All language subtitles for Mysteries.of.the.Abandoned.Hidden.America.S02E01.1080p.WEB.h264-CBFM_track3_[eng]

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

A besieged medical facility,
where heroes fought back.

[Peter Deblieux] We had
people breaking into cars
and buildings, gunfire.

We had little inkling
that it would turn into
the disaster

that changed lives forever.

[narrator] A secretive
religious community
with a desire to entertain.

[Debbie Boyersmith]
They didn't take
any new converts,

so as people died off,
the membership

gradually became
smaller and smaller
and smaller.

That was it was
supposed to be.

[narrator]
And an imposing ghost town,

which became
an unlikely refuge.

[Emily Budd]
These rural places,
we don't really associate them

as having a clear history,
but they really do.

They're just hidden
or too taboo to discuss.

[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.

In The Big Easy,
a building famed for healing

saw incredible feats
of bravery

during one of America's
darkest hours.

[Deblieux] Coming back
to this building
is one part nostalgia,

one part mourning,

and a little bit
of part PTSD.

To deliver care
in an environment

that was dangerous
and under supported,

yeah, that's heroic.

[narrator]
In downtown New Orleans,

an Art Deco monolith
casts a ghostly shadow.

This building is huge.

It's gotta be
twenty stories high.

But the windows are dark
and it looks lifeless.

[Dr. Greg Szulgit]
When I look at the
inside of this building,

the first thing I think
is just zombie apocalypse.

It's clearly
an institutional building,

and there are creepy,
sort of, hints
of medical stuff.

[Dr. Corina Kwami]
One of the rooms appears
to be an autopsy room.

It's a very
Dr. Frankenstein vibe.

[narrator]
Once, this represented
a maverick's dream.

[Michael Fitts] The motto
of this building was

"Where the unusual occurs
and miracles happen."

[narrator]
But when New Orleans
found itself under siege,

it became
a living nightmare.

I think that
there is a fallacy
that we all live under,

and that
at a time of disaster,

the government is there
to rescue us,

and that's just not the case.

[narrator] Located
just three blocks away
from the Superdome,

this is where
Peter Deblieux trained.

[Deblieux] I know
these corridors well.

It's where I spent
twenty years of my career.

It's nostalgic and sad
all rolled into one.

Tremendously fond
memories here.

Friendships, patients.

[narrator] This building
is part of a long tradition.

One that began
just two decades

after this city was founded
in 1718.

That time, New Orleans
was just sparsely populated,

and it was a place
full of malaria,
infectious diseases,

and they were
in desperate need
of healthcare.

A wealthy ship builder
answers the people's calls,

and he gives New Orleans
the money it needs
to build a hospital

that would offer free care
to people who needed it.

[narrator]
Over the following centuries,

socialist healthcare
became ingrained

in the Big Easy's identity.

But during
the Great Depression,

with money in short supply,

city officials
looked to turn their back
on this practice.

[Dr. Szulgit] Huey Long
was the governor at the time,

and he was absolutely
outraged by the idea

that people were gonna start
paying for healthcare,

so he marched into a meeting,

supposedly grabbed
the microphone,

and just said, "We're gonna
make this happen."

[narrator] A tax raise funded
a new million square foot

state-of-the-art
socialist medical facility.

This is Charity Hospital.

[McRobbie] This hospital
was the jewel of New Orleans.

It became so beloved
by the local population

that it was
given the nickname
Big Charity.

[narrator] Yet, soon
it became renowned

for far more
than just free healthcare.

It was famously
known as a place
for superb training.

[Dr. Szulgit] The building
had viewing galleries,

where operations
would be watched by students.

It was important
in training people

not just from around
the entire United States,
but from around the world.

[narrator]
But no amount of training
could prepare the staff

for what would happen
on August 29th, 2005.

New Orleans was hit
by Hurricane Katrina.

This was
a Category 5 hurricane.

An apocalyptic storm
that wreaked havoc
across the South.

Winds as high as
175 miles per hour.

[Deblieux]
When Katrina struck,

its loud noises outside
because of the wind,

the windows of my own office
on the 13th floor crashed in.

It was nuts.

[narrator] The hurricane dumps
over two trillion gallons
of rain on Louisiana alone.

