Original subtitles

[narrator] Abandoned structures

hold the secrets of America's past.

A sprawling campus

witness to unspeakable horror.

[Mark Lukens] This place was set up

with the very best of intentions.

Unfortunately it turned into a hell hole.

[narrator] A decaying suburb

which redefined national labor relations.

[Susan Bennett] People, they were allured by the history

and the narrative and the mystery.

[narrator] And crumbling structures

that withstood an attack on America's shores.

[Tom Modugno] They were scared to death.

So sure enough, the next night,

they start shooting up into the sky

because somebody saw something.

[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.

On the outskirts of the Windy City

lies a suburb full of dilapidated structures

which defined America's industrial past

and shaped its future.

[Dr. Auerbach] Where we are now

is 13 miles from downtown Chicago.

When it was built,

it would have been a distinct and separate community.

[Sarah Churchwell] We are in an area

that seems maybe suburban,

except as you get closer to it,

it's clearly not an average, modern suburb.

[Susan] People that come to Chicago

and stop here are always surprised.

It's like stepping back into the past.

It's just wonderful to live in a rich, historical place

that attracts new interests, new culture.

This is a little slice of old-school Chicago.

[narrator] As the nation's second city boomed,

this place was built with a plan in mind.

[Sarah] These elaborate red brick buildings,

they're very grandiose, they're very ornamental.

And they're actually also quite uniform.

You can see that they're all designed together.

[narrator] The bones of old construction

leaves clues as to when and why

this place was founded.

[Dr. Mitchell] I see the date 1889,

which is the height of the Gilded Age in Chicago.

[Dr. Auerbach] In the later 19th century,

Chicago was the gateway to westward expansion.

This community was at the center of all of that.

[narrator] National Parks Assistant Superintendent

Susan Bennett has been handed

a unique opportunity with this project.

I was very excited to be the first person

assigned to this building

as we were beginning to develop it.

The stories that happened with the company

associated with this town,

starting in the 1880s, all the way today,

still show up in our headlines every week.

[Sarah] In the 1880s,

the railroad industry really exploded

across the United States,

and particularly in Chicago.

And it was associated with

an industrialist named George Pullman.

[Dr. Auerbach] Pullman was originally an engineer.

He built his career helping construct Chicago,

creating solid foundations in this wet, swampy ground.

He then took the fortune that he made

and reinvested it.

And his new business was called

the Pullman Palace Car Company.

[narrator] Pullman set up this company

to overcome one glaring problem

of early train travel.

[Sarah] George Pullman took a couple of long train trips

and realized how totally uncomfortable it was,

and thought there was really a space there

for making something comfortable

for travelers.

[Dr. Auerbach] Pullman designed special compartments

with flip-down beds,

so you could sleep when you wanted to,

and then you could put them up

and you could sit easily and move about the cabin.

[Sarah] The Pullman car was born,

which became, eventually,

the kind of standard of luxury travel

for railroad passengers,

not just across the United States

but across the world.

[narrator] Fueled by the booming demand for his railcars,

George Pullman decided to build

a carriage works and staff accommodation

on 4,000 acres just outside Chicago.

This is the Pullman factory and company town.

[Susan] The town of Pullman and its design

in its original envision

was a fabulous place to live and work.

[Dr. Auerbach] Pullman really cared about

the moral, physical, intellectual wellbeing

of his workers.

So this town was gonna have a library,

a church.

He wasn't just trying to make better workers.

He was trying to give those workers better lives.

[narrator] Pullman established a monopoly

on the sleeping-car market.

And demand for labor

led him to make

some progressive decisions.

[Dr. Mitchell] By 1900,

African Americans were 40% of Pullman's workforce,

which means that they were pretty vital.

These were maids and porters,

many of whom were formerly enslaved

or were first-generation free men and women.

At one time, the Pullman Company,

here in Chicago and nationally,

hired more African American workers

than any other business in America.

[narrator] But when the Pullman Company

faced its first economic shock,

a series of bad decisions

would almost start a revolution.

There's also a dark side to company towns,

in that they're constructed

to keep all of the value

of the workers' wages within the system.

So, sure, you get dedicated living quarters,

you get a library, you get a canteen.

But you also spend all your money

at the company store.

And part of your salary

goes into your rent.

[narrator] At the end of the 19th century,

failed harvests and overextended railroads

led to an economic panic.

The Pullman Company faced its first crisis

and decided its workers would take the hit.

