get the landmark listed on the National Register of Historic Places. However, a succession of proposals to renovate and reopen the "derelict eyesore" failed to come to fruition. In 1983, a feature article about Astoria in The Sunday Oregonian referred to the Astor Hotel: "Formerly the pride of Astoria, the once-elegant inn now houses only frequent trespassers and serves as a haven for minor-in-possession juveniles with little to do on an Astoria Saturday night." Still wearing the pink paint, now faded, that it was given in the 1950s, the decaying building that still dominated the downtown skyline had come to be known as "the pink elephant" by local residents. At the end of an eight-year period as Astoria's mayor, Bob Chopping had given up hope of saving the hotel, telling a reporter in early 1983 that, "Citizens must have realized after all these years, chances of renovation is nil." Conversion to apartments In late 1984, a plan was approved in which private investors would convert the former hotel into 70 apartments for low-income residents on the six upper floors and commercial space on the first two floors. The building reopened in 1986 with 66 apartments of subsidized housing, referred to as the Astor Apartments and no longer colored pink. The lowermost two floors remained mostly vacant into the 1990s, but gradually businesses moved into the commercial spaces. The ornate lobby remained unused until 2010, when a business selling vintage furniture and hardware moved into the space. Design The Hotel Astoria (later John Jacob Astor Hotel) was designed by architects Tourtellotte & Hummel, who were based in Portland from 1922 to 1930 and who, after the Astoria project, designed two other hotels that are now NRHP-listed: the Lithia Springs Hotel (Ashland, Oregon) and the Redwoods Hotel (Grants Pass, Oregon). Constructed of reinforced concrete, the eight-story John Jacob Astor Hotel building features Gothic decorative elements. The seventh floor is decorated with several escutcheons, one every third window, and the window groups at the building's corners at this level are additionally topped by rounded arches "embellished with elaborate cartouches in cast stone". Each group of three windows at the mezzanine level, or second floor, includes two Corinthian pilasters and is topped by a pointed arch and a frieze with three small shields above. The lobby is two stories high at its center and includes numerous Corinthian columns. It originally included a large fireplace