Rarely Seen 1876 Photo Offers a Tiny First Glimpse of Emperor Norton's Residence
Also on View: A Slice of the Emperor’s Block of Commercial Street
[This article reflects an earlier belief that the Eureka Lodgings at 624 Commercial Street — where Emperor Norton lived from 1864/65 until his death in 1880 — was located on the current site of Empire Park at 642 Commercial. My September 2022 research shows that, in fact, the Eureka was located on the current site of 650–654 Commercial. Learn more here.]
FROM SOMETIME between summer 1864 and summer 1865 until his death in January 1880, Emperor Norton is documented to have lived in a 10’ by 6’ room on the top (third) floor of the Eureka Lodgings — a kind of 19th-century SRO located at 624 Commercial Street, on the north side of Commercial between Montgomery and Kearny Streets, in San Francisco. *
There is a handful of 1860s photographs taken from across Montgomery (here and here) and one c.1888 photo taken from across Kearny (here) that show views of the 600 block of Commercial Street. Only one of these — the photo from c.1888 (below) — shows the stretch where the Eureka Lodgings was.
Looking west from Kearny Street along the 600 block of Commercial (north side), San Francisco, c.1888. Photo by Allen Hancock Knight, Sr. (1854–1918). Source: California Views: The Pat Hathaway Photo Collection
In this photo, one can see the 4-story Empire House, at 636 Commercial, which had a reading room that the Emperor visited daily to read the latest newspapers. Just beyond that — the larger 4-story building, with iron balconies — is 630/632 Commercial, which housed a mix of businesses, organizations and apartments.
Just beyond 630/632, one can make out a smaller, three-story building. It appears that the Eureka Lodgings went out of business in 1880 or 1881. But, this building is the right size, and is in the right location, to have housed the Eureka.
The building appears to be the same one that is in the following photograph from c.1900–1905, which shows the 630/632 building “peeking in” from the lefthand side of the frame.
626–628 Commercial Street, San Francisco (Union Shrimp Co.), c.1900–1905. Photograph by Treu Ergeben “T.E.” Hecht (1875–1937). Source: San Francisco Public Library
Whether this actually is the Eureka building would take more research to determine. The fact that the address in the c.1900–1905 photo is not 624 is not disqualifying. Address numbering often is in a state of flux over time; the Eureka Lodgings site today is 642. But, in San Francisco during this period, buildings were going up and coming down at a rapid rate — so, by 1888, the building where Emperor Norton lived could have been demolished and replaced by another. The possibility that it hadn’t — that what is on view in the c.1888 and c.1900–1905 photos is indeed the former Eureka Lodgings building — is an intriguing prospect.
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WHAT WE’D NEVER seen, though, is a photo of the 600 block of Commercial Street taken during the Emperor’s lifetime — taken from within the block — and showing the real, intimate flavor of the section of the street where Emperor Norton lived.
And, we’d never seen any kind of identifiable photographic evidence of the Eureka — until now.
Today on the former site of the Eureka is a pocket park — a privately owned public open space, or POPOS — known as Empire Park. The name has nothing to do with the Emperor.
In this street view, Empire Park is on the left.
Google street view of section of north side of Commercial Street, San Francisco. Left to right: 642 (Empire Park), 632 (commercial building) and 608 (San Francisco Historical Society). Positioned and cropped by John Lumea.
When Emperor Norton arrived here, a building just a few steps to the east of the Eureka towards Montgomery — on the site of the brick-façade building on the right-hand side of the view above — was the first U.S. Branch Mint in San Francisco. The Mint was at this location from 1854 to 1874.
Between the Eureka and the Mint were a number of buildings in the Emperor’s day — including a building that housed the Morning Call, the newspaper where Samuel Clemens, the future Mark Twain, had a third-floor desk in the summer of 1864. During this same period, the Call leased its second floor for office space, and one of those desks belonged to Bret Harte, who had a day job as secretary to the administrator of the Mint (next door).
Today, the space between the former sites of the Mint and the Eureka is home to the stone-façade building in the center of the view above. The address of this building is 632 Commercial — but, it is a few doors to the east of the building that had that was numbered 630/632 building in the earlier photos shown here. Now marketed as “boutique” commercial space, the buikding was constructed in 1907 for the A. Lietz Company, a maker of precision nautical and surveying instruments.
