Exterior Painter South San Francisco, San Mateo County

Prior to European exploration, the northern San Francisco peninsula was inhabited by the Ramaytush, a linguistic sub-group of the Ohlone people. Their village of Urebure on San Bruno Creek was visited by the Gaspar de Portolà expedition in 1769; remains of long-term (5,000+ years) inhabitancy and seasonal encampments have been examined at the Siplichiquin and Buckeye shell-mounds on San Bruno Mountain. Charcoal-sampling indicates these sites may have been actively occupied early in the Spanish colonial period (late 1700s). The delta of Colma Creek was formerly an important habitat for the waterfowl known to be hunted by the Ramaytush in historic times, and archaelogic sites have been recorded near the creek. The City plan also recognizes the existing remains of a village (CA-SMA-299) along El Camino Real.

The area which is now South San Francisco was part of Rancho Buri Buri, a large Mexican land grant to the Sanchez family dating to 1827. In 1853 Charles Lux and a business partner, Alfred Edmondson, purchased 1,700 acres (7 km²) in the north of Rancho Buri Buri. Around that time, the 12-Mile House – one of the Peninsula Mile Houses – was built as a stop on the San Jose Stage road. Lux bought out Edmonson’s interest in 1856 and founded the town of Baden (now a neighborhood of South San Francisco) near the 12-Mile House. In 1855 Lux bought another 1,464 acres (6 km²) of Rancho Buri Buri land and became a partner of fellow San Francisco butcher and entrepreneur Henry Miller, forming the firm of Miller & Lux.

The city of South San Francisco was conceived as an industrial suburb and was promoted by representatives of the Beef Trust, a group including some of the country’s largest meat packing firms. A city plan was put forward in 1888 by Gustavus Franklin Swift, founder of the Swift & Company meat packing firm. The plan called for multiple individual meat-packing companies with a shared stockyard, as well as a residential area for employees. Swift proposed the name South San Francisco based on South Chicago and South Omaha, where the Swift company already had plants.