The Fort Harrison

For the past 8 decades, the Fort Harrison has ruled as Downtown Clearwater’s most recognizable landmark. It has served as the focal point for a variety of activities that have helped to shape Clearwater’s history and heritage. It established a new standard for hostelries in Florida when it first opened and maintained that atmosphere of luxury and fine living throughout the bleak depression years.
It was then that the hotel became the venue for a series of concerts that would later become world-famous as the Clearwater Jazz Holiday. For three years in the early 1970s a relative handful of residents were treated to a series of intimate concerts by performers such as Woody Herman and his Thundering Herd, Harry James, Stan Kenton, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, the Four Freshmen and Buddy Rich. These jazz sessions eventually gave rise to the Jazz Holiday phenomenon that would draw musicians and music lovers from around the world.