Divine Lorraine Hotel
- Architect
- Willis G. Hale
- Year
- 1900
- City
- Philadelphia, PA
The Divine Lorraine Hotel rises at Broad Street and Fairmount Avenue in North Philadelphia, built between 1892 and 1894 by architect Willis G. Hale as the Lorraine Apartments, luxury housing for the city's wealthy residents. In 1900 the Italian-owned Metropolitan Hotel Company converted it into the Lorraine Hotel, and under Father Divine it later became the first hotel in Philadelphia to be racially integrated.
the building
Tower massing on Broad Street. The building's prominent corner tower marks its site at Broad and Fairmount, a scale and silhouette that kept it a landmark for the surrounding North Philadelphia blocks even as the neighborhood around it changed.
the architect
Willis G. Hale was a prolific and distinctive Philadelphia architect of the late 19th century; the Divine Lorraine, designed in 1892-1894, is among his best-preserved surviving works from that era.
significance
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the Divine Lorraine went through a long decline after its 2000 sale, sitting vacant and graffiti-covered with broken windows for over a decade before a new owner began a major restoration in late 2015. It has since cycled between apartments (2017-2022), a hotel (2022-2024), and apartments again since 2025.
nearby
- Congregation Rodeph Shalom
- Spring Garden School No. 2
- The Met Philadelphia
- Edwin Forrest House
- Inquirer Building
- Terminal Commerce Building