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Jeff wrote:I was at the new McD's the other day on Valley in Rosemead. Something unique that I never knew was that the original a few blocks west was originally an arch building built in the late 50's and was identical to the one in Downey. They have pictures of the store in the 70s as it was getting expanded and remodeled into the mansard roof style. There are many awesome pictures in the new store of the old store which they closed a few years back after moving east a few blocks.

I wonder how many original mcds were remodeled this way...

Now I just wish you could please give me those pictures...

~Ben

Jeff wrote:I was at the new McD's the other day on Valley in Rosemead. Something unique that I never knew was that the original a few blocks west was originally an arch building built in the late 50's and was identical to the one in Downey. They have pictures of the store in the 70s as it was getting expanded and remodeled into the mansard roof style. There are many awesome pictures in the new store of the old store which they closed a few years back after moving east a few blocks.

I wonder how many original mcds were remodeled this way...

I REALLY want to say the store at 9475 SW Beaverton-Hillsdale Hwy, Beaverton, OR was remodeled this way.

Definitely was an old arch building there originally, and I want to say I remember them remodeling it into the old mansard it is today, not demolishing the existing structure.

Hi, Gang!

The McDonald's at 12919 Victory Blvd (North Side, just West of Coldwater) in North Hollywood has an interesting history. The original burger stand at this location was called Peek's (or maybe Peak's) and looked much like the early McDonald's building design--including the number of burgers sold on their sign. McDonald's took over the location circa 1962, and it didn't require an extensive remodel to convert Peek's to McDonald's. One immediate effect was that the price of the hamburgers went DOWN from 19 Cents to 15 Cents.

A little to the West was the Victory Drive-In Theater, long gone.

The building got its Mansard remodel in the early 1970s, and has been remodeled at least a couple of times since then. After the Mansard remodel, you could still see some vestiges of the old exterior in the passageways leading to the restrooms. Haven't been in the restrooms since then, but I would doubt that any of this detail would remain.

While trying to find the address of this location, I see Google is returning some stories of a shooting incident at this site late last year. Oh, well ...

storeliker wrote: ... and a real small one in Fremont on Grimmer that was really small.

And now from the other end of the state. I moved to Fremont in 1985 and the Grimmer location was my nearest McDonald's. It was pretty small, Mansard design--the interior done up in a Carousel motif. Carousel horse pictures on the walls. There was even a small, non-working Carousel in the back of the dining area (two or three horses)--and the restrooms were accessed through exterior doors.

A few years later, the Carousel was removed for more seating, and the restrooms were now accessable from the interior of the restaurant. One of the Carousel horses was saved, and shoe-horned into the decor.

The building was demolished in early 2010, and replaced by a retro McDonald's--which in my opinion was botched. The exterior looks somewhat like a circa 1950s McDonald's--but the building is too large and too close to the street to really pull this off. The interior just looks wrong. While there really were no interiors in the early McDonald's to compare to, the Grimmer remodel has a few "Speedee" references awkwardly sprinkled in with modern McDonald's logos. And the furniture and decor could be from any time period.

Much more successful is the "forever young" McDonald's at the US 101 and SR 46 East exit in Paso Robles. Maybe the interior is a little over the top with the Happy Days/American Graffiti look, but still fun. Check that one out if you're ever in California's Central Coast area!

McDonalds at Lee Hwy just W of Glebe Rd in Arlington, Va: started out as a Golden Arch unit then remodeled to a mansard ca. 1975. Left NoVa in 1978.

Does anyone remember the first McD's established in the Pacific NW, ever? It is in Portland, OR at the corner of NE 122nd Ave. & Glisan St.

The location opened on February 26, 1960, and was managed by a group of employees headed by Oliver W. "Ollie" Lund. The address proper was 551 NE 122nd Ave., but is currently under the address of 12109 NE Glisan St.

~Ben

wrallen99 wrote: ↑23 Dec 2010 17:51 There's another old McDonalds (#1386) at 1420 S El Camino Real, San Mateo, CA 94402-3020. There still is not a drivethru and the restaurant is pretty small with very little seating. It has a basement storeroom. However, it has parking both beside the parking lot and across the street.

http://www.bing.com/maps/#JnE9LjE0MjArU ... U1MTg5Nw==

http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&q=mcd ... 17,,0,2.66

I don't know how busy it is now, but back in the early 90's it was still very busy for such a small restaurant. Back then, it was owned by the corporation (according to someone that worked there), but is a franchisee now (according to its homepage). I had the opportunity to visit it last year and it's run down on the inside compared to when it was corporate.

I worked at a similar location in the late 1980s9June 1987-February 1988) in Placentia, California, on Kraemer and Yorba Linda. At the time, it didn't have a drive thru, due to local ordinances at the time, and the storeroom and employee break room were in the basement. Whenever they received deliveries, they would put a slide over half the stairwell, and slide product down to the storeroom.

Dean wrote: ↑03 Jul 2008 14:12 The La Habra CA McDonald's on Whittier Boulevard near Harbor Boulevard is an older site.

Older in that it was built before drive-thrus were the norm.

The drive-thru was added to the side of the building...yet it is far from the kitchen. I believe the restrooms are in between.

So, to get the food to the drive-thru window...there is a conveyor belt...that carries the food up and over the distance to the drive-thru window.

It is a quite a sight!

A couple bits of info about that particular McDonald's. First, the precise location is the corner of Whittier Boulevard and Stonewood Street(and for just over 4 decades, was located directly across the street from probably the most whimsically named restaurant in the history of La Habra, The Cat and Custard Cup). Second, the drive thru window was originally located in a small booth located about 10 feet from the kitchen. This is due to the fact that the drive thru was added in approximately June 1983, a couple years after that particular restaurant added a side lobby with indoor accessible bathrooms. Until the side lobby was added(I don't remember exactly when, but my guess would be 1980-1981), restrooms were only accessible from the outside.

Gunter Caddington wrote: ↑01 Mar 2011 23:40 Hi, Gang!

The McDonald's at 12919 Victory Blvd (North Side, just West of Coldwater) in North Hollywood has an interesting history. The original burger stand at this location was called Peek's (or maybe Peak's) and looked much like the early McDonald's building design--including the number of burgers sold on their sign. McDonald's took over the location circa 1962, and it didn't require an extensive remodel to convert Peek's to McDonald's. One immediate effect was that the price of the hamburgers went DOWN from 19 Cents to 15 Cents.

A little to the West was the Victory Drive-In Theater, long gone.

The building got its Mansard remodel in the early 1970s, and has been remodeled at least a couple of times since then. After the Mansard remodel, you could still see some vestiges of the old exterior in the passageways leading to the restrooms. Haven't been in the restrooms since then, but I would doubt that any of this detail would remain.

While trying to find the address of this location, I see Google is returning some stories of a shooting incident at this site late last year. Oh, well ...

As I remember from reading about the brand, that was one of the original franchisees from the brothers directly (before Kroc was involved), and the person later decided to change the name to Peaks, along with somehow altering the arches to come to an actual Peak :)

Hadn't mentioned in that where I read that they eventually went back to McDonald's (the later corporation with Kroc), but it probably makes sense that someone would see the value of the more known brand and other savings that would come from it.