Supporting Player in A Previously Overlooked Photograph

Other Eyewitness Buildings Also on View

SHORTLY AFTER Emperor Norton died on the southeast corner of California and Dupont Streets, San Francisco, at around 8:15 p.m. on 8 January 1880, he was brought six blocks south to the City Morgue, at 16 O’Farrell Street.

This is where the Emperor’s body was prepared for burial by Lockhart & Porter undertakers, whose premises were in the same building.

It’s where an estimated 10,000 people came to view Emperor Norton one last time in the morning and early afternoon of January 10.

It’s where the Emperor’s funeral was held at around 2:30 p.m. that day.

And it’s where the Emperor’s rosewood-casketed remains were loaded onto a carriage for their journey to the Masonic Cemetery.

In 2021, I was able to establish — contrary to conventional wisdom that placed 16 O’Farrell on the northeast corner of O’Farrell Street and Bagley Place, where the domed Savings Union Bank building of 1910 stands today — that 16 O’Farrell was on the northwest corner of O’Farrell and Bagley.

[Note: “Bagley Place” is the historic street name, in use from c.1858 until 1910, for the “spur” running north from O’Farrell Street near Market Street. Today, this is known as “Security Pacific Place.” The section of Dupont Street from O’Farrell Street north to Bush Street was renamed Grant Avenue in 1886.]

**Detail of San Francisco map showing the former location (blue pin) of 16 O’Farrell Street, at the northwest corner of O’Farrell Street and Bagley Place (now known as Security Pacific Place).** Source: Emperor Norton Map of the World

To illustrate the location, I used the following 1921 photograph looking west down O’Farrell Street from Market and Grant (formerly Dupont) and showing the 1909 Kohler & Chase building on the former site of 16 O’Farrell. This building still holds down the northwest corner of O’Farrell and Bagley.

**O'Farrell Street, San Francisco, looking west from Market Street, in 1921.** Savings Union Bank building (1910), in the center, with Kohler & Chase building (1909) immediately to the west. Collection of the Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley. Source: Calisphere.

In fact, all of the buildings shown here that are on — or in the immediate vicinity of — the former 16 O’Farrell site were constructed after the earthquake and fires of April 1906.

Which is to say: This photo doesn’t provide any meaningful sense of the urban fabric that existed here on the day of Emperor Norton’s funeral: 10 January 1880.

A photograph showing those buildings — specifically, the building at 16 O’Farrell that housed the City Morgue; the office of the City Coroner; and Lockhart & Porter undertakers — has remained elusive.

Until now.

Peeping out from the left edge of the 1921 photo above is the second Phelan Building, which is located on the triangular lot bordered by Market, Grant (formerly Dupont), and O’Farrell. This was built in 1908 to replace the first Phelan Building, a casualty of 1906 that was constructed in 1881, the year after Emperor Norton died.

Here’s a view of the same area taken at least 30 years earlier than the 1921 photo, showing the 1881 Phelan Building looking to the west along Market (left) and O’Farrell (right). It appears the photo was taken between 1886 and 1891. (Click the image to open a zoomable 6700 x 5300 view.)

**View of first Phelan Building (1881), San Francisco, from across Market Street, looking west on O’Farrell Street** and showing the intersect of O’Farrell and Bagley Place, c.1886–1889. Source: San Francisco Public Library

The Phelan building — on a lot the pre-imperial Joshua Norton briefly had owned in 1852 — had yet to be constructed when Emperor Norton died in January 1880.

But, several of the buildings shown across O’Farrell Street in this photo are the ones that were there on the Emperor’s funeral day. That includes 16 O’Farrell.

Here’s a closer look:

The focus here is on the cluster of three frame buildings the north side of O’Farrell Street west of Bagley Place that are on and nearest the northwest corner of O’Farrell and Bagley. Starting furthest from the corner and moving west to east…

20 O’Farrell

This three-story building was home to the piano builder and dealer Benjamin Curtaz (1833–1894), who arrived at 20 O’Farrell in 1869 and remained in business at this location until his death in 1894. Curtaz was a longtime agent for Chickering pianos, whose sign is visible at the top of the building.

