The stand at 7112 Firestone Boulevard was hand constructed and first opened in 1962 by founder Glen Bell.
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I always assumed that Taco Bell was named after the bells that top California missions, a kind of romantic blurring of the realities of the 18th-century Franciscan compounds.
On the livestream, you can check out what’s been done to the building in preparation for the move. Through close work with We Are The Next, a heritage conservation nonprofit, a plan was hashed out to relocate the building – which hasn’t been operating as a Taco Bell since 1986 – to Irvine headquarters until its future use can be determined.
“When we heard about the chance of it being demolished, we had to step in”, Taco Bell CEO Brian Niccol told Los Angeles Magazine. Taco Bell started off their campaign to save the structure by taking to social media. Using the hashtag #SaveTacoBell, the company reached out to their supporters, asking them to help save “Numero Uno”. “Practicing adaptive reuse, we manage the conversion of unexpected buildings into thriving community resources, ensuring their survival through appreciation and economic stability”.
The very first Taco Bell location is being saved from demolition.
“This building wasn’t designed by a famous architect, and it’s not particularly handsome in the conventional sense”. It will stay in storage at Taco Bell’s headquarters until it figures out what to do with it. It will also ask customer’s for suggestions. But today I learned that Taco Bell was, in fact, named for a human Bell: Glen Bell, who “pioneered” the concept of tacos as fast food in 1960s Southern California.
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And you can watch it all happen via webcam.
