Read time: 5 min.

Imagine it’s the 1960s: you, me, and a handful of our department-store executive friends are scheming up a fast-food joint with a name that’s close to a golden-arched competitor without triggering a lawsuit. Why don’t we call it McBurger? That’s the name McCrory’s rolled out in Anderson and a handful of other cities in 1968. Some still remember it!

McCrory’s was a chain of five-and-dimes that started in Scottdale, Pennsylvania, in 1882¹. Three years later, the company owned five stores in the state. An early investor was Sebastian Kresge, who later founded his own chain that eventually became Kmart².  

McCrory’s arrived in Anderson in 1900³. By the 1940s, the variety store occupied the three-story Decker Building at the southwest corner of Meridian and West Tenth Street- that is, until disaster struck: in 1943, a massive fire tore through the building and left an estimated $250,000 to $300,000 in damage in its wake⁴.

McCrory’s wasted little time recovering and reopened in November 1944⁵. Nine years later, the five-and-dime grew by taking over a prime corner space after Haag Drugs relocated to the old Times Theater building⁶. Anderson residents still remember the expanded, remodeled McCrory’s fondly⁷, but the best surprise of all -McBurger- still waited in the wings. 

McBurger made its Anderson debut with a ribbon-cutting on November 14, 1968. It wasn’t a quiet affair. Mayor J.E. Flanagan was on hand, joined by a lineup of McCrory Stores executives including Al Lanzillo, John Wilkes, Robert Anderson, and Otis Wheeler, all gathered to usher the city’s newest fast-food curiosity into the spotlight⁸.

Replacing the store’s traditional lunch counter and featuring its own corner entrance, McBurger was a brand-new concept for McCrory’s. The idea was tested in just three locations nationwide- Anderson, New Jersey, and Winston-Salem⁹, and the local McBurger’s arrival coincided with a full remodel of the rest of the McCrory Store! McBurger wasn’t just a new menu, but a new direction altogether¹⁰.

“McBurger is a pleasantly plump, happy, economy-minded, Scottish Chef, whose arm is raised to Welcome You into his HOUSE OF McBURGER,” period ads proclaimed. 

“Twas many a decade ago when the McBURGER CLAIN constructed its first HOUSE OF McBURGER in Central Highland, Shire of Tweed, next to Loch Burg,” the copy continued. “Ah, but it is said that it was the aroma of the fine food that awoke the Loch Burg Monster who devoured each and every succeeding HOUSE OF McBURGER.” 

“So,” the ads continued, “it came to pass by popular acclaim that the CLAN OF McBURGER would be responsible for soothing even the most monstrous of appetites, whenever and wherever possible¹¹.” 

In 1968, McBurger advertised its eponymous sandwich for twenty-one cents, French fries for eighteen, thick shakes for a quarter, and a “lip-smacking good” chicken special for seventy-nine cents¹². 

Seven years later, coupons offered grilled cheese sandwich combos for sixty-seven cents, burger combos for seventy-seven, and hot dog combos for the same price¹³. Unfortunately, McBurger wasn’t long for this world since McCrory’s closed on December 24, 1978 due to lagging sales¹⁴. The structure was sold in 1981 and dramatically altered in a process that remodeled its first story and removed the rest¹⁵. 

Today, little of McCrory’s or McBurger’s heritage is visible at a glance at the old building on the corner of Meridian and Tenth. The signage is gone, the floorplan has been reworked, and there’s nothing to suggest that it was once a five-and-dime- or the unlikely testing ground for a fast-food experiment with a hilarious name. 

I now know the prefix of that name probably comes from its parent company, but it’s still funny and brazen nonetheless. Decades later, that cheekiness still lingers as its site holds onto the past! It waits for someone to slow down, imagine the lunch counter that came before, and remember the brief moment when Anderson played host to something both familiar and strangely bold.

Sources Cited
1 Barmash, I. (1987, April 4). A Kresge-McCrory Reunion. The New York Times [New York]. Web. Retrieved January 13, 2026. See footnote 1). 
2 Barmash, I. (1987, April 4). Kresge and McCrory – together again. The Stuart News [Florida]. p. 11. 
3 McCrory’s store will close on Dec. 24 (1978, November 21). The Anderson Daily Bulletin. p. 11. 
4 12 Firemen Overcome Battling Flames (1943, October 6). The Anderson Herald. p. 1.
5 Rebuilt M’Crory Store To Open Next Thursday (1944, November 25). The Anderson Daily Bulletin. p. 5. 
6 Rebuilt M’Crory Store To Open Next Thursday (1944, November 25). The Anderson Daily Bulletin. p. 5. 
7 Hornocker, J.B. Anderson, Indiana. A Pictorial Archive (2023, February 5). [Photo]. Facebook.
8 McCrory’s Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony (1968, November 15). The Anderson Herald. p. 18. 
9 Bennett, S. (1968, February 10). H.L. Green Store Here to Remodel, Change Name. The Winston-Salem Journal. p. 4. 
10 Hamburger Walk-In (1968, November 13). The Anderson Herald. p. 23. 
11 Introducing House of McBurger (1968, November 1). The Anderson Herald. p. 18. 
12 (See footnote 11). 
13 McBurger (1975, March 1). The Anderson Herald. p. 14. 
14 (See footnote 3). 
15 Granger, C. (1981, April 28). Dimestore conversion readied. The Anderson Herald. p. 1.