For over a hundred years, The Divine Lorraine Hotel has loomed over Broad and Fairmount streets like an ancient, stone titan frozen in time. Now surrounded by abandoned brown lots and covered in graffiti, the 10-story building has been closed since 1999 but that hasn’t stopped eager explorers and those seeking shelter from entering its decayed innards.
Built between 1892 and 1894, the hotel was originally called the Lorraine Apartments. Housing the wealthy elite that came to Philly following the industrial boom in the late 19th century, the building’s Victorian architecture built from Pompeian brick is unmistakable still to this day.
But The Divine’s namesake, as Philadelphians have come to know it, comes from 20th Century religious figure, Father Divine, leader of the Universal Peace Mission Movement. He bought the building in 1948 for $485,000 ($4,343,335 by today’s standards) and named it The Divine Lorraine Hotel.
Father Divine was an ambiguous figure in his time, who for some, was a religious leader and for others, a swindler in disguise. But regardless of his reputation, Father Divine’s forward-thinking decision to racially integrate the hotel marked a historic achievement for both Philadelphia and the country as a whole.
In conjunction with racial integration came some rather conservative strictures for Father Divine’s tenets. There was no smoking, drinking, profanity or inter-gender mixing and men and women were relegated to separate floors. Dress codes were also expected to be upheld, women disallowed to wear pants or short skirts. The auditorium on the 10th floor was also converted into a place of worship for Father Divine’s followers and the kitchen was opened to the public for affordable meals. It’s said that his followers looked upon the Divine Lorraine Hotel as a “heaven” and viewed the building as a “promised land”.
In recent years, there have been a few unsuccessful plans to restore the building to make affordable apartments. But the rich social and religious history embedded in the building’s foundation, along with its now dilapidated rooms and halls, certainly makes for a chilling dlimpse into our city’s past.
In 2006, Developer, Michael Treacy, Jr. purchased the building, but there hasn’t been any headway in re-modeling the structure as of late. Since then, Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission has declared the building a National Historic Site. There’s no official word on plans for the building in the near future. And though the building is technically structurally sound, it will only get worse.
We here at Aroundphilly would like to see the building preserved as its rich history makes it such an important landmark for Philadelphia’s future generations. Photos from inside the Divine Lorraine were taken by Ian Ference and originally posted on his blog.
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Chris Lipczynski
