Original subtitles

[narrator] Abandoned structures hold the secrets of America's past.

A canyon hides the ruined dreams of a couple who bet on America falling.

It's really one of the most legendary places in Los Angeles.

There are many rumors about what the people who owned it wanted it to become.

[narrator] A ghost town that offers a rare glimpse into a celebrated era.

[Steve Reyes] And it'd become an iconic place to visit, and represents

truly Americana at its best.

[narrator] And a much loved tourist attraction

where one woman took on a corrupt institution.

[Angela Thomas] The struggles that she had with the city,

and, you know, a lot of tryin' to fight,

but eventually, it became too much.

[narrator] Scattered across the United States are abandoned structures.

Forgotten ruins of the past.

Monuments to a bygone era.

Each shines a light on the story of this land, and its people.

These are the secrets of Hidden America.

[narrator] 100 miles south of Las Vegas, in the Mojave Desert,

is a town that helped turn this vast continent-spanning land,

into one unified country.

[Dr. Philip J. Merrill] The environment is hot, dry,

appears to be desolate, it appears to be harsh.

[Dr. Sascha Auerbach] There's basically a road, some railroad tracks,

and then rising out of the desert, this abandoned town.

[narrator] Many of the buildings here are in ruins,

but it's not a scene of total dereliction.

[Auerbach] Some of them look like there's a little more life to them.

So there's more going on here than first meets the eye, I think.

[narrator] One structure has recently been restored to its former glory,

and is a big hit by those passing through, whether by car, or by plane.

[Albert Okura] You say, "Hey, watch people pull over,"

they see the sign, they want to take the picture in front of the sign.

All day long this goes on.

[narrator] The sign is a symbol of a great nation building achievement.

A triumph that has been immortalized in American culture.

It figures in movies, television shows, and even songs.

[Dr. Corina Kwami] This is something that shaped the country,

and made it what it is today.

[narrator] Albert Okura, a well-known restaurant chain owner in Southern California

bought this ghost town in 2005.

[Okura] The town, it was pretty much empty.

All the buildings had no electricity, no water, it was just a shell.

[narrator] This is the town of Amboy,

and Albert's restoration work is putting it back on the map.

[Okura] Amboy is looking more and more famous all over the world.

And everyday I wake up, I can't believe

the opportunity that's sittin' right in front of me.

[narrator] The reason for this town's fame

begins long before Albert was on the scene.

[Merrill] When you're exploring the grounds, you begin to realize

that this story runs a lot deeper and a lot further back than you realize.

[narrator] The town was established in 1883.

Evidence of its origin, is now only noticeable to the well-trained eye.

[Reyes] Typically, when you're travelling in the desert

and you see the trees behind me, they're called salt cedars.

They were usually planted by homesteaders, and they're not native to the desert.

[narrator] Steve Reyes lives 25 miles south of Amboy, and is one of the few people

who can paint a picture of the now disappeared original town.

[Reyes] The original schoolhouse would have been here,

housing for the railroad workers, there would have been a store here, as well.

[narrator] At first, the settlement was simply

a water and repair stop for the steam trains.

But Amboy's future was about to dramatically change course thanks to a new invention,

the automobile.

[Auerbach] In the early 20th century, a car is really

a luxury item only for the rich.

But the manufacturer's work hard to try to make them a more affordable item.

[narrator] The revolutionary Ford Model-T arrived in 1908,

but good roads still lagged behind, especially outside of the cities.

[Auerbach] There was really nothing out here, there was dirt tracks if you were lucky.

But then over time, these start to develop into roads.

[narrator] In 1912, for the first time

Americans could take one road from east coast to west coast.

It was called the National Old Trails Road.

It came right through Amboy, and would irreversibly change the town.

[Reyes] As modern travel shifted away from the railroad,

the residents and the buildings would've moved up towards the road.

[narrator] The road was now the focus of life in Amboy,

but its love affair with automobiles was just getting started.

[Merrill] We start off with the National Old Trails Road,

which is a singular type of road, east to west,

but we're progressing to a system, a network of roads.

