CADILLAC SUMMER PROMOTION

1st Pizza Hut Built in 1958!

Photo courtesy of: Wichita State University.

Building Information

* Year Built – 1958 (Photo courtesy of Wichita State University.)

* 1,077 square feet

When the pizza craze started sweeping the nation in the late 1950s, two young college students, attending the University of Wichita at the time, opened the first Pizza Hut restaurant on June 15, 1958. Brothers Frank and Dan Carney had been approached by the owner of a small building at the corner of Kellogg and Bluff, who wanted a nice neighborhood business to locate there and she had read a November 1957 Saturday Evening Post article about the pizza craze. The building's structure influenced the name of what has become a well-known international chain. The building had a sign that would only accommodate nine characters. The brothers wanted to use "Pizza" in the name and that left room for only three more letters. A family member suggested that the building looked like a hut — and Pizza Hut was born. The first Pizza Hut building was moved to the WSU campus to serve as a symbol and reminder to WSU students that young individuals through hard work and initiative can rise from modest beginnings to positions of leadership and success. It was dedicated on campus September 11, 1986. The building originally served as a headquarters for WSU's Association of Collegiate Entrepreneurs. Other business student chapters, including most recently the International Business Student Association, have used the facility as a meeting place.

Today Pizza Hut® is a division of YUM! Brands Inc. and has more than 7,200 units in the U.S. and 3,000 units in more than 86 other countries.

YUM! Brands Inc. is the parent company to two other segment leaders, Taco Bell and KFC. When combined with Pizza Hut®, these organizations make up the world's largest restaurant group.