COLUMBUS, Ohio — Wendy's International Inc. said yesterday it will reluctantly close the restaurant where the nation's third-largest hamburger chain began in 1969 because of sagging sales.

The iconic restaurant, filled with memorabilia and photographs of the late Wendy's founder, Dave Thomas, will close March 2, company spokesman Denny Lynch said.

"This is a very difficult decision, but the truth is we kept it open for sentimental reasons much longer than we should have," Lynch said.

Thomas, who died in 2002 of liver cancer, opened his first Wendy's Old Fashioned Hamburgers on Nov. 15, 1969. He named the restaurant after his 8-year-old daughter, Melinda Lou, nicknamed Wendy. He later became a nationally known figure as a Wendy's pitchman in television commercials.

But the original restaurant, just a few blocks from the Ohio Statehouse, is unable to generate sales at night or during weekends, when government buildings are closed, Lynch said.

The restaurant has no drive-through window, has limited parking and soon would have required substantial building improvements, Lynch said. No sales figures were released.

Thomas knew before he died that his first restaurant was struggling, Lynch said.

"I guarantee he would support this decision," Lynch said.

Memorabilia, including the dress worn by Thomas' daughter when she posed for the restaurant's logo, will be moved to the company's corporate offices in Dublin, a Columbus suburb.

Wendy's operates about 6,600 restaurants in the United States and abroad.