In response to the crisis,

Pullman sacks some employees,

they lowered wages by between 20 and 30%,

but they left rents and the prices

in the company store exactly the same.

And so he said, "We will not negotiate."

So the workers walked off the job,

the gates behind us were shut,

and the great 1894 Pullman Strike began.

[narrator] But the local strikes

that began here at the Pullman factory

soon became a nationwide problem.

More and more train workers around the country

struck in solidarity,

and by the end of the Pullman Strike,

125,000 strikers had struck in sympathy

with the Pullman workers,

and it brought absolute chaos.

[narrator] As the strike grew,

federal mail deliveries were stopped.

President Grover Cleveland's response

would be brutal.

In 1894, a series of strikes that started here

in George Pullman's company town

paralyzed the American economy.

In Chicago, the conflict turned violent.

Railway workers on strike

destroyed hundreds of railway cars.

And the troops on the ground

responded by opening fire, killing 30 workers.

[narrator] After the military crackdown,

the rest of the strikers lost their nerve,

and were rehired by the Pullman Company

on the condition they did not unionize.

But the company's African American workers

were heavily discriminated against.

[Dr. Mitchell] Despite the vital role that they played,

porters were often mistreated.

They had to put up with a variety of racial epithets

which were common at the time.

And many passengers would simply call them

by the name of George,

which was the first name

of the company's founder.

[Susan] Pullman porters had a good job on the cars.

They did get a wage,

but they weren't paid very well.

They knew that to survive and thrive,

they would have to hustle for tips.

[narrator] Three decades after the Pullman strikes,

the company's porters would once again band together

to fight for better treatment.

[Dr. Auerbach] In 1925,

the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters was created,

led by A. Philip Randolph.

Their motto, appropriately,

was, "Fight or be slaves."

[narrator] The nation's first African American trade union

fought for better conditions and wage increases,

changing its members' lives forever.

[Susan] Many of the porters were well-esteemed

within their communities.

They owned homes,

they sent their children to school and to colleges.

They became a part of the American middle class.

[narrator] The influence of

the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters

would soon be felt across the nation.

[Dr. Auerbach] A. Philip Randolph would also

work with a young Dr. Martin Luther King,

helping organize his march on D.C.

when King would give the famous "I Have A Dream" speech.

[narrator] But by the time of Dr. King's speech in 1963,

the Pullman company's star was on the wane.

Across America, during the 1950s and '60s,

the car and the plane simply defeated the train.

There wasn't call anymore for the rolling hotels.

[narrator] The Pullman factory finally shut in 1969,

and was vacant for decades.

[Susan] And regrettably,

there was an arson fire in 1988.

The clock tower collapsed.

The bell that was in it melted.

Fire caught to the front-directing shops

on the south side and took them down.

[narrator] Many parts of the old factory

and company town still lie in ruin.

Today, this model town and factory

which once stood alone on the prairie

has become just another neighborhood

on Chicago's southside.

But one Chicagoan has not forgotten about

George Pullman's company town.

[Susan] President Obama used a law

called the Antiquities Act,

and therefore he was able to create

a National Park Service unit

called Pullman National Monument.

[narrator] President Obama has a personal connection to this site.

[Obama] Pullman porters helped push forward our rights

to vote and to work and to live as equals.

One of those porters' great-granddaughter

had the chance to go to

a great college and a great law school,

and had the chance to climb the ladder of success.

And I know that because today,

she's the First Lady of the United States of America,

-Michelle Obama. -[cheering and applause]

[narrator] Since 2015,

efforts have been made to maintain and repair

many of the historic buildings in the Pullman town.

The clock tower was restored after the devastating fire,

and has been turned into a visitor center,

so future generations may learn

about how this town changed the nation.

Labor issues, government regulation,

manufacturing, capitalism,

the balance of all of these powers are still playing out

in an American economy

and the lives of Americans today.

[narrator] In the Empire State,

there's a group of buildings

whose horrors led to a new hope.

[Mark] When I first came here,

we went into the big building,

and the first thing that hit you

when you walk in the door

was this incredible stench.

It's almost like a kind of living death to be here.

[Jim Meigs] We are in the beautiful Hudson River Valley

about 45 miles north of New York City.

We see a sprawling complex of buildings,

well-made of stone, kind of a neoclassical style.

[Katherine Alcock] There are lots of strange signs

of habitation like play equipment

and multiple basketball hoops,

far more than any ordinary town would need.

[narrator] To the west of the site,

a copse of trees hides a ghostly secret.

