Colors on 8th Street - Astoria, Oregon

The Flavel House is one of Astoria's most prominent landmarks after the imposing waterfront and the column at the top of the hill. It is certainly an interesting and cherished one. Built in 1887 by Captain George Flavel, it pre-dates my grandmother's house (built by her grandparents) in Corona, California, by two years. That's one reason it interested me to take a tour the first year I arrived here. My grandmother's house was probably larger in square footage and had more extensive grounds with much planing and many fruit trees, but Flavel's house was about 2 points higher on the ostentation scale, the ornateness scale, the tall baseboard scale, the wood mouldings scale, and the intricate hardware scale (hinges, door knobs). Both people built for quality, comfort, artistic expression and, I'm sure, to be known as the best and most prominent around. Interior furnishings and decor were still intact in the Flavel House, and this interested me a lot. It gave me insight into what the ancestral home must have looked and felt like inside. The Flavel House has been preserved beautifully and kept as a showpiece by the Historical Society, whereas Grandma's house was butchered horribly. That's another story for when I find time and the right photos.

Today was June 1. After what seemed like six months of winter, the sun was out for the day and the flowers were bright. I'd walked halfway up Astoria's hill barely stopping to breathe. In fact, I was carrying on a conversation on my cell phone the whole way from Sunday Market downtown to the top of 8th Street and beyond, and I felt strong and sassy. A few years ago, this burst of energy would have been unthinkable. At 59, I enjoy seeing my health improving and my body getting back into shape. I will never be 20 again, but I thoroughly enjoy doing things I was unable to do during so much of my 30s, 40s, and early 50s. More on that some other time. Today I was into colors. I took photos of flowers and houses, and - you know how when you get back and look at the pictures, and you didn't take the one or two photos that would totally bring the scene together? I didn't take a single picture looking up or down 8th Street, which is a shame, because it's a showpiece all its own. Add a cable car and you're on one of San Francisco's most notable engineering feats. And so the descriptive 8th Street photo will be saved for another day. The Flavel House is at the bottom of 8th Street. Backtracking a bit and starting from the top, here are some colors and a couple of scenes across the Columbia River.

From 8th Street, you can just see Tongue Point - the dark mass of greenery sticking out into the river. The East Mooring Basin, where you can see fishing boats and sea lions is between Tongue Pont and the gray, weathered fence.

Colorful houses, colorful flowers.

Color can be found in the humbler features as well. I loved the blue-purple hand rail against the green horsetails and the yellow lines painted on the parking lot at the foot of 8th.

The photo above is not actually on 8th Street, but at the bottom of the 8th Street hill across Marine Drive on the two-block-long Astor Street with the River Walk, the trolley, and the place-defining Columbia River in the background.

The Flavel House Museum, Astoria, Oregon

This is one corner of the Flavel House, one of Astoria's most prominent and most attractive landmarks. One of the things I find most interesting about it is that it was built about a year before my grandmother's house in Corona, but about "that much" more ostentatiously.

If a moulding was 8 inches tall in her house, it was 10 inches tall in the Flavel house. I haven't measured, I'm just saying the Flavel House, although in about the same style, was a little more showy. I think by square footage, Grandma's house was a lot bigger, but I don't know for sure. Looks can be deceiving and I'm not used to measuring property. Her house, built by her grandfather, George Lewis Joy, was considered "the finest house in Corona." It also had a lot of land with it, and fruit trees. The Flavel house was certainly that to Astoria. Well, what happened to Grandma's house will take a lot longer to tell than I want to write tonight, and it's best left for other posts, but its destruction is one of the reasons I wanted to tour this house in Astoria - in some way, it must give a similar impression to the one given by her place in its heyday, which was over before I was born. I always wondered what the house had looked like, felt like, and been like to live in. And I've always regretted what happened to it.

It's hard to get a picture of the whole Flavel house without getting the power lines. Today I opted for a partial view and no wires. I've posted more pictures of the Flavel House in one of my web albums.

July 30, Astoria: The Flavel House and Courthouse

The Flavel House is a prominent landmark, and you can hardly miss it since it's near the post office and across the street from the back of the courthouse. Since I had a PO Box for business, I was in the area often. And even though, on my budget, the entrance fee seemed high, I bit the bullet and paid for it. I really wanted to see the house. Not only for the local history, but because it was built within about two years of when my grandmother's house had been built in Corona in a similar style. Her grandfather had built their house on a grand scale, with fine materials, often imported from St. Louis or the East Coast, and Flavel's project had been ramped up just a few notches from that. His mouldings were a few inches wider, the finishing just a few degrees finer. I think my grandmother's house was larger in size, or at least is was by the time the side wings had been added. The piece of land it was on was much larger and with an attached orchard and a yard filled with a variety of fruit-bearing trees. I believe this was mostly a legacy from her grandparents. But my grandmother's house had also been decapitated down to the ground floor in the early 1950s, and I hadn't seen it in its glory since I'd been too young to remember. I thought that a visit to the Flavel House might give me insight on the way they had lived, and I'd longed to see that since I was a child. The top photo shows part of the back yard from an upper story window.

The builing on the right is the carriage house, which is being renovated.

A homey scene in a small bedroom or sewing room.

I love the green tiles.

Here's a view out the back from another window.

Simple and elegant.

Here's the view east from an upper-story window looking toward the downtown area. You can see Tongue Point in the distance.

I love the ornamented hardware - as I said, just a few notches more ornate than the hardware in Grandma's house, but in a similar vein - a similar feel.

Outside now, a blue and white fowering bush in the front yard.

Here is the imposing facade - once again, a few notches more ornate than Grandma's, but with some similar elements.

Here's the front door.

More of the intriguing, majestic facade.

On the corner of Duane Avenue and 8th Street.

Across the street from the Flavel House is "the Goonies' Jail," the old county jail, with the courthouse on the right.

On the front corner of the courthouse is an old cannon. There's a cement bench in front, and on the bench the plaque reads: "Dedicated to our Fathers, by Oregon Department Daughters, Union Veterans of the Civil War 16th (?) Convention (?) 1934" and the dates 1861 and 1865.

And this is the cannon above the bench with the inscription.

Looking back up 8th Street from the corner near the cannon, you get one of the best views of the Flavel House.