All language subtitles for Mysteries.of.the.Abandoned.Hidden.America.S02E05.1080p.WEB.h264-CBFM_track3_[eng]

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

A Southern farmstead
of unparalleled cruelty.

Lot of bad things
happened here.

And here we are today
in the 21st century,

still finding out about
its hidden history.

[narrator] A project to tame
nature, built by the enemy's
hands.

My father, obviously,
took a lot of pride
in his work,

and I think all the people
out here took a lot of pride

in the work
that they were doing,

because they understood
why they were doing it.

[narrator] And a factory,
which helped to build
a new world.

[Matt Anderson]
This was the heart
of all that happened

in American industry
and mass production.

[narrator] Scattered across
the United States,

are abandoned structures
and those who know
their stories.

These forgotten ruins
reveal the past of this land,
and its people.

These are the secrets
of Hidden America.

On Georgia's coast,
lies a ramshackled site

harboring one of America's
darkest secrets.

The Sea Islands
are a really beautiful area
just off the coast of Georgia.

On one of these islands
there's miles of empty fields,

and what looks like irrigation
ditches in this strange
settlement.

It's probably what a lot
of people picture,
when they picture

an old Southern house.

It looks like a farmhouse.
It's made of clapboard.
It's weathered.

[narrator] While nature
has reclaimed
much of the site,

some buildings remain intact.

What's curious is there appear
to be structures
from different eras here.

So, you have an old,
brick chimney in front
of a more modern construction.

[Dr. Michele Mitchell]
This place is huge.
Nearly 1500 acres in total.

There look like
there were fields
where people worked.

And you have to wonder,
what stories could they tell?

Today in the 21st century,
I stand here as a descendant.

Here the spirits are alive
and well,

through those individuals
that used to live here.

[narrator] The interior
of the main house
gives some clues,

to what might have
happened here.

[Michele] Inside the house
seems to be beautifully
appointed and richly timbered.

Someone wealthy
must have lived here.

But how did it fall into
such a state of disrepair?

[Dr. Sascha Auerbach]
This is a place
where one of the darkest

chapters in American
history unfolded.

But it's also a locale,
where the actions of one
individual of conscience,

made a significant change
in the lives of millions
of African Americans.

[narrator] Local mayor
Griffin Lotson's family worked
these fields.

And he still feels the history
in his bones.

This darker than seven nights
gets something ghostly
of the past.

In our culture,
it is called the ancestors.

Perhaps they still walk
these grounds.

The original owner
is a man named
Major Pierce Butler.

And Major Pierce Butler
was a major figure

in early American history.

He was one
of the Founding Fathers.

And he's a, kind of,
enigmatic figure.

After the War of Independence,
he acquired this site,

and he began to grow a crop
that was perfect for the wet,
hot conditions here.

And that would be rice.

[narrator] The oldest
surviving building here
is a rice mill.

But it was not operated
by willing workers.

Now, who actually built
this structure

is very important to history.

It was an enslaved plantation.

So every brick, every block
you see here, was built
by those that were enslaved.

[Prof. Sarah Churchwell]
Major Butler
ended up a major enslaver.

He enslaved a great
many people
across a number

of farms and plantations.

[Griffin]
The Founding Fathers,

they had wealth,
they had power,

and they owned slaves.

[narrator]
Major Pierce Butler

named this place
after himself.

And it would remain
in his family's hands
for generations.

This is the Butler Island
Plantation.

Butler Island was inherited
by Major Butler's grandson,

Pierce Mease Butler,
who inherited a huge fortune,

and a great many enslaved
people.

But he was not cut out
of the same cloth
as his grandfather.

He was no businessman.

He was a drinker
and a gambler.

[narrator] Although.
there were many cruel slave
owners across the South,

Pierce Mease Butler was worse
than most.

On this plantation,
as on most plantations,

the enslaved men and women
were treated abominably.

No one was spared the whip.

Including pregnant women,
who had to work in the fields

right up until the moment
of birth.

[narrator] Pierce Mease Butler
lived in Philadelphia,

and was a reluctant traveler
to Butler Island.

But when he did come,
he was not alone.

