
Image

The Divine Lorraine Hotel, Philadelphia, PA., 2008.
Credit: Courtesy of Peter Clericuzio
Purchased by Father Divine in 1948, the Divine Lorraine Hotel on north Broad Street became Philadelphia’s first large racially integrated hotel. A Philadelphia landmark for a half century, the Divine Lorraine offered wonderful low cost meals in its first-floor dining room. Residents in the hotel, where men and women stayed on different floors, followed the Universal Peace Mission Movement’s code of conduct, including modesty in dress and a prohibition on drinking, smoking, and profanity. The Divine Lorraine closed in 1999.