Ray Kroc opened the first McDonald's restaurant built under his operating company in Des Plaines, Illinois, in 1955.
The restaurant was located at 400 North Lee Street and opened on April 15, 1955. Kroc's company, originally called McDonald's System, Inc., used the site as a model for franchising the McDonald brothers' limited-menu, fast-service system.
People sometimes call this restaurant the first McDonald's, but the brothers' original restaurant in San Bernardino, California, opened in 1940. Kroc's Des Plaines restaurant was instead the first outlet of the organization that would develop into the modern McDonald's Corporation.
The Des Plaines building later became a museum and a symbol of the chain's franchising history. It helped demonstrate how consistent architecture, signage, food preparation, and customer service could make the brand recognizable from one location to another.