The Downey, California, restaurant known for its original Golden Arches design is McDonald’s #3. It opened in 1953 and is widely recognized as the oldest surviving McDonald’s restaurant building.
The restaurant was built by Roger Williams and Burdette “Bud” Landon, two early McDonald’s franchisees. Architect Stanley Clark Meston designed the building, including the large yellow arches that projected above the roofline and helped attract motorists.
The Downey site is distinct from the original McDonald brothers’ restaurant in San Bernardino. The San Bernardino location began in 1940, while the Downey building is a later franchise restaurant whose architecture preserved the early arches. The original San Bernardino site is no longer the same surviving restaurant building.
The Downey restaurant’s importance is architectural as well as historical. Its arches show how McDonald’s visual identity developed from roadside building design before the paired arches became a standalone corporate logo.