The first franchised McDonald’s using the Golden Arches building design opened in 1953.
The design was created for the McDonald brothers by architect Stanley Clark Meston, working with assistant Charles Fish. The building featured two large, curved yellow arches rising from either side of the restaurant, making the stand highly visible to motorists and giving the structure a futuristic Googie-inspired appearance.
The first franchised outlet bearing Meston’s design opened in May 1953 in Phoenix, Arizona. The McDonald brothers then required later franchisees to use versions of the same design, adapting the plans to local building codes and site conditions.
The year can be confused with 1955, when Ray Kroc opened his first McDonald’s in Des Plaines, Illinois. That restaurant was important to the later corporate expansion, but it was not the first franchise using the brothers’ Golden Arches building design. The arches later evolved from physical architecture into McDonald’s enduring logo.