Hell's Bell

A long forgotten Mission style Taco Bell, sits in abandonment in Elkhart, IN. Let's take a look...

In Midwestern Elkhart, Indiana sits an abandoned Taco Bell. A small, Mission style building, long forgotten. These at one time, were ubiquitous with the chain. Taco Bell’s small humble beginnings can be traced back to Downey, CA. The first Taco Bell was opened in 1962, across the street from McDonald’s #3. That location, dubbed Numero Uno, was rescued from destruction in 2014 and placed on the corporate HQ in Irvine.

By 1978, the chain founded by namesake Glen Bell was purchased by PepsiCo. They quickly ushered in a new building boom of larger Mission style restaurants, that could be modified and built to serve various communities across America. In addition to larger dining rooms, and a more modest building style, all locations had the added convenience of the drive thru window. Pepsi would turn Taco Bell into a household name by the end of the 80s.

Elkhart’s surviving example, was opened at 3504 S. Main Street in 1977. Surviving into the 90s, as the interior would attest, the corporate powers that be decided to relocate directly across the street. The replacement restaurant was opened by 1997, the same year Pepsi would spin off Taco Bell and their other fast food offerings into Tricon Global Restaurants (today’s Yum! Brands). For at least another 10-15 years, the building would be home to Wok-Inn, a Chinese restaurant. However, by 2015 the building was vacated, and it has stayed in development limbo ever since.

The pictures above were taken on a sunny afternoon in June 2020. Fast forward to bleak April of 2024, and things have gotten much worse. The owners of the building, hailing from Indianapolis, have let the building fall into disrepair, and had orders in 2022 to settle code violations, or have the building face demolition. Meanwhile, vandalism and tagging have taken place, along with every other vacant building along this stretch of road. Upon my friend and I’s completion of our documentation on the current status of the property, we were quickly cornered by a brusk Colonel Sanders look-a-like city official asking if we were there to tag the structure, and demanding we leave immediately. No problem…

Sorry Hoss, Big E is still out there…

Surely, eventual demolition awaits this once pristine example of retro Taco Bell architecture. Two older examples in California have survived into the modern Taco Bell era, in Santa Barbara and Goleta, respectively. Seen below is another example of the restaurant style featured here. This location, in North Randall, OH was still open in June 2007 when this photo was taken. Today, it operates as Oinky’s Pork Chop Haven. A 2011 Google Streetview image shows the building with a portion of the original Taco Bell logo’s labelscar visible. Also seen, is the original opening where the tiny brass bell would have been.

This location closed about a year after this image was taken.

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