---
title: "Which came first, the hamburger or Monopoly?"
description: "the hamburger vs Monopoly: the hamburger came first, by 4 years — 1900 against 1904. What happened in each case, and why the dates are often given differently."
url: https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/hamburger-vs-monopoly/
site: "At One Place"
---

# Which came first, the hamburger or Monopoly?

**Which came first, the hamburger or Monopoly?: the hamburger**

1900 — 4 years before Monopoly

the hamburger came first, by 4 years. Competing American claims put the first burger between 1885 and 1904.

## Side by side

|  | the hamburger | Monopoly |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Year | 1900 | 1904 |
| Date | — | 1904-01-05 |
| Category | food | media |
| What happened | Competing American claims put the first burger between 1885 and 1904. | Lizzie Magie patented The Landlord's Game. |

## the hamburger

At least four places claim it. Charlie Nagreen said he flattened a meatball between bread at the Seymour Fair in Wisconsin in 1885; the Menches brothers claimed the same year at the Erie County Fair; Louis' Lunch in New Haven claims 1900; and Fletcher Davis of Athens, Texas is credited with introducing it at the 1904 St Louis World's Fair. No contemporary document settles it. What is documented is the Hamburg steak — chopped beef, no bun — on American menus from the 1870s.

## Monopoly

Parker Brothers published Monopoly in 1935 and told the story of Charles Darrow, an unemployed man who invented it at his kitchen table. The truth is that Elizabeth Magie patented The Landlord's Game in 1904 — a nearly identical board designed to demonstrate how land monopolies impoverish tenants, which is precisely the opposite of the message the commercial version carries. Parker Brothers bought her patent for $500.

## Common questions

### Which came first, the hamburger or Monopoly?

the hamburger, by 4 years — 1900 against 1904.

### When did the hamburger start?

1900. Competing American claims put the first burger between 1885 and 1904.

### When did Monopoly start?

1904. Lizzie Magie patented The Landlord's Game.

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## Sources

- Typical range compiled from manufacturer specifications — At One Place (/about/)
- Wikidata — Wikimedia Foundation (https://www.wikidata.org/) [CC0 1.0]