Lapstone & Hammer and Najeeb Sheikh once again join forces to pay tribute to a Philadelphia landmark with The Divine Lorraine Hotel Collection. This collection honors the legacy of the Divine Lorraine Hotel, which has traveled a culturally significant path from a luxury apartment building, to one of the first racially integrated hotels in the country, to its previous state as the instantly recognizable yet somewhat mysterious, broken down building on Broad and Fairmount.
Drawing inspiration from the Divine Lorraine’s history, the idea for the capsule revolves around the theme of items found in a luxury hotel. In this current collection we feature the following items:
- The OG Divine Lorraine unstructured 6 panel hats, offered again for the first time since the initial release back in 2015 in white and black.
- All new Divine chainstitched wool hats in heathered grey and black.
- Divine Tees, Crews and Hoodies in grey, black and red
- Knit Beanies in grey, black & red
- The OG Porcelain Rolling Tray
- Glass Divine Ashtray
- Divine Lorraine Hotel Key Fob #215
Available now in-store and online.
All items carry custom Divine branding designed by Najeeb Sheikh.
All Photography by Evan Kaucher
A brief history of the Divine Lorraine Hotel:
The Divine Lorraine Hotel was built in 1893 by Willis G. Hale as one of the first luxury high-rise apartment buildings in Philadelphia. Then called the Lorraine Apartments, it was controversial for its ornate Victorian design, which fell out of fashion almost as soon as the building was completed.
It was converted into a hotel in 1900 by the Metropolitan Hotel Company, who operated the property until 1948 when it was to sold Father Divine and the Universal Peace Mission Movement. Seeking to create Christian utopias called “Heavens”, Divine rechristened the building the Divine Lorraine Hotel. He opened the hotel to all races, genders, and classes who were willing to adhere to his group’s rules, which included no smoking, no drinking, and a pledge of celibacy, even among married couples. This made the Divine Lorraine the first fully integrated hotel of its kind in Philadelphia, and one of the first in the entire country, a fact for which it attained national historical landmark status.
After running the hotel for over fifty years, the Universal Peace Mission Movement shut the doors for good in 1999. Since that time it has stood unoccupied and slowly decomposing, keeping watch over the north end of Broad Street. It stands now as a living embodiment of the neighborhood it towers over: a decrepit and decaying relic whose past glory is nearly all but forgotten...
