RECENT RESEARCH — A newly unearthed photograph showing the north side of the 600 block of Commercial Street, San Francisco, in the aftermath of the earthquake and fires of 1906 reveals, for the first time, visual evidence of the fate of the building that housed the Eureka Lodgings, where Emperor Norton lived from 1864–65 until his death in 1880. Our analysis of the photo sharpens the focus on the identities and locations of the buildings along this stretch — and exactly what each building suffered in 1906. Includes our highly researched new infographic that can be used as a tool for understanding the history of this location.

The Emperor Norton Trust

TO HONOR THE LIFE + ADVANCE THE LEGACY OF JOSHUA ABRAHAM NORTON

RESEARCH • EDUCATION • ADVOCACY

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Emperor Norton's Friend the Butcher

June 20, 2022  /  John Lumea

There are many contemporaneous references to Emperor Norton’s associations with various people and places.

But, the Emperor was a public character. And, the accounts of his engagements with particular people mostly are accounts of conversations and sightings in public places: libraries, lecture halls, churches, saloons, parks, resorts, trains, ferries, streets.

Much rarer are eyewitness reports of Emperor Norton in more intimate settings, such as someone’s home.

Herein, a trace memoir of the Jewish friend who had the Emperor home for dinner on more than one occasion — and documentation of who the friend was.

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categories / Research, Places, Original sources
tags / Abraham Yehl, Josephine Yehl Groeschel, Josephine Groeschel, dinner, butcher, San Francisco directory, U.S. census, business card, Gradwohl & Cohen, Congregation Emanu-El, Temple Emanu-El, Home of Peace, Fanny Yehl, San Francisco Chronicle, 1854, 1858, 1862, 1868, 1915, 1953

© 2025 The Emperor Norton Trust  |  Site design: Alisha Lumea  |  Background: Original image courtesy of Erica Fischer