Mcdonalds isn’t something associated with dread or despair, but
after what you’ll witness these long-forgotten McDonald’s
restaurants, you might have a change of heart about the way you
look at any structure that seems permanent, but particularly ones that serve up Big Mac’s.
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Flavio Grana’s Archless in America This image of an Arch-less McDonald’s is
eerie and unsettling - not just because of the
overgrowth that accompanies it or the thought that the place is done mixing McFlurries and
serving up burgers, but because it is still instantly recognizable, even without its iconic
golden arches.
Given the pace these joints pop up, you’d definitely know what they look
like, even from a distance.
These buildings lack character, with their standard Mansard roofs
being their dead giveaway.
The depth coaxed out of this particular abandoned McDonalds location,
sadly anonymous is stripped of all of its brand
identity, leaving it with no history, just an
idea we have of its past.
This building stands silently in the moonlight, as if waiting for
the photographer to enter and devour its secrets
– or as if to devour him instead.
All that we know is that this building sings a song of its
former glory as it stands alone, a washed out monument
to the very blatant culture of consumerism that
it had stood for all these years, and will continue to stand for, for generations to
come.
It isn’t just the atmosphere of the image that
haunts us, but rather the fact that it’s so
quiet – maybe too quiet.
The overgrowth tells us of its abandonment but the boarded up windows
can’t make us help but wonder what they could
possibly not want us to see on the inside….. or
what they’re keeping away from the outside?
UK’s Sweet and Saucer Secret We’re not sure how many of you are aware
of this, but Roswell.
Has.
Aliens.
Even fast food chains are so subtly trying to tell us this,
which is why a McDonald's in Roswell, NM was built in the shape of a very distinctive flying
saucer – but hold on, they’re not the only ones
that thought of this.
Enter into the ring a former Mcdonald’s restaurant in Alconbury,
UK.
First launched into our world in 1990 as “The Megatron”, this highly specific saucer-shaped
eatery turned out to be a big bang of an interplanetary flop.
Soon, in 1993, it reopened under the McDonald’s group, with its golden
arches and retro-futuristic insides, like somewhere the Jetsons would eat.
A favorite among urban explorers armed with nothing but
their cameras, this site of potential and promise stood in dusty silence for as long
as the land could hold it.
It crumbled into a slow decay.
The windowless interior and the looming exterior makes for a very suffocating atmosphere
and patrons who were young enough to be enticed by its promises remember it being a bland
experience, almost as if sitting in a “septic tank” for a less than stellar meal.
15 years into the game, it shut down for good.
It remained shut and untouched for a good half
of a decade, before being demolished in mid-2008.
The Unexpected “M” It’s not very often that the golden arches
of a McDonald’s can go unnoticed – but these
ones did, and for quite a while.
Discovered by Flickr user ‘rustyjaw’, while he explored an
abandoned naval communications station – it only leaves
us with more questions than answers, one of which
would be what he even was doing there, and what
even is a McDonald’s sign doing at an abandoned naval base.
These eerie pictures of this abandoned station is made lighter and easier
to handle given that they were taken during the
day – but imagine the surprise and shock one
must have felt, stumbling upon this symbol of
consumerism in a place so private – oh the stories those arches can tell us.
This dusty, abandoned building complete with cobwebs,
solitary chairs, tables and mattresses has seen
a lot – but probably not as much as that McLogo.
Why would it even be there?
Was it like a joke in the cafeteria?
Imagine refurbishing and re-electrifying the sign, and then mounting
it on the dining room wall.
That would make some romantic lighting at a bland old naval base,
wouldn't it?
A Stormy McFlurry If you weren't already afraid of Ronald
McDonald, check out this barely standing alter ego of the clown that came about – the closest
to a zombie that you will ever get to see of the
clown without any copyright parodies coming into
the picture.
This guy was found, barely standing in Biloxi, MS shortly after Hurricane Katrina
devastated the area in September of 2005.
