This abandoned Taco Bell restaurant stands on US-33 on the southeastern edge of Elkhart, Indiana.

It is one of the old Mission-style brick Taco Bells that were built in the 1970s. The earliest ones, including this one, had restroom doors on the back of the building, like an old gas station. Customers had to go outside and walk to the back of the restaurant to use the restrooms! The earliest ones did not have drive-thru windows, either, though this one does. They also had a bell mounted on top of the building, but that has been removed from this one.

When I was a child, my parents went to Taco Bell occasionally. Back then, all of them in my hometown, Fort Wayne, were built like this one. All of them have since closed; replaced by newer building designs. I always liked the old mission-style Taco Bells. They look like a place that would serve Mexican food.

The new ones are ugly, generic fast-food buildings that look little different from a Burger King or a McDonald's. Both of those fast-food chains have also abandoned their old, distinctive architectural designs for generic postmodern ugliness.

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by Christopher Crawford

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