The very street where Emperor Norton lived in the late 1800s was recently renamed Emperor Norton Place, and its official dedication Sunday drew the Doggie Diner heads and a slew of local celebrities.
Fun fact: Sunday was an SF holiday known as Empire Day, the 164th anniversary of the day SF’s beloved foppish historical figure Emperor Norton walked into the offices of the San Francisco Daily Evening Bulletin and declared himself “Emperor of these United States.” Even more fun fact: That newspaper clipping, seen below, started with the words “The world is full of queer people.”
The block on which Emperor Norton lived, the 600 block of Chinatown’s Commercial Street, was honorarily renamed Emperor Norton Place in April of this year, and the street sign itself was installed in May. But the street name was officially dedicated on Sunday, in a raucous ceremony that packed that renamed street with nearly 300 Emperor Joshua Norton devotees.
There was more San Francisco than San Francisco could handle at the event, with Doggie Diner heads trotted out, impersonators of the famed Twins of SF Marian and Vivian Brown, and the San Francisco Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band.
“What are we doing here with three Doggie Diner heads?,” the district’s supervisor Aaron Peskin told the crowd. “What is going on here? I was ruminating on that. And I know that Emperor Norton has been part of our lore for a long time.”
“Here was this guy who was marginally housed, who made a fortune and lost it all, but was prophetic,” Peskin added. “And I think he was San Francisco's original zany character. Emperor Norton embodied what we now call ‘San Francisco values.’”
Famed Emperor Norton impersonator and tour guide Joseph Amster was naturally on hand, and explained that Emperor Norton was more than just a lovable eccentric, but also a champion for religious tolerance and racial justice. “Why do we honor Emperor Norton?” Amster asked the crowd. “Because his legacy encompasses the values that make San Francisco so great: inclusion, acceptance, justice for the downtrodden, and reinvention. These are values that are in our city’s DNA.”
The building at which Norton lived, from either 1864 or 1865 until he died in January 1880, was a residential hotel known as Eureka Lodgings. It did not survive the 1906 earthquake. But the 650-652 Commercial Street address is commemorated with a stencil by artist Misstencil.
And Misstencil was also there Sunday, custom-making Emperor Norton hats, and showing off her new Emperor Norton installation.
“I only slept two hours in the last 48 hours,” she said of her weekend designing and installing the work.
And Sunday being Rosh Hashanah, you’d better believe that Emperor Norton’s Jewish heritage was honored with apples and honey.
People were making money — literally — afterwards at the SF Historical Society, at a new exhibit that features some of Norton’s self-produced currency, handwritten notes, and vintage photographs of the Emperor.
Check these youngsters minting their own coins too, as the Historical Society had a coin-making machine, whose results can be seen below.
The now-renamed Emperor Norton Place is the 600 block of Commercial Street, between Montgomery and Kearny streets, just north of Sacramento Street.
Related: Emperor Norton Paid Homage With Interactive Map of His Life [SFist]
Images: Joe Kukura. SFist
