The Other Side of Bagley Place
Homing in on the Exact Location of Emperor Norton’s Funeral
Fair warning: This get’s a little down in the weeds.
In recent weeks, I've seen a number of items (dating back a few years) stating that Emperor Norton's funeral took place on the site currently occupied by the domed Savings Union Bank building, at the northwest corner of Grant and O'Farrell — an official San Francisco Landmark (No. 132), built in 1910, that in recent years has housed an Emporio Armani store and that today is home to the Museum of Ice Cream.
Savings Union Bank building (1910), San Francisco, in 1912. Northwest corner of Grant and O’Farrell. The building recently housed an Emporio Armani store and now is home to the Museum of Ice Cream. Collection of the Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley. Source: Calisphere.
The temptation to connect this site to the Emperor’s funeral is understandable. The heavy, domed, stone-clad, temple-like edifice that now occupies the site has more than a touch of the funereal. Until very recently, the building had on the O’Farrell Street side medieval-looking, vault-like wooden doors that only added to the effect — and provided a convenient backdrop that could be used for photographs illustrating the funeral claim. That was when the building was an Emporio Armani outpost — practically putting the word “Emperor” right there in the name of the site.
But, the site appears to be 50–100 feet off.
When Emperor Norton died on 8 January 1880, he was brought to the City Coroner and Morgue, at 16 O'Farrell Street.
At this same address was Lockhart & Porter, the undertakers and casket makers that Joseph G. Eastland and his associates at the Pacific Club engaged to provide a casket and take care of most of the funeral arrangements for the Emperor.
It was in Lockhart and Porter's funeral parlor that the funeral took place.
The following photograph shows a view of O'Farrell Street looking west from Market, with the bank building in the center of the photo and a tall, slender building just beyond it.
O'Farrell Street, San Francisco, looking west from Market Street, in 1921. Savings Union Bank building (1910), in the center, with Kohler & Chase building immediately to the west. Collection of the Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley. Source: Calisphere.
This taller building is the 1909 Kohler & Chase building, which still stands across a tiny half-block-long service street from the bank building. This little "spur" running north off of O'Farrell, between the bank and K&C buildings, is called Security Pacific Place. But, in 1909 and in the Emperor's day, it was known as Bagley Place.
The Kohler & Chase building is on the northwest corner of Bagley (now Security Pacific) and O'Farrell. It appears that Emperor Norton's funeral at Lockhart & Porter was in an earlier building on this site — not the bank site.
Here’s the K&C building today.
Kohler and Chase (music company) building (1909). Northwest corner of Bagley Place (now Security Pacific) and O'Farrell, San Francisco. Source: Colliers International.
“Bagley Place” still is inscribed near the base.
Bagley Place inscription on Kohler & Chase building (1909), at northwest corner of Bagley Place (now Security Pacific) and O'Farrell, San Francisco. Source: Screenshot of 2019 Google Street View.
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TODAY, the Kohler & Chase building is at 20–26 O'Farrell. But, the address of the site was different in 1880.
Then, as now, street address numbers got larger as one moved to the west along O'Farrell, away from Market Street.
As in all the San Francisco directories for this period, the city directories for 1879 and 1880 — the period in question — each included a street directory section. These street directories listed O'Farrell as a principal street (in bold type), followed by an east-to-west list of all of O'Farrell's cross streets.
Together with each of these cross streets is listed the corner street address for the north or south side of O'Farrell, or both.
On the north side of O'Farrell, the number for the corner of Bagley Place and O’Farrell was 14.
Detail from O'Farrell Street listing in street directory section of Langley's San Francisco directory, 1879, p. 55. Source: San Francisco Public Library via Internet Archive.
It’s not self-evident from the introduction to the street directory whether 14 would have been the northeast or northwest corner of Bagley and O’Farrell in 1879 and 1880.
The 1887 Sanborn fire map of San Francisco shows the northeast corner as 14 and the northwest corner as 16.
Detail from Sanborn Fire Insurance Map for San Francisco, 1887, showing intersection of Bagley Place and O’Farrell Street. Source: Library of Congress.
Either way, though — whether 14 O’Farrell was the northeast corner of Bagley and O’Farrell or the northwest corner — Emperor's Norton's 10 January 1880 viewing and funeral at 16 O'Farrell Street took place west of Bagley Place — not east of Bagley (Security Pacific), where the bank building now stands.
Here’s how we now have 16 O’Farrell pinned on our Emperor Norton Map of the World.
Detail from Emperor Norton Map of the World. For live, interactive map, click here, then click on pin for details. Source: The Emperor Norton Trust.
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A QUICK footnote on the “post-history” of 16 O’Farrell Street:
Based on the San Francisco directories of the period, the city coroner and morgue, and Lockhart & Porter undertakers, were the only tenants of 16 O'Farrell at the time of Emperor Norton's death in 1880.
By 1882, the coroner and morgue had moved to the 600 block of Sacramento. And, according to several notices that William H. Porter had published in the San Francisco Chronicle in May 1884, Porter & Co. (successor to Lockhart & Porter) had moved by that time to new digs at 116 Eddy.
So, by the mid 1880s, 16 O'Farrell had a completely different use mix.
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To learn much more about Lockhart & Porter undertakers and casket makers, and about this firm’s role in Emperor Norton’s funeral, see our September 2019 article here.
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