Oldest McDonald's restaurant

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McDonald's Restaurant #3
The oldest operating McDonald's restaurant was the third one built, opening in 1953. It is located at 10207 Lakewood Blvd. at Florence Ave. in Downey, California.png
The McDonald's in Downey, California is almost unchanged in appearance since it opened in 1953. Photo taken on 16th August 2024.
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Location10207 Lakewood Blvd., Downey, California, United States
Built1953;72 years ago (1953)
Architectural style Googie architecture
Modern architecture
NRHP reference No. 84003893 [1]

The oldest McDonald's restaurant is a drive-up hamburger stand at 10207 Lakewood Boulevard at Florence Avenue in Downey, California, United States. Opened on August 18, 1953, it is the third McDonald's restaurant outlet to be opened and is the second restaurant franchised by Richard and Maurice McDonald, before the involvement of Ray Kroc in the company. The outlet still retains the original, standardized Golden Arches façade design and is one of Downey's main tourist attractions. Along with its sign, it was deemed eligible for addition to the National Register of Historic Places in 1984, although it was not added at the time because the owner objected. [1]

Contents

The site of the first McDonald's restaurant in San Bernardino, California is now occupied by an outlet that is the de facto headquarters of the Juan Pollo chicken restaurant chain, with an unofficial museum nearby. [2] [3]

History

The original owners of the Downey, California McDonald's were Roger Williams, the brother-in-law of McDonald's first franchisee Neil Fox, and his business partner Bud Landon. Williams and Fox worked for Occidental Petroleum and used their expertise in siting Occidental gasoline stations in choosing the location. Like the McDonald brothers' other franchisees, they were required to use Stanley Clark Meston's design. [4]

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 by the corporation. In part due to these differences, as well as a corporate McDonald's opening in the mid-1970s less than half a mile away, the restaurant suffered from poor sales, and was eventually acquired by McDonald's Corporation in 1990, when it was the only remaining McDonald's that was independent of the chain. [5]

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. [6] However, it was listed on the National Trust for Historic Preservation's 1994 list of the 11 Most Endangered Historic Places. [7] With both the public and preservationists demanding the restaurant be saved, McDonald's spent two years restoring the restaurant and reopened it. The restaurant now features an adjacent museum and gift shop housed in a replica of the original McDonald's location in San Bernardino. [5] A drive-thru window was later added in 2016. [8]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
  2. ↑ "Entrepreneur channels San Bernardino's history". Marketplace.org. Archived from the original on December 5, 2014. Retrieved August 24, 2014.
  3. ↑ "San Bernardino: McDonald's museum pays homage to the hamburger". The Press-Enterprise. Archived from the original on August 16, 2014. Retrieved August 24, 2014.
  4. ↑ Hess, Alan (August 14, 2013). "The Oldest McDonald's as Architecture" . Retrieved March 2, 2014.[ self-published source ]
  5. 1 2 "McDonald's Hamburgers". LA Conservancy. Retrieved November 3, 2025.
  6. ↑ Miller, Greg (March 24, 1994). "DOWNEY : City Refuses Permit for McDonald's Demolition". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved November 3, 2025.
  7. ↑ "America's Most Endangered Historic Places Listings by Year". National Trust for Historic Preservation. Retrieved November 3, 2025.
  8. ↑ Harden, Olivia (April 24, 2023). "The oldest McDonald's in the U.S. sells a secret menu item". SFGATE . Retrieved November 3, 2025.

33°56′50″N118°07′06″W / 33.9471°N 118.1182°W / 33.9471; -118.1182

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