[1] Constructed in 1922–23, the hotel opened in 1924 and initially was the city's social and business hub, but soon was beset with a variety of problems, and struggled financially for years.

The building was condemned by the city for safety violations in 1968[3] and sat vacant for several years until 1984, when work to renovate it and convert it for apartments began.

[4] At the start of construction, the plans called for the hotel to be five stories tall, but only a month later,[4] on December 8, 1922, a fire destroyed almost all of downtown Astoria.

[1][6] The resulting severe shortage of housing prompted the Columbia Hotel Company to revise the design to increase the planned height to eight stories.

[9] However, work on the Marshfield was soon suspended, and the building stood vacant (its uppermost stories a windowless shell) until the late 1940s, when it was finally completed and opened for use for the first time, as the Tioga Hotel.

It was beset with a variety of problems, involving "prohibition agents, liquor control officers, labor troubles and military police.

[4] The completion of the Sunset Highway in 1949 contributed to the decline in business, as it gave Portlanders a second route to the Oregon Coast, one not passing through Astoria.

[3] The restaurant and "Fur Trader Lounge" bar were closed by the Internal Revenue Service in early 1968 for failure to pay taxes.

[1] During 1979, a group of local historians hoping to prevent further threat of demolition succeeded in an effort to get the landmark listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

[4][13] 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.

[1] Constructed of reinforced concrete, the eight-story John Jacob Astor Hotel building features Gothic decorative elements.

[1] 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.

[5][15][16] To appease them, Parsons laid a second cable to a TV set in the hotel's lobby, and by the end of December a nearby music store was the third hook-up.