My big take away from Philadelphia was the Divine Lorraine Hotel, a deteriorating historical building with an interesting past. It was designed by architect Willis G. Hale in 1892 and was one of the first high rise apartment buildings in the city, standing at 10 stories high. The building was originally inhabited by Philadelphia’s wealthy residents but was later bought by Father Divine, also known as the Reverend Major Jealous Divine, who renamed the hotel to its current name and racially integrated the establishment in 1948. A leader of of the Universal Peace Mission Movement, the group promoted economic independence and racial equality. Residents of the building had to abide by certain rules including celibacy, a level of modesty, and forbade drinking, profanity, obscenity, vulgarity, bribes and smoking. There was also no mixing of the sexes and women and men dwelled on separate floors.

Here’s where the story gets interesting. Father Divine was a self-proclaimed God and is referred to as one of America’s first modern cult leaders.

Little is known about his past, although reports suggest his name was George Baker and he was born in the Deep South. Divine also had ties to Baltimore and New York City, but rose to notoriety on November 13, 1931.

“On that day, responding to neighborhood complaints about traffic congestion around his home, police arrested Father Divine for disturbing the peace. Viewing the incident as racially inspired, he refused bail, pleaded not guilty, and was tried and convicted. The jury asked for leniency. The judge ignored them and handed down a sentence of a year in jail and ordered him to pay a $500 fine. Father Divine went to jail. Two days later the judge, apparently a healthy man, died, and Father Divine freely offered his opinion that the death was not the result of natural causes. One follower is to have remarked on the day of sentencing, “The judge can’t live long now. He’s offended Almighty God.” From his cell, Father Divine remarked simply, ‘I hated to do it!'” – Encyclopedic Handbook of Cults in America

Divine’s first wife was named Peninniah, a much older woman, who was called Mother Divine. After her death, Father Divine remarried a Canadian woman named Edna Rose Ritchings who was referred to as Sweet Angel or Mrs. S. A. Divine. Ritchings would later take over the movement after Father Divine’s death in 1965. She was believed to be Mother Divine reincarnated. At the time of their marriage, Ritchings was 21, and Father Divine was about 65 years old.

Interesting enough, Ritchings fought off an attempt by Jim Jones to take over the movement in 1971, when Jones claimed to be the reincarnation of Father Divine. Both the Universal Peace Mission Movement and People’s Temples sent spies to each others movement in the seventies before Jones moved his commune to Guyana.

Father Divine is currently buried on the grounds of the Woodmont estate, where the movement is based in Gladwyne, PA.

The Divine Lorraine from Hunter Johnson on Vimeo.