It May Have Been a Final Stand for McDonald’s Fans : Preservation: Corporate officials remain undeterred in their plans to close the historic but outdated outlet.
Mounting pressure to save Downey’s historic McDonald’s has sold hamburgers and inspired verse, but failed to alter plans to shut down the 40-year-old landmark.
McDonald’s corporate officials said they are sticking with plans to close the fast-food outlet because it is not making enough money. The restaurant, a monument to fast-food marketing and a reminder of days gone by, is the last operating McDonald’s preserving the original architecture used by the chain.
Statements of support for the food stand have flooded in from historic-preservation groups, the Downey City Council and a congressman. Thousands of area residents signed petitions and hundreds pledged to buy Big Macs and shakes.
Such efforts hit high gear last weekend when a rally in front of the fast-food outlet drew more than 100 enthusiasts who waved placards, compared vintage cars and munched cheeseburgers.
“It’s more than a hamburger stand,” said Gregg Davidson, associate director of the Los Angeles Conservancy, an organization dedicated to preserving historic landmarks. “McDonald’s changed the way we ate.”
Downey’s red-and-white tiled McDonald’s, with two built-in golden neon arches, is an icon for the baby-boomer generation, Davidson said.
But the stand at Lakewood Boulevard and Florence Avenue has fallen victim to the needs of the latter-day consumer.
“The facility doesn’t have enough space for the modern equipment we are putting in all of our restaurants,” said Anita Faunce, a spokeswoman for McDonald’s. “This equipment allows us to serve customers our newer products. If we can’t do that in Downey, we would end up disappointing a lot of our customers.”
The stand’s other drawbacks include having no indoor seating and no room for a drive-through window, Faunce said.
McDonald’s lease for the site expires at the end of the year. McDonald’s has no interest in a recent offer from the landowner to renew the lease for less than market value, Faunce added.
She said no decision has been made on when to dismantle the stand. The corporation is willing to save one monument from the site, a 60-foot sign crowned by a bow-tied, winking neon chef, whose nickname is “Speedee.” McDonald’s would move the sign to another Downey McDonald’s, she said.
Faunce would not discuss whether the stand is making money or whether business has improved recently.
Inquiries about the fate of the food stand have come from as far away as an Austrian radio station and a Berlin newspaper, Downey officials said. Petition drives to save the stand have begun in Pennsylvania and New York.
Downey officials have collected more than 8,000 signatures from patrons who want the burger stand to stay open.
In April, City Council members passed a resolution urging the McDonald’s Corp. to keep operating the restaurant. The resolution recognizes the McDonald’s as “the first hamburger stand ever to be deemed eligible for the National Register of Historic Places.”
Councilwoman Joyce L. Lawrence even penned verses “dedicated to Downey’s historic burger stand, with a plea to the McCorporate Moguls.”
The four stanza “McPoem” begins:
“‘We deserve a break today . . .’
Do not take our youth away!
Here we met for shakes and fries
While Downey grew ‘neath sunny skies.”
“It’s kind of corny,” Lawrence conceded.
Rep. Steve Horn (R-Long Beach), who represents Downey, entered statements supporting the McDonald’s into the Congressional Record and lobbied President Clinton by letter.
The White House has remained neutral, according to city officials.
A local Downey paper printed a “Solemn Pledge” form for residents to put their money and their mouths behind saving the restaurant by promising to buy specific numbers of burgers and other foods.
City Hall collected the forms. A partial tabulation has reached 18,695 food items so far.
“I got a phony pledge from David Rockefeller saying he was going to buy 100,000 more of everything,” Councilwoman Lawrence said. “The address was New York, but it was postmarked Marina del Rey, so I’m not paying attention to it.”
During last Sunday’s rally, the food lines extended into the surrounding parking lot. One employee said the stand did at least three times the normal business. Placards in English and Spanish carried messages such as “Honk for the Golden Arches,” “No Fallen Arches” and “Just Say No to Demolition.”
One man dressed in a “Sir Speedee” costume.
“We chanted, ‘Burgers: Yes, Demolition: No,’ but it was good-humored, good-natured,” Lawrence said.
“We’ll do whatever we have to do. McDonald’s is a multibillion-dollar corporation, and we’ll help them make more money.”
Last Tuesday afternoon, patron Carlos Llanes was biting into his first hamburger from the stand. The building meant little to him, and the lack of a drive-through was inconvenient. “It’s just a place to eat,” Llanes said.
But Arlene Roldan, a La Puente resident, brought her daughters, ages 6 and 4, for a meal just so they could see the place.
Much the same was true for Steven Hood, a Los Angeles teacher who was showing off the stand to Hongyi Hon.
“My friend just moved here from South Carolina, and I wanted to show him what a real McDonald’s looked like and why it’s called the Golden Arches,” Hood explained.
Downey resident Makis Fotinatos, sitting nearby, explained that he was a regular of sorts. “I come here just for coffee because I am a vegetarian,” he said. “This place is a kind of monument in Downey, so I will try to help it. Every day, I drink coffee. It’s only 86 cents, but it’s something.”
