{"id":6292,"date":"2026-05-14T19:01:35","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T19:01:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=6292"},"modified":"2026-05-14T19:01:35","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T19:01:35","slug":"2nd-oldest-mcdonalds-building-may-get-historic-status-in-pomona","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=6292","title":{"rendered":"2nd-oldest McDonald\u2019s building may get historic status in Pomona"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

AMA Donuts doesn\u2019t look like much: a low-slung, glass-fronted building behind a large, faded sign in a cracked, crumbling asphalt lot.<\/p>\n

Read more FIFA announces Super Bowl-style World Cup final halftime show featuring Madonna, Shakira and BTS<\/a><\/p>\n

But look more closely. The sign, painted red and yellow, may call up buried memories. The building\u2019s roof and facade are tilted. The tile is red and white. At each end of the building is, cut off at the roofline, a partial arch.<\/p>\n

This modest donut shop, at 1057 E. Mission Blvd. in Pomona, was one of the earliest McDonald\u2019s, built before Ray Kroc bought the small chain and took it global.<\/p>\n

Founders Dick and Maurice \u201cMac\u201d McDonald created the concept in San Bernardino: a walk-up stand that sold hamburgers, cheeseburgers, fries and malts, all made at lightning speed in an assembly-line process.<\/p>\n

Opened Dec. 22, 1948, the 1396 N. E St. McDonald\u2019s became a sensation. In 1953, the McDonald brothers rebuilt the stand in their new \u201cGolden Arches\u201d design, a neon yellow arch on each side, and offered franchising opportunities.<\/p>\n

In order, McDonald\u2019s opened in Phoenix, Downey, North Hollywood, Alhambra, Sacramento, Pomona and Azusa. Pomona\u2019s opened on Sept. 3, 1954. Azusa\u2019s, the eighth in the chain, followed two weeks later.<\/p>\n

Kroc got involved in 1955 as franchise agent before buying out the brothers in 1961.\u00a0McDonald\u2019s now has more than 45,000 restaurants all over the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got No. 7,\u201d Geoff\u00a0Starns, Pomona City Hall\u2019s planning manager, said with satisfaction.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

\u201cAnd,\u201d boasts Mike Schowalter, president of the Historical Society of the Pomona Valley, \u201cit\u2019s the second-oldest standing today.\u201d<\/p>\n

A half-dozen of us \u2014 but not Grimace or the Hamburglar \u2014 convened at AMA Donuts in late April to discuss this exceedingly humble building that may become the city\u2019s next historic landmark.<\/p>\n

Mayor Tim Sandoval joined us at my invitation.\u00a0Before we went inside, Sandoval joked that he was going to order \u201ca Quarter Pounder with Cheese between two donuts.\u201d He settled for a maple bar and a container of milk.<\/p>\n

At least we had Mayor McCheese!<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

Pomona\u2019s Historic Preservation Commission had voted unanimously on April 1 to recommend protection of the building. The City Council is scheduled to take up the designation on Monday, May 18.<\/p>\n

Status as a city landmark would mean that if the owner wanted to alter or demolish the building, the City Council would have to agree that the benefits outweighed the cultural loss, Starns explained to our group, which occupied two canary yellow booths.<\/p>\n

Carlos Molina, an associate city planner, had researched the building\u2019s history and context. He connected the 1954 building to other restaurant chains with early buildings still in existence around town: two former Arby\u2019s, a former Taco Bell and a Wienerschnitzel, still operating out of a red and yellow A-frame.<\/p>\n

I brought up an early 1960s Denny\u2019s that\u2019s now a La Michoacana ice cream shop.<\/p>\n

Starns said those are among 10 Googie-era roadside architecture survivors. They made it this long due not to civic farsightedness but to neglect.<\/p>\n

When the 10 and 60 freeways opened, traffic on former main drags Mission Boulevard and Holt Avenue dropped dramatically. The city also declined economically. Investment dried up.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll these unique buildings got frozen in time. It was cheaper to reuse them,\u201d Schowalter said. \u201cIt was that reuse that saved them.\u201d<\/p>\n

