“The 'B' represents who we are in Burbank. It's iconic.”
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Hillside letters and signs became particularly popular in Southern California during the building boom of the 1920s. New towns and developers adapted the practice from colleges and high school, building everything from simple letters designed to help early pilots find small regional airfields to the most famous phrase towering above a valley: An advertisement for a new subdivision called “Hollywoodland” in Beachwood Canyon. Today, it’s known worldwide as the Hollywood sign.
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This Burbank “B” likely came during the height of the fad, though no one knows what, exactly, it stands for. It has several origin stories. According to the 2008 book Burbank High School: The Blue and White Wave, the letter first appeared in the 1920s, when Burbank High School Key Club members arranged stones to form a “B.” Some to the town of Burbank itself, while others point to rival school John Burroughs High School—in which case the Burbank “B” wouldn’t stand for Burbank at all. Burbank historian Wes Clark, swears that the letter seems to have appeared many decades after the trend, seemingly out of nowhere. A bedeviling mystery.
According to Hillside Letters A to Z: A Guide to Hometown Landmarks by Evelyn Corning, more than 400 of these letters exist in the United States. All stemming from the first famous letter: the “Big C.” Constructed out of concrete by students at the University of California at Berkeley in 1905, the letter started a craze among emerging schools. “Making a letter was often a gala community event, declared a formal school holiday,” cultural geographer James J. Parsons explains in “Hillside Letters in the Western Landscape.” The letters were an almost purely Western phenomenon, made possible by the region’s accessible hillsides and deep valleys. Soon there was a Brigham Young “Y,” a University of Utah “U,” an Oregon University “O,” a Pomona College “P,” a University of Redlands “R,” and a Loyola Marymount “L,” among others.
Whatever the origins of Burbank’s hillside homage, everyone wanted credit. According to amateur online sleuths, over the years, Burbank High and John Burroughs High allegedly made a tradition of dyeing the “B” in their school colors before or rearranging the letters before big games. According to Parsons, many of these letters were the site of bonfires and all-night vigils, with schools keeping guard to protect their letter from rival defacement. Today it’s still a common target for vandals, usually Burroughs and Burbank students vying to paint it red or blue. Often, they “give up after massively underestimating the amount of spray paint, time and manpower it takes to cover the giant letter,” per Los Angeles Times journalist Bryan Mahoney.
The sense of ownership sets “hillside letters apart from other landscape symbols,” writes Corning. It’s “the collective commitment, enthusiasm, and grassroots’ support that gets a letter built and keeps it maintained, in some cases for generations.”
The “B” has been renovated and restored several times since its mysterious erection, and is now plastic pallets instead of painted stones. In 2014, Eagle Scout Brian Boyce, a student at St. Francis High School in nearby La Cañada Flintridge, decided to refurbish the aging “B” as part of a Boy Scout project. After raising almost $1,000, he and a crew of Scouts cleaned the debris around the sign and refreshed it, ensuring it will be a beacon of Burbank pride for years to come. "This project is definitely in line with our sense of community," Judie Wilke, Director of Burbank’s Parks Department told the Orange County Register at the time. "It's something that people love to see. The 'B' represents who we are in Burbank. It's iconic."
If you want a closer look, type “Key Club Path to the ‘B’” in Google Maps. The route will take you to a steep summit and a quick, scrappy hike up to the letter. Arrange a pickup via DoorDash on the way, and you can picnic at the top, taking in the views of sprawling Burbank, all the way to downtown L.A.
The Mystery of the Burbank “B”
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Words by HADLEY MEARES
Photography by ANNIE GREGORY
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Photography by ANNIE GREGORY
large white “B” floats above the city of Burbank. Though Burbank can feel like a picture-perfect mid-century suburb out of a 1950s sci-fi movie (much like the many sets that remain frozen in time
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COURTESY OF BURBANK HIGH SCHOOL YEARBOOK
The Mystery of the Burbank “B”
there), the looming white “B,” is firmly rooted in the earth of the Verdugo Hills, and was built by human hands. But just who built it, what it means, and how long it has been there remain a mystery worthy of one of the many studios which dot this friendly, wholesome SoCal scene.
large white “B” floats above the city of Burbank. Though Burbank can feel like a picture-perfect mid-century suburb