The Fort Harrison Hotel in Clearwater, Florida was established in 1926. Its Mediterranean Revival style with marble floors and exquisite furnishings made it Clearwater’s most luxurious hotel back in its day. Rich with history, the Fort Harrison survived the Great Depression and World War II.

Eventually it was repurchased by Jack Tar Hotels in 1965, and was called the New Fort Harrison Hotel and this is where the Rolling Stones wrote “I Can’t Get No Satisfaction”. Little did the Stones know back then, how those lyrics would ring so true today for its current occupants.

The hotel fell in disrepair in the 1970’s, and in typical Scientology style, the cult type skulked into town in 1975 under the name of the United Churches of Florida and snatched it up. Unethical? Maybe, but considering “Scientologists are some of the most ethical people on the planet” as stated by founder L. Ron Hubbard, what did you expect?

The Fort Harrison hotel is the spiritual headquarters for Scientologists. It supplies lodging, courses and auditing for those who wish to climb the upper levels to what is referred to as Scientology’s “Bridge To Total Freedom”, or what we educated people refer to as the “Bridge To Total Bankruptcy.” It also houses Scientology’s Sea Org members and staff. The Sea Org is Scientology’s para military branch which is alleged to engage a slave labor force and is currently at the center of a major lawsuit brought by ex-member Marc Headley.

Today after a year of renovation the 82-year old Fort Harrison had a 40 million dollar make over. It brags of marble floors from Spain gold leaf moldings, fine rugs imported from South Africa, three restaurants and a Crystal ballroom.

Interestingly, Scientology has announced that the hotels three restaurants and the grand ballroom will be closed to the public. This contradicts earlier claims by Scientology officials during construction:

Church staffers made thousands of custom wood and plaster moldings at Scientology’s local wood mill and workshop.

The hotel has three restaurants — none of which will be open to the public, despite what the church previously said. The ballroom won’t be rented out for weddings either.

And the hotel won’t be hiring because it is staffed by members of the Sea Org, the legion of uniformed church staffers who dedicate their lives to Scientology.

Members of the general public can walk into the lobby for a look, but ultimately this hotel is for Scientologists only.

“This is a religious retreat,” Davis said. “That isn’t to say that people can’t come in and look at the beautiful building. It’s open to the community, but it’s not open for business.”

Did you get that? So the “church” got a go ahead to proceed with these extensive renovations on this hotel, which is central to the Clearwater downtown area, but they didn’t hire any outside contractors and have no plans to hire anyone outside to work at the hotel AND the hotel is not open for use by the community. BUT, the public IS welcome to come in and look around. I’ll bet they leave with a lovely parting gift: Scientology pamphlets and a coupon for a free “personality test.”

Unbelievable. Audacious. Outrageous.

This hotel is for Scientologists only, a group which has taken over this town like some kind of creepy, free-will sucking zombies. As we mentioned earlier in the article, the town of Clearwater was initially skeptical about the new arrivals when they bought the hotel under false pretenses back in the 70’s. A little research on Clearwater and Scientology will yield a slowly turning tide of acceptance towards these strange outsiders, which may have more to do with the large influx of Scientologists to the town, than any real understanding of the group’s purpose or intentions. More from the SPTimes article:

Built in 1927 as Clearwater’s first skyscraper, the hotel was a local focal point for decades. It was vacant by the time Scientology covertly bought it under an assumed name in 1975, sparking years of hostility between the church and the city.

The church has gained greater acceptance over the last 15 years or so, to the point where many local bigwigs felt comfortable attending a reception at the hotel Saturday night. But the church’s own research a few years ago found that many in the area still don’t know much about Scientology and view it as a strange cult.

To renovate the Fort Harrison, the church gutted it, tearing out plumbing, wiring, floors, walls, elevators and unsightly window air-conditioning units.

Now the redesigned lobby opens up to the third floor, where a pedestrian bridge crosses Fort Harrison Avenue to the unfinished Flag Building. A new marble staircase leads up there.

The Crystal Ballroom on the 10th and 11th floors, once a fashionable spot for high school proms, has been completely rebuilt and its patterned wooden floor restored, said Bob Wright, a Scientology staffer overseeing construction.

Church staffers made thousands of custom wood and plaster moldings at Scientology’s local wood mill and workshop.

That’s a fascinating bit of insight. Scientology did a study to determine people’s perceptions of their cult in Clearwater and found most people still consider them a strange cult. That’s a pretty clear signal that something isn’t right with a group if after 15 years of essentially taking over a town, your neighbors still eye you with suspicious. Also noteworthy is the extent of the renovations. That much skilled labor would cost millions upon millions, but when you factor in the expensive materials used, including gold-leafed moldings, marble floors, just to name a few, the $40million spent seems far too little.

