McDonald's opened its first franchised restaurant in Phoenix, Arizona, in 1953, using the early Golden Arches design.
The restaurant was operated by Neil Fox and designed by architect Stanley Clark Meston with assistance from Charles Fish. Its building used large yellow arches at the sides, an architectural feature that made the restaurant highly visible to passing motorists. The arches were initially part of the building’s roadside identity rather than simply a flat corporate emblem.
The Phoenix restaurant helped establish a recognizable visual style as McDonald’s moved beyond the original San Bernardino operation. The arches were later combined into the familiar letter-shaped “M” logo, turning an architectural feature into one of the world’s best-known brand symbols.
Phoenix is sometimes confused with Des Plaines, Illinois, which was the site of Ray Kroc’s first McDonald’s restaurant after he began expanding the business. Those locations played different roles in the company’s history.