The mystery began to unfold last fall in sleepy, sun-drenched Clearwater, Fla. The Southern Land Development and Leasing Corp. decided to buy the 270-room Fort Harrison Hotel, a downtown landmark, and a nearby bank building. Southern Land stated that the hotel would stay open, but another spokesman announced that it would become a center for the United Churches of Florida, a new ecumenical outfit that soon won endorsement from twelve local clergymen. When 200 tight-lipped strangers moved into the hotel, rumors ...

The Church of Scientology has announced it is selling its 3,287-ton yacht Apollo, the sometime home of founder L. Ron Hubbard and the mobile site of the worldwide sect's highlevel leadership training. [...]

It's official: the Fort Harrison Hotel has a new owner. And the price that new owner paid, until now a well-guarded secret, was $2.3-million according to documents filed in the Pinellas County courthouse Tuesday morning. Speculation about the price has gone on in Clearwater business circles since Jack Tar Hotels Inc. announced in late October that it was selling the landmark on Ft. Harrison Avenue to Southern Land Development and Leasing Corp. of Jamaica, N.Y. Guesses have ranged from more than ...

Southern Land Development and Leasing Corp., which is buying the Fort Harrison Hotel for use as a vacation and conference center for religious groups, signed an agreement Tuesday to buy the old Bank of Clearwater building on Cleveland Street and bank-owned office space with about 200 feet of frontage on N Ft. Harrison Avenue. ALTHOUGH individuals from Southern Land wouldn't comment officially on the purchase, they indicated that the space will be used for offices in connection with the hotel venture. ...

The Fort Harrison Hotel, a downtown Clearwater landmark for a half century, has been sold and the new owners plan to close it — at least temporarily in December. Southern Land Development and Leasing Corp., a Delaware corporation, bought the hotel from Jack Tar Hotels Inc. of Dallas, Tex. The Jack Tar chain has owned the Fort Harrison since 1953 except for 14 months in 1969-70 when it was the property of Osias Hotels Inc. The new owners plan an announcement ...

[...] Many of the houses were more modest. He designed several groups of row houses. The 1810-1820 19th St. NW are handsome houses with red tile roofs, Flemish gables, baroque stone work, bay windows, lights courts and cream-colored brick with the trim originally sage green. According to Eig and Bryan, the six are now used variously as offices of the Founding Church of Scientology, a halfway house, and multi-family homes. [...]

The Church of Scientology of Missouri, a branch of a controversial organization promising total spiritual freedom for all followers, opened in 1969 with a six member staff at a small Brentwood office. Today, the church has a staff of 150 and is in the process of moving from rented, two-story quarters at 4225 Lindell Boulevard to an even larger building of its own at 3730 Lindell. For fees that can total $5700, the staff conducts personal enlightenment and improvement courses for ...

The main Edinburgh practitioner, it seems, is a Mr Ernest Saren, and at the appointments he produces a personality "graph" showing the questionnaire results on ten "personality dimensions" such as happy-depressed and capable-inhibited. The final column on the capacity analysis chart gives an I.Q. figure. Saren's qualifications for discussing people's problems on the basis of this questionnaire, according to a H.A.P.I. spokesman, are scientology qualifications only. One of those tested in the H.A.P.I. building this week, a 19-year-old apprentice who had ...

THE PUBLIC INQUIRY INTO THE PLANNING APPEAL BY SClENTOLOGISTS CONCLUDED AT EAST GRINSTEAD ON FRIDAY AFTERNOON AFTER LASTING THREE-AND-A-HALF DAYS — THE LONGEST INQUIRY EVER TO BE HELD IN THE TOWN. The appeal by the Church of Scientology, California, was into the refusal by East Grinstead Urban Council to allow development extending to 23,500 square feet at the Scientology headquarters at Saint Hill Manor on the outskirts of the town. The Urban Council had booked East Grinstead Parish Hall for the ...

EAST GRINSTEAD Urban Council Planning Committee heard that well over 500 letters had had to be sent out to say that the inquiry into the appeal by the Church of Scientology, East Grinstead, against the Council's refusal to allow large-scale development at Saint Hill, had been postponed. The inquiry has been postponed by the Ministry because of the indisposition of Mr. Howard Sharp, who is representing the appellants. The new date for the inquiry is July 16. Labour councillor Mrs. C. ...

DESPITE a protest from East Crinstead Urban Council to the Ministry of Housing and Local Government, an appeal concerning the Church of Scientology has been postponed from May 29, and arrangements are being made to try and hold the hearing in July. When the Planning Committee of East Grinstead Urban Council met on Tuesday, Mr. H. C. Jones, clerk, reported that he had made representations opposing the postponement on the grounds that the December 1966 inquiry had been cancelled at short ...

THE APPEAL BY THE CHURCH OF SCIENTOLOGY AGAINST EAST GRINSTEAD URBAN COUNCIL'S REFUSAL TO GRANT PLANNING PERMISSION FOR LARGE-SCALE DEVELOPMENT AT THEIR HEADQUARTERS AT SAINT HILL MAY LAST TWO DAYS. A petition signed by over 460 people objecting to the development, in addition to individual objections, was sent to the Urban Council at the time they discussed the application and notices of the local inquiry have been sent to them. The inquiry, which will be conducted by an Inspector of the ...

Mr. L. RON HUBBARD, the American financier who was recently involved in the purchase of the Bumi Hills Hotel and in number of other big business deals in Rhodesia, has been refused permission to stay in the country and has until next Monday to leave. The founder of the controversial scientology movement, has been told by the Ministry of Immigration that his temporary alien's residence permit will not be renewed, a spokesman for Mr. Hubbard said last night. The spokesman said ...

MR. L. RON HUBBARD, the American financier recently involved in the purchase of the Bumi Hills Hotel and in a number of other big business deals in Rhodesia, has been refused permission to stay in the country and has until next Monday to leave. Mr. Hubbard, founder of the controversial Scientology movement, has been told by the Ministry of Immigration that his temporary alien's residence permit will not be renewed, according to a spokesman for Mr. Hubbard. ''The spokesman said the ...

AMERICAN millionaire financier L. Ron Hubbard, the man who [?] the controversial scientology movement, has moved into Rodhesia, has settled in a luxurious house in Salisbury and last week he [?] through his first business deal in this country. With two local business men, Mr. Aubrey Davies, a garage owner, and Mr. John Plagis, a property owner, he bought the Bumi Hills Hotel at Kariba by private treaty. A week earlier the highest bid for the hotel at an auction sale ...

WEALTHY Dr. Lafayette Ron Hubbard, the "Father of Scientology" is applying to East Grinstead Urban Council for permission to build a 75-room administration centre on grounds remote from his manor house home at Saint Hill. The move follows a confidential request from the council urging him to apply for planning permission to regularise use of the manor for office and research work. At present it is only scheduled for private residential use. In the meantime, some traders in the town have ...

The Hubbard Dianetic Research Foundation, 275 Morris Avenue, target of a suit accusing it of operating a medical school without a license, is moving its national headquarters out of Elizabeth because it has no desire to remain where it is not wanted. Transfer of the national headquarters to Wichita, Kan., effective April 15 was announced yesterday by the foundation. A spokesman indicated the principal reason is the pending District Court suit. Charles Leonard, in charge of press relations for the foundation, ...