McDonalds Building Grafton Street
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On the building that houses the McDonalds on Grafton Street there is a plaque saying
“1805-1927”. It says nothing else and it is hard to figure out what it is referring to. Does anyone know what it means? All that I can guess at the moment is that it was originally built in 1805 and maybe rebuilt in 1927.Thanks
Phil
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I was asking about this building last year (I was looking for an early photo but I didn’t find one). It used to be Mitchell’s restaurant/cafe, up until the early 1950s. Mitchell’s are now wine merchants and their shop is on Kildare Street.
If you look at a bag from the wine shop, it says founded in 1805 so I presume they were the original owners of the building on Grafton Street.
I don’t know what happened in 1927 but you might find out if you ask in the wine shop.
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Thank you Aierlan. I will try and do that at some stage. It just seemed like a strange combination of dates. On another related topic, I used to love occasionally getting a McDonalds and sitting in the window looking on to Grafton Street until they ‘gentrified’ it by making it McCafe. Now you are not allowed to sit in that area unless you have purchased something from the McCafe as opposed to normal everyday McDonadls! 😉
Thanks
Phil
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A fine building, it’s a good example of the transition from classical to modern, the windows and railings having similarities to Clerys.
Presumably the two dates are displayed because when the owners rebuilt their premises in a modern way, they lost the ‘establishedness’ and respect of the previous building, and so in typically pompous early 20th century style, they emblazoned the original and new date across the facade.
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Thanks for that Graham, I thought you might know something about that. You always seem to know your urban history very well.
Thanks again
Phil
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21/1/2005
Well a year on and the definitive answer to this issue was to be found on the radio this morning. Robert Mitchell, owner/director of Mitchell and Son was talking to Pat Kenny about the history of the company, and sure enough as Aierlan described they were indeed located in the Grafton St building.
They set up in 1805 as a confectionary and teashop on the site and continued right through til the 1950s when they finally moved to Kildare St.
So during their tenure on Grafton St they must have rebuilt their rickety old Georgian premises in the fashionable 20s style. The cafe seems to have been a place to be seen so it must almost have been a requirement for them to rebuild to keep up with the fashions of that supposedly hectic decade. So in risking their estabalished status, they put the two dates up on the facade.It was noted how they must be kicking themselves now at the loss of that prime piece real estate in favour of dingy old Kildare St. Think it would be the more presence of McDonalds in my family’s building that would annoy me 🙂
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