[narrator] Arriving in 1926, the United States' numbered highway system

was the beginnings of the nationwide road network we recognize today.

[Kwami] The road that was coming past Amboy

was reclassified in this new system,

and it would become an icon, the classic Route 66.

[narrator] The increasing traffic passing through Amboy

caught the attention of a local man called Roy Crowell.

[Merrill] Roy was a mechanic and his wife was a cook.

So you put the two together and you are able to create a magnificent concept

of the gas station, the cafe, a husband and wife.

It's just a wonderful kind of story that America was built on.

These type of hard working people that could create something out of nothing.

[narrator] Roy and his wife built the service station and garage in 1938,

and soon realized there was opportunity for another business, too.

[Auerbach] Behind the cafe, we have quite a large motel, we have 18 rooms,

so it tells you how well this place was doing, it was booming!

[Reyes] It was really a major thoroughfare of cars going up and down the highway.

And this being right in the middle of Needles and Barstow,

it would be the natural place that people would stop.

[narrator] But many people knew of Amboy because it had been a stop on a journey

triggered by desperation.

So Route 66, during the 1930's we have a common belief that

it was this... always this mode of travel for enjoyment,

but really during the Dust Bowl era, it took kind of a darker side.

[narrator] High winds churned up the bare

and over-plowed farmland in the American prairies

resulting in years of severe dust storms.

Vast clouds of dust darkened the sky for days at a time.

In many places, the dust drifted like snow,

and residents had to clear it with shovels.

[Auerbach] Route 66 really offered people a lifeline out of the Dust Bowl.

And in John Steinbeck's famous novel, The Grapes of Wrath,

he even refers to it as the Mother Road.

As if it was the absolute key to survival for all these people.

[narrator] Roughly 2.5 million people left the Dust Bowl states during the 1930's.

It was one of the largest migrations in American history.

[Reyes] It really changed the demographics of America,

there was a huge influx of people comin' into California.

[narrator] This steady flow of westbound motorists

turned Amboy into a major stopping point.

It grew to include three gas stations, two cafes, four garages, a post office,

a church and a school, but its real heyday was just around the corner.

[Reyes] After World War II, uh, returning soldiers, the economy was good,

people had expendable money to purchase cars.

There's also associations that are encouraging people to travel along Route 66.

[narrator] In 1959, Roy passed his businesses onto his son-law, Buster Burris,

who gave the buildings a fresh, new look.

He also gave the town its now iconic sign.

The sign and the hotel lobby are really absolute paradigms

of the architecture of the time,

this gooey modernism, as it was called.

[narrator] The new buildings gave Amboy a different esthetic,

but the flow of cars remained as steady as ever.

I was fortunate enough to interview a California Highway Patrol officer,

and the one thing he talked a lot about was how busy the traffic was.

It was this major travel artery through the desert into California.

[narrator] But Amboy's glory days were numbered.

[Reyes] It's fascinating that just overnight, this town dried up.

People closed the gas stations,

closed the restaurants, and they just went away.

[narrator] Fed by the popular Route 66, Amboy enjoyed

a comfortable existence throughout the middle of the 20th century,

but it all came to an abrupt end.

[Reyes] There was one thing that changed overnight,

that basically shut the town down, and people moved away, and walked away

from their stores, locked their doors, never to come back.

[Auerbach] The death knell of this place

was the opening of the new interstate just north of Amboy

that gave a more direct route from Needles to Barstow.

[narrator] After more than 50 years on the main route west,

Amboy had been bypassed.

Starved of cars, businesses shut, and the population plummeted.

Buster clung to his investment until 1995,

when he leased his properties to be used as film sets,

before finally selling up completely in 2000.

After decades of neglect, Amboy has started experiencing

a renaissance, driven by nostalgia.

[Reyes] So through years, Amboy,

really the birth of it become a tourist destination,

would have been with the advent of the internet.

People from Europe started rediscovering Route 66,

and that's when it be... really became a part of Americana.