Pierce Mease Butler
fell in love
with an English actress,

named Fanny Kemble,
who was the most famous
actress of her day.

[narrator]
Despite his opposition,

Fanny Kemble persuaded
her husband to take her
to Butler Island.

So when Fanny Kemble
came to Butler Island,
she was disgusted

by what she saw.

And Fanny Kemble kept
a journal while she lived
there,

of the brutality
and the violations,
the violence, that she saw.

[Griffin] And she witnessed
it firsthand,

and it helped
change America's history.

[narrator]
Fanny Kemble, shocked
at how her husband

treated his enslaved workers,

broke their marriage.

And Butler's debts would push
his cruelty even further.

Pierce Mease Butler squandered
and gambled away
his family fortune.

And he ended up in debt
of about $700,000.

In modern terms,
that would be $25 million.

That was a deep hole.

[Griffin] So, he had
to make a decision,
and his obvious decision was,

"I will sell some
of my enslaved individuals

to see if I can get
out of debt."

And that's what he did.

He sold the lives
of human beings.

[narrator] All of the enslaved
individuals who belonged
to Pierce Mease Butler,

were put on boats
and taken up the coast.

In March of 1859, on the eve
of the Civil War,

the largest sale
of human beings

in American history
happened on a racetrack
in Savannah, Georgia.

[Griffin] Those ancestors
of mine,

that were sold
at what we now call
"the weeping time."

[narrator] In total,
almost 450 men, women
and children were sold.

Although at first
this seemed like an escape

from the cruelty and torture
of Butler Island,

it only added to their misery.

[Griffin] A lot of their
family members

would never see
each other again.

And they felt it.

So, it was a lot of heartache.

Lot of crying.

The two-day sale
netted Pierce Mease Butler
over $300,000.

He decided to celebrate,
so he went off on a grand tour
of Europe.

[narrator]
But Pierce Mease Butler's
now ex-wife,

Fanny Kemble,
would have her revenge.

[narrator]
Pierce Mease Butler,

owner of the Butler Island
Plantation in Georgia,

sold almost 450
of his enslaved workers to pay
off his gambling debts.

His ex-wife, English actress
Fanny Kemble,
would get payback.

[Churchwell] Fanny Kemble made
the really radical decision
in some ways,

to publish her journals
of living on Butler Island.

She published them in 1863,
in the middle
of the Civil War.

And she was actually inspired
by the Emancipation
Proclamation.

The journal carefully
documented all the atrocities

she'd witnessed
on Butler Island.

And so it has this national
impact in terms
of really making people

learn something about slavery.

It really is a, sort of,
table turning moment.

This young lady
just wrote freely.

So, I like the pureness
of what she wrote,

and how it helped
change America,

and now, the world.

[narrator]
Much of Butler Island

was burned
during the Civil War.

And the plantation
fell into ruins.

But in the 20th century,
this place would get
a second chance,

from a member
of the sporting elite.

The Butler family
held on to the land
for a few more generations,

but then it was decided
to sell it.

The buyer was a man
named T.L. Houston,

who decided to convert
the property
into a dairy farm.

[narrator] Lieutenant Colonel
T.L. Houston,

built this house when he moved
to Butler Island.

[Griffin] This particular room
here, on the Butler
Plantation,

we call it the Colonel
Houston Room.

because this is where
he conducted
all of his business.

[narrator] As co-owner
of the New York Yankees,

Houston's business
was baseball.

Houston made
the audacious decision in 1919
to purchase Babe Ruth.

The most famous slugger
in the history of the game

from the Yankees' rivals,
the Boston Red Sox.

Babe Ruth, he would travel
down here

because he was an avid hunter,

and he loved to hunt ducks.

[narrator] Rumor has it,
that Butler Island also played
a part

in one of America's greatest
works of fiction.

The famous novel,
Gone with the Wind,
about the old South,

is set in Georgia.

And many places in the state
claim to have been part
of Margaret Mitchell's vision.

Butler Island is no exception.

[Griffin] With Margaret coming
down to this area, most people

don't know that writers
have their writer's retreat.

And it doesn't get much more
secluded than these
barrier islands here.

