Emperor Norton at Swimley's
Earliest Newspaper Account of an Imperial Visit to Sacramento Has the Scoop on Where the Emperor “Took Dinner” One Evening
New Evidence Indicates Restaurant Building Was Older Than It Has Been Dated
WILLIAM FRANKLIN SWIMLEY (1827–1879) was born in Virginia — although it may be more accurate to say that that he was born in an area that was in Virginia at the time. It appears that Swimley was born in Berkeley County, Va. — an abolitionist hot spot that annexed itself to the newly created pro-Union state of West Virginia in 1863 and now has Martinsburg, W. Va., as its county seat.
Swimley left for California in early 1850, arriving in San Francisco in June and settling in Sacramento by November. Within a couple of years, he had established what he called the Cincinnati Restaurant at 21 K Street between Front and Second Streets.
Locals called it Swimley’s.
But, why the “Cincinnati”? Swimley’s father, Jacob — an architect and builder — was living with his family (presumably including William) in Philadelphia at the time of the 1840 census. Jacob continued to be listed in Philadelphia directories through 1846 — when William was 19.
But, by the time of the 1850 census, Jacob had turned to farming and moved the family to Champaign County, Ohio, between Columbus and Dayton. Depending on exactly when, between 1846 and 1850, the Ohio move took place, William — who was 23 when he arrived in California in 1850 — could have lived with his family in Ohio for as long as four years, between ages 19 and 23.
Jacob died in Champaign County in August 1851.
All of which supports the educated guess that William decided to name his new restaurant the Cincinnati as a tribute to his father — or because he had developed some special attachment to Cincinnati during his few short years in Ohio.
Or both.
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THE CINCINNATI Restaurant — Swimley’s — quickly developed a reputation for serving heaping portions of food at rock-bottom prices. Here’s an ad from December 1963. (Note: The “5” and the “2” are incorrectly reversed the the address. In 1863, the restaurant was at 25 K Street; “52” was in the next block.)
Ad for the Cincinnati Restaurant, Sacramento Daily Union, 12 December 1863, p. 4. Source: California Digital Newspaper Collection
“Fat of the land” was a wink. The local joke was that anyone who dined regularly at Swimley’s soon would find their patronage reflected in their waistline.
Indeed, the mantra “happy and content as a Swimley’s boarder” came to suggest that a “Swimley’s boarder” was anyone who — for whatever reason — was, in the modern phrase…“fat and happy.”
A couple of examples from 1863 — the first one from Sacramento:
Item referencing “Swimley’s Boarders,” Sacramento Daily Union, 29 June 1863, p. 5. Source: California Digital Newspaper Collection
And, from Petaluma:
Item referencing “Swimley’s Boarders,” Petaluma Argus, 4 November 1863, p. 2. Source: California Digital Newspaper Collection
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IT IS AGAINST this backdrop that the Sacramento Daily Union newspaper reported, on 18 December 1863, that the Emperor Norton was in town — and that, the night before, he “took dinner at Swimley’s among the fat men”:
Item reporting that Emperor Norton “took dinner at Swimley’s among the fat men,” Sacramento Daily Union, 18 December 1863, p. 5. Source: California Digital Newspaper Collection
It appears that this also is the first newspaper report of Joshua Norton in Sacramento as Emperor.
San Francisco’s Daily Alta newspaper covered the imperial visit a few days later, when its Sacramento correspondent filed the following report:
“Minor Matters,” Daily Alta California, 21 December 1863, p. 1. Source: California Digital Newspaper Collection
Briefly in early 1857 and again in early 1858, William Swimley ran ads stating that the Cincinnati Restaurant was “established in 1850.” The first of the 1857 ads ran on the front page of the inaugural edition of the Sacramento Daily Bee and noted the restaurant’s “reputation…during the last six years”:
Ad for the Cincinnati Restaurant, Sacramento Daily Bee, 3 February 1857, p. 1. Source: Newspapers.com
For orientation, here’s a map detail of Sacramento showing some key locations from the 1850s–70s period. The important focus here is on the three buildings clustered at the northwest corner of Second and K Streets. The Bank Exchange saloon (formerly Rhodes Bank, then Sacramento City Bank) building on the corner is flanked to the north by the Union Hotel, on Second Street, and to the west by 25 K Street — which was a narrow but deep 3-story building that extended far enough north to adjoin the Union Hotel on the hotel’s rear (west) side.
Map detail of Sacramento, Calif., with key locations from the 1850s–70s period. Google base map with labels by John Lumea.
The 1857 ad above shows the Cincinnati Restaurant at 21 K Street. Sacramento newspapers of the 1850s show businesses operating simultaneously at 21 K and 25 K in the years after the city’s “great conflagration” of 2–3 November 1852 — indicating that these addresses referred to different spaces, possibly also different buildings.
Newspaper mentions of the Cincinnati begin in 1853, with the restaurant at 21 K Street (as it was in 1857). In the Sacramento directory, the restaurant continues to be listed at number 21 through 1859.
