McDonald's first used its famous golden arches on a restaurant building in Phoenix, Arizona.
The arches were part of the restaurant design developed for McDonald's during the 1950s. Architect Stanley Clark Meston created the building concept, while the large yellow arches made the roadside restaurant visible to passing motorists. The Phoenix location is associated with the first use of the arches as an architectural feature.
At first, the arches were separate structures positioned at the sides of the building. Their visual impact helped create a distinctive restaurant silhouette before the arches were later combined into the familiar M-shaped corporate logo.
This architectural history is often confused with the date of the modern logo. The first building arches appeared earlier, while the combined-arches symbol was developed later. Des Plaines is important because it was Ray Kroc's first franchised restaurant, and San Bernardino is the site of the McDonald brothers' original business, but neither city answers this specific question.