It was very common to see

people from France, from Germany, to stop here at Amboy.

[Auerbach] People used to pull into Amboy 'cause it was between here and there.

Now it's become an actual destination location.

[narrator] Albert Okura was also drawn in by the magic of Route 66.

Baby boomers, my generation, they got involved in buyin' hot rods,

and... Harley Davidson's, and they wanted to ride the route.

And so when Amboy came for sale, I knew I had to buy it.

[narrator] Albert has restored the gas station, including its 1970's pumps,

and has plans for other buildings on his property, too.

[Okura] We have five bungalow cabins, ideal for renting and to stay overnight.

We need to get the utilities in, and I think that's our goal for this coming year.

[narrator] But the big moment was back in 2019,

with the relighting of the sign.

[Okura] When we had a grand opening, we had a lotta people fly in,

and we had up to 27 planes that day.

It got us a lot of attention, a lot of press,

became the focal point of everything we do here.

It just symbolizes, it was a whole movement of the Route 66,

and the whole restoration thing.

[narrator] Amboy's reawakening has spawned its own slogan,

"the ghost town that ain't dead yet."

[Auerbach] Most of the towns along roads like this have vanished long ago,

but Amboy gives us this tantalizing window into what life was like

when this culture was at its height.

[narrator] On the edge of Los Angeles,

lies a sprawling collection of ruins that shows how fringe societies

can lurk in the most unexpected of places.

[Dr. Matthew Green] It's a beautiful landscape.

The steep hills dotted with trees,

quite the contrast to the never-ending concrete jungle that is Los Angeles.

[Dr. Kenya Davis-Hayes] But there's something surprising here

in this wooded area.

Something that you wouldn't expect.

What we see are stairs.

So many stairs climbing, climbing, climbing everywhere.

[Rob Bell] There are different pieces of this puzzle

littered throughout the woods.

[narrator] Years of gossip have added to the mystery of this site's true purpose.

[Hadley Meares] There's so many different stories that have been told over the years

about what happened here.

But what we actually know is fascinating, but it's clearly not the full story.

[narrator] Hadley Meares started researching the rumors about this place 20 years ago,

after a hike here left her with unanswered questions she found too hard to ignore.

[Meares] This is one of the two giant, industrial-sized tanks

that the folks here put up.

They were trying to build something where they would have their own fuel,

their own water, and very little dependence on the outside world.

[narrator] Travelling deeper into the canyon,

one building emerges from the trees, that is the biggest hint yet,

as to the scale of this complex.

[Meares] So this is the pump house,

and this is where the double generator was at one point,

and where the water pump, we believe, was.

And as you're walking through this immense property, you'll see water pipes everywhere

still lining from different culverts to the river.

You also see a leveled out section, a garden.

[Meares] They were very, very extensively growing trees, growing food,

so that they'd become totally insular and take care of themselves.

[narrator] The site has become known as Murphy Ranch.

But this name and the ruins that remain today, don't begin to tell the whole story.

[Bell] What we had here was stage one, effectively, the infrastructure.

What was planned next would have been the real deal, the mansion, itself.

[narrator] The project was never finished,

but Hadley hunted down all the existing blueprints,

and discovered a surprising level of opulence.

[Meares] Common theme between all these different plans is that they're grand.

There's a library, multiple parlors, multiple bedrooms,

and it really seems like a place for a head of state and their government.

Not a normal, rich person's mansion.

[narrator] It has been said, that what the owners were building here

was to be based on National Socialist ideals.

[Bell] Some say this was meant to be a headquarters

for the Nazis out on the west coast.

Some kind of Nazi White House.

[narrator] Scant ruins remain at Murphy Ranch.

The lack of evidence fueling the legends.

But in 1975, an affidavit from a man called Dr. Vincent,

shone significant light on the mystery.

[Meares] That one piece of paper which I have in my possession,

is really where this entire legend comes from.

[Davis-Hayes] For years, there have been rumors about this property.