It was a while before reconstruction was even brought
into the picture, but by then, as you can see –
it was already too late.
This shattered and shuttered McDonalds, as well as ones that
surrounded the neighboring gulf coast were all
well beyond repair and saving.
These images cover exactly what it must have been like
to have been caught in the eye of the storm,
and getting left behind in the wake of its path
of destruction.
Dripping wet, damp and tattered with not even an erect tree in sight, this
place was left in shambles.
Thankfully no one was hurt in taking this picture, or caught in the middle
of this natural disaster.
Only more bad news follows, as made evident by this horrific
Ronald McDonald that stood as a memorial to the
devastation behind it.
The bad news doesn't end there.
Today, in its place stands another fast food chain, a Wendy’s.
We hope Zombie Ronald got the goodbye he deserved.
McMoon’s McDonald’s Just like the stuff of conspiracy theorists’
dreams – this abandoned McDonald’s was a site of
some major recovery of what was considered to be
“lost” moon images and the conviction of a very
very smart woman.
NASA Archivist, Nancy Evans, refused to destroy 2,500 reels of tape
consisting of complex data recordings of compressed images and radio transmissions,
and therefore made it her responsibility to keep
them away from harm – in an abandoned McDonalds donated by NASA, that eventually did fund
the project.
These images are haunting, not because they’re empty and dreary, but because of
how alive and out of place they are – the tins
of reel, the massive old computers, newer Macs
and piles and piles of paper – no Big Macs.
One of the images is of a sleeping bag among the
reels and boy, it must have been a one of a kind
ride of having been on the team of space aficionados
that got together to work on this level of manual processing.
Eventually, this place was termed McMoon’s, where the initial restoration
took place, and went from being desperately underfunded to being funded with proper dues,
now called the Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project (LOIRP) located just outside the Ames
Research Center in Mountain View California -
making it one small fries for man, and a GIANT computer Mac for mankind.
McDonaldland Remember McDonaldland?
This Mickey D’s that was hugely popular at the time created this magical
universe filled with creepy burger-like animatronic-people who looked like equally
creepy puppets from an early 70’s TV show… the
same reason for its downfall.
After lawyers caught wind of this infringement of copyright,
the concept went to the dogs and became a part
of some untold history.
Today, the abandoned play park consists of stationary bodies of
these burger people as they forlornly look over
the industrial area near I-35 and Grand in Oklahoma city.
Images of this long lost character and more like him were captured
by explorer ‘tikitonite’ and shared online,
for us to see.
The now disassembled playground is a sad sight, like a graveyard for childhood
dreams gone wrong.
With the decay and lack of care, the place has fallen to ruin and
loneliness, with only the wind to keep it company.
If that isn’t sad enough for you, think of it as a place where a LOT of dreams
came to die – mascots and advertising ideas included.
This is why when you do something, make sure someone else hasn’t already done
it first.
Except for exploring these places of course.
The more images we have, the better it is for us!
Filled with characters, mostly old and almost forgotten, the place acts as an
almost morbid museum that, with the slow movement of time, will leave mostly paintless
blocks of plastic shapes behind.
Frozen Golden Arches Established during WWII during the battle
to expel Japanese forces from the Aleutian
Islands, the Adak Naval Air Facility is what helped boost the population of Adak to around
10,000 – as well as what helped support the
world’s northernmost McD’s.
However, by 1997, the base closed down and by 2010 the town’s
population shrunk to a mere 300 – and, as you
might have guessed, the northernmost McDonald’s was an early casualty of what came to be a
super-downsizing.
While it still stands tall where it did all those years ago, it remains
padlocked.
This Flickr user, Travis, visited the place in early summer on 2009 and
documented the spookily well-preserved state that is Adak’s one and only McDonald's that
ever was.
With the paint slowly chipping and its insides a colour scheme from so long ago,
the place acts almost like a time capsule, filled with memorabilia from a time long
forgotten and locked away in this cold little town.
