Oldest McDonald's restaurant
Encyclopedia
The oldest operating McDonald's restaurant is a drive-up hamburger
stand at 10207 Lakewood Boulevard at Florence Avenue in Downey, California
. It was the third McDonald's
restaurant
, and opened on August 18, 1953. It was the second restaurant franchised by Richard and Maurice McDonald, prior to the involvement of Ray Kroc
in the company, and it still has the two original 30 feet (9.1 m) "Golden Arches
" and a 60 feet (18.3 m) animated neon "Speedee" sign. The restaurant is now the oldest in the chain still in existence and is one of Downey's main tourist attractions.
in 1984.
The McDonald brothers opened their first restaurant at 1938 North E Street in San Bernardino, California
in 1940. Originally a barbecue
drive-in
, the brothers discovered that most of their profits came from hamburger
s. In 1948, they closed their restaurant for three months, reopening it in December as a walk-up hamburger stand that sold hamburgers, potato chips, and orange juice; the following year, french fries
and Coca-Cola
were added to the menu. This simplified menu, and food preparation using assembly line
principles, allowed them to sell hamburgers for 15 cents, or about half as much as at a sit-down restaurant. The restaurant was very successful, and the brothers started to franchise the concept in 1953.
The first franchisee was Occidental Petroleum
executive Neil Fox, who opened a restaurant at 4050 North Central Avenue in Phoenix, Arizona
, in May, for a flat fee of $
1,000. His restaurant was the first to employ the McDonald brothers' Golden Arches
standardized architecture, which they had developed for their franchises. Fox's use of the "McDonald's" name evidently came as a surprise to the brothers, but all subsequent franchises used the "McDonald's" brand.
Fox's brothers-in-law and business partners, Roger Williams and Bud Landon, were the franchisees for the third McDonald's, and used their expertise in siting gasoline stations in choosing the Downey location.
The purchase of the chain from the McDonald brothers by Ray Kroc
did not affect the Downey restaurant, as it was franchised under an agreement with the McDonald brothers, not with Kroc's company McDonald's Systems, Inc., which later became McDonald's Corporation. As a result, the restaurant was not subject to the modernization requirements that McDonald's Corporation placed on its franchisees. Its menu came to differ from that of other McDonald's restaurants, and lacked items such as the Big Mac
that were developed in the corporation. In part due to these differences, the restaurant came to suffer poor sales, and was finally acquired by McDonald's Corporation in 1990, when it was the only remaining McDonald's that was independent of the chain.
With low sales, damage from the 1994 Northridge earthquake
, and the lack of a drive-up window and indoor seating, the restaurant was closed, and McDonald's planned to demolish it and incorporate some of its features in a modern "retro" restaurant nearby. However, it was listed on the National Trust for Historic Preservation
's 1994 list of the 11 Most Endangered Historic Places
. With both the public and preservationists demanding the restaurant be saved, McDonald's spent two years restoring the restaurant and reopened it. Customers today can visit the original restaurant and an adjoining gift shop and museum.
Very few early McDonald's restaurants remain, largely because McDonald's Corporation required its franchisees to update their buildings. The original hexagonal McDonald's hamburger stand in San Bernardino was demolished in 1957 to be replaced by a building in the Golden Arches style; in an oversight, the McDonald brothers failed to retain rights to the McDonald's name when they sold the chain to Kroc, and were forced to rename it "The Big M". It went out of business and was demolished in the 1970s, although part of the sign remains; an independent McDonald's museum was subsequently opened on the site.
Other early buildings still standing include the seventh McDonald's, at 1057 East Mission Street in Pomona, California
, which is now a doughnut
shop, and the eleventh at 1900 South Central Avenue in Los Angeles
, which now sells taco
s. Ray Kroc's 1955 McDonald's franchise in Des Plaines, Illinois
, the ninth in the chain, was demolished in 1984, but a replica was built across the street and is now described as the McDonald's USA #1 Store Museum.
A single-arch McDonald's sign
in Pine Bluff, Arkansas
dating from 1962 was added to the National Register of Historic Places
in 2006.
A restaurant built around 1960 at 2434 Almaden Road in San Jose, California
is the only other remaining early McDonald's still in operation in the state, although a modern restaurant is now attached to it. It is listed as one of the city's historic resources.
Hamburger
A hamburger is a sandwich consisting of a cooked patty of ground meat usually placed inside a sliced bread roll...
stand at 10207 Lakewood Boulevard at Florence Avenue in Downey, California
Downey, California
Downey is a city located in southeast Los Angeles County, California, United States, southeast of downtown Los Angeles. The city is best known as the birthplace of the Apollo space program, and is the city where folk singer Karen Carpenter lived and died...
