Rediscovering the Peninsula: South San Francisco’s housing explosion

Annexed in 1945, the section of South San Francisco that had belonged to rancher Custodio Silva who lived across from the Tanforan race track was acquired, named Brentwood and the land was prepared for housing. A creek ran down the center of the 132 acres but this was a minor engineering feat to cover it and proceed to mass produce houses for the returning servicemen and immigrants to the war industry on the Peninsula.

The next onslaught of mass-produced housing was begun on the Buri Buri section just north of the California Country Club. This piece of land was separated from the country club by a creek that flowed east from Westborough and later the creek was flumed and Westborough Boulevard was built over the flume. The first 100 acres of Buri Buri was annexed in 1946 with No. 2 and No. 3 sections annexed by 1954. Three-hundred acres of land between Junipero Serra to the west and El Camino Real to the east had 1,200 homes built on them. Lloyd Simpson, J. Frank Barrett and two others constructed homes that cost between $7,000 and $12,500.

In 1949, Andres Oddstad built homes on the northern slope of Sign Hill (at Sterling Terrace) before moving on to Pacifica to develop Linda Mar.

Francisco Terrace was begun in 1949 along the newly developed Spruce Avenue by El Camino Real. These one-story homes were completed by the end of 1950 and demonstrated that homes could be built in this area, on the east side of El Camino Real, where the marshes of willows had been a barrier. Spruce Avenue became a connecting link to downtown South City and opened the vast areas where once World War II Army barracks of Lindenville housing had been constructed. The Lindenville housing was razed to make way for an industrial section that would produce much needed taxes for the city’s expansion.

In the 1950s, the High School Division to the north-west of Spruce High School was filled in with houses.

In the Southwood area, house construction began after the South San Francisco City Council accepted the land west of El Camino Real on Dec. 15, 1958. Avalon Park, to the west of Southwood, began its development about the same time.

Sunshine Gardens had been a multiarea piece of land that had been farmed by many vegetable and flower growers. In 1950, it was annexed to South San Francisco and construction of houses began in 1953. Avalon Park was begun in 1954 and finished by 1955. Serra Highlands, a piece of land north of Buri Buri was begun and worked on in 1955 and 1956. Many other smaller pieces of land in the west were developed in the next few years but the most controversial project was the Westborough housing development. The area had been part of a large Christian dairy for many years before Tom Callan acquired 1,000 acres west of Junipero Serra, east of Skyline Boulevard, abutting Daly City to the north and San Bruno to the south. Water and sewer hookups proved to be a dominant problem for the projected development. Callan figured that annexation to Daly City was a sure bet but he ran into a tremendous amount of public opposition. He finally was able to get South San Francisco to annex the property. This development defined the western boundary of South San Francisco.

Strangely, one parcel of land did not get incorporated by South San Francisco but is completely surrounded by it. The Country Club Park No. 1 (west of Walgreens on El Camino Real) has remained unincorporated and the independent-minded citizens of that area intend to have it remain so.

In 1938, South San Francisco had 6,500 citizens living on 7.03 square miles of incorporated land. By 1969, the size of South San Francisco had increased to include 10 square miles. The city’s population was 61,200 by 2005.

Rediscovering the Peninsula runs every weekend. It is compiled through our archives created by Jim Clifford and the late Darold Fredricks.