. Restored buildings such as the Elliott, the converted Cannery Pier Hotel and the Commodore Hotel gave the city a stock of rooms with character, and the local transient room tax they generate helps pay for tourism promotion and city services.

The challenge now is the familiar one. Visitors fill the rooms from June to September. Staff are hard to find and expensive to house. Winter weekends depend on events, film fans and storm-watchers.

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