McDonald's No. 1 Store Museum: Where the Empire Began
Near Chicago Lake Michigan, Illinois
In Des Plaines, Illinois, Ray Kroc opened for business on April fifteenth, nineteen fifty-five. It was technically the ninth McDonald's restaurant in existence, but Kroc considered it his. He was the franchising visionary who turned a San Bernardino drive-in into a global corporation, and Des Plaines was his starting line.
The original building was demolished in nineteen eighty-four, the year Kroc died, then rebuilt from original blueprints as a museum. It stood as a tourist attraction until flooding forced its closure. McDonald's demolished the replica in twenty eighteen.
The land was donated to the city and sits empty now. But April fifteenth, nineteen fifty-five, is the date McDonald's Corporation counts as its founding day, and it happened on this block.
