Mr. Peanut

Planters Nut & Chocolate Company headquarters at Paul Avenue and Bayshore Boulevard

News copy from 1952:

MR. PEANUT KING OF ALL HE SURVEYS

Mr. Peanut, that top-hatted Beau Brummel of the goober world, surveys the area adjacent to the future office and factory location of Planters Nut & Chocolate Company's new San Francisco headquarters. He is 31 feet tall and completely outlined by a tube of tangerine neon. When the sign is lighted at night, Mr. Peanut winks his right eye and the arrows pointing to him flash on and off. Two buildings now are on the site at Paul avenue and Bayshore boulevard and third is under construction. Planters expects to move in about the middle of 1953. Plant expansion investment on West Coast is about $2,500,000.    S.F. Public Library

 When a boy,  I'd look for the Planter's building with all the little Mr. Peanut statues on the parapets   (the Sherwin Williams "Cover the Earth" sign, too) from the backseat of the car when I was entering or leaving San Francisco via Highway 101 .  Looking back, it usually meant change and disruption of my circumstance:  As a kid, I never knew with whom I would be living or where I would be going to school.  Thankfully,  I was always cared for and  never abandoned or abused.