JANUARY 19, 2017 // 19
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By RYAN HUME
Astoria
[ə•stɔ• ri•ə]
noun
1. Astoria, Oregon: a hilly
port town of about 10,000
situated near the mouth
of the Columbia River. The
town was founded as a
fur-trading post by the Pa-
cifi c Fur Company in 1811
following the Astor Expe-
dition, a two-year overland
trek fi nanced by John Jacob
Astor, making it the oldest
settlement west of the
Rocky Mountains
2. Astoria, Queens: a
middle-class residential
and commercial neighbor-
hood with a population of
roughly 79,000 located in
the northwestern corner of
the New York City borough
of Queens. Traditionally a
Greek and Italian neigh-
borhood, Astoria is bound
by the East River to its
north and at one point was
known as Hallett’s Cove
3. Astoria, Illinois: a small,
rural incorporated town of
1,141 residents in Fulton
County in the middle of the
state. It used to be known
as Vienna
4. Astoria, South Dakota:
a town of 139 people in
Deuel County on the east
end of the state and is
actually named in honor of
Astoria, Oregon
5. Astoria, Missouri: an
unincorporated community
in Wright County
6. Astoria, Budapest: the
unoffi cial name of a major
intersection and metro stop
in the Hungarian capital. It
is named after the Grand
Hotel Astoria which sits on
the corner of the junction
COURTESY OF CLATSOP COUNTY
HISTORICAL SOCIETY
© 2017 WALDORF ASTORIA
John Jacob Astor portrait
lithograph.
The entrance to the Waldorf-Astoria located on Park Avenue in
Manhattan, New York City.
SERVING BREAKFAST,
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European Style Coffeehouse by day,
intimate bistro offering neo-regional
cuisine by night.
Regional selection of beers, wines and
vintage cocktails available.
We cater your event!
243 11th Street, Astoria, OR 97103
503-325-1787
www.AstoriaCoffeeHouse.com
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PHOTO BY DANNY MILLER
The city of Astoria in July 2016.
7. Waldorf-Astoria Hotel:
a luxurious and historic Park
Avenue hotel in Manhattan.
Housed in two separate
buildings, the hotel was
originally built as two
separate locations, each by
a diff erent member of the
prominent Astor family,
William Waldorf Astor and
Col. John Jacob Astor IV
respectively. The buildings
were later joined
8. U.S.S. Astoria: one of
any four U.S. Navy vessels
that have been commis-
sioned with the name. The
last one to be decommis-
sioned was a light cruiser
in 1949
Origin:
Astoria is a place-name
that honors entrepreneur
John Jacob Astor — famed
as the U.S.’s fi rst millionaire
There is a park and monument to the original
Fort Astoria on 15th and Exchange streets.
— by adding the common
suffix –ia to his last name.
The Oregon town was
established as Fort Asto-
ria. The neighborhood in
Queens was named in the
hopes that Astor would
invest millions of dollars
in the area, though he
ended up only investing
$500. The township in
Illinois got its name short-
ly after it was platted in
1837 because there was
already another town in
the state that was named
Vienna.
Though John Jacob
Astor was a German im-
migrant, the name Astor
comes from a Provençal
word, astur, meaning
“hawk.” It is thought that
John Jacob Astor never
stepped foot in any of the
places that bared his name.
“The loss of the Tonquin
was a grievous blow to
the infant establishment
of Astoria, and one that
threatened to bring after it
a train of disasters.”
— Washington Irving,
Astoria, Clatsop Edition,
Binfords & Mort, Portland:
1950. P. 94
“Astoria constituted a
tiny dot of ‘civilization’ on
this farthest, wild rim of the
continent. The ports of Chi-
na lay 12,000 miles across
the Pacifi c. The ports of the
United States lay 21,000
miles around Cape Horn
— fi ve times farther than
Jamestown or Plymouth
had lain from their supply
ports in England.”
—Peter Stark, Astoria,
HarperCollins, New York:
2015. P. 197
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