Goodbye Columbus

The original Wendy's in Columbus, Ohio is going to be closing its doors in March.

A Wendy's spokesman told the Associated Press that it was a difficult decision but that the restaurant was kept open for sentimental reasons much longer than it should have been.

Dave Thomas, who died of cancer in 2002, opened his first Wendy's Old Fashioned Hamburgers on November 15th, 1969 and named it after his eight-year-old daughter Melinda Lou, who was nicknamed Wendy. By 1976, there were 500 restaurants nationwide.

The original 1969 menu consisted of hamburgers, chili, French fries, soft drinks and the original Frosty, which cost 35 cents. Wendy's restaurants today serve about 300 million Frostys a year.

The company has grown into the nation's third-largest hamburger chain, reports AP. It operates about 6,600 restaurants in the US and abroad. But unlike many of those locations, the original has limited parking and no drive-through window.