Rash's Surname Index
Notes for Hibberd Moore TWADDELL
Hibberd Moore Twaddell, 73, the former co-owner of a pink-trim, stainless steel diner in Paoli that featured apple dumplings and roasted Chester County turkeys, died Wednesday at Chester County Hospital in West Chester.
For 30 years, Mr. Twaddell and his brother Hiram ran the Twaddell Diner on Lancaster Avenue, just east of Route 202.
People called the Twaddell boys "Hi and Hib."
Both were "tall, dark and handsome," but they had different personalities, said Hib's wife of 40 years, the former Charlotte Bradford.
"My husband was the outgoing one, his brother was quiet and shy," she said.
Hi put it this way: "He liked to go out in the dining room and shake hands, and I'd rather be in back working."
The Twaddells first opened for business in the late 1940s, with a small lunch counter that had eight stools and with a gas pump in front.
The lunch counter got so popular that the Twaddells imported a diner from Coatesville that seated 70 people. But the business soon outgrew the diner. In the early 1960s, the Twaddells had a pink and stainless steel diner custom- built to seat 150. They sold the business in 1978.
The secret of the diner's success was its down-home menu, which featured roast turkey, honey-dipped fried chicken, pot roast and meat loaf. The Twaddells also served a clam chowder that was a cross between Manhattan and New England chowders. The home-baked desserts included lemon meringue pie and apple dumpings topped with hot vanilla sauce. Most of the original recipes were perfected by the Twaddells' mother, the late Jennie Moore Twaddell, who was the diner's first chef.
They sold out because they were tired after 30 years of running the business, Hiram Twaddell said. In the early years, the diner was open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It was scaled back to 6 a.m. to midnight each day.
At the time they sold out, the Twaddells also were contending with a wave of fast-food franchises.
"We had about enough of it, but to this day, people say we never should have left the place," Hiram Twaddell said.
Mr. Twaddell, a lifelong resident of Chester Springs, Chester County, was a World War II Army veteran. He was a member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Upper Main Line Post, the Masons, the Tall Cedars of Lebanon, and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.
Besides his wife and brother, he is survived by sons, Howard M. and James E.; a daughter, Beverly J.; another brother, and four sisters.
A viewing will be held from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tuesday at St. Peter's Lutheran Church, Clover Mill Road, Chester Springs. Services will follow. Burial will be at the church cemetery.
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