We come to these rows and rows of metal signs

that look almost like crosses. This is a cemetery.

[narrator] For some, this place offered a reprieve.

[Wilbur Aldridge] This was a facility

that maintained life 24 hours a day,

and provided love to those who needed it.

[narrator] But for many who called these buildings home,

the dream turned into a nightmare.

Just north of New York City,

a set of buildings lie abandoned.

Reverend Mark Lukens knows them well.

[Mark] I grew up about 10 miles from here.

This very pastoral, beautiful campus,

it looked like a university or something.

I came here for training.

And it would seem like it was deserted.

You never saw the people who lived here.

[narrator] Mark came here to help residents

with developmental and physical disabilities.

And this site was built to revolutionize

how they were treated.

[Dr. Szulgit] This was a radical departure

from the idea of putting people

out of sight, out of mind,

into these sort of high-rise asylums.

[narrator] First opening its doors in 1911,

this 130-building campus

was the vision of a man ahead of his time.

[Mark] William Pryor Letchworth

was considered a great man.

He was a person who was very concerned with

people who in those days

were called morons and idiots and imbeciles.

[Katherine] Thanks to his role on the State Board of Charities,

William Letchworth ended up visiting

a lot of asylums, and he was shocked and horrified.

[Jim] He found people with developmental disabilities

imprisoned, kept away from their family.

He had a dream of taking a beautiful, scenic spot

and building a town

for people with mental disabilities

where they could live and be safe.

[narrator] William Letchworth convinced

New York State to act on his vision.

This 2,300-acre campus is Letchworth Village.

But before construction could be completed, tragedy struck.

Letchworth died just a year before the facility opened,

and so he wasn't able to see his vision realized.

[narrator] Even without its champion,

Letchworth Village began enriching

the lives of its patients.

Wilbur Aldridge first worked here in 1964,

aged 17,

and stayed for the next three decades.

The goal was to provide as much normalcy

as one could have

out in the world.

There were farms here.

The patients, they loved working on the farms.

[Mark] It was supposed to help them

with the community, help them to learn skills.

[narrator] To enrich their lives,

the patients also learned sewing,

gardening and toy making.

But the success of these schemes

would become the facility's downfall.

As news spread of the good work,

demand for places grew out of control.

Patient numbers just kept rising and rising,

and soon they couldn't let the people out anymore.

[Wilbur] I mean, at one point,

there were over 3,000 patients here.

So that was the biggest problem.

There was also a lack of staffing.

[narrator] The low staff numbers

and swelling patient population

meant outdoor activities ground to a halt.

And in the 1960s,

authorities shut the farm.

[Wilbur] The patients weren't being paid

for working on the farm.

With the Age of Enlightenment,

there were people who felt was a form of slavery.

[narrator] With the patients now stuck indoors,

Letchworth Village had become

the very thing it had set out to end.

It's something Mark experienced firsthand.

[Mark] Everything was done in the most dehumanizing way.

Nobody wore their own clothes unless it was visiting day.

[Wilbur] On an average day, they would wake up

at around 6 o'clock in the morning,

go for breakfast, come back to the cottage.

They would then remain in that cottage

pretty much all day.

Till then they were just idle,

except for the fact the staff interacted with them.

[narrator] Out of public view for decades,

the residents suffered silently.

But in 1965, there was a glimmer of hope.

[Jim] New York senator Robert Kennedy

became very concerned about facilities like Letchworth.

He conducted a tour across the state

to see what was really going on.

Kennedy was pretty horrified by what he found.

[narrator] In an impassioned plea to the American people,

Kennedy proclaimed that the horrors he'd seen

bordered on a snake pit.

[Jim] Robert Kennedy talked about

the crisis in these facilities,

but not a lot of change happened.

The sad reality is, out of sight, out of mind.

So it's easy for the public to forget it.

[narrator] Yet just seven years later,

another visit would throw the future

of Letchworth Village into doubt.

In Letchworth Village, New York,

Senator Robert Kennedy had failed

to stop the patients' suffering.

But life here was about to be thrown into chaos

with the visit of an ambitious young reporter.

[Mark] 1972, Geraldo Rivera

visited various institutions including this one

with his TV cameras.

[Dr. Szulgit] He purposely shows up two hours early

with his crew, and what does he find?

He finds exactly what he feared,

is that the people are terribly treated.

And he exposes this all to the world.

[Mark] Suddenly, on the 6 o'clock news,

you could see the horror.

