MARIETTA, Ga. — The KFC with the famed Big Chicken has closed for refurbishment.
The restaurant is undergoing a 12-week, $2 million renovation, according to 11Alive.
“Marietta’s Big Chicken is a local landmark that we are proud to preserve,” KFC franchisee, Mike Kulp, president and CEO of KBP Foods said in a statement to FOX 5 News. “Once completed, our new restaurant will be among the greatest KFCs in the world with design and guest experience features you won’t be able to find anywhere else in the U.S. We can’t wait to bring these designs to life for the community of Marietta and all those who stop along their travels to see this historic landmark.”
The venerable chicken dates to the early 1960s, when S.R. “Tubby” Davis saw potential in the newly repaved Cobb Parkway, a divided highway that predated freeways as we know them today. Wanting to lure hungry travelers into his Johnny Reb’s Chick, Chuck and Shake restaurant, he erected the five-story-tall chicken, designed by Hubert Puckett, an architecture student at nearby Georgia Tech.
After Davis sold the restaurant to his brother, it became a Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise, which it remains to this day.