What is the Reason This Portland, Maine, McDonald’s Suddenly Closed?

The City of Portland, Maine has two McDonald's Restaurants. One is on St. John Street and is the first McDonald's to open in Maine in 1964. The other Portland McDonald's is on Forest Avenue at Morrills Corner.

It was that particular McDonald's that I was all set to pull in to grab a cheeseburger when I had to stop, not noticing the fence blocking off the entire property McDonald's was sitting on. I should have been paying more attention, sure, but it would have come as a surprise to me regardless.

Later in the day, signs went up announcing that the Morrill's Corner McDonald's was closed for remodeling.

According to QSR Magazine, McDonald's has invested $6 billion in modernizing their restaurants, giving them a modern look and adding features like self-service kiosks in the lobbies and drive-thru's with two lanes to take orders faster.

There are two designs I have seen across Maine. There's this look in places like Westbrook and South Paris...

...and another design like this in Topsham.

The one thing I noticed prior to the fence going up at the Morrills Corner McDonald's is that it was one of the few McDonald's that still had a PlayPlace. When I kid, McDonald's had a playground made out of characters from McDonald Land. You might remember this:

At some point, those were replaced with inside Play Lands. It's kind of sad to see them go. Also slowly disappearing are the iconic Mansard roofs that McDonald's hard, which were originally brown and later red.

Here's what South Portland's McDonald's looked like before and after the renovation.

There aren't any details about how long renovation of the Forest Avenue McDonald's will take, but there's no doubt that will have an all-new look when it's done.