Which McDonald’s restaurant opened in 1955 and is preserved as a company museum in Des Plaines, Illinois?

The Des Plaines site was McDonald’s ninth restaurant, opened in 1955.

Ray Kroc opened the restaurant in Des Plaines, Illinois, after becoming the McDonald brothers’ franchise agent. It is often described as the first McDonald’s restaurant operated by Kroc, but it was not the original McDonald brothers’ location and was not the ninth restaurant in the broader history by accident: eight earlier McDonald’s restaurants already existed.

The site became an important corporate landmark because it represented the beginning of Kroc’s expansion of the system. A reconstruction and museum presentation later preserved the restaurant’s early appearance and interpreted its place in company history.

San Bernardino, California, was where Richard and Maurice McDonald developed their original restaurant business. That location therefore remains essential to McDonald’s origins, while Des Plaines marks Kroc’s franchising chapter.