Sign Hill turns South San Francisco's old slogan into a walk

South San Francisco has one of the Bay Area’s plainest and most memorable landmarks: the big hillside letters that read “The Industrial City.” The sign was built in 1923 after the Chamber of Commerce commissioned it, and local high school students helped put it on the hill. It became such a strong local marker that it was later listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The sign can make the place sound all business, but the hill itself adds a different layer. Sign Hill is also a 65-acre park, with trails, views, native plants, and habitat tied to the mission blue butterfly. The combination is very South San Francisco: industry, neighborhoods, bay views, and patches of rare open space close together.

It is a good reminder that city slogans can outlive the economy that made them famous. South San Francisco still has a strong workday identity, especially around biotech and nearby airport jobs, but the hillside sign now works as history, civic pride, and trail marker at the same time.

If you notice the letters from the freeway or BART, they are part of the city’s public memory: a century-old local signature still watching over the hill.