{"nrhp_refnum":"96000761","name":"South San Francisco Hillside Sign","other_names":[],"category":"object","location":{"address":"Sign Hill Park, N of Park Way","address_restricted":false,"city":"South San Francisco","county":"San Mateo County","state":"CA","lat":37.66428945550007,"lon":-122.4211571087242,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1996-07-11","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Social History","Other"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A large concrete hillside sign in Sign Hill Park, South San Francisco, California, reading \"SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO THE INDUSTRIAL CITY\" on the southern slope of a 581-foot hill. The present Gunite letters were completed in 1929.","why_significant":"The sign is significant under Criterion A for its role in promoting South San Francisco's identity as an industrial city, as part of 1920s city boosterism by the local Chamber of Commerce. It replaced a whitewashed 1923 sign and grew out of the traditions of electric Main Street slogan signs and hillside letters. The nomination also notes a possible link to aviation history, but says more research is needed.","narrative":"Large white letters spelling \"SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO THE INDUSTRIAL CITY\" cover the southern slope of a 581-foot hill in Sign Hill Park. The three lines run 166, 484 and 628 feet long, with letters 48 to 65 feet tall, laid out so they appear evenly sized and spaced from a distance. The current sign was built of Gunite, sprayed cement over steel wire, and finished in May 1929 after a first whitewashed version from 1923 needed constant upkeep. The Chamber of Commerce promoted it to attract industry and new residents, and voters approved a special tax in 1928 to fund it after an earlier measure narrowly failed. City Engineer George A. Kneese laid out the first sign, and assistant city engineer Robert Klassen presented the plans for the concrete one. Visible from highways, railways, a race track and nearby aircraft routes, it became a lasting symbol of the city's industrial identity. The city maintains it, repainting the letters each year.","period_of_significance":"1929-1946","architect_builder":"Kneese, George A.; Klassen, Robert A.","architectural_style":"No Style","criteria":["A"],"status_note":"In good condition with regular city maintenance; letters are repainted annually. One letter \"T\" has slid about 40 inches. The remains of a 1930s electric sign (35 concrete footings) are not counted as a resource.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:54:28.305864-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_CA/96000761.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/96000761/47be6e1c66-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/96000761/47be6e1c66-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"BrokenSphere","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SSF_Hillside_Sign_2.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">BrokenSphere</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SSF_Hillside_Sign_2.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/123861564","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_San_Francisco_hillside_sign","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q17061895"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/california/san-mateo-county/south-san-francisco-hillside-sign-96000761/"}