Fact Check

Is This a Real McDonald's Sign with Only One Arch?

Photos of McDonald's signs with only one arch have gone viral, so we decided to investigate.

Published Jun 12, 2023

 ( Getty Images)
Image Via Getty Images
Claim:
Some McDonald's locations features sign with a single golden arch instead of the usual two.

For some years, social media users have been sharing pictures and various videos of McDonald's single-arched signs. 

the mcdonalds in my town has a sign with only one arch (@HalxQuixotic/Reddit)

Some even added that the single-arched sign also featured an image of Speedee (the first McDonald's mascot). McDonald's restaurants are recognized the world over for the double "golden arches" incorporated into their signage and/or architecture. Although it might seem improbable, McDonald's signs with one arch exist as well, and here's why.

Although the Golden Arches remain the symbol of McDonald's, some signs still might feature the older version. Investigating the case, we found a Google Maps image from a McDonald's restaurant in Montrose captured in 2012 that featured an image of Speedee, even though the character was officially dropped in 1962 when market research showed that people identified McDonald's mainly with the golden arches.

The official McDonald's website offers information on the world's oldest operating McDonald's. "From the fishbowl-style kitchen to the sixty-foot, single-arch 'Speedee' street sign, see for yourself how McDonald's became the fan favorite it is today," the description states. The famous arch actually originated from the fact that "the roof line was a bit too flat and Dick McDonald added arches to the building." In fact, only years later, McDonald's introduced their famous logo known as the Golden Arches. Nowadays, only a few locations with the single-arched version are reported to be found in the whole world.


An adapted Mansard Roof of remodeled Red & White building 1970 features a traditional Speedee road sign (McDonald's website).

This is not the first time we have fact-checked stories about McDonald's. In April 2014, we debunked false rumors that an Oklahoma City McDonald's outlet was caught with horse meat and human meat in their freezers. In 2020, we proved that McDonald's did not remove American flags from its restaurants nationwide in order to support antifa and the Black Lives Matter movement. At the beginning of 2022, we fact-checked rumors that McDonald's put up a billboard reading "Hey Crypto Bro's, We Are Hiring," which also turned out to be false.

Sources

A Craveable and Delicious Road Trip: 13 of the Most Iconic McDonald's across America. https://www.mcdonalds.com/corpmcd/our-stories/article/iconic-restaurants.html. Accessed 12 June 2023.

Buckingham, Cheyenne. "McDonald's Rare Original Golden Arch Can Only Be Found In These States." Eat This Not That, 25 Sept. 2020, https://www.eatthis.com/states-rare-mcdonalds-sign/.

Evon, Dan. "Did McDonald's Remove American Flags Nationwide?" Snopes, 17 Sept. 2020, https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/mcdonalds-remove-american-flags/.

---. "Hey 'Crypto Bro's,' That McDonald's Billboard Is Fake." Snopes, 12 Jan. 2022, https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/crypto-mcdonalds-billboard/.

---. "Was McDonald's Exposed for Using Human Meat?" Snopes, 7 Apr. 2014, https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/swap-meat/.

Hess, Alan. "The Origins of McDonald's Golden Arches." Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, vol. 45, no. 1, 1986, pp. 60–67. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/990129.

McDonalds Articles | Snopes.Com. https://www.snopes.com/search/McDonalds/. Accessed 12 June 2023.

NJ.com, Steve Strunsky |. NJ Advance Media for. "Only 7 Original McDonald's Golden Arches Still Exist, and One Is in N.J." Nj, 10 Dec. 2018, https://www.nj.com/news/erry-2018/12/1a10ff04728920/only-7-original-mcdonalds-gold.html.

Our History: Ray Kroc & The McDonald's Brothers | McDonald's. https://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en-us/about-us/our-history.html. Accessed 12 June 2023.

"Speedee." McDonald's Wiki, https://mcdonalds.fandom.com/wiki/Speedee. Accessed 12 June 2023.

Aleksandra Wrona is a reporting fellow for Snopes, based in the Warsaw area.