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

Filtering by Category: Media coverage

Author & Journalist Gary Kamiya Cites Emperor Norton Trust in Correction on "Frisco"

In the Trivia Time feature that accompanied his 19 September 2020 history column for the San Francisco Chronicle, historian Gary Kamiya stated that Emperor Norton imposed a $25 fine for using the word “Frisco.”

In the Trivia Time that ran with his next column, published on 3 October 2020, Kamiya issued a correction and cited Emperor Norton Trust founder John Lumea as the authority for saying that “no primary documents have been found to support this claim.”

Read More

Mother Jones "Link-Checks" Campaign in History of "Frisco"

It stands to reason that The Emperor’s Bridge Campaign* is one of the few organizations or individuals to be actively researching the question of whether Emperor Norton wrote the anti-"Frisco” proclamation so often attributed to him. So it was gratifying, a couple of days ago, to have our efforts acknowledged by the respected San Francisco-based magazine Mother Jones.

* In December 2019, The Emperor's Bridge Campaign adopted a new name: The Emperor Norton Trust.

Read More

Wall Street Journal: Campaign Has "Boldest Efforts to Honor the Emperor"

The Wall Street Journal is up today with a front-page article that looks at the coalescence, in recent years, of something approaching a Bay Area "movement" to celebrate Emperor Norton. The Journal features The Emperor's Bridge Campaign in its profile, and writes that the Campaign brings together "the boldest efforts to honor the emperor."

Read More

The Bold Italic Features Our Upcoming Tannenbaum Toast

The widely read San Francisco-focused Web site The Bold Italic is spotlighting our upcoming holiday drinks party in its curated events listings for this week. The site lists The First Annual Tannenbaum Toast as one of 40 things to do in San Francisco this week — and one of 24 to do in the city this coming weekend.

Read More

Campaign a Sign of Civic Health, Says Essayist

Our friend, Julian Lozos, flags a recent at San Francisco-focused online magazine The Bold Italic, in which writer Sara Brody cites our movement, specifically, as one healthy indicator that — despite the doomsday predictions of some who are wringing their hands the hardest over San Francisco's latest gentrification wave — San Francisco is not on the verge of losing its soul.

Read More

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