Juan Pollo Restaurants owns and operates the Site of the Original McDonalds Museum located in San Bernardino, Calif.
In 1940, Dick and Mac Mcdonald opened McDonald's Barbeque Restaurant in San Bernardino, California, at 14th st. and E st. They had a staff of 20 attractive carhops and a 25 item menu that included barbeque ribs, beef, and pork sandwiches. They soon became the #1 teen hangout in the San Bernardino.
Although the brothers were becoming very wealthy, they felt that there were too many headaches to running a large operation and felt there had to be a better system.
Dick Mcdonald started studying his sales item by item and realized that 80% of his sandwiches sold were hamburgers! The brothers also realized two more important factors that shaped their thinking.
1. Although the restaurant was very busy, teens would hang out, chat with the carhops and not leave after eating thus reducing turnover. Less turnover meant less sales and less profit.
2. World War II ended and everyone was anxious to start new families. The brothers realized the potential of the coming baby boom generation and in turn wanted to create a wholesome family restaurant atmosphere to cater to them.
In October of 1948, the brothers took the plunge (against the advice of all their customers) and closed their successful restaurant, terminated all their attractive carhops, reduced their menu to cheeseburgers, hamburgers, milkshakes, and fountain sodas, and reorganized their kitchen in order to specialize in speed of service, simplicity of menu, and low prices.
Their revolutionary thinking forever changed the restaurant industry.
The site of the birthplace of Mcdonalds and the modern fast food industry is open to the public every day from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm.
NOVEMBER 26, 2004
THE LOS ANGELES TIMES
Times Staff Writer / HUGO MARTIN
Exerts from Article / Museum McDonalds
In 1940,Richard and Maurice McDonald installed a converted airdrome structure at 14th and North E and opened a neighborhood barbeque joint.
The restaurant was popular, but the brothers realized eight years later that the business would be more profitable if they focused primarily on hamburgers, so they created a production system that emphasized speed, low prices and volume. The restaurant reopened with a menu that offered 15-cent burgers and 10-cent French fries.
Ray Kroc was a milkshake blender distributor when he visited the McDonalds in 1954. He was so impressed with the operation that he persuaded the brothers to let him franchise the restaurants across the country.
Kroc eventually bought the exclusive rights to the franchises but the McDonald brothers refused to sell the original burger joint in San Bernardino. The brothers changed the restaurant’s name to “Big M” and Kroc went into competition with the brothers by opening a McDonald’s franchise a block away.
Twenty-eight years after opening the restaurant, the McDonald brothers sold the property to a local restaurateur who turned it into a taco stand, which closed in 1970. The building was later abandoned and razed.
A brick office building behind the restaurant where the McDonald brothers worked remains standing.
In the mid-1970s, a music store was built on the site and was later purchased by the San Bernardino Civic Light Opera. In 1977, the opera went bankrupt.
Albert Okura bought the property for $130,000 in 1998 after reading about the foreclosure in a local paper.
Currently, most of the museum’s visitors are tourists who learned about the site while following the historic byway that travels through San Bernardino.
Admission:Free
Hours:10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Daily
Located at:1398 N. E St. San Bernardino.
Information (909)885-6324
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The McDonalds Museum also is the home of a free Route 66 Museum and the corporate offices of Juan Pollo Restaurants Inc.
The original McDonalds building was demolished in 1971 but several original items still remain. The original parking light poles are still standing. The original office of Dick and Mac McDonald is in the back of the property as well as the room that the brothers perfected the famous french fry proceedures. There are two slabs of the original quarry tile from the original restaurant. The original golden arches (minus the arches) sign is still standing waiting to be fully restored.
The museum contains the most extensive collection of pre-Ray Kroc McDonalds memoribilia such as news article, pictures, and momentos such as menus, straws, cups, a prototype of catsup dispensing gun, a copy of McDonalds menu, etc.
The McDonald brothers came to San Bernardino in 1940 and opened McDonalds Famous Barbeque with car-hop service. In 1948, they reopened as McDonalds hamburgers and the rest is history.
History can be seen daily at the McDonalds Museum. Admission is free and we are open daily until 5pm. Arrangements for after hours tours by McDonalds historian, Jack Marcus, are available by calling Juan Pollo corporate offices (909) 8856324.
