Local Businesses

Street scene of downtown Quakertown leading to the train station. Sine's 5 and 10 can be seen to the left.

Welcome to the local businesses gallery at the Wilson Museum's Quakertown exhibit! Here visitors can step back in time and see some of the local businesses that called Quakertown home. From movie theaters to shoe stores to good old-fashioned 5 and 10 stores, Quakertown's local businesses are not just amazing parts of the everchanging local landscape of Quakertown but are also excellent examples of what life was like in any small town. Below is a list of businesses that at one time or another had served the town's citizens well.

Photos taken by James Wilson

Trainer's Restaurant

An original coaster from the Don Dor Mar Room at Trainer's.

Trainer's Don Dor Mar Room swizzle stick.

Trainer's Restaurant served the local community for decades. Originally established as a truck stop near Old Route 309 called the Red Diamond, it was bought by Raymond and Marguerite Trainer in 1932 and originally featured two gas pumps, a potbelly stove, and a counter with ten stools. During this time, the Trainer family, which consisted of Raymond, Marguerite, and their 5-year-old daughter Doris, had to sleep in the restaurant as they had not yet been able to rent a house in town. Besides pumping gas for passing motorists and truckers, the family would sell inexpensive produce that they bought in Philadelphia and transported back to their establishment. The truck stop was most popular with truckers who used the 309 which connected Philadelphia to the Poconos. These truck stop roots would lay the foundations for what would become one of Quakertown's most popular eateries.

By the 1950s, the once modest Red Diamond would evolve into Trainer's Restaurant which is still missed to this very day. Trainer's expanded to feature a new upscale dining room allowing for a luxurious dining experience. This did not mean truckers were not welcome, but the restaurant was changing and aiming for a dining experience that could not be gained anywhere else in town. During its heyday, celebrities passing through town would stop in and pay the local legend a visit. From Roy Rogers to basketball superstar Wilt Chamberlin and even Bob Hope himself. According to Doris Trainer Hilmer, daughter of the restaurant's founders and manager until 1976, Hope ordered a meatloaf sandwich exclaiming it was the best he had ever had. The restaurant also featured the Don Dor Mar Room, a coffee shop, and a banquet hall, all of which in total could hold up to 900 people. 

In 1975, tragedy struck as the restaurant was set ablaze. The fire was caused by a torch that was in use while a worker was stripping paint from a wall and this blaze would destroy over 90 percent of the original Trainer's structure. This did not mean that Trainer's was dead as it would reopen two years later. Trainer's was later sold and was renamed Seafood Shanty which would close in 1993. In 1995, the demolition of the former Quakertown icon would begin and this spelled the end for the site. During demolition, two of the original wooden lobsters from the restaurant were salvaged and are now in the collection of the Quakertown Historical Society. Today the site is home to Trainer's Corner, a shopping center whose name pays tribute the famous restaurant.

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