And 36 hours in,

an event four miles
north of Big Charity

would bring the hospital
to its knees.

[Dr. Szulgit]
The levees broke,

and the water
just cascaded down
over the city.

80% was under water.

[narrator]
In a matter of hours,

downtown New Orleans
was flooded by over
ten feet of water.

Charity Hospital
was plunged into darkness.

[Dr. Kwami]
All the major generators

for the hospital
were in the basement,
which were rendered useless.

There were some
back-up generators
that they had

for only critical
life-saving purposes,

but anything else
was just not available.

[narrator] The rising water
would threaten more than
just the power.

[Deblieux] Halfway down
these steps right here
was water.

And that's what
caused us to have concern,

because we thought
it was gonna make its way
to this first floor,

where the emergency
department existed.

So it was concerning.
That's why we had to move
the patients.

If you can imagine
carrying patients,
stretchers up the stairwell.

You know, the manpower
required to do that,

to move patients
up into a safer place.

[narrator]
WIth large windows
to maximize natural light,

a temporary emergency room
was set up

in the second-floor
auditorium.

[Deblieux] This is where
it all went down.

Within a matter
of four hours,

we quickly moved
forty plus patients

and all the equipment
to provide care for them
up here.

Some of the things
that we did in this room

were just
nothing short of miraculous.

[narrator] After three days
of working in cramped
and crude conditions,

the staff
and patients thought
their ordeal might be over,

when helicopters were seen
evacuating people

from nearby Tulane Hospital.

[Deblieux] We were able
to solicit military half-track

to bring our
sickest ICU patients

literally across the street,
through four feet of water,
to the helicopters.

[McRobbie]
When they got there,

these critically ill patients
weren't evacuated quickly.

Tulane pretty much had a list
of who they needed
to evacuate,

and they stuck to it.

Sadly, we lost patients
on that roof.

[narrator] For the doctors
and surviving patients
still on the roof,

the hope of escape
quickly degenerated
into a nightmare.

[Dr. Szulgit]
And at that point,
the people looking after them

hear gunshots all around,
and they just say,

"This is not gonna work."

And they actually
take the people
back to Charity.

[narrator] Seventy-two hours
after Hurricane Katrina
had decimated New Orleans

and caused
catastrophic flooding,

the staff and patients
of Charity Hospital

were stranded
inside the building.

[Deblieux] We would hear
spotty radio reports

that our hospital
had been evacuated.

Can you imagine
just how dispiriting it was

that someone out there thinks
that you've been rescued.

So now there's
no one coming for you.

The staff actually
writes on sheets,

puts banners
out the window saying
"We're still here.

And the spirit
of Charity lives on."

[Deblieux]
It was a distressing time.

You have folks
who had been in it

72 plus hours into 96,
who had had it.

You were without a shower,
toilets, adequate food.

And then you throw
on top of that somebody
who is sleep deprived,

hot, sweaty, distressed,

it's a tough ask.
A real tough ask.

[narrator]
Despite the desperation,

no one could predict
what would happen next.

[Deblieux] One of our
emergency department nurses
was contacted by her father,

and said,
"I'm gonna get a boat
and I'm gonna come get you."

Motored his boat
to the hospital door and said,
"I came to pick up my baby."

And she says, you know,
"Daddy, I love you,

and I would love
to go with you,

but my duty
is to these patients.

I, I can't leave."

[McRobbie] The father
doesn't take no for an answer.

He thought, "If my daughter
won't leave her patients,

I guess I'll just have
to rescue them as well."

[narrator]
On September 2nd,

over 100 hours
after Katrina first struck,

something entirely
unexpected began.

Rounded up
by the nurse's father,

a motley fleet of volunteers
started a nine-hour evacuation
of Charity Hospital.

[Deblieux] I'm not proud
of how long it took
to evacuate people,

but it would not have happened
without the volunteers.

It was an impossibility.

When I locked the doors
and walked down this ramp

and closed the doors
for this hospital,

I had no earthly idea
that that would be
the last time

those doors would be open
for patient care at this site.

[narrator] For two decades,
Big Charity has stood silent.

But now, another of
New Orleans' institutions
is bringing it back to life.