Chalk that up to the slave labor force supplied by the Sea Org members who are paid a fraction of what a contractor would earn, and the 100 hours+ a week worked by each individual explains why the building was renovated so quickly. Not so for the huge monstrosity which sits directly across from the Fort Harrison and also a Scientology owned structure, the “Super Power Building.”

Construction on the Flag Building began in 1999, and it was supposed to open in 2002. Work stopped in 2003 and has been at a standstill ever since.

One of the county’s largest buildings, it is stuccoed, trimmed and painted on the outside, but empty on the inside. A big hole in the building’s northwest corner draws curious glances from drivers on Alt. U.S. 19.

Clearwater officials get asked about it all the time.

One would think this kind of unfinished construction would be a major sticking point with city officials. Who wants this kind of eye-sore at the center of their business district? It hasn’t gone unnoticed by residents or those issuing code violations:

The “Super Power” building, is a seven-story, 380,000-square-foot empty shell that encompasses a whole city block. The church gets fined $250 a day for not bringing it up to code, and the fines now total $245,000.

Numerous promises to finish the building have come and gone, but church officials insist that this time it really is next on their to-do list. At this point, church architects and Clearwater building officials say they’re going over some final details.

“We’re ready,” said Scientology spokesman Tommy Davis. “All the money has been put aside, and the plans are in place. As soon as we get the go-ahead from the city, we’ll begin.”

Balancing the needs of the city, its residents and those visiting must be a genuine challenge for those charged with operation the city and they know that people have questions, unfortunately there are very few straight answers from Scientology officials:

“People say, ‘My gosh, why is it taking so long?’ The public doesn’t understand the church’s sense of priorities — why they would leave such a large building unfinished for an unusual amount of time,” said City Manager Bill Horne.

“We look forward to them getting it complete,” said Mayor Frank Hibbard.

And what about all those fines being imposed at $250 a day?

When it’s finally finished, the city’s code enforcement board will review the fines and decide whether to forgive any.

City officials get asked why they’re not taking harsher measures. Horne said the city treats the church like any other landowner: “Our building codes and state statutes give property owners quite a bit of leeway to get a structure completed.”

Forgive my skepticism, but I’ll bet Scientology has other ways of persuading city officials to see things their way.

So what is the Super Power Building supposed to do anyway?

The church says the Flag Building will eventually house the bulk of Scientology’s religious services in Clearwater. It will have about 300 rooms for Scientology’s core practice of “auditing.”

The building is nicknamed “Super Power” because it will be the only place in the world where a highly classified Scientology program called Super Power will be offered. Its upper floors will house special equipment that church officials say is designed to heighten one’s perceptions. The specifics are secret; like much of Scientology training, details aren’t revealed until one pays to take the course.

Wright said the building has cost about $40 million so far, and the church expects to spend $50 million finishing its elaborate interior. He leafed through 800 sheets of construction drawings for it. “It’s been planned to within an inch of its life,” he said.

That’s the watered down version, here’s what Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard has to say about the function and purpose of the Super Power Building:

“A super fantastic, but confidential series of rundowns that can be done on anybody whether Dn [Dianetics] Clear or not that puts the person into fantastic shape unleashing Super Power of a thetan. This means that puts Scientologists into a new realm of ability enabling them to create a new world. It puts world Clearing within reach of the future. This is a parallel rundown to Power in Saint Hills which is taken by the Dn Clear. It consists of 12 separate high power rundowns which are brand new and enter realms of the tech never before approached. Power is still very much in use on the Grade Chart but is for those who didn’t go Clear on Dn.

Confused yet? Me too, so fortunately we have some additional insight about what will actually (supposedly) go down in the Super:

According to the Church of Scientology, the building will contain specially developed equipment which “expand[s] on technology developed by NASA to train astronauts” designed to exercise and enhance an individual’s 57 “perceptics” (senses).These machines will include such things as an antigravity simulator, a gyroscope-like apparatus that spins a person around while blindfolded to improve perception of compass direction, and a video screen that moves forward and backward while flashing images to hone a viewer’s ability to identify subliminal messages.

Oh really? Don’t sprain your eyeballs on that one, this is typical Scientology b.s. After spending $350,000 dollars on Scientology courses, this basically certifies you to fly, travel to distant reaches of the universe with your mind, cure all illness and read people’s minds. I wish this was a joke, but it’s not. In fact, in our second installment in this feature we will talk about the truth horrors of the Fort Harrison: the mysterious deaths which have continued to haunt those marbled, gold-adorned halls.

(Another fantastic submission by Glosslip contributor Queen, edited by D)

Source: D