But when Dr. Vincent decided he that he was interested in buying this estate

he had to listen to the story, and the owners of the property had quite the story to tell.

[Meares] There used to be a weird steel garage right here,

and in this garage a couple lived, named Norman and Winona Stephens,

and they owned all of this property.

And it was in that garage,

Dr. Vincent initially heard what they had planned to do with it.

[narrator] Norman and Winona Stephens' rumored connection to Nazism,

grew from a relationship they had with a persuasive man, called Herr Schmidt.

[Green] Herr Schmidt is rather a mysterious and elusive character.

We hardly know anything about him at all.

There's just one article from the LA Times,

uh, that reports that he was wanted by Naval Intelligence, and ultimately rounded up.

[narrator] But it wasn't Mr. Schmidt's nefarious activities

that drew in the couple.

[Meares] Winona claimed that she had long been interested,

basically, in the occult, and paranormal thoughts.

He kind of convinced them both that he had these powers to see into the future.

That they needed to build a self-sustaining, basically, utopian colony

based on National Socialist ideas,

and that they needed to do it quickly because America was about to collapse.

[narrator] If Dr. Vincent's account is true,

hidden somewhere within this canyon, a Nazi stronghold was planned

in preparation of Hitler overthrowing America.

[Davis-Hayes] Something that's not really discussed often in the history of Los Angeles

is that there was a real history of Nazi supporters within this area.

[Bell] From a Nazi perspective,

something that LA had going for it was its ports.

It wasn't monitored, so it was an easy access point for propaganda materials.

[narrator] The affidavit alludes to the Stephens' connection to Nazism,

using it's alternative name, National Socialism.

But there are also other stories that add weight to this claim.

There are rumors floating around that neighbors saw some of these American Nazis.

So-called Silver Shirts, doing paramilitary maneuvers in the gardens,

and marching up the stairs.

[Meares] We also know now that there were reports to government officials

in Los Angeles, who were involved in uprooting Nazis who were imbedded in LA,

that there was a mansion planned to be built

in this area for fascist leaders.

So there was some basis for all of these rumors.

[narrator] Meanwhile, in Europe,

the rise of Nazism would result in full-blown war.

America initially resisted calls to join the fight.

But their reluctance would not last.

In December of 1941, everything changed

with the attack on Pearl Harbor.

[narrator] This was also a pivotal moment for Murphy Branch.

[Green] America was very much entering into the war

and anything that has any kind of allegiance whatsoever

with Germany or Nazism is completely outlawed,

at which point somewhere like this would have been,

overnight, rendered entirely illegal.

[Meares] We know that the Stephens stopped paying architects in 1941

because all available architectural plans

cease after that date.

Whatever was going on here, they were probably

under enormous pressure to stop what they were doing.

[narrator] Herr Schmidt was slow to react

and ended up paying a heavy price.

Herr Schmidt was arrested for hiding shortwave

radio equipment on the property

and allegedly died in prison.

[narrator] The Stephens stayed on at Murphy Ranch,

but never built anything more.

The few existing structures in surrounding land

were later sold to be used as an artist's retreat.

LA's Murphy Ranch is a confusing collection

of ruins, rumors, and hard-to-link facts

that will always be open to interpretation.

[Bell] This is the city of make believe.

But the question is, is this just another of Hollywood's fantasy tales?

[Meares] What exactly the Stephen's aims were,

what really happened on this land during the 1930s,

who else was actually even here

is a totally mystery.

I don't think we're ever gonna know what actually happened.

[narrator] At the heart of America's Rust Belt,

within the city limits of Detroit,

is a monument to betrayal.

[Meigs] We're on an island in the Detroit River

just a little upstream from the city center.

Parts of it are well-tended. We have parks,

places for swimming and picnics.

[Bell] It feels like the perfect place to come and enjoy nature.

So, why are large parts of it completely disused?

[narrator] This is Belle Isle

and at its center is a dilapidated collection

of structures walled off from the rest.

[Meigs] Behind the fence is a complex of wooden ruins

that look like something from a completely different time and place.

