On what date did Ray Kroc open his first McDonald's franchise in Des Plaines?

Ray Kroc opened his first McDonald’s franchise in Des Plaines, Illinois, on April 15, 1955. The restaurant stood at 400 North Lee Street and became the first McDonald’s opened under Kroc’s franchising operation.

The Des Plaines location was historically important because it marked Kroc’s move from selling the McDonald brothers’ franchise concept to building a separate national organization. It was also McDonald’s first restaurant in a colder climate, so the building included adaptations such as a basement furnace. Kroc operated it through McDonald’s Systems, Inc., the company that later became McDonald’s Corporation.

The date is sometimes confused with other milestones. The McDonald brothers’ first restaurant opened in San Bernardino in 1940, while the first restaurant using Stanley Clark Meston’s Golden Arches design opened in Phoenix in 1953. Des Plaines was Kroc’s first outlet, not the brothers’ first restaurant.

The original Des Plaines building was demolished in 1984, but McDonald’s later built a replica museum on the site. That replica closed and was demolished in 2018 after repeated flooding.