Here’s a better look:
As to the Mint…
By the late 1860s, the Mint had outgrown its original Commercial Street building, and plans were set in motion to a build a new Mint — now known as the Old Mint — on the northwest corner of Fifth and Mission Streets.
The Granite Lady, as this building also is known, was constructed between 1869 and 1874.
When this “new mint” was completed, the Commercial Street building was demolished — but, on the same site was built a new U.S. Sub-Treasury, which would be used for storage.
The Sub-Treasury building was constructed between 1875 and 1877.
Today, this site is the new home of the San Francisco Historical Society. Although most of the four-story 1877 building was destroyed in the 1906 earthquake and fires, the portion of the original street-level brick-and-stone façade that survived is largely intact.
Surviving brick-and-stone façade of the 1877 U.S. Sub-Treasury at 608 Commercial Street, San Francisco. Today, this is the front of the San Francisco Historical Society. Source: NoeHill.
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HAVING SET this stage — hopefully, it soon will become clear why such a visual stage needed to be set! — we now can move to the subject at hand.
In 1876, a number of photographs were taken of the new U.S. Sub-Treasury under construction.
Here’s one:
View of the U.S. Sub-Treasury at 608 Commercial Street (north side), San Francisco, under construction, c.1876. Photograph probably by Eadweard Muybridge. Historic American Buildings Survey CA-1218. Source: Library of Congress.
The view is from the rear of the construction site — in effect, from inside the Sub-Treasury building — looking across to the south side of Commercial Street.
This is one of three c.1876 construction photos of the Sub-Treasury that are part of the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS). The other two are printed “MUYBRIDGE, Photo.” on the bottom border of the photo. Any such information on the photo above is obscured by the HABS label on the photo. But, especially given that the pioneering photographer Eadweard Muybridge (1830–1904) set up a studio in the 600 block of Clay Street — the next block parallel to Commercial — in early 1876, it stands to reason that this photo is by Muybridge as well.
The photograph is large — 4196 x 3344 px — so, be sure to click and zoom it as much as you can.
Then, notice the fabulous details: The builders and their tools and supplies. Commercial Street with its buildings and storefronts. The shopkeepers, passersby and loafers.
This the Commercial Street that Emperor Norton knew — and it’s the best, most intimate photo of it we’ve seen. No doubt, the Emperor and any number of the men shown here tipped their hats and said hello to one another on a regular basis.
Was any of these men one of the Emp’s intimates and confidants?
Given his abiding preoccupation with national economics and finance, mustn’t the Emperor gave been fascinated, even a little proud, to watch a U.S. Sub-Treasury going up just a couple of doors down from his own residence?
Did the Emperor corner the foreman, every so often, for a progress report?
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LOOK AT THE photo again. Look up and to the right — towards Kearny Street.
Adjacent to the construction site — where 632 Commercial Street now stands — are two buildings…
First, a narrow-ish brick building, three windows wide, probably three or four stories tall. This may be where Sam Clemens has his desk a dozen years earlier.
Next, a shorter, apparently wood-clad structure — consistent with the very low 2-story building shown sandwiched between two taller buildings, in the Hecht photo from c.1900–1905 (above).
And, next to that, visible in the top right-hand corner of the photograph? The building showing one tiny third-floor window and the last two letters — “NS.” — of a sign tacked to the eastern side?
That, I believe, is the only glimpse anyone living has ever seen of the Eureka Lodgings at 624 Commercial Street, where Emperor Norton made his home for 17 years.
Possible view of the Eureka Lodgings at 624 Commercial Street, San Francisco, c.1876. Detail from larger view of the U.S. Sub-Treasury at 608 Commercial Street, under construction. Photograph probably by Eadweard Muybridge. Historic American Buildings Survey CA-1218. Source: Library of Congress.
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Finally: Note what fills the windows in the storefront towards the right of the photograph — which would have been more or less across the street from the Eureka Lodgings.
Kaskel Brothers — Adolph, Isaac and Morris. 617 Commercial.
Hatters to His Majesty Norton I?
* This article originally dated Emperor Norton’s arrival at the Eureka Lodgings as “late 1862 / early 1863.” But, our subsequent research, published in January 2022, points to a later arrival.
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