The Herondale: How Two Friends Turned the Astoria Crest Motel Into a Wellness Hotel on the Columbia
Photo: Gary Halvorson, Oregon State Archives, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Drivers heading east out of Astoria on Leif Erikson Drive have passed the hillside motel at No. 5366 for decades. Since July, it has had a new name, new owners and a new idea about what a night on the Columbia should feel like.
The former Astoria Crest Motel is now The Herondale, a 39-room boutique hotel owned by Mike Tobia and Maggie Davis. It is their first hotel, and they have built it around a theme that is still unusual on the North Coast: wellness.
A cross-country search that ended in Astoria
Tobia and Davis have been friends for about 15 years and spent roughly two years looking for a way into the hotel business, The Astorian reported in an Oct. 7 profile. Their search was national. They drove across the country looking at properties before settling on Astoria, where both have family on the North Coast.
The timing worked out. The owners of the Crest were ready to sell just as the pair was looking for a first property. Tobia told The Astorian that after seeing the site and its views, “we felt like Astoria was a good fit and had potential.”
“Mike and I have always loved the culture of Astoria and we feel very privileged to be a part of (the community),” Davis told the paper.
What’s in a name
The name nods to the great blue herons that work the shallows of the Columbia River estuary, a familiar sight to anyone who walks the Astoria Riverwalk. Tobia also told The Astorian that the “dale” half of the name was chosen to echo the region’s Nordic heritage, which still shows up in Astoria’s Scandinavian Midsummer Festival and its Finnish and Norwegian family names.
Saunas, cold plunges and slow mornings
The owners describe The Herondale as a wellness-focused retreat. Its outdoor area is organized around heat and water: a hot tub, a cedar sauna with aromatherapy and a wood-barrel cold plunge. Tobia recommends guests alternate among the three, a routine familiar to anyone who has used a Nordic-style sauna.
That choice fits the town. Astoria’s large Finnish immigrant community, drawn by fishing and cannery work in the late 1800s and early 1900s, brought its sauna tradition to the Columbia.
The hotel also offers in-room and outdoor massage, space for yoga and quiet reflection, and an evening fire pit where guests can order local beer and wine. Farm-to-table small plates are available, and The Astorian reported that local businesses including Blue Scorcher Bakery and Cafe and Sleeper Coffee supply the hotel. The Herondale also hosts weddings, retreats and private events.
The view
The biggest selling point may be one the Crest always had. Thirty-two of the 39 rooms look out over the Columbia River, the Riverwalk and the Astoria-Megler Bridge, according to the owners.
“The intention behind this hotel is for guests to disconnect,” Tobia told The Astorian. He also said the site has historical significance, describing it as one of the last places the Lewis and Clark expedition camped before reaching the end of its journey west. The Corps of Discovery spent the winter of 1805–06 at Fort Clatsop, across Youngs Bay from present-day Astoria.
A local face at the front desk
Continuity came from inside the old business. Operations manager Dorothy Frace grew up on the Long Beach Peninsula, has lived in Astoria for about 15 years, and worked the front desk at the Astoria Crest before being promoted to help run the transition.
Frace told The Astorian she was surprised by how many Astoria residents had never been up to see the property. “Even as a local, everyday I walk up here and look at the view, I’m just speechless,” she said.
A small part of a larger shift
On the North Coast, where visitor spending is a mainstay of the economy and the off-season can be long and wet, a hotel built around saunas, fire pits and river views gives travelers a reason to come in November as well as July.
It is also an example of an older roadside motel, built for a different era of car travel, being reworked as a boutique property while keeping the location and view that made it work in the first place.
For Tobia and Davis, the bet is that a quiet hilltop on the east end of town, with sunsets over the river and eagles overhead, is enough to build a destination around. Early guests quoted by The Astorian, visiting from Portland and Seattle, said it already felt that way.
The Herondale is at 5366 Leif Erikson Drive in Astoria.
Sources: The Astorian, “Biz Box: Astoria Crest Motel morphs into The Herondale Hotel,” Oct. 7, 2026; National Park Service, Lewis and Clark National Historical Park (Fort Clatsop).
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