[Bell] In some of the structures,

you can make out these old, rusting cages,

some with their doors just hanging open.

It's enough to send shivers up your spine.

[narrator] This enclosed compound played

a significant role in one of Detroit's most notorious corruption scandals.

[Bell] There were darker forces at play behind the scenes

that no one could have predicted.

This really was a hero to zero story.

[Thomas] Basically, he was taking advantage of the city.

So many people are still upset about what he did to Detroit.

[narrator] On an island in the Detroit River,

is a site who's glory days are firmly in the past.

[Thomas] It feels surreal.

It's been almost 30 years since I've been inside of the gates here.

When I was here in the early 80s,

I never envisioned this would happen.

[narrator] Angela Lugo-Thomas knows this place better than most.

She worked here during its heyday.

A lot of people got their first jobs working in this space.

So, I did concessions and I sold souvenirs.

But one of my favorite things to do was making the cotton candy.

'Cause we used the old style cotton candy

where you had a big silver bowl and you just

and you just go around with a stick until you get it to a certain size.

It's just one of those first memories that you never forget.

[narrator] Its story begins almost 100 years earlier

at a time when Detroit was on the up.

The first structures were erected here in 1895

just as Detroit was emerging as one of America's most prominent cities.

[Meigs] Detroit was a booming industrial city

with factories and immigrants and a very fast-growing economy.

[narrator] With repetitive jobs and cramped, urban living conditions,

the burgeoning work force was in need

of an all-together different form of entertainment.

They found it here, at the Belle Isle Zoo.

These factory workers and their families,

they didn't have the money to travel far outside the city.

So, the idea they could go to a beautiful island

and stroll among these exotic creatures at a zoo,

that must have just been delightful for them.

[Lucy Jane Santos] By 1909 they had over 150 animals,

including bears, kangaroos and monkeys.

[narrator] As Detroit's fortunes soared,

so, too, did the zoo's.

But, as industry began to lead the motor city

in the second half of the century,

the number of patrons to the zoo dwindled.

After the 1950s, Detroit's population began to decrease rapidly.

The city lost nearly 40% of its residents

between 1950 and 1980.

This spelt real bad news for the zoo.

[narrator] With gate receipts diminishing,

and the city's finances in turmoil,

the Belle Isle Zoo looks set to close.

Until an ambitious restoration project turned the tide.

Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!

Welcome to the open of the Detroit Belle Isle Zoo.

The zoo was revived in the 1980s with a, kind of, African theme.

They called it "Safariland."

They built these structures that were

kind of informed by an idea of African architecture.

[narrator] The rejuvenated zoo was a big hit with the public.

[Thomas] Oh, they loved the zoo. I mean,

a lot of people, it was their first time going to see animals.

You know, a lot of the children had some of

their first school trips here in this space.

[Santos] A new area was added to the zoo in 1980.

It was essentially an elevated board walk

with the animals fenced in at ground level.

[narrator] The renovation was spearheaded by

a new zoo director, Khadejah Shelby.

Under the stewardship of Khadejah,

the zoo bucked the trend of Detroit's declining fortunes.

She was a real force in the city at the time.

And she was also the nation's first African American zoo director.

[narrator] Angela had VIP access to the new facilities

as Khadejah was her grandmother.

When I came here, I came with my grandmother.

As soon as she was spotted at the bridge at Belle Isle,

someone would radio in to let everyone else know

that Miss Shelby has arrived and to get everything ready and prepared.

She had everyone on their pins and needles

because they knew that she expected excellence.

[Meigs] But even as the zoo was revived,

Detroit's fortunes continued to go downhill.

[narrator] Eventually, even Khadejah's supreme efforts were not enough.

There was a time when this place was funded very well.

And then, of course, like everything else,

funding goes away.

And it's always difficult for my grandmother

to do a lot of the programing that she was used to doing.

Sometimes they didn't have the right people to take care of the animals.

So, it became a point in time when

you would go to the zoo and you really didn't see a lot of animals.

