The Divine Lorraine Hotel: Resurrection of an Icon

The Divine Lorraine Hotel on North Broad Street was the first racially integrated hotel in Philadelphia when Father Divine's Peace Mission Movement purchased it in 1948. The Beaux-Arts building, designed by Willis Hale in 1894, sat abandoned and crumbling from 1999 to 2017, becoming one of the most recognizable ruins in Philadelphia. A roughly $43 million renovation restored it as luxury apartments in 2017. The rooftop "DIVINE LORRAINE" sign, visible for miles, was re-created and relit in 2016.