. It was the third McDonald's
McDonald's
McDonald's Corporation is the world's largest chain of hamburger fast food restaurants, serving around 64 million customers daily in 119 countries. Headquartered in the United States, the company began in 1940 as a barbecue restaurant operated by the eponymous Richard and Maurice McDonald; in 1948...
restaurant
Restaurant
A restaurant is an establishment which prepares and serves food and drink to customers in return for money. Meals are generally served and eaten on premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services...
, and opened on August 18, 1953. It was the second restaurant franchised by Richard and Maurice McDonald, prior to the involvement of Ray Kroc
Ray Kroc
Raymond Albert "Ray" Kroc was an American fast food businessman who joined McDonald's in 1954 and built it into the most successful fast food operation in the world. Kroc was included in Time 100: The Most Important People of the Century, and amassed a fortune during his lifetime...
in the company, and it still has the two original 30 feet (9.1 m) "Golden Arches
Golden Arches
The Golden Arches are the symbol of McDonald's, the global fast-food hamburger chain. Originally, real arches were part of the restaurant design...
" and a 60 feet (18.3 m) animated neon "Speedee" sign. The restaurant is now the oldest in the chain still in existence and is one of Downey's main tourist attractions.
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
in 1984.
History
San Bernardino, California
San Bernardino is a city located in the Riverside-San Bernardino metropolitan area , and serves as the county seat of San Bernardino County, California, United States...
in 1940. Originally a barbecue
Barbecue
Barbecue or barbeque , used chiefly in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia is a method and apparatus for cooking meat, poultry and occasionally fish with the heat and hot smoke of a fire, smoking wood, or hot coals of...
drive-in
Drive-in
A drive-in is a facility such as a bank, restaurant, or movie theater where one can literally drive in with an automobile for service. It is usually distinguished from a drive-through. At a drive-in restaurant, for example, customers park their vehicles and are usually served by staff who walk out...
, the brothers discovered that most of their profits came from hamburger
Hamburger
A hamburger is a sandwich consisting of a cooked patty of ground meat usually placed inside a sliced bread roll...
s. In 1948, they closed their restaurant for three months, reopening it in December as a walk-up hamburger stand that sold hamburgers, potato chips, and orange juice; the following year, french fries
French fries
French fries , chips, fries, or French-fried potatoes are strips of deep-fried potato. North Americans tend to refer to any pieces of deep-fried potatoes as fries or French fries, while in the United Kingdom, Australia, Ireland and New Zealand, long, thinly cut slices of deep-fried potatoes are...
and Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola is a carbonated soft drink sold in stores, restaurants, and vending machines in more than 200 countries. It is produced by The Coca-Cola Company of Atlanta, Georgia, and is often referred to simply as Coke...
were added to the menu. This simplified menu, and food preparation using assembly line
Assembly line
An assembly line is a manufacturing process in which parts are added to a product in a sequential manner using optimally planned logistics to create a finished product much faster than with handcrafting-type methods...
principles, allowed them to sell hamburgers for 15 cents, or about half as much as at a sit-down restaurant. The restaurant was very successful, and the brothers started to franchise the concept in 1953.
The first franchisee was Occidental Petroleum
Occidental Petroleum
Occidental Petroleum Corporation is a California-based oil and gas exploration and production company with operations in the United States, the Middle East, North Africa, and South America...
executive Neil Fox, who opened a restaurant at 4050 North Central Avenue in Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix is the capital, and largest city, of the U.S. state of Arizona, as well as the sixth most populated city in the United States. Phoenix is home to 1,445,632 people according to the official 2010 U.S. Census Bureau data...
, in May, for a flat fee of $
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
1,000. His restaurant was the first to employ the McDonald brothers' Golden Arches
Golden Arches
The Golden Arches are the symbol of McDonald's, the global fast-food hamburger chain. Originally, real arches were part of the restaurant design...
standardized architecture, which they had developed for their franchises. Fox's use of the "McDonald's" name evidently came as a surprise to the brothers, but all subsequent franchises used the "McDonald's" brand.
Fox's brothers-in-law and business partners, Roger Williams and Bud Landon, were the franchisees for the third McDonald's, and used their expertise in siting gasoline stations in choosing the Downey location.