[narrator] Just to the north
of Butler Island
lies the smaller,

Rhetts Island,

possibly providing
the inspiration

for Gone with the Wind's
protagonist's name,
Rhett Butler.

Gone with the Wind is one
of the most popular movies
ever released.

And still, adjusted
for inflation, shockingly,

it is the highest grossing
movie in history.

[narrator] Even though
Butler Island is closely tied
to so much history,

today, it lies derelict.

Over 160 years after the end
of slavery, the future
of Butler Island is uncertain.

Unfortunately, the state
of Georgia voted

almost 100%
to sell the property.

Sell it for a dollar
to a distillery.

So, a lot of courageous
people got involved.

Myself and many other
volunteers from a lot
of other distant groups,

and said, "We need
to save it."

History is history.

You cannot change it.
It is what it is.

So, let's embrace it.

Let's tell the stories
for generations to come.

Some we need to repeat.

And some we need
to never do again.

[narrator] In the Deep South,

there's a reminder
of America's
engineering might.

Born out of a world war,
it's where man fought
the Mississippi.

[Thomas Leggett] I was
about two and a half years old
when we moved here.

We played all over
the whole reservation,

primarily around
where the camp was.

And it was a wonderful place.

[narrator] Just outside
of Jackson, there's a relic
of an industrial past.

I've never seen
anywhere like this.

There's all sorts
of abandoned structures here.

There's a... What looks like
and old water tower.

A bunch of pumphouses,

and loads of rusting equipment
just dotting the whole site.

[Rob Bell]
And they're all huge,
which makes you think,

that this place must be owned
by the government
or some large corporation.

[narrator]
Amongst the battered buildings
and corroded pipework,

one feature stands out.

As you look past
all the vines and the trees

that are growing
through things, you see

this massive amount
of concrete.

What strikes me is that
it doesn't look like

a building, it doesn't look
like a parking lot,

It just looks weird.

[Linda Rodriguez McRobbie]
Looking at the contours
on these concrete slabs,

it almost looks like
a giant map.

This is the US,
really scrunched down
and walkable.

You can walk from
Baton Rouge to Louisville
in a matter of hours.

[narrator] Despite being built
by the enemy,

this site once saved the lives
of thousands of Americans.

People that worked here
referred to this

as the Eighth Wonder
of the World.

[narrator] On the outskirts
of Jackson, Mississippi,

there is an engineering
marvel.

Today, it's hidden amongst
a forest of pine trees.

But Tom Leggett,
who first came here in 1947,
remembers it a different way.

The happiest memories
that I have,

was just to have such
a large expanse,

just to roam around.

My father worked here,
and we lived here
when I was a small child.

I don't think
I really comprehended
what it all meant.

But everybody that worked
here, took a lot of pride
in what they did.

[narrator] This structure
was born out of an event
that shook America.

In 1927, the Mississippi saw
one of its worst ever floods,

caused by eight months
of solid rain.

[narrator] As the great river
burst its banks,

it flooded a 27,000
square-mile area

almost the size
of West Virginia.

It was nothing short
of catastrophic.

In some places the river
grew as wide as 50 miles.

People's homes, entire towns
were swallowed up
by the floodwaters.

[narrator] Once the waters
receded, the estimated cost

of the damages
in today's money,

was $1 trillion.

Congress vowed it could never
happen again.

[McEwen] In response
to that 1927 flood,

Congress passed
the Flood Control Act of 1928.

This turned to the Army
to tame the Mississippi
and prevent

that kind of disaster
in the future.

[narrator] The Army's solution
was hundreds of miles
of tiny channels

replicating the great river.

This is the Mississippi
River Basin model.

The model out here is like
a giant, 200-acre puzzle.

It was put together
to replicate the entire
Mississippi River basin.

[narrator]
Stretching from Minnesota
to the Gulf of Mexico,

the basin covers over
a million square miles.

Operated by dozens
of engineers,

this model was America's
attempt to tame it.

The purpose of this place
was to try and accurately
model the floods

of the Mississippi River,

predicting disasters
before they struck.

[McEwen] The accuracy
that they got is pretty
incredible.

When they were running
historic storms,

they were able to be within
a tenth of a foot of recorded
gauge data.