18 O’Farrell

This two-story building had apartments upstairs and a rotating cast of retailers at the street level.

16 O’Farrell

Lockhart & Porter undertakers and casket makers is first listed at 16 O’Farrell in the San Francisco directory of 1876. But, Lockhart & Porter had moved the undertaking side of their business here by September 1875.

Residential directory listings for 16 O’Farrell begin in 1868.

The business section of the 1873 directory lists Mrs. B. Gillony as running a “Boarding House” from here.

The 1874 directory has Mrs. Delia McDoll and Mrs. D. McDowell — pretty obviously the same person — offering “furnished rooms” at 16 O’Farrell (Mrs. Gillony is not listed), with the business section listing both names at 16 O’Farrell under “Lodgings.”

In 1875, the twin “D. McD’s” have merged into “Mrs. Delia McDowell” — still offering “furnished rooms” at 16 O’Farrell and now with a solitary business listing under “Lodgings.”

Further supporting the conclusion that 16 O’Farrell was a lodging house during this period, the San Francisco Chronicle frequently ran residential rental ads for this address in 1874 and 1875.

But, by the summer of 1875, Mrs. McDowell was preparing to take her landladying enterprise elsewhere (the 1876 directory has her offering furnished rooms on Jessie Street).

On 1 August 1875, the Daily Morning Call carried the following ad for the next day’s auction of ten rooms’ worth of furnishings from 16 O’Farrell’s days as a lodging house:

Six weeks later, the San Francisco Daily Evening Post ran Lockhart & Porter’s ad announcing that they “have removed” to 16 O’Farrell Street:

**Lockhart & Porter ad announcing the firm’s move to 16 O’Farrell Street,** San Francisco *Daily Evening Post*, 14 September 1875, p. 3. Source: Genealogy Bank

By early November 1875, notices for funerals at Lockhart & Porter’s 16 O’Farrell location had begun appearing in local newspapers:

**Notice for funeral of Edward C. Elliott at Lockhart & Porters, 16 O’Farrell Street,** *San Francisco Chronicle*, 4 November 1875, p. 4. Source: Newspapers.com

When the 1876 San Francisco directory was published in April of that year, Lockhart and Porter was the only tenant of 16 O’Farrell.

Less than two years later, at the beginning of 1878, the newly elected San Francisco Coroner, Levi L. Dorr (1840–1934), moved the City Morgue from 651 Sacramento — where it had been since 1875 — to 16 O’Farrell, and moved his own public office here shortly thereafter. (In a blunt editorial, the San Francisco Chronicle suggested that this arrangement smacked of self-dealing.)

George A. Lockhart (1834–1888) had moved to San Francisco from East Cambridge, Mass., in 1862 or 1863. In late 1881, Lockhart returned to Cambridge, leaving William H. Porter (c.1830s–1890) to run the undertaking business under his own name.

In 1882, the City Coroner’s office and the City Morgue moved back to Sacramento Street — very near to where they had before moving to O’Farrell in 1878.

But — comes a crucial footnote to our infographic…

William Porter continued at 16 O’Farrell for another couple of years.

Porter is listed at 16 O’Farrell in the San Francisco directory of 1883. And: Newspaper funeral notices and Porter’s own business ads continue to show him at this address though March 1884.

By May 1884, William Porter had moved his business to 116 Eddy, where it remained until his death eight years later.

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TWO THINGS that happened along this stretch of O’Farrell Street after 1884 are key clues that help establish c.1886–89 as the most likely date of the photograph that is basis for the infographic above.

The first relates to a building that had yet to appear.

Note that the large cupola-topped Shiels Building at 32 O’Farrell and the 3-story Benjamin Curtaz building to the east, at 20 O’Farrell, are separated by one-story structures.

In April 1891, Kohler & Chase announced that it had moved to its “new building” at 26–30 O’Farrell.

This 5-story building rose immediately next door to the east of the Shiels Building.