The last member of our cruller crew was Chris Nichols.<\/p>\n

An advocate for Midcentury Modern architecture, Nichols grew up in Azusa walking past its decaying 1954 McDonald\u2019s, then abandoned, later demolished, on his way to high school. \u201cI was fascinated that such a futuristic building could be in ruins,\u201d he recalled.<\/p>\n

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Nichols and I have been talking about the Pomona McDonald\u2019s since 2004, when I wrote about the building\u2019s claim to fame in time for its 50th anniversary. Where does the time go?<\/p>\n

At AMA, I asked him about the environment in which the early franchises operated, as Molina and I both jotted notes.<\/p>\n

The McDonald brothers, Nichols explained, would sell operators a set of blueprints and a manual outlining their \u201cSpeedee Service System.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the early \u201950s, fast food was booming. If you were on the ball, you could see that this was the next big thing,\u201d Nichols said.<\/p>\n

When Kroc took over the company, the locations franchised by the brothers were ignored by the corporation, Nichols said.<\/p>\n

Of the eight pre-Kroc McDonald\u2019s, six were eventually demolished, all but Downey and Pomona.<\/p>\n

Downey\u2019s was due to be razed in the early 1990s, but a public pressure campaign, in which Nichols was involved, succeeded. McDonald\u2019s embraced the building and restored it as an homage to the original, with walk-up service and outdoor dining.<\/p>\n

Tourists visit it for a taste of an icon of America.\u00a0Meanwhile, in Pomona, the building has survived under the radar.<\/p>\n

In 1968, when McDonald\u2019s closed, the arches were chopped off at the roofline and the sign altered to remove the McDonald\u2019s branding. But its origins are hiding in plain sight.<\/p>\n

Nichols walked us around, pointing out original and altered features. Some of the windows are still canted. The exterior counter where people would walk up and order burgers, fries and shakes \u2014 at different windows \u2014 remains.<\/p>\n

Nichols approached the freestanding sign.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis may be the only sign of its type that still exists,\u201d Nichols said. And, he said, \u201cthe fact that they painted it red and yellow makes it recognizable.\u201d<\/p>\n

So does the other signature feature.<\/p>\n

\u201cAmazingly,\u201d Nichols marveled, \u201cthis store kept the bottom part of the arches.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last year the property owner applied to the Planning Department for a determination of the building\u2019s historic significance. \u201cThey want to sell it. That\u2019s all they\u2019ve told us,\u201d Starns said.<\/p>\n

\u201cCould McDonald\u2019s buy it and reopen it?\u201d Schowalter asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe owner told us he reached out to McDonald\u2019s,\u201d Starns replied, \u201cand the answer was a flat-out no.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a challenging part of town. A shopping cart was parked by the sign. A homeless person was lying down near one of the arches.<\/p>\n

AMA Donuts operators Carlos Samayo and Maria Urias are aware of the history. Architecture students at Cal Poly Pomona have taken photos of the building, explaining that it was an early McDonald\u2019s, Samayo said in Spanish.<\/p>\n

The shop opened in 1986: 40 years ago.<\/p>\n

Said Starns: \u201cIt\u2019s been AMA Donuts longer than it was a McDonald\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n

David Allen writes Friday, Sunday and Wednesday, archly. Email dallen@scng.com, phone 909-483-9339, and follow davidallencolumnist on Facebook or Instagram, @davidallen909 on X or @davidallen909.bsky.social on Bluesky.<\/em><\/p>\n

Read more More courts for pickleball at Laguna Niguel Regional Park<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

City Council may offer landmark protection to 1954 building that was the seventh-ever McDonald’s, columnist David Allen writes. It closed as a McDonald’s in 1968 and is now a donut shop.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6291,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-analysis","category-expert-opinion"],"yoast_head":"\n2nd-oldest McDonald\u2019s building may get historic status in Pomona - Silicon Valley Moving Post<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=6292\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"2nd-oldest McDonald\u2019s building may get historic status in Pomona - Silicon Valley Moving Post\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"City Council may offer landmark protection to 1954 building that was the seventh-ever McDonald's, columnist David Allen writes. 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