English: Vista House at Crown Point on the old Columbia River Highway is an important phenomenon of the early automobile age in Oregon. Built as an observatory and rest station commanding a spectacular view of the Columbia Gorge, the structure was executed in an appropriately non-historic, or early modern style, closely related to the German Jugendstil.

Samuel Lancaster, Consulting Engineer for the Columbia River Highway, conceived the idea of an observation point at Crown Point, reportedly in connection with plans Richard Temple Dabney was developing for a large tourist hotel. Elaborating on the proposal, W. E, Conklin is said to have suggested the formation of an association to raise funds for the project. The original membership of the Vista House Association was made up by 52 prominent Portland business and civic leaders. It was the Vista House Association which conceived the idea of commemorating Oregon pioneer in the structure. The hexagon walls inside are inscribed with the names of revered pioneers, John McLoughlin, Jesse Applegate, James W. Nemith, Joseph Lane, Asahel Bush, Mathew Paul Deady, the Rev. Jason Lee and Marcus Whitman. In 1929 a bronze tablet was placed in the Vista House in memory of Lieutenant William R, Broughton of the British Navy, who in 1792 sailed up the Columbia past Crown Point, as a member of Vancouver's Expedition, and named Mount Hood. Vista House was built under the direction of John B. Yeon, Multnomah County Roadmaster.

Designer of the structure was Portland architect Edgar M. Lazarus.

Lazarus was born in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1868 and died in Portland in 1939. During his 45-year career in Portland, he was a member of the architectural firm of Lazarus, Whitehouse and Fouilhoux, During his lifetime he was elected a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects. Other Oregon buildings designed by Lazarus included the Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition Agricultural Palace, no longer standing. Reportedly Lazarus was the local supervising architect for Portland's Italianate US Customs House of 1901.