Industry History | McDonald's — The Lot at 14th and E

People treat McDonald's as Ray Kroc's first stand in Des Plaines.

The first shop was a San Bernardino barbecue.

In May 1940 Richard and Maurice McDonald opened McDonald's Famous Barbecue at 1398 North E Street, at 14th.

It was a car-hop drive-in with a long menu.

In 1948 they closed the pit, cut the list, and rebuilt the same lot as a self-service hamburger stand.

The Speedee Service System split the kitchen into stations and sold a hamburger for 15 cents.

In 1953 they razed the octagon and put up the first golden-arches building on that corner.

Ray Kroc, then selling Multimixer milkshake machines, saw the San Bernardino line in 1954.

He opened a franchise in Des Plaines on 15 April 1955 and later bought the brothers out.

The 1953 arches building on E Street was demolished in 1972.

An unofficial museum and the lower half of a 15-cent sign now occupy the lot.

The Des Plaines replica museum closed in 2018.

The mechanism that traveled was the 1948 kitchen, not the 1955 franchise paper.

Photo: Site of the first McDonald's, San Bernardino, via Wikimedia Commons.