Oldest McDonald's restaurant

	McDonald's Restaurant #3
	U.S. National Register of Historic Places
	The McDonald's in Downey, California is almost unchanged in appearance since it opened in 1953. Photo taken in 2007.
Location	10207 Lakewood Blvd., Downey, California, United States
Built	1953; 71 years ago
Architectural style	Googie architecture; Modern architecture
NRHP reference No.	84003893

The oldest McDonald's restaurant that is still in business operation 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]

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 of the oldest operating McDonald's in Downey, California

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.

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 can visit the restored restaurant and an adjoining gift shop and museum.

Other early McDonald's restaurants still in operation

A restaurant built in 1962 at 2434 Almaden Road in San Jose, California, is the only other remaining early McDonald's still in operation in California, although a modern restaurant is now attached to it. This location is listed as one of the city's historic resources.^[5]

Other early McDonald's restaurant locations

The site of the first McDonald's restaurant, now an unofficial museum in San Bernardino, California, 2005. Only part of the sign remains from the original structure.

Original location (demolished)

The McDonald brothers opened their first restaurant adjacent to the Monrovia Airport in 1937. It was a tiny octagonal building informally called The Airdrome. That octagonal building was later moved to 1398 North E Street in San Bernardino, California in 1940. It was originally a barbecue drive-in, but the brothers discovered that most of their profits came from hamburgers. 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 original hexagonal McDonald's hamburger stand in San Bernardino was demolished in 1953 and replaced by a building in the now familiar 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 1972, although part of the sign remains.

The site of the original McDonald's was purchased in 1998 by Albert Okura, owner of the Juan Pollo outlet, for $135,000 in a foreclosure sale.^[2]^[3] Okura turned the property into the headquarters for his chain of restaurants and opened an unofficial McDonald's museum on the site, which, Okura refers to as the "historic site of the original McDonald's". Okura said though he did not intend to open the museum, an erroneous news story that mentioned he was planning on opening a museum gave him the idea; former employees and customers sent the museum many of the items on display.^[6]

Store #2 (demolished)

The second outlet opened in North Hollywood, California on Victory Blvd on August 1, 1953, licensed by McDonald's and operated as Peaks, was demolished in 1986 for an Arby’s.

Store #7 (no longer a McDonald's)

The seventh McDonald's, at 1057 East Mission Boulevard in Pomona, California, opened in 1954 and closed as a McDonald's in 1968. It later became a taco stand, and as of 2020, was a doughnut shop.^[7] It is currently the second-oldest existing McDonald's building after the Downey location.

Store #9 (demolished)

Kroc's 1955 McDonald's franchise in Des Plaines, Illinois, the 9th in the chain, was demolished in 1984, but a replica was built on the original foundation and was described as the McDonald's No. 1 Store Museum. The replica was also demolished due to repeated issues with flooding, with the sign removed in January 2018.^[8]

Store #11 (demolished)

The 11th McDonald's at 1900 South Central Avenue in Los Angeles, later a taco restaurant, was demolished in 2016.

Other locations

The site of the first franchised McDonald's restaurant in Phoenix, Arizona, opened in 1953 or 1954,^[9] is now a Yoshi’s.^[10]^[11]

An early McDonald's stood at 9100 SE Powell Boulevard in Portland, Oregon, on Southeast 91st Avenue and Powell Boulevard. It was not attached to the adjacent McDonald's but was available for party rentals. It was demolished on February 22, 2018, and the site was occupied by the expanded modernized McDonald's outlet.^[12]

Historic signs

An older single-arch McDonald's sign of historic significance is located outside McDonald's restaurant #91, 1587 Shawano Avenue in Green Bay, Wisconsin, dates from 1959, was restored in 2005, and still operates. The sign is located in front of a modern, retro-styled McDonald's restaurant.

A single-arch McDonald's sign at 2801 S. Olive Street, Pine Bluff, Arkansas, dating from 1962, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2006 although the McDonald's at that location is modern.

Gallery

The sign outside the Downey McDonald's in 2014
A view of the inside of the Downey McDonald's
Another view from the outside of the Downey McDonald's in 2014, with the museum to the right
The Downey McDonald's in 2017