This project was announced in October 1889:

**Excerpt from article, “Real Estate: Several Important Business Blocks Soon to Be Erected,”** *Daily Alta California*, 24 October 1889, p. 1. Source: California Digital Newspaper Collection

The lot was cleared for construction by early January 1890:

**Excerpt from article, “House and Lot: Heavy Business in Real Estate,”** *San Francisco Chronicle,* 10 January 1890, p. 5. Source: Newspapers.com

So: Although the title of the infographic above references 1891, the year the new Kohler and Chase building opened for business, as the last possible year when the photograph was taken, it’s most likely — given that the photo shows no evidence of site clearance or construction at this location — that the photo was taken no later than December 1889.

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A SECOND CLUE to the date of our photograph is a shift in the tenancy of 16 O’Farrell Street.

The San Francisco directory of 1884 — published in April of that year — carries the earliest listing for a saloon at 16 O’Farrell run by business partners John Plagemann and George Bernhard. It was called The Rendezvous.

The saloon is included in the “late” listing of “Additions, Changes, Removals, Etc.” tucked into the front of the directory — suggesting that Plagemann and Bernhard may have arrived at 16 O’Farrell no more than a couple of months before publication of the directory and very shortly after William H. Porter left the building earlier in 1884.

Plagemann and Bernhard are listed as partners in The Rendezvous in the 1885 and 1886 directories. But the 1887 directory — published in May of that year — shows that George Bernhard had launched out on his own with a saloon at 409 California.

Bernhard’s absence from the late listing of 1887 suggests that his new saloon may have been in operation for some months.

Plagemann continued as the proprietor of The Rendezvous at 16 O’Farrell until 1893.

Note that the sign for The Rendezvous that appears in the photograph appears to feature only John Plagemann’s name.

Taken together with the traces of George Bernhard’s departure from 16 O’Farrell, this visual cue suggests that the photograph was taken no earlier than late 1886.

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THE OCCASION for John Plagemann to leave 16 O’Farrell was that, in 1893, Benjamin Curtaz — who by then owned the buildings at 16 and 18, as well as his longtime location at 20 — had these three buildings demolished and built in their place a new 6-story brick-and-stone building that would become the new northwest corner of O’Farrell and Bagley and have the address 16–20 O’Farrell Street.

The project was announced in March 1893.

**Excerpt from article, “House and Lot: A Feeling of Satisfaction General,”** *San Francisco Chronicle*, 16 March 1893, p. 9. Source: Newspapers.com

The new Curtaz Building was completed by the end of 1893. It is seen (highlighted in orange) in the following 1901 view looking west along O’Farrell Street from the Spreckels (Call) Building, across Market (click on the photo to open an unhighlighted version).

In this photo, the top of the 1891 Kohler & Chase Building is visible just to the west of (i.e., “above”) the Curtaz Building. (A close-up detail of the Curtaz Building is visible on the far right side of the c.1905 photograph of the Kohler & Chase Building, above.)

Additional views of the Curtaz Building are here and here.

**View from the top of the Spreckels (Call) Building, San Francisco, looking southwest on Market Street and west on O’Farrell Street, 1901.** The Phelan Building (1881) is in the foreground, with the Curtaz Building (1893; highlighted in orange) across O’Farrell at the northwest corner of O’Farrell and Bagley Place. Source: Bancroft Library

As to the previous 16 O’Farrell — consider…

the steady year-to-year residential occupancy from 1868 to 1875
the quick 6-week turnaround from the auction of furnishings from the lodging house here to the arrival of Lockhart & Porter undertakers
the residency of Lockhart & Porter and the successor firm of William H. Porter from 1875 to 1884 — and the residency of the City Coroner and City Morgue here from 1878 to 1882
the second quick turnaround from William Porter’s early 1884 exit to the early 1884 arrival of The Rendezvous saloon — and the continued residence of the saloon until 1893

This 25-year chronology points to the persistence of a single building at 16 O’Farrell during the 1868–93 period and to the conclusion that the building at the northwest corner of O’Farrell Street and Bagley Place, in our study photograph — the building with the Rendezvous sign — is the same building where San Francisco said farewell to Emperor Norton on 10 January 1880.

