Downey highlight
Historic site of the first McDonald’s franchise
The world's oldest operating McDonald's restaurant, built in 1953 with iconic Googie-style architecture, saved from demolition in 1994 and restored as a museum.
The original McDonald's opened on August 18, 1953, at 10207 Lakewood Boulevard in Downey, designed by architect Stanley Clark Meston in the Googie style with two thirty-foot parabolic arches outlined in neon. It was the third McDonald's restaurant outlet ever built and has remained in continuous operation since opening, making it the world's oldest operating McDonald's still in its original location.
By the early 1990s the building faced demolition, but the Los Angeles Conservancy and the National Trust for Historic Preservation intervened to save it as a symbol of mid-century American design and commerce. The building was restored and reopened in December 1996 with an adjacent museum, and it continues to operate as both a functioning McDonald's restaurant and a museum of early franchise history, welcoming visitors from across the region.
The McDonald's story is one of how communities preserve the places where shared memories take root—the restaurant where a generation of Downey families marked milestones and celebrations. Planning for those families' futures is what life insurance does: a term policy sized to cover the mortgage, education and years when children depend on you is the way to protect the moments that matter most.