This is one of my favorite pieces of architecture in the city. I love the archways with patios opening into the center of the building and would love to explore the inside. In fact, there is so much of Philly that's off limits but would be fun to explore such as the abandoned full size pool located a few stories underground City Hall.
Anyway, here is a little blurb from one of the local papers in regard to the history of Ms. Divine. She was built in 1894 and her last tenant, The Universal Peace Movement vacated the premises finally in 2000. It's switched hands a couple times since then and it's caretaker is a former member of the Peace Movement, named David Peace.
""Time passes silently in the Divine Lorraine Hotel, onetime playground of the industrial barons and pearl-clad matrons who resided along North Broad Street at the beginning of the last century. Later it would become home to the Universal Peace Mission Movement of Father Divine, the controversial and colorful religious leader who claimed to be Christ incarnate and whose followers oversaw the Lorraine for more than half a century. Under their watch, it became the first high-caliber hotel in Philadelphia to allow black guests."
(excerpt from the City Paper, Jan. 13, 2005, Mike Newall)