The purchase of the chain from the McDonald brothers by Ray Kroc
Ray Kroc
Raymond Albert "Ray" Kroc was an American fast food businessman who joined McDonald's in 1954 and built it into the most successful fast food operation in the world. Kroc was included in Time 100: The Most Important People of the Century, and amassed a fortune during his lifetime...
did not affect the Downey restaurant, as it was franchised under an agreement with the McDonald brothers, not with Kroc's company McDonald's Systems, Inc., which later became McDonald's Corporation. As a result, the restaurant was not subject to the modernization requirements that McDonald's Corporation placed on its franchisees. Its menu came to differ from that of other McDonald's restaurants, and lacked items such as the Big Mac
Big Mac
The Big Mac is a hamburger sold by McDonald's, an international fast food restaurant chain. It is one of the company's signature products...
that were developed in the corporation. In part due to these differences, the restaurant came to suffer poor sales, and was finally acquired by McDonald's Corporation in 1990, when it was the only remaining McDonald's that was independent of the chain.
With low sales, damage from the 1994 Northridge earthquake
Northridge earthquake
The Northridge earthquake was a massive earthquake that occurred on January 17, 1994, at 04:31 Pacific Standard Time in Reseda, a neighborhood in the city of Los Angeles, California, lasting for about 10–20 seconds...
, and the lack of a drive-up window and indoor seating, the restaurant was closed, and McDonald's planned to demolish it and incorporate some of its features in a modern "retro" restaurant nearby. However, it was listed on the National Trust for Historic Preservation
National Trust for Historic Preservation
The National Trust for Historic Preservation is an American member-supported organization that was founded in 1949 by congressional charter to support preservation of historic buildings and neighborhoods through a range of programs and activities, including the publication of Preservation...
's 1994 list of the 11 Most Endangered Historic Places
America's Most Endangered Places
Each year since 1987, the National Trust for Historic Preservation has released a list of places they consider the most endangered in America. The number of sites included on the list has varied, with the most recent lists settling on 11...
. With both the public and preservationists demanding the restaurant be saved, McDonald's spent two years restoring the restaurant and reopened it. Customers today can visit the original restaurant and an adjoining gift shop and museum.
Other early McDonald's restaurants
Other early buildings still standing include the seventh McDonald's, at 1057 East Mission Street in Pomona, California
Pomona, California
-2010:The 2010 United States Census reported that Pomona had a population of 149,058, a slight decline from the 2000 census population. The population density was 6,491.2 people per square mile...
, which is now a doughnut
Doughnut
A doughnut or donut is a fried dough food and is popular in many countries and prepared in various forms as a sweet snack that can be homemade or purchased in bakeries, supermarkets, food stalls, and franchised specialty outlets...
shop, and the eleventh at 1900 South Central Avenue in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, which now sells taco
Taco
A taco is a traditional Mexican dish composed of a corn or wheat tortilla folded or rolled around a filling. A taco can be made with a variety of fillings, including beef, chicken, seafood, vegetables and cheese, allowing for great versatility and variety...
s. Ray Kroc's 1955 McDonald's franchise in Des Plaines, Illinois
Des Plaines, Illinois
Des Plaines is a city in Cook County, Illinois, United States. It has adopted the official nickname of "City of Destiny." As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 58,720. It is a suburb of Chicago, and is next to O'Hare International Airport...
, the ninth in the chain, was demolished in 1984, but a replica was built across the street and is now described as the McDonald's USA #1 Store Museum.
A single-arch McDonald's sign
McDonald's Sign (Pine Bluff, Arkansas)
The McDonald's Sign, also known as McDonald's Store #433 Sign, in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, United States, is the only known surviving example of a single-arch McDonald's sign in Arkansas. The sign was erected in 1962 and remained at its original location until 2007. In 2007 McDonald's Store #433 moved...
in Pine Bluff, Arkansas
Pine Bluff, Arkansas
Pine Bluff is the largest city and county seat of Jefferson County, Arkansas, United States. It is also the principal city of the Pine Bluff Metropolitan Statistical Area and part of the Little Rock-North Little Rock-Pine Bluff, Arkansas Combined Statistical Area...
dating from 1962 was added to the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
in 2006.
A restaurant built around 1960 at 2434 Almaden Road in San Jose, California
San Jose, California
San Jose is the third-largest city in California, the tenth-largest in the U.S., and the county seat of Santa Clara County which is located at the southern end of San Francisco Bay...
is the only other remaining early McDonald's still in operation in the state, although a modern restaurant is now attached to it. It is listed as one of the city's historic resources.
See also
- Taco BellTaco BellTaco Bell is an American chain of fast-food restaurants based in Irvine, California. A subsidiary of Yum! Brands, Inc., which serves American-adapted Mexican food. Taco Bell serves tacos, burritos, quesadillas, nachos, other specialty items, and a variety of "Value Menu" items...
, a Mexican fast food chain that also began in Downey