So, I'm President
of Tulane University,

and we are a huge developer

in the revitalization
and redevelopment
of the Charity Hospital.

[narrator]
Parts of the structure
will be turned into

commercial spaces
and condos.

But nearly half of it
will stick to the
building's tradition.

[Fitts] What we're doing
is gonna make this
the flagship space

for our school
of public health.

We talk about
the digital revolution
in Silicon Valley.

We view this
as the biomedical revolution,

and it will be right here.

[narrator] For a city
still struggling with
the aftermath of Katrina,

there is hope that
the spirit of Big Charity
will live on.

[Deblieux] Charity hospital
is bigger than its name,

it's bigger
than the structure

because it represents hope,

and it represents
the best of us.

[narrator] On the coast
of Lake Michigan lies
a forgotten community

that brought a strange,
new style to America's
favorite pastime.

[Dr. Sascha Auerbach]
We are in Benton Harbor.

Now, in the dead of winter,
it's an extremely inhospitable
place to be.

[narrator]
Just off the main road

is a monument to a time
almost forgotten.

[Dr. Kyle A. Thomas] You go
down a long, wooded pathway

that leads
to an open ravine,

where inside
there are just derelict,

broken down pieces
of old buildings.

[Katherine Alcock]
You get strange glimpses
of half-forgotten structures.

And you start
to ask yourself,
"What is this place?"

[Boyersmith] This place,
it's got, kind of,
a magical feel to it.

I spent a lot of my childhood
coming here.

And I grew up
knowing the people

and the kindness that
they treated people with.

[narrator] But what happened
to the community who built
this place?

[Boyersmith] It's, kind of,
a mystery to a lot of people.

People don't understand
the religious aspect of it
and what it was.

[narrator] On the edge
of Benton Harbor, Michigan,

lies a collection
of dilapidated buildings

and a rusting
transport network.

[Dr. Thomas]
Was this a train depot,

was there a train
that ran through here?

And if so, why did it
wind through the woods

in almost
a directionless way?

[narrator] Despite being
a mystery to most
of the world,

locals like Debbie Boyersmith
remember this place
all too well.

[Boyersmith]
I spent a lot of time here
'cause my family were members

from the inception,
in 1903, up until 2017.

There was
a member of my family

as a member
of the House of David.

[narrator]
These are the remnants
of an amusement park

run by a community
known as the House of David.

[Dr. Thomas] The House
of David was started by
Mary and Benjamin Purnell.

The Purnells believed
that they were messengers
from God,

sent to herald the coming
of Judgment Day.

[Dr. Auerbach] But one day,
a family tragedy put a halt
to their preaching.

Their daughter perished
in an explosion

in a fireworks factory
in Ohio.

[Alcock] Strangely,
the pair refused to go
to the funeral,

believing that the living
should not associate
with the dead.

And it was due
to these strange,
unconventional beliefs

they were run out of town.

[narrator] The Purnells
fled to Benton Harbor

and started to build
a community here,

attracting followers
with their unusual doctrine.

[Boyersmith] Their beliefs
are very much following
the beliefs of Jesus.

Being a vegetarian,
you don't cut your hair,
you don't cut your beard.

You know, you treat people
kindly, non-judgmental.

[Dr. Auerbach]
Because they believed
that Judgment Day,

Armageddon was imminent,

the followers
of the House of David
didn't see procreation

as a responsible
or necessary activity.

Therefore, they argued
that all forms of sexual
activity were immoral.

[narrator]
Despite the House of David's
disapproval of reproduction,

soon they had
almost 1,000 members.

Many of those people
initially came here
to be entertained.

At one point,
the House of David was known
by everybody in the area.

And that's thanks
largely to this place,
Eden Springs Park.

[Boyersmith]
More and more people came,

and so they purchased
this property here.

Bought the trains.

And decided
let's entertain 'em.

And it was a way
to earn money
to support the colony.

[Dr. Thomas]
Eden Springs Park
opened in 1908,

and it had
a lot of great attractions
for the day.

It had a fish pond,
a giant dollhouse,
and an auditorium,

where Benjamin Purnell
put on Biblical plays.

At Eden Springs,
there was even a small zoo.

It must have been
quite an exciting place
to visit.