People in big, open rooms with nothing to do.

After Geraldo's exposé, everything began to change.

[Jim] What happened was,

the idea that these institutions were just bad...

there was a movement for deinstitutionalization.

To let these people out of these facilities.

[Mark] A dehumanizing system was changed

by the fact that people looked at it and said,

"Those are human beings. That could be my son.

That could be my daughter.

And we're gonna change this, damn it."

[narrator] Over the following decades,

as a reaction to the horrors seen here,

people with developmental disabilities

were no longer locked away,

and the population of Letchworth Village dropped.

Until in 1996,

it shut its doors for good.

Nearly 30 years on,

the majority of the campus still lies abandoned.

Yet some of the buildings have been given a new lease of life

by a neighboring town.

Some of the buildings have been restored

and being used as government offices,

and there are plans to restore others as housing.

[narrator] While many of the buildings

have been adapted for their new roles,

today, attitudes towards disabled people

are still evolving,

as we learn from the suffering of the patients

of Letchworth Village.

[Mark] It was a terrible place.

But the horror sparked a revolution.

A revolution that changed for the better

the lives of tens of thousands of people.

[narrator] On California's coast,

one building saw global conflict

come to the shores of the United States.

[Dr. Davis-Hayes] Santa Barbara is one of

the most beautiful coastal cities

in California.

It is sought after for its resorts, its hotels.

But it also has just excellent real estate.

[narrator] But one property

stands out from the rest.

[Rob Bell] Traveling down this road,

out of nowhere,

this distinguished-looking building appears.

[narrator] For a building so modest,

what happened here had a monumental impact.

[Tom] They wanted to make a statement,

and they spent a lot of time and effort

on making it special.

This was their way of showing appreciation

and making something that they could be proud of.

[narrator] There are hints near and far

to what this place was.

Just down the road, there seems to be

some kind of oil-related infrastructure.

And off in the distance of the ocean,

you can see some kind of structure out there.

But what we don't know is how they're all connected.

[narrator] And a legendary tale

has consumed this area for decades.

[Rob] Even though the building may be small,

what happened here is huge.

This is where global conflict reached American shores.

[narrator] Tom Modugno has lived here all his life,

and is proud of his town's history.

[Tom] If you look at the side of the hill there,

you can see a big cactus patch.

That has been there for a hundred years.

And we call it Kate's Cactus.

The reason is, Kate Den Bell

was the woman that owned this ranch at one time.

She said, "If you drill where that cactus grows,

you will become rich beyond your wildest dreams."

And she was right.

[Linda McRobbie] California was synonymous

with the gold rush in the 1800s.

But by the turn of the century,

there was a new product that was interesting people -

black gold. Oil.

[narrator] And this place

proved to be a black gold mine.

This is the Ellwood Oil Field.

[Rob] It was one of the largest oil fields in California.

It was even the most productive oil field

in the world at one point,

producing over 100 million barrels of oil

in three decades.

[narrator] And this is the flagship building

of the company that once owned this whole oil field.

This is the Barnsdall-Rio Grande gas station.

[Tom] So, it opened in 1929,

and they chose this location

because of its proximity to the original oil field,

but also this was the main highway.

This was Highway One.

It was quite a gathering spot for the community.

Everybody out here, all the farmers and stuff,

this would be the place to meet

and, you know, catch up

on the neighborhood gossip. [chuckles]

[narrator] These oil fields were so large,

they extended beyond the shore.

[Tom] The whole look of the whole coast

changed dramatically in a very short period of time.

By late 1930s, this whole coastline

was just covered with pier after pier after pier.

[narrator] And Platform Holly

was built to exploit this resource.

[Linda] At the time, Holly had

some of the deepest oil wells in the world,

reaching oil deposits as far down as 3,500 feet,

and stretching 10,000 feet to the north, east and west.

[narrator] But in 1942,

a secret attack would turn the whole nation's attention

to this quiet oil field.

During the 1940s,

the Barnsdall-Rio Grande gas station

was supplying fuel to drivers

on California's main coastal highway.

But a very different vehicle

would throw this place into chaos.

[Tom] It was February 23rd, 1942.

A short time after Pearl Harbor.

California was already very tense.

Everybody was gathered around their radios listening to

President Roosevelt's fireside chat.

[Linda] At around 7 p.m. that night,

a 365-foot Japanese submarine

made its way silently up the Santa Barbara channel

and stopped off the coast of Ellwood.

