Uploaded November 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Step inside Woodmont, a French Gothic Revival château built in the 1890s for industrialist Alan Wood Jr., and later transformed into the headquarters of Father Divine and the International Peace Mission. This episode of This House traces the unlikely convergence of Gilded Age opulence and a utopian religious movement: from Father Divine’s early preaching and the 1931 Sayville raid, to Harlem’s free “Holy Communion” banquets, the 1953 move to Woodmont, and the estate’s preservation today.
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Public Domain Photos from: Library of Congress,
CC BY 2.0 Photos from: Flickr User: Montgomery County Planning Commission
CC BY-SA 4.0 Photos from: Wikipedia User: Haasmaster
Assets from: Envato Elements
Music from Epidemic Sound
Step inside Woodmont, a French Gothic Revival château built in the 1890s for industrialist Alan Wood Jr., and later transformed into the headquarters of Father Divine and the International Peace Mission. This episode of This House traces the unlikely convergence of Gilded Age opulence and a utopian religious movement: from Father Divine’s early preaching and the 1931 Sayville raid, to Harlem’s free “Holy Communion” banquets, the 1953 move to Woodmont, and the estate’s preservation today.
Join our Membership program:
youtube.com/channel/UCkKRXhkY6fcLVT8MLc3FH3Q/join
Public Domain Photos from: Library of Congress,
CC BY 2.0 Photos from: Flickr User: Montgomery County Planning Commission
CC BY-SA 4.0 Photos from: Wikipedia User: Haasmaster
Assets from: Envato Elements
Music from Epidemic Sound