:: :: ::

JUST VISIBLE in our photograph are the two buildings that occupied the north front of O’Farrell Street EAST of Bagley Place, between Bagley and Dupont.

It’s worth noting these, since it appears that at least one of the buildings — and likely both — were standing here on the day of Emperor Norton’s funeral.

The three-story building that our photograph shows on the northeast corner of O’Farrell and Bagley appears to be the same one that is visible as the home of the Cafe Odeon in the following photo from immediately after the earthquake of April 1906.

The Odeon had been here since 1900. Peeping in from the left side of this photo is the 1893 Curtaz Building on the northwest corner.

Details about the site history of the northeast corner are elusive so far. But, San Francisco directories show persistent listings for commercial, government, and residential tenants on this site at 8, 10, 12, or 14 O’Farrell from 1864 until 1906.

The gravitation of new tenants to the northeast corner of O’Farrell and Bagley in 1864 was no accident. In April of that year, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed the following resolution ordering paving, curbs, sidewalks, and crosswalks at this intersection — showing that City elders saw the potential of the intersection as a site for urban development.

**San Francisco Board of Supervisors Resolution of Intention No. 3327 ordering street work, including paving, curbs, sidewalks, and crosswalks at O’Farrell Street and Bagley Place,** *Daily Alta California*, 26 April 1864, p. 6. Source: California Digital Newspaper Collection

In any case, the building shown at this corner in our c.1886–1889 photograph and in the photograph from 1906 appears to have been built well before the Emperor’s funeral across Bagley Street in January 1880.

It’s not impossible that the building is from 1864.

:: :: ::

THE OTHER BUILDING on the north side of this mini-block of O’Farrell Street between Bagley Place and Dupont Street — the four-story building seen next door to the east of the 8–14 O’Farrell building, in the post-earthquake photo above — is more evidently documented.

This building was on the northwest corner of Dupont and O’Farrell. The following photograph shows the building about a decade after Emperor Norton’s death (by which time this section of Dupont had been renamed Grant Avenue). The dentist George W. Leek’s signage is prominent on the O’Farrell-facing corner of the building. San Francisco directories first list Leek in the building, at 6 O’Farrell, in 1888. The tailor Sanders & Johnson’s sign is visible on the Phelan Building at far left. Directories first list Sanders & Johnson here in 1889 and show that George Leek had moved into the new Curtaz Building by 1894. This dates the photo to c.1889–93.

**View of the northwest corner of Grant Avenue (former Dupont Street) and O’Farrell Street, San Francisco, looking north along Grant from Market Street, c.1889–1893.** Source: San Francisco Public Library

Two factors get us closer to the date of the building at the northwest corner of Dupont (Grant) and O’Farrell. The first is Dupont Street.

A project to widen the lower portion of Dupont, between Market and Bush — a stretch that includes O’Farrell — was completed in late 1877. One corroborating illustration is the following Board of Supervisors resolution in November 1877 awarding a contract for new paving, curbs, and sidewalks on Dupont between O’Farrell and Geary. (In June 1877, the Supervisors had renamed the widened section of Dupont as “Fleet Street,” after one of their own members, Fleet F. Strother. The state legislature revoked this naming and restored “Dupont” six months later, in December 1877. But, in the second half of 1877, city government and newspaper reports referenced “Fleet” rather than “Dupont.”

The widening was done entirely on the west side of Dupont. With rare exceptions like the 1875 Hammam bath house, on the west side of Dupont between O’Farrell and Geary — which was sufficiently set back from the street to accommodate the widening…

…buildings on the west side of the street had to be demolished. The demolition cost for each building was fronted by the property owner, who was reimbursed from a public fund created by a City bond sale — with the reimbursement amount based on the newly assessed (usually higher) post-widening value of the property.

This was the situation at the northwest corner of Dupont and O’Farrell, meaning: Any build that stood here in January 1880 was constructed in 1877 or later.

Which leads us to the second factor in dating this building: bay windows.

Visible in the c.1889–93 photograph above are several verticals of bay windows on this corner. The 1887 Sanborn fire insurance map for San Francisco enables us to count them. There are seven: three on each side and one on the corner.

