National Landmarks

America’s Very First Taco Bell Saved From Certain Destruction

Ready for the journey.
Ready for the journey.

Rejoice, America: Plans for new development threatened to raze the first-ever Taco Bell in Downey, California, but the ancestral home of croissant tacos and the Crunch Wrap Supreme will not, it turns out, be callously destroyed. Fans freaked when news first came out that the building, which hasn’t been a Taco Bell since 1986 and has been vacant since last December, could be demolished, and Taco Bell decided that just couldn’t be. So they hatched a plan and worked with Long Beach, California, preservation group We Are the Next to save the adobe-themed building, which will be relocated to the company’s headquarters in Irvine, California, on Thursday night after a 45-mile journey that will see it paraded through Orange and Los Angeles Counties. This being Taco Bell, they’re exploiting the event for every last drop of social-media gain possible, encouraging fans to follow the building’s journey via live webcam, lighting it up like it’s a parade for soldiers returning from war, and letting fans decide what to do with the building. Perhaps it could be the next boozy Taco Bell?

[OC Register]

America’s First Taco Bell Saved From Demolition