Gourt Home::Gourt :: Fort Harrison Hotel
The Fort Harrison Hotel serves as the flagship building of Flag Land Base, the Church of Scientology's spiritual headquarters in Clearwater, Florida. First opened in 1926, the hotel served for many years as Clearwater's most luxurious hotel. It was a focal point of the community during the great depression and World War II.
The hotel began to fall into disrepair by the 1970s. In 1975, the Church of Scientology purchased the building under the cover name United Churches of Florida and began its restoration. In the 1980s, the building was brought back into a state of good repair including restoration of its marble floors and art deco details and craftmanship.
It provides luxurious accommodations and course and auditing rooms for parishioners studying at high levels of Scientology.
In the future, the Fort Harrison Hotel is plannted to be joined by a walkway to the Super Power Building across the street.
Lisa McPherson
In 1995, the Fort Harrison Hotel and the Church of Scientology were embroiled in a controversy regarding the death of a young Scientologist named Lisa McPherson. McPherson had had a minor car accident, after which she behaved strangely, taking off her clothes in public; against medical advice, Church staffers got her out of the hospital and took her to the Fort Harrison for "rest and relaxation". Seventeen days later, she was taken to a different hospital and pronounced dead on arrival due to malnutrition and dehydration; the subsequent investigation revealed that she had been receiving unlicensed medical treatment at the hotel, including force-feeding and the administration of drugs prescribed by a doctor who never saw her.
Other Scientologist deaths
Sadly, Lisa's case is not the only one of a Scientologist's death. Including a man that commited suicide by sitting in a bathtub of boiling hot water that was so intensely hot, it burned his skin almost completely off. The church claimed that he drowned himself, but police investigators noticed that his head wasn't underwater. Another Scientologist that commited suicide was a 24-year old student that was an average boy, but when he joined the Church of Scientology, he commited suicide only seven months later when he jumped off the 10th floor of the building, bouncing off the roof of a limousine on impact.
Trivia
- Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones composed the riff for (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction while staying here in 1965. [http://www.sptimes.com/News/072300/Floridian/Clearwater__Can_t_Get.shtml
Related links
- WhyAreTheyDead.net - 'Fort Harrison Hotel - Room 174: Death of scientologist Lisa McPherson'
- Google.com - 'Google local' (overhead view of the Fort Harrison and adjacent buildings in downtown Clearwater)
"Fort Harrison Hotel"