[narrator]
Despite the community's
private nature,

they were extremely welcoming
at Eden Springs Park.

[Boyersmith] It was
the place to come
back in the day.

Well, of course I loved
riding the train in.
[chuckles]

'Cause that was
just always fun.

My aunt, she would always
meet us at the depot with
tickets and ice cream.

I remember
the strawberry ice cream

had pieces
of strawberry in it.

And to a kid, that was...
That was the best.

[narrator] This park
made the House of David
well known in Benton Harbor.

But a very different
form of entertainment

would make them famous
across the nation.

[Boyersmith]
One of the big draws
of Eden Springs

or the House of David
was the baseball field.

And right here
was where the big stadium was.

[Dr. Thomas] It wasn't long
before Benjamin Purnell
realized

that because of the group's
emphasis on celibacy,

many of the young men
in the commune
were looking for places

to put their energy
and their efforts.

So, in 1914, he started
a semi-professional
baseball team.

[narrator]
The House of David players

looked like no other
baseball team in America.

[Boyersmith] My grandfather,
Earl Boyersmith,

he joined the baseball team.

His hair reached down
about this far.

[Alcock] At a time
when sports stars

were usually
very clean cut,
well shaven,

the long hair
and straggly beards
of the House of David's team

really made
something of an impact.

[narrator] Although
they were very successful
in the Minor Leagues,

that was not enough
for some members of the team.

If you've seen
the Harlem Globetrotters
play with the basketball,

and they, kind of,
do magic with it,

the House of David
had a pepper game
that they called it,

and there were three of them,
and they did that
with a baseball.

And they'd throw it up,
and then it would be
behind their back,

and then
it'd be under their leg.

[narrator] The House
of David's baseball team
became so well known,

they started to attract
some famous faces.

[Dr. Auerbach] Their team
also played with

some of the greatest
baseball players of the age.

Even the all-time,
most famous slugger
of them all, Babe Ruth,

put on a fake beard
so he could play with
the House of David team.

[narrator] But despite
the ball team's success,

legal trouble put the future
of Eden Springs Park at risk.

In the 1920s,
the House of David

became embroiled in a scandal

from which
it never really recovered.

[narrator] In just 20 years,
David and Mary Purnell

had grown the House of David
from a handful of members

to a community
of almost 1,000.

But disgrace
was just around the corner.

[Dr. Thomas] Some members
of the commune

accused Benjamin Purnell
of being a child molester

and operating
a fraudulent enterprise
under the guise of religion.

Benjamin Purnell
was found guilty of fraud.

He died the very next month.

[narrator]
After these revelations,

the community split
and its membership dwindled.

By the 1970s, there were
only a handful of members
of the House of David left.

[Boyersmith] They just got
to a point where they said,
"That was it.

You know, we can't
do this anymore."

When they did actually
close the doors,

it was sad to see
the life go out of it.

[narrator] Unable to keep up
with the Park's maintenance,

the House of David
closed Eden Springs in 1973.

Half a century later,
a group of locals
have come together

to breathe new life
into the park.

My family helped
build it the first time,

I can help,
you know, restore it.

[Alcock] A group
of volunteers have been
restoring the gardens.

They've repaired
the fountain

and even patched up
some of the rides.

And, in fact,
the trains have become

a popular
local attraction again.

[Dr. Auerbach]
The baseball diamond has been
cleaned up and restored.

And it even hosts,
kind of, recreation,
vintage baseball games

in honor
of the House of David team.

It was the place to come
back in the day,

and I think
a lot of people missed it.

It's good to see 'em
coming back

and it's good
to see it come alive again.

[narrator] In the
hottest place on Earth

lies one of the most
spectacular examples
of America's attempts

to conquer the desert.

[Karl Olson] This is,
basically, America's Rome.

I get up,
and I look at this
every morning,

and this wonderful place,
and I'm free.

[Dr. Szulgit]
This is on the edge of
Death Valley, Nevada.

Now, it's called
Death Valley for a reason.

Temperatures here can get
up to 130 degrees.

At first glance,
this looks like
an empty wilderness.

A barren, hilly landscape.

[narrator]
But closer inspection
reveals signs of life.

