A home decorated in McDonald’s memorabilia brings smiles to its neighborhood

Heywood Robles owns “the McDonald house” on Menlo Avenue in South L.A. — a home decorated in golden arches and other McDonalds memorabilia gathered by his family and neighbors.

Robles has lived on the block for about 40 years and is still living around the neighborhood close to Augustus F. Hawkins High School. He graduated from Manual Arts High School in 1997.

“That’s only because Hawkins was not around, yet,” Robles joked.

Robles said he feels very honored that he has the most creative and interesting house on the block.

“All of this makes me feel very good when I could make people smile,” Robles said.

Robles’ father, Luis Robles, was the inspiration because his father would collect things and bring them to the house. That’s when Robles had the brilliant idea to do the same and start collecting items off the street.

Six years ago in 2013, Robles suffered the loss of his father, the originator of the collection.

“My dad collected those lanterns,” Robles explained, pointing toward his roof.

When Robles started collecting artifacts, the original piece was the McDonald golden arches. He found the arches in a trashcan after McDonald’s was remodeling. Once the golden arches were up, more items were brought to the house by neighbors.

Even his mother, Esther M. Mazariegos, would donate items for Robles to put outside in the garden. For instance, he has a ceramic sumo wrestler sitting on a porcelain toilet that used to be a planter.

“Soon the wrestler will have the first edition of the Hawkins’ newspaper in his hands,” he said.

Robles loves his mother so much, he refers to her as the “Queen of the house.” He has roses stenciled all over the family home because his mother loves flowers, so he had a creative idea to put permanent flowers all over the home.

“When she would come home she would remind herself that her sons love her very much,” Robles said.

Robles also really loves Pepsi! Take a look at the house and count how many times you see Pepsi. His love for Pepsi is so strong that the logo is tattooed on his shoulder.

Heywood Robles, who owns “the McDonald house” on Menlo Avenue in South L.A., is a big fan of Pepsi Cola. (Photo courtesy of Shirley Orellana)

When Robles collects items from the street, he hopes he has great ideas with great intentions. He also helped to clean up the community and made his home really interesting and eye catching for kids and their families.

Many of his neighbors around the area have also donated items to add on to the art installation.

Robles said he has saws hanging from the ceiling in his kitchen.

It’s eye catching as there’s decorations all over the house — visible from the lowest and highest angles of his house.

Robles’ home is so attractive that maybe people even tend to be a little jealous, he said. Robles explained that once a lady approached the house and claimed that all the items outside his home were illegal. He, however, was prepared and called his friend who was a police officer to explain the situation.

Robles said the police officer agreed that all the items are on his property and not on the sidewalk, so there’s nothing illegal.

Now that you know a little more information about the owner of the McDonald house,

Robles will be at the Homecoming game on Friday and he said it’s totally OK to take a selfie with him and even with his house.

“There is no need to sneak around, just take a picture,” he said. “Because it’s #theMcDonaldsHouse.”