{"id":11370,"date":"2026-05-06T04:46:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T04:46:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mrericsir.com\/blog\/?p=11370"},"modified":"2026-05-06T04:46:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T04:46:11","slug":"empire-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mrericsir.com\/blog\/local\/empire-park\/","title":{"rendered":"Empire Park"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/mrericsir\/55249890456\/in\/dateposted\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" data-id=\"11371\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mrericsir.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_1110-1024x768.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-11371\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mrericsir.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_1110-1024x768.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/www.mrericsir.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_1110-300x225.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/www.mrericsir.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_1110-768x576.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/www.mrericsir.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_1110-1536x1152.jpeg 1536w, https:\/\/www.mrericsir.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_1110-2048x1536.jpeg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Just off to the side of the 600 block of Commercial Street, a small alley in the Financial District near Jackson Square, is a plaza with seating, gardens, and a water feature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This privately-owned, public open space (or POPOS) is named <a href=\"https:\/\/artandarchitecture-sf.com\/empire-park.html\" title=\"\">Empire Park<\/a> and features a stone plaque dedicated to Emperor Norton.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Muddying the waters a bit, the park is (or was?) owned by real estate firm The Empire Group, which is not the same company as the nearby <a href=\"https:\/\/empi.re\/\" title=\"\">Empire Records<\/a>. It&#8217;s unclear if either company is named after the Emperor of the United States himself, Joshua Norton. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Norton at one point <a href=\"https:\/\/emperornortontrust.org\/blog\/2023\/9\/5\/empire-day-dedication-and-celebration-of-emperor-norton-place\" title=\"\">lived nearby<\/a>, though the building itself is long gone. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mark Twain <a href=\"https:\/\/yorksf.com\/2024\/mark-twain-in-san-francisco\/\" title=\"\">lived and worked<\/a> in the same neighborhood during his time in San Francisco &#8212; which admittedly was a much smaller city back then. The two almost certainly met, as the character the King in <em>Adventures of Huckleberry Finn<\/em> is widely acknowledged to be based off of the Emperor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Empire Park is open to the public most days, though I can&#8217;t find an up to date list of hours when it&#8217;s unlocked. The park was dedicated to Emperor Norton by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ecvyb1.com\/\" title=\"\">Yerba Buena #1 of E Clampsus Vitus.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Just off to the side of the 600 block of Commercial Street, a small alley in the Financial District near Jackson Square, is a plaza [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","slim_seo":{"title":"Auto Draft - MrEricSir.com","description":"Just off to the side of the 600 block of Commercial Street, a small alley in the Financial District near Jackson Square, is a plaza with seating, gardens, and a"},"autoblue_enabled":true,"autoblue_custom_message":"","autoblue_shares":[{"did":"did:plc:kbgypanrf2cbl2egeqak52nx","date":"2026-05-06T04:46:13+00:00","uri":"at:\/\/did:plc:kbgypanrf2cbl2egeqak52nx\/app.bsky.feed.post\/3ml5vfya5ib2b","response":"{\"uri\":\"at:\/\/did:plc:kbgypanrf2cbl2egeqak52nx\/app.bsky.feed.post\/3ml5vfya5ib2b\",\"cid\":\"bafyreid47powhfmnclteklbqvspkjzg7omj7md2g5gqutnmlu24y7qjyry\",\"commit\":{\"cid\":\"bafyreic6ygofc4cwah6nr7u3s7eieb7jwoknzazkpfohxfrykeooh2xd54\",\"rev\":\"3ml5vfyahar2b\"},\"validationStatus\":\"valid\"}"}],"autoblue_post_url":"","autoblue_publish_document":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[669,1003,1129,38,1544,23],"class_list":["post-11370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local","tag-emperornorton","tag-fidi","tag-park","tag-photos","tag-popos","tag-san-francisco"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mrericsir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mrericsir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mrericsir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mrericsir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mrericsir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11370"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.mrericsir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11370\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11376,"href":"https:\/\/www.mrericsir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11370\/revisions\/11376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mrericsir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mrericsir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mrericsir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}