[Rob Bell] These buildings
were obviously made to last.

Somebody must have felt
that this place was worth
investing in.

[Olson] It wasn't
the Wild West anymore.

People came here
to make money.

[Bell] This is rather symbolic
of early industrial America.

It came in, it was noisy
and wildly successful
for a time,

before being left to crumble.

[narrator]
But from the ruins,

future settlers
would take sanctuary.

[Budd] I think the story
is really important

because it's still
very much ignored.

They're just hidden
or considered too taboo
to discuss.

[narrator] Karl Olson
keeps watch over this place
as its only resident.

[Olson] People that came
rushing in here,

they came down here
in wheelbarrows,

they came down in wagons,
they came in barrels
and automobiles.

It was really booming.

People thought
this was going to be
the next capital of Nevada.

[narrator] This is
the Bullfrog mountain range.

And its story began with
a single prospecting hermit.

[Dr. Michele Mitchell]
Frank Shorty Harris was
a notorious prospector

in the Death Valley region.

And he made a living,
or eked out a living,
through prospecting.

[narrator] In the summer
of 1904,

Shorty was out on one of
his prospecting expeditions,

and something
caught his attention

in the ground
beneath his feet.

[Dr. Mitchell]
He broke off a chunk
and found it filled with gold.

The ore assayed
to have a value
of $700 a ton,

which is $23,000 a ton
in today's money.

[narrator] Yet Shorty
didn't seem to care
about his fortune.

It's said
that Shorty got drunk,

sold his claim
for $500 and a mule,

and then just went back
to his nomadic, desert ways.

[narrator]
But this was not the end
for gold mining in the area.

There's a gold rush
in 1904 in Bullfrog,

and that just opens up
several mines,

and brings in
all of the stuff

that you would expect to
support the mining industry.

[narrator] Many settlements
began to spring up,

and one of those
was this town, Rhyolite.

And at the center
was the Cook Bank.

[Olson] The interior
of the bank was unreal.

This was gonna be, like,
the statement of the town.

There were marble
on the floors,

there were marble
on the counters.

You can see
the vault in there,

where they kept the deposits.

The building
next to the bank,

there was an ice cream parlor
in there,

they sold clothing in there.

[narrator] The profits
that were being made here

attracted the attention
of Charles M. Schwab,

one of the nation's
most prolific investors.

[Dr. Szulgit] He was also
a bit of a gambler.

And in 1906, he decided
to bet big on Rhyolite.

[narrator] Schwab's investment
in the local mines

caused the town to explode.

[Olson] So this whole
area around here,

there were
approximately between
8,000 to 10,000 people.

[narrator]
And all these people
needed somewhere to live.

[Dr. Szulgit] Now, there's
very little wood around
as a building material,

and there have been disasters
with fires in boom towns
in the past,

so people had
enough confidence in Rhyolite

that they just started
building out of stone.

Building these sturdy,
massive structures.

[Olson]
They had swimming pools,
they had restaurants.

The menus were unreal.

I mean, stuff you'd
never think about.

Oysters.

I mean, it was unbelievable
how modern this town was.

[narrator]
Rhyolite almost resembled
a 21st-century town,

even having
its own train station.

This area,
as it rose in elevation,
this was called Knob Hill,

and that's where
the elite lived.

The buildings
are really quite striking,
with verandas around them.

But once again, it was wood,
and it's all gone.

[narrator]
Within three short years,
the gold was running out.

And in 1911,
the mines were shut down.

But in the 1980s,
Rhyolite faced
an unexpected arrival.

There were threats that
the KKK would show up

because they were
a white man and a Black man.

It was definitely homophobic
as well as racist.

[narrator]
In the early 1900s,

Rhyolite had gone
from a booming mining town
to a ghost town.

Seven decades later,
a very different group
of pioneers

decided to try and make this
a place to call home.

It's never been easy
to be gay in America.

And during the 1980s,
it would have been
all the more difficult.

And during the '80s,
we had the AIDS crisis,

and it generates
a moral panic.

[narrator] Artist Emily Budd
feels a personal connection
with this town.

[Budd] At the height
of the AIDS pandemic,

I was still
pretty much a child.

But it was definitely
still present in the '90s

during my whole
coming out story.

