nj.com – If you’re driving on Route 30 in Camden County just south of the New Jersey Turnpike, and you see a McDonald’s Hamburgers sign mounted on a golden arch, you might want to pull over, even if you’re not hungry.
It’s not the fries or Big Macs that are so special — McDonald’s is known for its strict quality control and uniformity of its food — but the sign itself.
The single-arch marquee is an original version that dates to 1962, and is one of only a half dozen like it from among the 37,000 McDonald’s locations around the world, according to collectors, curators and other sign experts who have been wowed by what may be the Borough of Magnolia’s most widely renowned piece of architecture.
“I would say it’s a historic treasure,” said Tod Sworstedt, executive director of the American Sign Museum in Cincinnati, Ohio. “Especially when there are only a handfull left, certainly no more than 10.”
A single-arch McDonald’s sign, seen at a location in Magnolia, N.J. (Al Amrhein | For NJ Advance Media)
Among the admirers of Magnolia’s sign is Debra Jane Seltzer, who has driven around the country documenting vintage signs and other examples of American pop culture gradually disappearing from their original settings.
Oooo as someone who passes this McDonald’s fairly frequently I’m going to have to stop one day and get a good pic in front of it. I always felt like it was some form of art/history but I didn’t know they were going extinct out here. I’ll make sure to stop there this week to grab a couple of McDoubles and take some pictures and what not.
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