The Huntsville Times had an article today about the city's original McDonald's and how only two of the old neon signs remain (the other in Muncie Indiana). This piece of history is in danger of being destructed because of damaged neon tubes and crumbling ceramic after being hit by an automobile a year ago. The corporation of course would rather replace this antique of course and build one of the new modern Starbuck coffee serving McDonald's of today. I hope that some resource somewhere will come to the rescue of this venerable old location and save this piece of history.
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Updated Information
Single-arch McDonald's sign coming down after 45 year run
Posted by shaskins April 22, 2008 10:24AM
Dave DieterChad Johson with Empire Crane of Huntsville begins taking down the entrance sign in front of the McDonald's on Memorial Parkway access road near Drake Avenue. Workers today are dismantling the single-arch McDonald's sign at the South Memorial Parkway McDonald's - one of only two single-arch signs still in use - and preparing to send it to the American Sign Museum in Cincinnatti, Ohio.
The ceremic sign, erected in 1963, can't be restored on site because of new building codes, and must be removed as part of the restaurant's renovation, said Steve Johnson, owner/operator of Johnson Partners, the McDonald's franchisee.
The restaurant is closed while undergoing renovations.
Update:
McDonald's sign moving to Ohio
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
By STEVE DOYLE
Times Staff Writer steve.doyle@htimes.com Museum to get Speedee, Huntsville landmark
Speedee, the winking cartoon chef who helped lure generations of Huntsvillians to the McDonald's on South Memorial Parkway between Drake and Bob Wallace avenues, has sold his last burger.
On Tuesday, workers from Empire Crane & Rigging took down the weathered neon arch that had been Speedee's home since September 1963 Ѡtwo months before the assassination of President Kennedy. The vintage sign was removed as part of a complete makeover of the restaurant, the city's first McDonald's.
Don't cry for Speedee: He's being adopted by the American Sign Museum in Cincinnati, which plans to clean up the rare, single golden arch sign and display it with about 500 other classic business marquees. Huntsville's Speedee and another in Muncie, Ind., were believed to be the last still peddling burgers for McDonald's.
The fast-food giant traded in Speedee for the more kid-friendly Ronald McDonald in 1966.
"There's an emotional tie to signs like this," Tod Swormstedt, the sign museum's founder, said Tuesday. "It kind of harkens back to days when times were simpler, life was slower-paced. We're glad to have it."
Steve Johnson, who co-owns all the McDonald's restaurants in Huntsville and Madison, agreed to turn Speedee over to the museum after trying unsuccessfully to get him moved to the EarlyWorks museum complex. The sign's ceramic facade had become brittle after 45 years outside, he said, and some of its neon parts had stopped working.
"With the size of the sign, it was hard to find a way to preserve it locally," Johnson said Tuesday. "This way, it's going to be refurbished, housed indoors and taken care of."
EarlyWorks Executive Director Bart Williams said Speedee would have been perfect for the Historic Huntsville Depot & Museum on Church Street. Officials there recreated Eunice's Country Kitchen, a beloved local restaurant operated by Eunice Merrell from 1952 to 2004.
Then reality set in: The museum would have had to quickly raise $40,000-$50,000 to move, fix up and install the fragile sign, Williams said.
"We just don't have that kind of money laying around for emergency acquisitions," he said Tuesday. "We try our darndest to preserve those local icons and landmarks; that's why you have museums.
"But, sometimes, we have to let things go."
EarlyWorks' loss is the sign museum's gain. The museum is getting ready to move to a larger space where it plans to recreate an idyllic Main Street to display its growing collection, Swormstedt said.
"We already have a place mapped out" for Speedee, he said. "We'll do a limited amount of restoration just to get it working again, but we like to keep the patina. Part of a sign's life and history is the weathering process."
Introduced by McDonald's in 1948, Speedee was named for the system that allowed the restaurant chain to cook and serve food faster than its competitors. Swormstedt, who edited a trade journal called Signs of the Times, said the tiny chef with pumping neon legs is pure Americana.
"To each person, it might have a special meaning," he said. "Maybe it's cruising the McDonald's back in those days with your girlfriend or with your buddies."
Swormstedt said Speedee will be stored in Huntsville until the museum can make arrangements to have him shipped to Ohio.
Johnson, the McDonald's franchise owner, said the restaurant across from Parkway Place closed Sunday and will be demolished in the next couple of weeks. A new McDonald's with wireless Internet and other modern touches will reopen there this summer, he said.
"Our customers are asking for a more upscale environment," said Johnson, who owns the restaurant with his father, Jack Johnson. "The new store will be built to accommodate the next big initiative with McDonald's, which is specialty coffees."
As the first McDonald's in the Rocket City and No. 551 overall (there are now more than 30,000 worldwide), the South Parkway location introduced fast food to this area and got legions of people hooked on Big Macs. Speedee's demise has been rumored for months, and Steve Johnson said many regular customers came by to pose for pictures in front of the faded red and yellow sign.
He said he understands the sign's importance to the community and plans to honor it at the rebuilt restaurant.
"Somehow, we're going to incorporate a marker that this was the first McDonald's in Huntsville," Johnson said, "and highlight the fact that we had the sign."
