page_title: DeRaffele Manufacturing
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: DeRaffele Manufacturing / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Al Mac's Diner-Restaurant This is an image of a place or building that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places in the United States of America. Its reference number is 99001119
context_page_description: The DeRaffele Manufacturing Company was established in 1933 as Johnson & DeRaffele in New Rochelle, NY. The Company fabricated diners in the old P. J. Tierney plant after the Tierney company had been liquidated in 1933. Later they added banks, restaurants and other modular buildings to their scope of services. DeRaffele is currently the largest manufacturer of diners. It also now specializes in diner renovations.
context_section_description: Angelo DeRaffele began to work at the Tierney Dining Car Company as a carpenter in 1921.  DeRaffele’s friend Joseph Fodero also worked at Tierney’s. DeRaffaele learned the business thoroughly in a short time and rose to the level of foreman. During the Great Depression, there was some significant restructuring at P. J. Tierney, Inc. and by 1933, the company ceased trading and was liquidated.  DeRaffaele along with Carl A. Johnson, the former President at Tierney resumed the fabrication of diners at the Tierney plant under the business name of Johnson & DeRaffele.  The company successfully faced and survived challenges like the Great Depression and rationing of materials in World War II.  By 1947, DeRaffele owned the Company outright and changed the name to the DeRaffele Manufacturing Company.
  After the war, the industry boomed.  In 1948, Mr. DeRaffele's son Philip joined the business after working there during his high school years.   Philip took on all aspects of the company including design.  He designed his first diner at age seventeen.  He soon attempted to initiate changes in the company. He tried to convince his father that people were tired of the same small structures that kept coming out of their shop. The subsequent design of the Peter Pan diner, built in the 1950s in Wilmington, DE, transformed the look of diners and helped attract business to the company. The exterior had wings, a bigger canopy and novel window shapes.
  The business was then headed by the son from 1957 when the elder DeRaffele died. The company is now owned by brothers Joe, Steven and Phil Jr., sons of Philip.
caption: Al Mac’s Diner (a 1953 DeRaffele) in Fall River, Massachusetts
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