RESTAURANT TO CLOSE FOR RETRO REMODEL

McDonald's Restaurant at 1925 Broadway in Cape Gir-ardeau will close its doors Friday.

"But we'll reopen," said Shannon Davis, a supervisor for Rich House Inc., which operates some of the area's McDonald's Restaurants. "We're rebuilding in retro style at the same location."

Davis, an owner and operator, of the local McDonald's franchise, which has operations in Cape Girardeau, Jackson, Charleston and Sikeston, added: "We're closing the doors on this part of Cape Girardeau history."

Cape Girardeau businessman Jerry Davis, president of Rich House Inc., and an owner and operator, constructed the first McDonald's Restaurant in Cape Girardeau in July 1968, and started selling 18-cent hamburgers.

The old McDonald's will be taken down, and a new structure, which will mirror the look of a vintage 1960s-era McDonald's, could be in in three to four months, said Jerry Davis.

"The new McDonald's will have the same vibrant red and white colors of the 1960s McDonald's," said Scott Griffith of Moroch Partners, L.P. an Indianapolis, Ind., marketing agency that markets and promotes McDonald's. "It'll be like a trip down memory lane, including the giant golden arches on either side of the building."

Representatives of Rich House Inc. visited some other vintage McDonald's before deciding on the vintage look.

The new facility will also feature the side-by-side drive-thru lanes, for faster service.

With the closing of the present store, Davis reminds people to visit nearby sites, at 3419 William and inside Westfield Shoppingtown West Park.

McDonald's history

The Cape Girardeau Broadway McDonald's was constructed 14 years after the first franchised restaurant at Des Plaines, Ill.

A salesman, Ray Kroc mortgaged his home and invested his entire life savings to become the exclusive distributor of a five-spindled milkshake maker called the Multimixer. Hearing about a McDonald's hamburger stand -- Dick and Mac McDonald's Restaurant, San Bernardino, Calif. -- running eight Multimixers at a time, he packed up his car and headed West. It was 1954. Kroc was 52.

When Kroc arrived at the McDonald's operation, it was crowded, and he pitched the idea of opening up several restaurants to the brothers. The brothers were receptive, and Kroc volunteered to open the first one in Illinois. The rest is McDonald's hamburger history.