Early 1950s Push to Find a Home for Storied But Snubbed Emperor Norton Plaque
Plaque Has Just Taken Up Its Fourth Residency in 92 Years
WE’VE REHEARSED the saga many times…
The Golden Gate International Exposition, held on Treasure Island, San Francisco, in 1939 and 1940, had as a major part of its commemorative focus the November 1936 opening of the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge — what, in these parts, we call the Emperor Norton Bridge.
In connection with the opening of the fair, local members of the recently reinvigorated fraternity of E Clampus Vitus — a group that holds Emperor Norton as a patron saint — commissioned and dedicated a bronze plaque honoring the Emperor for setting out the original vision for this bridge. The dedication of the “Pause, Traveler” plaque was held on 25 February 1939 — and held with great fanfare — near the entrance to the recently opened Transbay Terminal, which, as its name suggests, started out as the San Francisco terminus for trains crossing the bridge from Oakland.
The Clampers, as they are known, hoped to be able to install the plaque at the Terminal. But, the California Toll Bridge Authority balked on the idea — in part, because the Authority didn’t believe that the Clampers had the historical goods connecting Emperor Norton to the bridge.
The Bridge Authority was right. What the plaque formally commemorates is what later was recognized as a hoax decree published by the Oakland Daily News in August 1869. The “decree” falsely placed in the Emperor’s pen the idea of bridge veering absurdly from Oakland to the Farallon Islands via Yerba Buena Island and Sausalito — sidestepping San Francisco altogether!
The following UPI item from June 1940 gets its wires crossed about the date of Emperor Norton’s death. (Although it had been 60 years since the Emperor had died on 8 January 1880, the anniversary was of the Emperor’s 30 June 1934 reburial in Woodlawn cemetery.) But, the reference to “a renewed campaign for permission to hang a bronze plaque” makes it clear that, 16 months after the plaque’s dedication in February 1939, the Bridge Authority had not moved off of its original position.
“‘Emperor Norton’ Will Be Honored Today on Anniversary of Death,” Santa Rosa Press Democrat, 29 June 1940, p. 1. Source: Newspapers.com
The “all dressed up with no place to go” plaque was not installed anywhere until the Clampers were able to get it placed at the Cliff House in February 1955 — a full 16 years after the original dedication.
At the Cliff House the plaque remained until it was — finally — moved to the Transbay Terminal in November 1986, on the occasion of the Bay Bridge’s 50th anniversary.
In 2010, with preparations underway to demolish the 70-year-old Terminal, the plaque was placed in storage. Following a restoration of the plaque in 2018 and unforeseen delays in the permanent opening of the Terminal’s replacement, the plaque was installed at the new Transbay Transit Center in September 2019.
Alas, the plaque was vandalized a year later and had to be removed for its own good.
A couple of weeks ago, the plaque got a new home — more about which, shortly.
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ACCORDING to E Clampus Vitus documents, it was World War II that took the steam out of the effort to find a long-term home for the Emperor Norton plaque that the order had dedicated in 1939.
No doubt, this is true. But, plenty of historical plaques were installed during the war that were not specifically related to the war. And: The first installation of the Emperor Norton plaque, at the Cliff House, took place in 1955 — a decade after the end of the war.
So, the 16-year delay in finding a home for this plaque can’t be chalked up solely to World War II.
Recently, I stumbled across a couple of news accounts showing that, after the war, the Clampers were re-upping their effort to find a “taker” for their Norton plaque at least as early as 1950.
Here’s an account from the Oakland Tribune of 23 July 1950:
“E Clampus Vitus Brethren to Honor Emperor Norton,” Oakland Tribune, 23 July 1950, p. 13. See rest of the article here. Source: Newspapers.com
The tin horn of the Clampers, whose tidewater chapter includes many of the intellectual elite of San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley, San Jose and way points, will summon the faithful to do honor to Emperor Norton the First — eleven years late.
But, before Noble Grand Humbug Eric Falconer of Berkeley can call the next "Clampconvention" of Yerba Buena Chapter, he must relocate a bronze plaque which was cast in 1939 to honor Joshua Norton I, Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico….
"Something got fouled up, and we were denied permission to place the plaque in the terminal," Falconer said today. "One of our members, Lee Stopple, has the bronze marker, and I think I will run it down and have it tacked to a building near Commercial and Montgomery Streets, which, we are told, was Norton's hangout."
Apparently, this 1950 “effort” was less Plan than Preamble. Nothing seems to have come of it.
It’s only fair to note that the Clampers jumped the gun in 1939, too. Typically, a plaque — any plaque — is dedicated only once all the approvals have been secured and the plaque itself is mounted in the approved location. But, the press photograph of the 1939 Emperor Norton plaque dedication shows the plaque precariously propped against the bottom of a flagpole. More of a prededication.
In May 1953, the Downieville chapter of the Clampers — north-northeast of Sacramento — staked its own claim to the Norton plaque.
“Place for Plaque,” Oakland Tribune, 31 May 1953, p. M1 (The Knave, p. 1). Source: Newspapers.com
Downieville wants the bronze plaque which was dedicated by E Clampus Vitus in 1939 to "Norton the First." The decision followed publication of an article in Fortnight [magazine], April 27, wherein it stated that Eric A. Falconer, grand noble humbug of the Ancient and Honorable Order of E Clampus Vitus, San Francisco Chapter, and his order have "been looking for a likely place to hang old Norton's plaque, but stuffy keepers of public buildings view dimly the impractical episode of Emperor Norton and refuse sanctuary to his memory."
No doubt, the “San Francisco Chapter,” Yerba Buena No. 1, wished to keep the plaque in San Francisco, if at all possible.
It probably is worth noting that, in May 1953, the San Francisco Chronicle was publishing clues for its inaugural Emperor Norton Treasure Hunt. This first of nine such Hunts between 1953 and 1962 ushered in a nearly-decade-long period of High Norton Romanticism in San Francisco.
Less than two years later, in February 1955, the plaque went up at the Cliff House — and stayed there for the next 31 years.
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GUESS THE WHITNEY BROTHERS, George and Leo — owners of the Cliff House in 1955 — were not “stuffy keepers.”
Surely, that designation also would not apply to Owen Molloy, the proprietor of Molloy’s Tavern, in Colma, Calif.
That’s where the Clampers dedicated the Norton plaque — for a fifth time — on 26 June 2021.
To view the plaque, walk in the front door of the tavern, at 1655 Mission Road. As soon as you cross the threshold, turn to your left. Take a few steps, and walk through the doorway to the large room directly in front of you. That’s where you’ll find it.
Emperor Norton “Pause, Traveler” plaque, bronze, 1939, by William Gordon Huff (1903–1993). At Molloy’s Tavern, Colma, Calif. Photograph: Harry Stewart.
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