[narrator] And in 1994, with a change to administration in city hall,

she was removed from her post.

[Thomas] It was hard for her to see this zoo,

which was her baby, kind of, you know, deteriorate.

And so that was sad to watch.

The spirit of this place changed after she was not here anymore.

[narrator] Eight years later, the zoo closed.

But former director Khadejah didn't give up.

She joined a campaign aimed at raising the $700,000

needed to reopen the gates.

And with another new mayor in city hall,

things were looking up.

[Bell] In 2002, Kwame Kilpatrick became mayor of Detroit,

sweeping into office on a tremendous wave of positivity and hope.

[Santos] He was known as the "hip-hop mayor."

Not only was he young, but he was tall, he was handsome.

And he promised very exciting times for Detroit.

The city was ecstatic to see him become mayor.

[narrator] At the same time, Khadejah's fund raising had been a success.

And with Mayor Kilpatrick pledging his support

for the reopening of the zoo, victory was at hand.

But things didn't play out as expected.

The rug was completely pulled out from under the campaigners.

[narrator] In 2002, a new mayor arrived in Detroit

and brought with him fresh impetus to resurrect the shuttered Belle Isle Zoo.

Money was raised for the zoo and it looked like

it was going to get a second chance.

But then, nothing happened.

[narrator] Detroiters were waiting for construction to begin,

which it did, but on the other side of the island.

Mayor Kilpatrick, he did a little switcheroo on people, because

instead of reopening and fixing this space up,

he ended up, then, pouring that money into a new facility

that's on the east side of the island

called the Belle Isle Nature Center.

A lot of people felt duped.

They were very upset because he did not follow through on the promise.

[narrator] And Kilpatrick's misdeeds went far beyond broken promises.

It soon came to light that he was involved in a massive corruption scandal.

It involved kickbacks from contractors working for the city.

Suddenly, the whole dirty mess was exposed.

This was corruption at the highest level.

[narrator] In 2013, Kilpatrick was convicted on 24 federal corruption charges

and condemned to 28 years in prison.

But, in 2021, his sentence was commuted by

President Donald Trump on his last day in office.

He's out now, but yeah, he's definitely left a scar on the city

that I'm not sure a lot of people are gonna get over.

[narrator] Although it's unlikely the Belle Isle Zoo will open again,

Angela is hopeful the space can be reimagined in another form.

Whether it's a nature preserve or maybe paintball, you know,

a maze or whatever, you know,

just utilize the space because it is a big space

to just have vacant and nobody using it.

[Meigs] As part of its revival,

Detroit is rediscovering its waterfront.

I suspect that within a few years we'll see

this restored into a beautiful place

to visit and a resource for the people of Detroit.

[narrator] In South Carolina, two empty buildings mark how one city

changed the course of American history, twice.

[Corina Kwami] We're right in the heart of one of the busiest cites

on the southeast coast of the United States.

We're in Charleston.

[narrator] In the suburbs is a complex that was built in a time of crisis.

[Merrill] It's a weird, eerie feeling

when you look at the inside of this large building.

And, as they say, if the walls could talk, we might be in trouble.

[narrator] And on the waterfront,

a building that was once the beating heart of the city.

Oh, this is one of those places that very few people know much about,

but is really critical to the history of Charleston.

[narrator] These two buildings tell the story of how Charleston found redemption,

and in doing so, helped give rise to modern America.

Don Campagna has lived in Charleston his entire life.

He was a child when he first saw this building.

[Campagna] This building was designed to create in the citizens

a feeling of appreciation for the beauty around them.

If you're not impressed by this size and this scale,

I don't know what it'll take to move your heart.

[Sascha Auerbach] It's made of this beautiful blond brick,

built to look good, not just be functional.

[narrator] This part of the structure is now empty.

But clues to its function remain.

[Auerbach] It's a huge empty space,

but down by one of those banks of rubble,

you can see flowing water.

[narrator] Water plays an important role in the story of this building.

Its history goes back over 100 years

to when Charleston was one of the wealthiest port cities in America.