I remember all the hysteria,
the ignorance,
the bigotry involved

and how society treated
queer people.

[narrator] Two men
intended to bring Rhyolite
back from the dead.

[Dr. Mitchell] The plan was
to build a paradise
for gay men in the wilderness,

where they would be free
from persecution and abuse.

They would name it
Stonewall Park,

after the famous
Stonewall bar and riots
in New York City.

[Budd] The founders
of Stonewall Park

were Fred Schoonmaker
and his partner,
Alfred Parkinson.

They were a couple,
they were very deeply in love.

They had been together
for, like, at least 13 years,

and they were tired
of being closeted.

[narrator] The two Freds
chose this ghost town
as the perfect refuge.

[Dr. Szulgit] So, why choose
this ghost town as a site?

Legally, it was still
an incorporated city,

which meant that they could
make their own laws,

decriminalizing homosexuality.

[narrator] The aim
was for pioneers to live
in a utopian community.

So when Fred and Alfred
came to Rhyolite,

they actually stayed
in this caboose right here.

It's left over from when
Rhyolite was a mining town.

There's no water
or electricity here.

[narrator] It seemed that
wherever the couple moved to,
suffering followed.

[Budd] From the
very day they got here,

they had suffered
a lot of protests and abuse.

People from
the town of Beatty,

which is about six miles
up the street,

uh, would come here
and shoot at their windows
with BB guns.

[narrator] Unfortunately,
the dream of a place

where people could
be themselves in peace
never came to be.

[Dr. Szulgit] After a hateful
campaign of fear mongering,

the two Freds decided that
this was never gonna work
next to these locals.

And they decided
to look elsewhere in Nevada.

Fred Schoonmaker died
of an AIDS-related
heart attack

at the age of 44 in 1987.

[narrator] The dream
for equality lives on,

but Rhyolite
is now deadly quiet.

Today, most of the
remaining buildings
of Rhyolite

exist as a tourist curiosity.

But Emily Budd has ensured
that the two Freds story
is not forgotten.

[Budd] I wanted
to memorialize Stonewall Park.

I thought
it was really important

to have some sort of marker
to their dream,

so I built a memorial,
meant to be temporary.

It's fading,
as the ghost town is
before us.

It has a very small marker
that's buried with it,

so that in the future
it will tell anyone
that finds it,

like, it's an artefact,

that there was
a queer dream here.

In these rural places,
we don't really associate them
as being queer

or having a queer history,
but they really do.

[narrator] In a city
on the Massachusetts coast

lies an enigmatic building
filled with stories

of America's
entertainment past.

[Jim Meigs] Today, a lot
of New Bedford's glory
has faded somewhat.

As you come
to the south side,

the first thing you see
is an enormous highway

that's obliterated
a lot of the neighborhood.

[Dr. Thomas] People drive
up and down this highway
all the time.

And when they do,
they must think
"What is this building?

What used to happen here?"

[Charles Hauck]
It's a mystery.

You're always like,
"What's inside there?"

So, when they closed it up,

it just became a time capsule
to another period.

This would have been
a really grand, grand entry.

Unfortunately,
now it's bricked in
with this rusty old door.

[narrator] Inside,
the building slowly reveals
its secrets.

[Dr. Thomas] It's hard to tell
what this place must have been

because of the
amount of stuff

that's just
laying around everywhere.

[Meigs] Underneath
the grime and debris,
you can still see

that this was
a very grand place in its day.

You've got
beautiful mosaic floors,

grand staircase,
elaborately painted walls.

[Victor Fonseca]
When I came in this room,
it brought back

a lot of good memories
as being a kid.

I had my wedding here.

You know,
we had dancers, everything.

So good, good memories.

But times change.

[narrator]
This strange building
owes its existence

to the rise and fall
of one of America's
most destructive industries.

[narrator]
In industrial New Bedford
lies a mystifying building,

containing a network
of corridors and rooms.

It's clear that the auditorium
was meant to be the star
of the show.

[narrator] Charles Hauck
was struck by the fated beauty
of this building

and is part of a consortium
who are attempting
to preserve it.

[Hauck] I do historical
restoration work,

and then just saw this
as a challenge.