The menus are still up, windows unboarded and overgrowth all over the place, making
it a very pretty hike to a place so empty and even…
scary.
With its very specific Dino themed meals, one can easily tell the last big thing
this Mickey D’s saw was Jurassic Park.
Dino-sized fries?
Yes, please!
The Last McDonald’s Burger in Iceland Now this might not be another long lost
McDonald’s but here we have the long lost McDonald’s hamburger.
In late 2009, the last McDonald’s in Iceland closed its doors.
One patron decided that instead of eating his
last Icelandic Big Mac, he’d take the burger
and preserve it in his garage for a few years
as an experiment.
After 3 years, he checked on it only to discover that the burger remained
as pristine as it did the day he purchased it.
He decided to donate the relic to The National
Museum of Iceland where it would be preserved for another year or so.
Infamous for its unchanged state, the burger and fries that
accompanied it were moved to a display in Bus
Hostel Reykjavik where it can be observed indefinitely via a live webcam feed.
Perhaps if you’re lucky, you can hopefully catch a
hint of mold growing somewhere on this not so Happy
Meal, but don’t count on it.
This burger and fries have been preserved without decay for
over 8 years!
Seems Iceland had the same idea when it comes to high quality food, something
Gordon Ramsay would probably agree have voted for.
I mean, his opinion of McDonald’s is quite clear.
In 2007, during an interview with TV Guide, Ramsay was asked that if he was hungry
while driving down the highway and spotted a
Mcdonald’s to indulge in a Big Mac he would “rather eat a f--king cow-pie sandwich.”
2 years later, Iceland seemed to agree.
Disposable Arches A few years ago, Boston went through some
Major redevelopment plans for Boylston Street, and
that saw the end of many many chains in the area, including local Burger Kings and
McDonald’s biting the dust – being replaced by
a mix-use commercial community called The Viridian.
What was sad about this ordeal was the way the elimination of the admittedly
tacky red, white and yellow arches it’s so well
known for – unceremoniously abandoned in a dumpster,
sadly on display for a number of days before anything could come out of it.
Nothing came out of it, and not much was known about WHY this
was okay, with the symbol of happiness being thrown around like that all the time, in an
unbelievably uncaring and obvious manner – folks of Twitter took it upon themselves to
document this urban tragedy, this dumpster dive-ersion – a treat for all those who
love urban abandonments and McDonald’s relics
alike.
The treatment of the logo, as well as other fast food eateries, and the lack of response
from the higher ups only make us think about how consumerism takes too much for granted
– one place shuts down, another pop up – leaving
behind a multitude of people that end up unemployed and hungry.
The scariest thing of all might just be how there are so many of
these outlets, despite there being so many more
of them that are abandoned and a part of the unexplored.
The Floating McBarge The abandoned McDonald’s on a barge in
Vancouver, Canada, has now been termed the McBarge, built in 1986 and abandoned since,
after enjoying a long enough run, leaving a
lot of kids with memories of eating on a boat.
Anchored in Burrard Inlet with not even one Big Mac in sight, today, the
McBarge is covered in graffiti and absolutely run down on the inside, its fate
today left uncertain.
What’s interesting about the McBarge is that Facebook has a
group dedicated to people sharing memories and pictures of the place.
Today, 30 years since its closure, it’s a reminder of its
former glory however, with no Happy Meal in sight.
This McBarge has been referred to as a modern day relic, and we can see why – a
conglomerate as huge as McDonalds, in its attempt to redefine architecture took upon
itself to outdo its own ideas -and with that came the floating restaurant.
Popular among urban explorers who, as friendly nod to the
establishment, paddle their way onto the structure with some burgers from sister
locations, exploration of this site comes with that very specific colour scheme that
found its home in McDonald’s branches so many years ago – the paint mostly mildewy
and peeling off the walls.
The atmosphere is moist, crumbling and cold, while still being
such an important part of our modern history.
Plans to refurbish the place came about in 2016 – but only time will tell.
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