Which McDonald's restaurant opened in 1955 as the ninth location in the chain?

The Des Plaines McDonald's opened in 1955 as the ninth location in the McDonald's chain.

Ray Kroc opened the restaurant in Des Plaines, Illinois, on April 15, 1955. It was the first McDonald's location established under Kroc's operating company and became an important landmark in the chain's corporate history.

The restaurant was designed to present a consistent McDonald's identity, including the red-and-white building style and prominent golden arches. Its opening helped demonstrate how the brothers' standardized restaurant model could be expanded through franchising.

The site is sometimes described as the “first McDonald's,” but that wording can mislead. The McDonald brothers' original restaurant in San Bernardino opened earlier, in 1940, and their redesigned Speedee Service System began there in 1948. The Des Plaines site was the first restaurant in Kroc's McDonald's system.