Commercial Street is a street in

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

that runs from Sansome Street to

Grant Avenue Grant Avenue in San Francisco, California, is one of the oldest streets in the city's Chinatown, San Francisco, Chinatown district. It runs in a north–south direction starting at Market Street in the heart of downtown and dead-ending past Fran ...

. The eastern end of Commercial Street was originally the waterfront before it was filled in for real estate. It led to the

Financial District A financial district is usually a central area in a city where financial services firms such as banks, insurance companies, and other related finance corporations have their headquarters offices. In major cities, financial districts often host ...

and is the location of both the original

San Francisco Mint The San Francisco Mint is a branch of the United States Mint. Opened in 1854 to serve the gold mines of the California gold rush, in twenty years its operations exceeded the capacity of the first building. It moved into a new one in 1874, now kn ...

and the California headquarters for the

Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), originally the Governor and Company of Adventurers of England Trading Into Hudson’s Bay, is a Canadian holding company of department stores, and the oldest corporation in North America. It was the owner of the ...

. After a new Mint building at Fifth and Mission Streets opened in 1874, the original Mint was demolished and replaced with a U.S. Sub-Treasury building, completed in 1877. Most of this later building was destroyed in the earthquake and fires of April 1906; but, the surviving remnant — the first-floor facade and a portion of the subterranean vaults — now helps to house the

San Francisco Historical Society The San Francisco Historical Society is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation, interpretation, and presentation of the history of San Francisco and the surrounding San Francisco Bay Area, Bay Area. It is a membership-based organiza ...

at 608 Commercial Street. Commercial is one of only two streets in San Francisco oriented directly toward the tower of the Ferry Building (the other being Market Street). Commercial Street is showcased in the 1950

film noir Film noir (; ) is a style of Cinema of the United States, Hollywood Crime film, crime dramas that emphasizes cynicism (contemporary), cynical attitudes and motivations. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of Ameri ...

thriller, ''

Woman on the Run A woman is an adult female human. Before adulthood, a female child or adolescent is referred to as a girl. Typically, women are of the female sex and inherit a pair of X chromosomes, one from each parent, and women with functional uteruses ...

'', directed by

Norman Foster Norman Robert Foster, Baron Foster of Thames Bank (born 1 June 1935) is an English architect. Closely associated with the development of high-tech architecture, Lord Foster is recognised as a key figure in British modernist architecture. Hi ...

. The location in particular is Sullivan's Grotto at 776 Commercial Street — the Commercial Street side entrance of Eastern Bakery at 720 Grant Avenue. Parts of Commercial Street also contain circular designs of embedded brick taken from the street before the city paved the street. Photographer Benjamen Chinn lived on Commercial Street and played a part ensuring the street brick patterns remained so as to pay homage to its historical significance as part of Chinatown. Commercial street sign is also seen, while blurry, in the movie 'Big Trouble In Little China'. It is near the alley that the "Lords Of Death" operate out of...in the movie.

Honorary naming of 600 block as "Emperor Norton Place"

Between 1864/65 and his death in January 1880, the San Francisco eccentric and folk hero known as

Emperor Norton Joshua Abraham Norton (February 4, 1818 – January 8, 1880) was a resident of San Francisco, California, who in 1859 declared himself "Emperor of these United States" in a proclamation that he signed "Norton I., Emperor of the United States" ...

is documented to have lived in the Eureka Lodgings, a rooming house located at 624 Commercial Street, between Montgomery and Kearny Streets. The building that housed the Eureka was destroyed in the disaster of April 1906. The Eureka site now is occupied by a 4-story apartment building at 650/652 Commercial. In February 2023,

San Francisco Board of Supervisors The San Francisco Board of Supervisors is the board of supervisors, legislative body within the government of San Francisco, government of the San Francisco, City and County of San Francisco in the U.S. state of California. Government and polit ...

president

Aaron Peskin Aaron Dan Peskin (born June 17, 1964) is an American former elected official in San Francisco, California. He was a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors representing District 3 from 2001 to 2009, and again from 2015 to 2025. Distr ...

introduced a resolution to add "Emperor Norton Place" as a commemorative name for the 600 block of Commercial Street. The resolution was adopted by the Supervisors and approved by Mayor

London Breed London Nicole Breed (born August 11, 1974) is an American politician who served as the 45th mayor of San Francisco from 2018 to 2025. She was supervisor for District 5 and was president of the Board of Supervisors from 2015 to 2018. Raised in t ...

in April 2023, with signage installed in early May.Joe Kukura
"The renamed Emperor Norton street sign is now up in Chinatown,"
Hoodline, 8 May 2023.

References

{{Streets in San Francisco Chinatown, San Francisco Financial District, San Francisco Streets in San Francisco