Its prosperity ended when the country was thrown into civil war.

[Kwami] Charleston played a major role during the Civil War

and it was a pivotal city in the fight between the Union and the Confederate armies.

[narrator] By the end of the conflict,

Charleston was left in ruins by the Union army.

[Campagna] The city was destroyed.

Absolutely decimated.

It wasn't just a military conflagration,

it was, uh, civilians suffering as well.

[narrator] For decades, Charleston was a shadow of its former self.

But in 1901, Congress gave the city a second chance

by constructing a complex that would help transform the US Navy.

[narrator] In 1901, work began on an engineering project

to revitalize the city of Charleston.

They built the Charleston Navy Yard.

The Navy built one of the largest dry docks

on the entire Eastern Seaboard right here in Charleston.

The shipyard focused mainly on the resupply and the repair

of ships that were already in the fleet.

[narrator] The shipyard had a dry dock, crane, water pumps and management buildings,

creating thousands of new jobs.

And its beating heart was a brand new power plant.

[Campagna] This is industrial size.

You really have to have something that could generate

the electricity to power all of that equipment

to build the ships that you need.

[Kwami] The naval yard was a catalyst for more economic activity

because it was attracting workers from all over the country.

[narrator] The Charleston Navy Yard ushered in a new era of prosperity for the city.

But in 1917, the United States entered a new conflict

and the yard was about to play a special roll in keeping the country safe.

[Campagna] During World War I,

we had pretty much been a wooden boat navy.

And WWI gave the United States Navy a new, steel-hulled fleet.

That was as big a transition as we're seeing now

between gas engines and electric cars.

[narrator] The plant powered the refit of 35 destroyers

and hundreds of smaller vessels.

It was the start of what would be come,

the most powerful naval force the world had ever seen.

[Campagna] The reason America is as great as it is

is our maritime culture.

It's the maritime industries

that have made America the country that it is.

[narrator] Charleston helped prove that America was willing and able

to defend itself on the world stage.

Its new challenge was to protect the people who fought for it.

Even though America and the Allies won World War I,

they only just coped with the demands put on hospitals

to treat those injured and hurt.

[narrator] It was said that the crew of just one destroyer

would fill every hospital bed in Charleston.

They needed more capacity and decided to build

a bigger, better hospital district

right here in Charleston.

[narrator] In the downtown area

they built the new, 33-acer Navy Hospital District.

[Campagna] I don't think there was any question

that, at that point, the government had a very strong inkling

that we were likely to wind up in a war

and that we were gonna have casualties.

And we had to be prepared.

[narrator] The new facility was equipped with an X-ray department,

an operating theater, and a recreational courtyard

that filled the building with light.

Charleston was ready if America was ever thrust into another war.

And in 1941, it was.

As many as 4,000 wounded soldiers were treated here every month.

Many of whom were fighting in Europe and Africa.

[Campagna] There were 75,000 casualties

that came into Charleston.

People that came back on those hospital ships

were the most seriously wounded.

The most in desperate need of care.

[narrator] The Charleston Navy Hospital was well prepared.

It used pioneering methods to care for its patients.

The hospital was designed around the courtyard

with different wings all around it.

And, actually, what was revolutionary

about the design, was that it actually enabled

different wards to treat specific injuries.

If you had a doctor that was particularly good at doing

repair of legs or repair of arms,

then it would be nice for that doctor

to be able to go from one patient to the next.

It was more efficient use of the personnel.

[narrator] The new model of separating patients into wards

became the basis of modern clinical care.

After the second World War,

the Navy Hospital District continued to care

for wounded veterans for nearly three decades.

In 1996, the aged navy yard finally closed.

Today, Charleston is a cultural capital of the South,

its history forged in three great conflicts.

People like Don Campagna help keep that history alive.

This needs to be a monument of sorts

to the memory of the people who didn't leave here

and the people who did.

Because they both did their duty.

If we're ever going to tell the story of that generation,

and their service and sacrifice,

I can't think of a better place

than a hospital that made them well and sent them home.