The tower was built in 1926 with financing by the Great Northern Railway and Vincent Astor, the great-grandson of John Jacob Astor, in commemoration of the city's role in the family's business history.
Among his works in America were some of the frescoes the Astoria Column in Oregon, as well as frescoes in the Senate Banking & Commerce Committee Room and in the House of Commons in Ottawa.
Astoria, Queens | Astoria | Vertebral column | Column | column | Astoria, Oregon | Pioneer Column | California Column | Nelson's Column | London Astoria | Kaufman Astoria Studios | fifth column | The Durutti Column | Fort Astoria | Fifth Column (band) | Fifth Column | Waldorf Astoria New York | vertebral column | the Durutti Column | July Column | Berlin Victory Column | Asen's Column | "''The Alexander Column in scaffolds''" (1832-1834), by Grigory Gagarin | Teeling Column | Sixth Column | Shown above as a result of a 7 week period where the columns have been allowed to grow algae, cyanobacteria and other bacterial colonies. Of specific interest are the red regions of the middle column, indicative of purple non-sulfur bacteria (e.g. ''Rhodospirillaceae | Rostral column | rostral column | Nelson's Column, Montreal | Nelson's column |