Route 66 Road Trip Original McDonald’s Location In San Bernadino California

Day two of our Road Trip from San Francisco to Kansas City brought us to San Bernardino California.  Being two girls from the Midwest, myself from Chicago and Katherine from Kansas City we certainly enjoy a good burger. For that reason we both agreed seeing the original McDonald’s would be a fun stop on our Route 66 Road Trip. Reminder, since the Road Trips posts are being written while on the road please ignore the brevity, but I hope you enjoy the pictures and some of the information provided about each site courtesy of Wikopedia.com.

San Bernardino is the home of many firsts, including the first U.S. appearance by The Rolling Stones. It’s also the birthplace of Taco Bell, Bakers, and home of the World’s First McDonald’s! The original building was demolished in 1972, but the current property, also home to the Juan Pollo restaurant chain, hosts an amazing collection of pre-Ray Croc McDonald’s items. Some date back to 1940, when the McDonald Brothers moved the “Airdrome” to San Bernardino.

Originally a barbecue drive-in, the brothers discovered that most of their profits came from hamburgers. In 1948, they closed their restaurant for three months, reopening it in December as a walk-up hamburger stand that sold hamburgers, potato chips, and orange juice; the following year, french fries and Coca-Cola were added to the menu. This simplified menu, and food preparation using assembly line principles, allowed them to sell hamburgers for 15 cents, or about half as much as at a sit-down restaurant. The restaurant was very successful, and the brothers started to franchise the concept in 1953. Description courtesy of Wikopedia.com

Me and Katherine aka Thelma (me) and Louise

A large collection of historic happy meal boxes so cool to check out!

What the original McDonalds looked like years ago… It sure has changed since then!