History
The hotel opened in 1926 as the New Fort Harrison Hotel, replacing the former Fort Harrison Hotel. It was built by developer Ed Haley and was used as a community center for many years. The hotel was operated by Ransom E. Olds, inventor of the Oldsmobile, from 1926 until his death in 1950.
In 1953 the hotel was bought by the Jack Tar Hotels and became known as the “New Fort Harrison Hotel, a Jack Tar Hotel”. The company added a cabana area to the building.
By the 1970s the hotel had begun to fall into disrepair. In 1975, the Church of Scientology purchased the building under the names “Southern Land Development and Leasing Corp” and “United Churches of Florida Inc”. In 1976, the Church of Scientology's connection and the named purchasers was reported, by the Saint Petersburg Times, as was the Church's plan for a $2.8 million restoration and upgrade of the hotel.
In 2007, the Church announced that the hotel would undergo another $20 million restoration project, but not when the project would begin.
Read more about this topic: Fort Harrison Hotel
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“It would be naive to think that peace and justice can be achieved easily. No set of rules or study of history will automatically resolve the problems.... However, with faith and perseverance,... complex problems in the past have been resolved in our search for justice and peace. They can be resolved in the future, provided, of course, that we can think of five new ways to measure the height of a tall building by using a barometer.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)
“Most events recorded in history are more remarkable than important, like eclipses of the sun and moon, by which all are attracted, but whose effects no one takes the trouble to calculate.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The awareness that health is dependent upon habits that we control makes us the first generation in history that to a large extent determines its own destiny.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)