SF History Days at the Old Mint a look into city’s past

They’ve been married for only two years, but Joseph Amster and Rick Shelton say they’re 200 years old.

At least they were on Saturday. They were among the 19th century characters milling around the Old Mint for San Francisco History Days, put on annually by the California Historical Society, the mayor’s office and event company Non Plus Ultra. Thousands of visitors were expected to wander in and out of the Granite Lady for the free event that continues Sunday.

Exhibits around the building lured history buffs and curious amateurs with presentations on topics ranging from San Francisco’s native Ohlone people to the 1906 earthquake and fire, which the Mint building survived.

A newly discovered nitrate film reel with nine minutes of footage capturing San Francisco two weeks after the disaster will be shown for the first time by film historian David Kiehn next month.

Amster and Shelton sat behind a booth for their Time Machine tours, in-costume walking tours of San Francisco.

“The city has so much history,” Amster said. “I like to say the city is like an onion. You peel back a layer and there’s another one.”

Amster is really 62, but his character, Emperor Norton, was born in 1818. He came dressed in full costume: a navy blue uniform emblazoned with medals and topped with a colorful feathered hat. A longtime San Francisco resident, Joshua Abraham Norton earned a fortune as an investor in the city by the bay. But then he lost it all, went into hiding, and re-emerged on Sept. 17, 1859. He walked into the offices of the Daily Evening Bulletin and declared himself emperor.

And everyone went along with it. He ate for free at restaurants, people stood in his presence, he printed his own currency. And when he died, the city held one of the biggest funerals in its history.

“Any other city would have kicked his ass out, right?” Shelton said. “But San Francisco embraced him.”

Shelton was dressed as Countess Lola Montez. In full make-up, he had rouged cheeks, green and gold eye shadow, and wore a dress with a feathered headband to match, Born in 1818 in Ireland as Maria Dolores Elisa Gilbert, she became known as a Spanish dancer and changed her name after having an affair with King Ludwig I of Bulgaria. Her lovers also included composer Franz Liszt and author Alexandre Dumas.

She married San Francisco newspaperman Patrick Hull when she arrived to the city in the 1850s.

“She got around,” said Shelton, 64. “I really identify with her. She had a lot of affairs. Had a lot of fun.”

As performers went around in costume, guests at the history event marveled at unknown bits of the city’s history.

In another room down the hall, Lorenzo Casas and Adriana Casas learned about the Ohlone, native people who lived along the shore of San Francisco Bay. They came from Fremont with their 6- and 8-year-old sons.

“We want to make sure they understand our history. The history of San Francisco,” Lorenzo Casas said.

In the basement, Oakland resident Paula Parker looked through flyers in a room promoting the Black Film Fest, where 16mm films would be playing later in the day.

“I’m a New Yorker. I love culture,” Parker said, “ You never know what you’re going to come across.”

Upstairs, Frances Knapczyk said she mainly marveled at people in Gold Rush costumes. It takes the imagination back to another era of San Francisco, she said. But, she noted, some things about the city haven’t quite changed.

“It seems like it’s always been this place where a lot of different people from a lot of different cultures and backgrounds come together and try to enjoy life,” Knapczyk said. “A place where there’s a lot of hope. A lot of possibility.”