**Detail of Sanborn Fire Insurance Map for San Francisco, Sanborn Map Company, 1887, vol. 1,** showing northwest corner of Grant Avenue (formerly Dupont Street) and O’Farrell Street. Source: Library of Congress

In the 1860s and ‘70s, before the later development of San Francisco building codes that established standards for bay windows, any planning-stage construction project proposing a bay window(s) over a public sidewalk was required to secure a dedicated Board of Supervisors resolution approving the window(s).

In August 1877, the Board passed the following resolution granting permission for “Richard Ivers, M. Schwamm, and John Morgan to construct and maintain seven bay windows on buildings [sic] to be erected on the northwest corner of O’Farrell and Fleet [Dupont] Streets….”

**San Francisco Board of Supervisors Resolution No. ⸺ (New Series) approving seven bay windows on building to b constructed at the northwest corner of O’Farrell and Fleet (Dupont) Streets,** *San Francisco Examiner, 14 August 1877, p.* 2. Source: Newspapers.com

This is our building. It carried addresses of 2, 4, and 6 O’Farrell Street on the south side and 1, 3, 5, 7, and 9 Dupont Street on the east. (Next door to the north on Dupont Street was the Hammam bath house at 11 Dupont).

The building was completed by March 1878, when a certain H.G. Cory late that month exhibited what he claimed was a Siamese elk with seven legs at 9 Dupont. (Click image for complete article.)

A few days later, “Madame” Blanche Oulif began running ads for what appears to have been her first millinery showing at her new shop, The Opera, at 1 Dupont.

Oulif maintained her millinery shop here until 1887. Here’s a view of it in 1880:

But the first tenant in the building — or so he claimed in the following 11 March 1878 ad announcing that his fine women’s and children’s underwear shop had moved to 3 Dupont — was Morris Lichtenstein.

**Ad announcing move of Morris Lichtenstein’s fine underwear shop to 3 Dupont Street,** *San Francisco Chronicle*, 11 March 1878, p. 3. Source: Newspapers.com

:: :: ::

IT STANDS to reason that, once commercial tenants like the dentist George Leek started mounting billboards to the corner of the building at the northwest corner of Dupont and O’Farrell, such boards remained a feature.

Those on their way to view Emperor Norton’s body or attend his funeral on 10 January 1880 — less than two years after the building was completed — and approaching 16 O’Farrell from locations along, or east of, the Dupont axis might have seen the building looking more like this:

The 1878 building was a harbinger of the more genteel, ornate, and architecturally ambitious structures that already were seen elsewhere in San Francisco — but that were not yet common in this particular quarter.

Rounding west onto O’Farrell, mourners would have passed, to their left — where the first Phelan Building would rise 18 months later…

the 1 O’Farrell Street back entrance to the Cohnreich Bros. shore store, which fronted on 804–806 Market;
a 2- or 3-story boarding house a little further down; and, between these two…
James C. Sellers whiteners (whitewashers) and plasterers, whose one-story shop at 3 O’Farrell — with signage painted on the east side of the boarding house next door — is visible in the background of the photo (above) of Blanche Oulif’s millinery shop across the street at 1 Dupont:

Up on the right, at the northwest corner of O’Farrell Street and Bagley Place, was the cluster of equally utilitarian and shambly 2- and 3-story wood-frame buildings that included 16 O’Farrell, on the corner, where Emperor Norton lay in state.

Although still in use — and in some cases remaining in use for another decade or even two — these obsolete buildings on the eastern end of O’Farrell Street were vestiges of an 1860s–70s San Francisco that was quickly passing away and that soon would be replaced by buildings reflecting a grander vision written in brick and stone rather than in wood.

The Emperor Norton Trust

Glimpsing 16 O’Farrell: The Building Where 10,000 Paid Their Last Respects to the Emperor Norton

Supporting Player in A Previously Overlooked Photograph

Other Eyewitness Buildings Also on View

20 O’Farrell

18 O’Farrell

16 O’Farrell