Orange Memorial Park in South San Francisco

The motto of the city of South San Francisco is "The Industrial City” and they mean it. The words are spelled out in concrete letters up on Sign Hill for all to read. And the people are industrious. When things need doing, they get them done. They thinned out the thickets and filled in the marshes, making the area useable. Farmers soon began raising vegetables there.

When people are just beginning to settle an area, they don’t need a special place in which to spend leisure time because they don’t have any leisure time. It was all they could do just to survive. But by the late 1800s and early 1900s, folks were beginning to have some free time and they needed recreation areas. Children especially needed some safe place where they could play with other kids. Before the town was incorporated in 1908 — and the name was changed from Baden to South San Francisco — the South San Francisco Land and Improvement Co. owned pretty much everything and provided all the necessities: water, sewer, lighting, roads, etc. But the people began to ask for more amenities from the developers. Want to build a new neighborhood? OK, but also please provide us with a new park.

They did. And one of the best is Orange Memorial Park. The 20-plus acres came as a gift in 1925 from the Land Co., sort of. The proviso was that the Land Co. would build streets on both sides of the park, but that all future street paving and upkeep would be paid for by the city. More park land was also purchased by the city, 4.7 acres near Martin School and 3.3 acres on Martin Avenue, for $22,000, paid for over a period of 10 years. One of the first improvements to Orange Park, after the thickets were pulled out and the land leveled, was to lay out a baseball diamond. Baseball had been one of the early-on favorite pastimes. The tracks of the #40 trolley line from San Francisco to San Mateo ran along the west side of the park, and the tracks became the "road” down which players from Burlingame, San Bruno and Daly City would walk to their games in South San Francisco.

Baseball has never lost its hold here. There are two fields of dreams at the Park, on the west side of Colma Creek. The Bob Brian Field was dedicated on April 10, 1993, recognizing Brian’s work in organizing the South S.F. Pee Wee Baseball League in 1960. The Archie Fregosi Field is also here, dedicated April 25, 2000, in memory of his coaching and his sponsoring of little league teams.  

Another favorite game, especially of the early Italian settlers, was bocce ball. Many local businesses, such as Jacopi’s General Store, had their own bocce ball court for their families and customers. In 1990, more bocce ball courts were added to the two lanes already there at Orange Park, a joint project between the city and the Italian American Citizens Club, and lights were installed for night-time games. The courts are used extensively throughout the year and for tournaments.

Just opposite the baseball field and to the south of the park, the Baden Kennel Club built a race track in the early 1930s that featured greyhound coursing. Ten cents would get you into the race. What you got out of the race depended on how much you had wagered and on not getting caught. Betting was illegal. The race track went out of business when the Great Depression took the fun out of spending ten cents.

But most of the activities that were started here at Orange Park have kept going and growing. Tennis courts and a soccer field were added. Even a skate-board area. There are two little-kid playgrounds, renovated in 1998, and better than ever. There is even a special walking trail, called Centennial Way, that begins (or ends?) at the South City Bart Station area and goes all the way to the San Bruno Station, with the possibility of more miles being added later, maybe to Millbrae.

In 2003, the park added a special 40-foot-by-100-foot sculpture garden and won the California Parks and Recreation Society’s Award of Excellence for their creative effort. The rectangular shape is softened with a winding walking path, with beautifully placed works of art at the curves and bends. Look for a pair of Puzzle People. Look closer. Two people turn into multitudes. Check out a two-piece "rusty” metal sculpture called Yin and Yang. Yin stands nice and tall, a few feet away from Yang who is seated, forming a bench. You are invited to be seated on Yang’s bench and contemplate Yin in front of you. It is then that you realize Yang has been cut from Yin. If you don’t get the hang of Yin and Yang, you might enjoy the child-size statue of a little boy and his dog or the larger statue of a mother and child called "Safehaven.”

The vegetation in and around the sculpture garden is like an old-fashioned granny quilt, with individual planted patches. Each patch is tended by a volunteer, identified with a marker. The volunteers are part of an on-going program called "Improving Public Places in S.S.F.” with plants, flowers and trees.

One of the great attractions at Orange Memorial Park is its indoor swimming pool built in 1970. Until then, South San Francisco kids didn’t have a good place to swim. Pools are costly items for a city to build and maintain. This one measures 75 feet by 45 feet, enough for six wide lanes and a sauna. Their swim programs begin as early as 5:30 a.m., with family swimming at 10 a.m. Membership is required, with non-residents paying a bit more then residents. Hatusas Bogazkale and Gus Vellis, veteran South City recreation personnel, direct the program. It is well-patronized and much appreciated. In 2009, a new recreation building was constructed near the swimming pool and was named in honor of the late councilman Joe Fernekes.

While South San Francisco is most certainly an urban and metropolitan city, its Orange Memorial Park somehow still has a small-town ambiance. There’s even a weekly Farmer’s Market there on Saturdays.

Spring’s here and summer’s coming. Gather up your kids (regular or grand) and let ‘em have a good time in the playground areas. You could get some hot dogs and whip up some potato salad and have a picnic (Cautionary note #1 – My resident editor has just informed me that you don’t whip potato salad. To do so would result in mashed potatoes). So, maybe hot dogs and potato chips (Cautionary note #2 – I checked this week with the Park and Rec. Dept. and they tell me you can picnic on the grass, no problem. But if your group requires tables, you must get a permit and pay a fee in advance. Call "Susan” at 829-3800 for more info).

Picnic or not, you can have a good time at South San Francisco’s Orange Memorial Park and take one more pleasant walk down history lane.