3735 Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive
Located at the corner of Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive and 28th Street in Indianapolis, Indiana. Photo taken September 3, 2005.
This abandoned Burger Chef building is featured in John McDonald's book Lost Indianapolis as a surviving example of the "Cosmo II" architecture. The book contains a conceptual drawing of what "Cosmo II" architecture looked like and describes the function of its innovation. McDonald also notes that on this particular building, "the original orange roof tile color is showing through the black paint in spots." Sure enough....
Most of the doors and windows of the building are boarded up. Lucky for us, one of the windows was open revealing an exclusive peak inside....
There was a Burger Chef location in Kenova, WV. I went there several times as a kid. It caught fire and never reopened in about 1985. However, the structure was not damaged and it was reopened shortly after by Stewart's Hot Dogs. They still operated the location today and have preserved all the unique features of the building. It looks very much like the Burger Chef I remember.
Posted by: Andy Brown | December 30, 2005 at 12:59 AM