(Apparently the location of the Cincinnati Restaurant during this period was in one of two “stores” built at the end of 1852 by Henry Winkle (1821–1890), a baker who had lost his shop on this stretch of K Street in the November 1852 fire and rebuilt on the same spot.)
By the time of the 1861 directory, the restaurant is at number 25. Starting in January 1862, newspaper ads for the restaurant show it at 25 K Street — which is where it was when Emperor Norton dined there in 1863.
It was standard, during this period, for businesses changing locations to run a “removal” notice in the local newspaper(s). Apparently, William Swimley did not run such a notice in the Sacramento papers anytime between 1859 and 1861. But, if — as it appears — Swimley was moving the restaurant only a door or two up the street, he might not have felt the need.
Here’s how the intersection appeared in April 1940. The 25 K Street building — which housed the Cincinnati Restaurant — is at left:
Northwest corner of Second and K Streets, Sacramento, California, 3 April 1940. Between c.1861 and 1871, the Cincinnati Restaurant was on the ground floor of the narrow, three-story brick building on the left. Photograph by Eugene Hepting (1896–1971). Source: Center for Sacramento History
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SEVERAL months after Emperor Norton’s visit to the Cincinnati Restaurant in December 1863, the proximate physical relationship between 25 K Street and the Union Hotel created a new opportunity for William Swimley.
In August 1864, William entered into partnership with James Lansing, a former deputy sherriff, to lease and manage the Union Hotel as “Lansing & Swimley.” Here are the notices that ran in the Sacramento papers:
Items on James Lansing and William Swimley as the new proprietors of the Union Hotel, Sacramento, Calif. Top: Sacramento Daily Bee, 10 August 1864, p. 3 (source: Newspapers.com). Bottom: Sacramento Daily Union, 11 August 1864, p.3 (source: California Digital Newspaper Collection).
A new passageway was cut between the hotel on Second Street and the ground-floor restaurant at 25 K. Although the restaurant continued to be known as the Cincinnati, it now was formally the restaurant of the Union Hotel. For the next 18 months, there were no dedicated ads for the Cincinnati. And, ads for the Union Hotel now showed the hotel as having entrances on both Second and K Streets.
Here’s an ad from November 1864:
Ad for “Union Hotel and Restaurant (Formerly Cincinnati Restaurant),” Sacramento Daily Bee, 5 November 1864, p. 2. Source: Newspapers.com
And an ad from February 1865:
Ad for Union Hotel, with 25 K Street added as a second entrance, Sacramento Daily Bee, 17 February 1865, p. 3. Source: Newspapers.com
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IT SEEMS that the “Lansing & Swimley” arrangement had run its course by the end of 1865. In January 1866, the following notice appeared in the Daily Bee:
Notice of dissolution of partnership of James Lansing and William Swimley as proprietors of the Union Hotel — and continuation of the Cincinnati Restaurant under Swimley. The parting appears to have been amicable. Sacramento Daily Bee, 4 January 1866, p. 3. Source: Newspapers.com
But, if ads are anything to go by, the Union Hotel experience sharpened Swimley’s focus on his core brand.
It appears that it was William Swimley himself who came up with the advertising maxim that “Happy and content are Swimley’s boarders.” Here’s Swimley’s original ad from June 1862:
Ad for Cincinnati Restaurant with tagline "Happy and content are Swimley's Boarders," Sacramento Daily Bee, 5 June 1862, p2. Source: Newspapers.com
Here’s Swimley’s “happy and content” ad riff from August 1866:
Ad for Cincinnati Restaurant, Sacramento Daily Bee, 28 August 1866, p.2. Source: Newspapers.com
Alas, 25 K Street suffered a partial — but major — collapse in April 1867.
In an anti-flooding measure, Sacramento raised the grade of its streets. In connection with this, individual buildings had to be elevated to match the new grade — but, the 25 K project didn’t go well.
The 25 K building was quickly repaired. But, initial news coverage of the building’s collapse tells us important things about the relationship between the building and the Union Hotel.
From 15 April 1867 (click on image for the complete article):
Article on partial collapse of Cincinnati Restaurant building at 25 K Street, Sacramento, Sacramento Daily Bee, 15 April 1867, p.3. Source: Newspapers.com
From 16 April 1867 (click on image for the complete article):
Article on partial collapse of Cincinnati Restaurant building at 25 K Street, Sacramento, Sacramento Daily Union, 16 April 1867, p.3. Source: California Digital Newspaper Collection
On April 15th, the Bee tells is that the Union Hotel had “a frontage on Second Street and another on K street“ but that “[s]trictly speaking, the wings were not connected.” The Bee goes on to mention “the nine persons sleeping in the K street portion.”
The next day, the Union notes that “the brick building on K street…was connected at the rear with the rear of the Union Hotel,” and that “[t]he first floor was occupied by Swimley, proprietor of the Cincinnati Restaurant, and the two upper stories by Culver, of the hotel, as lodging rooms.”