[narrator] The commander of the submarine,

Kozo Noshino,

who was apparently familiar with Ellwood,

ordered his crew to fire the deck guns for 20 minutes.

There was shells flying everywhere.

But luckily they missed the gas station.

[narrator] This was the first time

mainland America was directly attacked

during World War II.

All of California was in panic mode,

and that next night it was full blackout,

everybody had to keep their lights off.

[narrator] But this sneak attack

would be followed by something much more dramatic.

[Linda] On February 24th,

several hours after the initial attack on Ellwood,

the American military was alerted to enemy activity

120 miles west of LA.

Air raid sirens sounded

and troops took to their posts.

More than 1,400 shells were fired

in the space of a few hours. It was chaos.

[narrator] But when the all-clear sounded,

there were no signs of downed Japanese aircraft.

Troops had spent hours

firing at what they thought was the enemy.

But it turns out they'd been shooting at a weather balloon.

[narrator] Luckily, the impact of what came to be known as

the Battle of Los Angeles was superficial,

and was put down to war nerves.

Yet in the aftermath of the bombardment of Ellwood,

many questioned why this small town

was singled out

to wreak havoc on America.

[Dr. Davis-Hayes] The story goes that Kozo Noshino,

who was the captain of a Japanese oil tanker,

stopped at the Ellwood Oil Fields

for refueling.

[narrator] Noshino took a stroll along Ellwood's beach

and spotted an unusual-looking cactus.

Determined to take a cutting back home,

he climbed the fence that surrounded it.

[Dr. Davis-Hayes] According to the story,

while climbing this fence, he lost his footing

and fell headfirst into this cactus.

[narrator] A group of local oil workers

watched and laughed as Noshino struggled

in the thorny cactus patch.

[Dr. Davis-Hayes] Noshino is mortified.

And from that moment,

he vows to seek revenge.

[narrator] According to legend,

World War II grants Noshino his opportunity

as he is chosen to command a submarine.

His attack on Ellwood was retribution

for his earlier humiliation.

Now, all of this makes for a great story.

But the reality is that there's no evidence

to suggest that Noshino ever was the captain

of a Japanese oil tanker,

nor that he'd ever visited Ellwood.

[narrator] This station continued to pump gas after the war.

But in 1947,

the main coastal road, Highway 101,

was rerouted, which completely bypassed it.

That was the beginning of the end for this

being a popular gas station.

This became just a road used by locals.

[narrator] And in more recent years,

Platform Holly has been mired in controversy.

The oil company was weathering some very serious complaints.

There were concerns over fracking.

But there was also a lawsuit

led by famous environmental activist Erin Brockovich.

[narrator] Then in 2015 a pipeline cracked open.

140,000 gallons of oil spilled out into the ocean.

And within 24 hours,

production was shut down for good.

The Ellwood Oil Field was a rich mine

of black gold for decades.

But now these structures stand barren.

Platform Holly is in the process

of being decommissioned,

while the Barnsdall-Rio Grande gas station

has been gifted to the city of Goleta.

[Tom] I think it's very important

that this gas station is saved

because of the architecture

and the effort that went into it,

and also that it is a symbol

of the oil industry in California.

While it was an ugly period of time,

it was a very important one,

and this is the last sign of it that we have.

[narrator] In northeastern Pennsylvania

sits a structure built by a secret society

which welcomed some of America's biggest stars.

[Mark Mettler] When I first walked into this building,

I was floored by the size of it, the architecture.

Once you walked in here when it was in good shape,

you'd never forget it.

[narrator] In downtown Wilkes-Barre,

this relic of the region's glory days sits abandoned.

[Dr. Kwami] What's really unusual about this building

is that with its domes and its structures,

the architecture would suggest it is a mosque.

The thing is, on the banks of the Susquehanna

in Wilkes-Barre,

would we expect to see a mosque of that size?

[Dr. Thomas] You can tell that it's seen better days.

There are tiles missing from the spires

and there's grass and moss growing

out of different parts of the building.

[Jim] You can see that it cost a fortune to build.

And that makes its current state of disrepair

all the more poignant.

[narrator] Inside, the decay continues.

When you come to this building,

it is really dark.

And then you start to see that the plaster's crumbling,

and there's dust and cobwebs throughout.

[narrator] But some strange clues

to the building's origins remain.

[Dr. Thomas] On one of the walls

is a plaque with a bunch of names on it,

and it says, "To the Memory of Nobles."

[narrator] In Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania,

a mysterious building holds secrets

known to very few men.

