Emperor Norton on the Crest of the Farmers Market Wave
During San Francisco’s Vegetable Market Crisis of 1873, the Emperor Proposed That the Market Move to a New Purpose-Built Public Square That Would Be Convenient for Farmers and Consumers — And Big Enough to Give the Market Room to Grow
BY LATE 1873, San Francisco was five or six years deep into a public dispute about whether the vegetable market that long had set up on Sansome Street between Clay and Washington should be allowed to stay there — and, if not, where it should go.
The market was run by Italian farmers. And, although there were other produce farmers in San Francisco — French, Chinese — it was the Italians who had the lion’s share of “the market,” in economic terms.
A 4 November 1873 editorial in the Daily Alta explained the current state of play:
Editorial, “The Vegetable Market Question,” Daily Alta California, 4 November 1873, p. 2. Source: California Digital Newspaper Collection
The Alta wrote:
[O]ut of all the land that once belonged to this municipality, not one lot, unless it be a public square, remains which might be devoted to the purpose of a public market — one of the most necessary of all public institutions — [and] there is no one thing that this city so much needs as a free City Market….Our city needs such an institution, and should have one.
A couple of days later, on 6 November 1873, the San Francisco Daily Evening Bulletin ran an explainer, “The Vegetable Row,” that provided more details on the developments that led to the crisis.
In 1871, a new market building was constructed on Market Street between Sixth and Seventh — and, the Board of Supervisors passed an ordinance allowing farmers to set up stands along that stretch of Market.
But, few of the Italian produce farmers moved to the new location — even after the Board of Supervisors in July 1873 finally ordered them stop using Sansome Street.
This was for a number of reasons, according to the Bulletin:
In the late 1860s, there was a push from businesses — mostly clothing and dry goods shops and stands — along the Sansome corridor for the Sansome vegetable market to move elsewhere. But, as these businesses migrated to other neighborhoods, the resistance to the vegetable market faded. Although there still were those who thought it preferable that the vegetable market not be located in a public street, the Sansome market came to be regarded as part of “the way things are,” and there was little appetite — so to speak — to change that.
The Sansome market was more convenient for both farmers and consumers. For one, Sansome was more protected and less trafficked than Market, which was “an open, windy street, exposed to the storms of winter, and…a thoroughfare, which ought not to be blocked up” — and, the market itself was easier to reach than the new Market Street building. Also, the Sansome location was closer to the restaurants and hotels that provided a significant amount of the farmers’ business.
The push in 1873 for the Italian produce market to leave Sansome Street was coming not from the farmers themselves or from neighboring businesses along Sansome — but from other interests.
Here’s the Bulletin article:
Article, “The Vegetable Row,” San Francisco Daily Evening Bulletin, 6 November 1873, p. 1. Source: Genealogy Bank
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A FEW DAYS BEFORE the Alta and the Bulletin weighed in on the vegetable market affair, the Emperor Norton issued the following Proclamation, which appeared in The Pacific Appeal on 1 November 1873:
Proclamation of Emperor Norton creating a new public square for a produce market, Pacific Appeal, 1 November 1873, p. 2. Source: California Digital Newspaper Collection
ln order to arrange the controversy existing among the citizens regarding the fruit and vegetable market, and as, in our opinion, the street where it is at present located is too narrow and altogether unsuited to the wants of the City of San Francisco, now, therefore, we, Norton I. Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico, do hereby decree that the block bounded by Merchant and Clay, Sansome and Battery streets, be converted into an open square, to be used as a stand for market wagons; and we further decree that the Board of Supervisors make an appraisement of the property condemned, and award such damages to the owners as may be just and proper.
Seeking to balance public and private interests, the Emperor:
Sympathizes with the desire for a produce market that does not occupy a public street — so, he moves the market to its own off-street quarter.
Keeps the produce market as close as possible to where it already was.
Creates a contained “anchor block” that can be expanded upon later.
Perhaps most important: Emperor Norton anticipates the Daily Alta’s call for a truly public market on public land.
Under the Emperor’s proposal, the City would have compensated the owners of property on land envisioned for a public square.
And, the new market would have been launched with little private expense — as there was no call for the construction of a new building.
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THE ITALIAN FARMERS did build a new produce market; it opened in October 1874.
The market included one element of what Emperor Norton envisioned: It was in its own quarter — off of a public street.
It was further afield from the original Sansome market than the Emperor specified: two blocks to the east and two to the north of the original market, in a block bounded by Front, Davis, Pacific, and Clark — roughly the “top half” of the current Sydney G. Walton Square. (Clark was a street mid-block between Pacific and Jackson Streets.)
And — again, unlike what Emperor Norton proclaimed — it entailed the private construction of a new building.
Here’s how the Daily Alta described the new produce market:
Article, “The Vegetable Market,” Daily Alta California, 4 October 1874, p. 1. Source: California Digital Newspaper Collection
Here’s how the Front Street entrance of the market looked in the 1910s:
Front Street entrance to the Colombo Market, 1910s, “Colombo Market Arch” (article), Found SF. Source: Found SF
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TODAY, the flagship farmers market in San Francisco is at the foot of the clock tower of the Ferry Building.
The term “farmers market” had yet to arrive in 1873.
But, it was, in effect, a public farmers market that Emperor Norton was seeking to institutionalize with his Proclamation of November 1873.
This one of many reasons why the clock tower that rises above the Ferry Building farmers market should be named EMPEROR NORTON TOWER.
2024 is the 175th anniversary of Joshua Norton’s arrival in San Francisco in 1849.
What a wonderful opportunity to name the Ferry Building clock tower for the Emp!
See our proposal at
EmperorNortonTower.org
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