On one level, these descriptions could be seen as helping to explain why “Union Hotel annex” long has been used as the modern shorthand for the 25 K Street building — and why, where this building has been dated separately, the date provided has been the arguable date of the main hotel: 1856.
The phrase “Union Hotel annex” tends to suggest a facility that was built, or at least created, by the existing hotel for the purpose of adding capacity.
The Union Hotel was built in 1855, opening in December of that year. But, newspaper ads for a business at 25 K Street — Webster & Co., a shoe and boot manufacturing and importing concern — started running in October 1853, continuing until April 1859.
Ad for Webster & Co. shoe and boot shop at 25 K Street, Sacramento. Sacramento Daily Union, 17 October 1853, p.2. Source: California Digital Newspaper Collection
This suggests that the 25 K Street building pre-dated the Union Hotel — even if it was used as a hotel annex later.
Comes a nugget that brings us much closer to solving the mystery of this building’s origins. The Union Hotel was built on the former site of the Verandah Hotel, which had stood there from early 1853 until late 1855. In October 1853 — the same month that Webster & Co. started running ads for its shop at 25 K Street — the Verandah started running an ad announcing that it had “enlarged [its] accommodations” by adding rooms along K Street, including taking the upper floors of a building adjoining the City Bank / Bank Exchange building that answers to the description of 25 K:
Verandah Hotel ad on “enlarged accommodations” along K Street, Sacramento Daily Union, 24 October 1853, p. 2. Source: California Digital Newspaper Collection
This strongly suggests that 25 K Street was the “Verandah Hotel annex” before it was the Union Hotel annex.
G.L. Tucker & Co., the Verandah’s management, doesn’t mention having built the 25 K Street building — a detail the proprietors surely would not have omitted if the claim was theirs to make.
But, the fact that the top two floors were available for the Verandah Hotel to take — together with the coincidence of the arrival of both the Verandah and Webster & Co. at 25 K in October 1853 — suggests that the building was new in mid 1853, possibly also that 25 K was built “on spec,” with the Verandah Hotel providing a rental guarantee for the top two floors.
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WILLIAM Swimley continued at the helm of the Cincinnati Restaurant, at 25 K Street, throughout the 1860s.
In 1869 and 1870, though, the Cincinnati downsized its newspaper advertising from its familiar display ads to smaller normal-font items — still clever, just more subdued. And probably cheaper.
This turned out to be a sign of the times. In January 1871, the Cincinnati Restaurant was closed — forcibly, it seems.
“Closed Out,” item on the Cincinnati Restaurant, Sacramento Daily Union, 4 January 1871, p. 3. Source: California Digital Newspaper Collection
Into the early 1870s, Sacramento newspapers continued to feature reports of Swimley–catered events.
In 1873, William Swimley’s friends in the California legislature sought to authorize a restaurant / canteen in the basement of the Capitol — with the stipulation that Swimley run it. The effort failed — but, it did show the affection that many in government circles harbored for Swimley.
William Swimley’s own civic spirit was revealed in the leadership roles he played in a variety of official local and state committees and commissions; as a delegate to political party gatherings; and as a frequent election observer.
Swimley also led in the development of the Sacramento Fire Department. He was a member and regular officer of the volunteer Confidence Engine Company No. 1 dating at least as far back as 1858. And, he served as vice president of the fire department in the early 1870s.
When Swimley died in November 1879 — less than 6 weeks before Emperor Norton did — he was buried in Sacramento in a volunteer firefighter’s plot.
Headstone of William F. Swimley in Sacramento City Cemetery. Source: Find A Grave
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BY 1960, the waterfront neighborhood of Sacramento where 25 K Street was located had declined to slum levels of neglect and deterioration, and the old Swimley’s building had lost its top two floors. Here’s what the remnant — then numbered “125” — looked like. (A photograph taken in February 1954 shows the building already having been shortened to one story.)
“Ruin” of 25 K Street building, Sacramento, Calif., in 1960. When this photograph was taken, the last address for the building was 125 K Street. Collection of the Sacramento Public Library. Source: Sacramento Room / SacPL
In connection with the Old Sacramento urban renewal project that was set in motion in the late 1950s, an historical reconstruction of the 25 K Street building was completed in the early 1980s.
Here are a couple of recent views. The current address is 131 K Street.
Detail of photograph of the northwest corner of Second and K Streets, Sacramento, Calif. At left is a 1980s historical reconstruction of the three-story 25 K Street building from 1853. Drone photo by Skyshot, February 2019. Source: Google
Early 1980s historical reconstruction of the 1853 building that housed William Swimley’s Cincinnati Restaurant at 25 K Street, as seen in October 2022. Source: Google
Did the Cincinnati Restaurant, at 25 K Street, become a regular stop for Emperor Norton on his trips to Sacramento between the early 1860s and early 1870s?
Did Emperor Norton and William Swimley become friends?
The next time you’re in Sacramento, swing by the old site of the Cincinnati, at 131 K.
Who knows? You might encounter the ghosts of the Emperor and Swimley, both!
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