Mark Mettler is one of them.

[Mark] When this building was built,

the intent was to make it

the most impressive in the United States.

And that dream was realized.

[narrator] Construction began in 1907,

at a time when Wilkes-Barre's prospects

were very different to what they are today.

[Jim] Wilkes-Barre dominated the coal mining industry

in the late 19th century.

And not just any coal, but anthracite coal.

Some people call it black diamond.

[Dr. Kwami] The key thing with anthracite is that

it burns longer and more constant than coal,

which during the industrial period of the United States

was essential.

[narrator] The black diamond gave Wilkes-Barre

more millionaires than anywhere in America.

And many would join the elite ranks

of one of the country's most prestigious secret organizations.

A group who left their mark on this building.

A clue for what this building may have been used for

is above the doorway.

There's an acronym, A.A.O.N.M.S.

[Mark] What those letters mean is,

the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine.

We are also known as Shriners.

[narrator] Some of the most powerful men in the country

were part of this secretive group.

And this building

served as their Wilkes-Barre headquarters

for almost a century.

This is the Irem Temple.

We are in a Shrine building.

This is my Shriners head garb. It's called a fez.

I hope it's on straight.

[narrator] The Shriners attracted members

as diverse as President Franklin Roosevelt,

John Wayne and Duke Ellington.

This was one of the organization's flagship temples,

and their secrets are still held within its walls.

[Mark] The ceremonials we used to have here

were just filled with pomp and pageantry.

It's something that stays with you forever.

[narrator] Despite the clandestine nature

of the events that took place here,

it's known that they had roots in another secret society,

the Freemasons.

[Dr. Thomas] In 1870, a group of Masons

decided to form a new fraternity

with the tenants of Freemasonry still in place,

but with the added spirit of fun at heart.

[narrator] But a voyage across the Atlantic

gave the group an unexpected theme.

[Jim] One of their members,

an actor known as Billy Florence,

had been on a trip to Europe

and went to a party hosted by an Arab diplomat.

[Mark] He witnessed all these, uh, beautiful turbans

and these beautiful gowns,

and came back and reported to his brothers that

this is theme that... that we want to adopt,

because it's mystic.

[narrator] Today, this Eastern influence

can still be seen

in the crumbling ruins

of the Irem Temple.

It's where Shriners in the Wilkes-Barre area

began their journey into the brotherhood.

[Mark] Tens of thousands of Shriners

have actually gone through the initiation process

on the stage behind me

in front of thousands of their fellow Shriners.

[narrator] According to legend,

these initiation rituals

involved Shriners being sworn in

with a copy of the Quran.

Many ceremonies took place in this building

that were secretive

to the point where no one was allowed in.

[narrator] Yet this temple offered far more

than just these clandestine meetings.

The Shriners opened this building to the public

because we are a community-based organization.

[Dr. Thomas] Everything from school proms

to rock concerts to Star Wars conventions

were featured in this building.

Even local religious organizations used it.

[narrator] But the Irem Temple also got national recognition,

as it attracted some of the nation's biggest stars

to perform in this state-of-the-art, 1,400-seat auditorium.

[Mark] Tammy Wynette did a concert here.

And probably the most famous person that stood

on the stage behind me was Bob Hope.

George Gershwin did one of the first performances

of "Rhapsody in Blue" here.

Rachmaninoff, probably the most famous

piano player in history, did a performance here.

[Mark] The acoustics in this building are incredible.

I could whistle now and they could hear me in the men's room.

[narrator] Despite the acoustics

and star names,

near the end of the 21st century,

the Irem Temple faced new competition.

[Dr. Thomas] A new theater was built nearby in 1986,

and with the interest waning

for large music and performance venues,

the place just fell out of use.

[narrator] In 2002,

the Irem Temple shut its doors for good.

[Mark] The way we felt when we shut the doors

was not a good feeling.

It felt horrible.

Guys were shaking their heads.

It was depressing.

[narrator] Today, over two decades

since the Irem Temple shut,

there are plans to bring it back to life.

Mark is part of the restoration group.

[Mark] My main role here

at the Irem Temple Restoration Project

is to be the key link between the actual Temple Project

and the Shriners.

I love the role and it's very gratifying.

[Jim] They wanna reopen this building

as a concert hall,

and also a museum to Wilkes-Barre history

in part of the facility.

[Mark] Tell you what, when this building's finished,

when I walk in this place,

I don't know how I'm gonna hold back my emotions.