The birthplace of the popular pizza chain in Wichita, Kansas is a museum

First Pizza Hut in Wichita, Kansas.Photo bySanjay Acharya, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Today, Pizza Hut, LLC, is a multinational pizza restaurant chain and an international franchise. It was founded in 1958 by brothers, Dan and Frank Carney, in Wichita, Kansas. It's in its 66th year.

According to Statista, Pizza Hut had 19,866 restaurants worldwide as of 2023 which was an increase over its previous year. There was a drop in 2020 most likely due to the pandemic.

The Carney brothers

Interestingly, the Carney brothers were students at Wichita State University when they opened their first pizza location. Within a year, they had six locations.

An early employee of Pizza Hut was Bill Parcells who went on to become a Pro Football Hall of Fame head coach. He was a student and football player at Wichita State University at the time. Allegedly, he thought about having a franchise but chose coaching instead and became a head coach in the NFL.

In 1959, they began franchising their brand. By 1963, Chicago architect, George Lindstrom, designed their most distinctive building with the red roof.

Pizza Hut was acquired by PepsiCo in 1977. The current owner is Yum! Brands Inc. is headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky. Yum! is a huge multinational corporation that also owns KFC and Taco Bell. It was established in 1997 as a subsidiary of PepsiCo, but later became an independent company.

Photo byEd! at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Like other restaurants, innovation brought changes to this popular chain. In 1995, stuffed crust pizza was introduced. Different restaurant formats include dine-in, carry-out, and hybrid locations.

Let's hope the Carney brothers put their mom on a pedestal. They opened their pizza location in Wichita after borrowing $600 from her to get their plan started. Supposedly, the name, Pizza Hut, was chosen as it consisted of eight letters that fit on their sign.

Photo byThe Original Pizza Hut Museum via Facebook.

The original building is at the Wichita University campus and serves as a museum. It contains collected artifacts. Admission is free and no, it does not serve pizza. The hours are 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. The museum is located at 2090 Innovation Boulevard in Wichita.

If you make the trip to Wichita to see the Pizza Hut Museum, check out other art venues on campus:

• The Ulrich Museum of Art and its 88-piece sculpture art of its extension, Martin H. Bush Outdoor Sculpture Collection, one of the largest outdoor sculpture collections.
• The Cadman Art Gallery
• The Lowell Holmes Anthropology Museum.

In July 2015, the oldest operating Pizza Hut, the Aggieville Pizza Hut, closed its doors after 55 years. This Pizza Hut Museum is on the college campus of K-State University in Manhattan, Kansas. This was also the first Pizza Hut to have delivery. Also, this location established the concept of the Pizza Hut buffet.

Dan Carney, born in 1931, is now 92-93. His brother Frank Lawrence Carney, born in 1938, died on December 2, 2020, at age 82. Frank held many board of directors positions and received many accolades.

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