New York Times
May 13, 1976 - Page 74
The Unification Church, which is headed by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, announce last night that it had bought the 2,000-room New Yorker Hotel.
Details of the purchase and 'its part in the church's drive o restore confidence in the City of New York," are to be discussed at a news conference this morning at the organization's current national headquarters, at 4 West 43rd Street, a spokesman said.
The hotel, at Eighth Avenue and 34th Street, has been vacant for More than a year, according to an official of the Hilton Hotels Corporation who earlier yesterday confirmed that negotiations for the sale of the hotel were under way.
The New Yorker presumably will serve as the American headquarters for the 22-year-old Unification Church. The church says it has three million members worldwide, including 30,000 in the United States.
Its present headquarters on 43rd Street once housed the Columbia University Club. The church bought the eight-story structure a year ago for $1.2 million.
The Unification Church has amassed large-scale holdings in Westchester County around Tarrytown and in Duchess County.
The 41-story New Yorker closed in 1972 after 42 years as one of the city's largest hotels
Mr. Moon, a Korean evangelist, and his church have been involved in controversy as parents in various parts of the country have charged that the church has "brainwashed" their children into becoming adherents and into becoming hostile to their parents. Church officials have denied this and insist that the complaining parents are relatively few and have been influenced by false reports.