Downey, California, is home to the oldest surviving McDonald's restaurant building with its original Golden Arches.
The restaurant opened in 1953 on Lakewood Boulevard in Downey. It was operated by the McDonald brothers' franchisee Roger Williams and was built shortly after the brothers redesigned their San Bernardino restaurant around a faster self-service system. Its two tall yellow arches are an early example of the visual identity that later defined McDonald's worldwide.
The Downey location is often called the oldest surviving McDonald's restaurant because the earlier San Bernardino restaurant was demolished. The distinction refers to the surviving building, not necessarily to the first McDonald's business or the oldest continuously operating location in every possible sense.
The site later became a museum and remained a prominent landmark. Its preserved architecture allows visitors to compare the 1950s restaurant format with the much more standardized stores that followed as McDonald's expanded under Ray Kroc.