There were 24 theatres
in the city.

This was the second biggest.

But they're all gone.

[narrator] This is
the New Bedford
Orpheum Theatre.

But thanks to this town's
unique maritime past,

this place was built
with entertainment
as an afterthought.

New Bedford was the heart
of the whaling industry,

and produced
a lot of whale oil.

Because of that
it was known as The City
That Lit The World.

[Meigs] Whale oil
was so valuable

that whale oil captains
became rich

and New Bedford
became for a time

arguably the wealthiest city
in the world.

[narrator] The riches
afforded by whaling

attracted immigrants
from all over the globe.

It was probably
the most ethnically diverse
neighborhood in the country.

There was Portuguese,
there was Spanish,
Cape Verdean, French.

[narrator] It was members
of this French-Canadian
community

who constructed
this building.

[Hauck] This was
the target area

for the French
Sharpshooters Club.

They would come up here,

practice their
shooting skills.

They had
the moving targets,

sort of like what you'd see
at an amusement park.

There's an elephant

and, like, a lion
and a horse.

[narrator] Originally,
this was the clubhouse

of the French
Sharpshooters Club
of New Bedford.

But to generate income,

they included a theatre
in the design.

[Hauck] They leased
the theatre out

to the Orpheum
Amusement Company
of Boston.

And it was
a great place in the city

for people to be seen,
wear their best.

[narrator]
On April 15th, 1912,

the Orpheum opened
and was an instant hit.

[Dr. Thomas]
In the early part
of the 20th century,

the major form
of American entertainment
was vaudeville.

These are variety acts,
people doing magic,
singing songs.

Some of the most popular
vaudeville acts of the day

included the magician
Harry Houdini

and the slapstick comedy trio
the Marx Brothers.

[narrator] After the age
of vaudeville ended,

the Orpheum began showing
movies, news reels
and live music.

It would stay popular
with locals for decades,

including Victor Fonseca.

[Fonseca speaking]

[narrator] But by the 1960s,

a new
construction project meant

the writing was on the wall
for the Orpheum.

Over 2,000 buildings
were torn down

to put the highway in,
so which was a...

Probably some of
the city's most historical,

oldest buildings
were, were here.

[Fonseca speaking]

[narrator]
The Orpheum Theatre
was spared,

yet, its doors remain shut
to the local community.

In the years since,
it has been used for storage.

But the theatre
has been linked

to the most troubled period
in New Bedford's history.

[Hauck] There's a story
of one of our members.

He walked into
a Black Panthers meeting.

And they are like,
"What are you doing here?"

And he's,
"What are you doing here?"

[Meigs] The late '60s
and early '70s

were a time
of enormous frustration

and often violence
in America's cities.

Riots tore through
Los Angeles, Newark,
Detroit.

[Dr. Kenya Davis-Hayes]
People remember riots
in big cities.

But in the late 1960s
and early 1970s,

even small towns
were not spared.

[narrator] The events
in New Bedford

were just as dramatic
as in bigger cities.

In 1970,
after the police made

what many thought
was a dubious arrest,

conflicts broke out
between police

and people
in the Black community.

[Fonseca speaking]

[narrator] Fortunately,
the Orpheum was spared
any damage,

but much of the city
was burned.

[Meigs]
As the violence escalated,
a group of Black Panthers

set up what they called
a headquarters

in a burned-out
store front.

When these men and women
were put on trial,

they would become known
as the New Bedford 21.

[Davis-Hayes]
The New Bedford 21
were charged with

conspiracy to commit murder,
anarchy and inciting riots.

[narrator] Most charges
against the New Bedford 21
were dropped

as the riots came to an end
on July 31st, 1970.

The town of New Bedford
has recovered since then,

but the Orpheum Theatre
has not.

For over 50 years,
the Orpheum has sat silent
and empty.

[Dr. Thomas]
This building was a portal
for its community,

delivering news reels,
transporting people
to all over the world.

It was quite literally
the way in which

that the New Bedford community
connected with the wider world
around them.

[narrator] But now,
a local campaign hopes

to bring the theatre
back to life.

[Hauck]
I mean, it's a important part
of the history of the city,

at a time when the city
was really doing well.

[Fonseca speaking]