Crown Point State Park / Vista House

Jutting out 733 feet above the Columbia River on the Oregon side, Crown Point arguably offers the most spectacular view in the Gorge. It is fitting that the Columbia River Highway, a thoroughfare as important for its access to scenic wonders as for its transportation pragmatism, was dedicated here in 1916. Samuel C. Lancaster, the Multnomah County highway engineer who oversaw the highway’s construction, first proposed a building here as both a rest stop for travelers and a monument 'to the trials and hardships of those who had come into the Oregon country.' Vista House was built in 1916-17 at a cost of $100,000. The structure was designed by Edgar Lazarus, brother of Emma Lazarus, who penned the famous lines, 'Give me your tired, your poor…,' that are engraved on a plaque at the Statue of Liberty. Lancaster designed the interior. Italian stonemasons who built the highway’s retaining walls and bridges also laid the building’s foundation.