They had things in the model,
uh, such as wire,

and things like that
to simulate vegetation
and snags

in the river channel
and the floodplain also.

[narrator] But construction
of the model didn't begin
for well over a decade.

With the Mississippi flowing
through ten states,

there were disagreements
about how to fund it.

And when the model
was finally greenlit,

America was at war.

[explosion]

[guns firing]

[McEwen] It was 1942,
World War II is ongoing.

So, a lot of the... what would
have been the labor force,
was no longer in the area.

[narrator] To fight this
battle against Ol' Man River,

an unusual army was recruited.

America and its allies
had just defeated

the Nazis in North Africa.

Now during this campaign,
they captured thousands
of German POWs.

Now they all needed to be held
somewhere

and ideally put to work.

This was the perfect project
for the prisoners

because the Geneva Convention
said you couldn't use

prisoners to build
military equipment

that would aid in the war.

But here was, sort of,
the next best thing.

It was aiding in, sort of,
a civilian war
against the weather.

[narrator] A plan was hatched
to move thousands of POWs
to Mississippi.

So, a prison camp was built
just two miles north
of the model.

Camp Clinton housed just over
3,000 POWs.

Many of them
had been handpicked to work
on this model

because of their backgrounds
in construction
and engineering.

My father told me that,
"They were extremely
industrious and innovative."

They were doing very technical
things and in fact,

a lot of the heavy equipment
was turned over
to the Germans outright.

Normally, you wouldn't
have prisoners operating

bulldozers and draglines
but they did here. [chuckles]

[narrator]
Thousands of concrete slabs
were meticulously placed

representing 41%
of the continental
United States.

The slabs were constructed

in a large hangar type
facility that was located
here.

And then the slabs
were brought out

and set in place
with a dragline.

And they used screw jacks
to level the slabs up,

and then grouted them in.

[narrator] But before
the model could be completed,
disaster struck.

In 1952, a part
of the Mississippi River
system threatened

to burst its banks
in Nebraska

causing
catastrophic floods.

Fortunately, this was
a part of the model

that had already
been constructed.

So 24-hour tests
were kicked into gear.

[narrator] Data,
such as flood heights

and where
the levees could fail,

was collected.

The Nebraska floods proved

the Mississippi River Basin
Model was a huge success.

It's predicted that
during these floods alone,

the model prevented
$65 million worth of damage.

[narrator]
Fourteen years later,

the entire Mississippi River
Basin Model was completed.

One day's worth of
real-world information

could be collected
in just five minutes.

[McEwen]
What we're seeing over here,
in what looks like a bridge,

actually it would have had
a cylinder on top,

and a probe underneath
that would read
the water elevation.

[narrator]
In total, 79 full-scale
simulations are run.

Saving countless lives

and millions of dollars
in damages.

But soon,
the model would play

a leading role
in its own downfall.

In the 1960s,

the
Mississippi River Basin Model

was proving to be
a huge success.

[Rob] The completed model
was only operational

for less than a decade.

In 1971, operations
came to an abrupt halt

when the model was
given what would be...

its final job.

[Greg] Computer
and mathematical models

were being devised.

But we didn't know
if they actually matched
what happened.

So those models were
tested against this place

and when they matched up,
it was decided that

the concrete could
be put to bed.

[narrator] With the rise
of the computer age,

the model fell
into disrepair.

Today, after decades
of deterioration,

the model is entering
a new chapter.

Having been rediscovered
by local engineer,

Sarah McEwen.

I grew up the child
of two engineers,

I kinda didn't have a choice
but to become an engineer.

And when I came out here,
my initial thought was,

"Man, this could
be such a cool site

for school children,
here locally, to visit."

[narrator] In 2016, Sarah
and a group of colleagues

set up
an organization called

The Friends of the
Mississippi River Basin Model.

This organization is
trying to raise money

to restore the site,
turn it into a park,

and an education center.

[narrator]
But until funds are raised,

they're left
doing all they can

to maintain the model
in its current state.

[McEwen] We hold
monthly clean-up days.

It's important to
keep this alive

because this is the largest
scale model in the world.

The Mississippi River
is really the life blood
of the US.

And how this river

grows and flows
and connects us all

is a really important
story to tell.

[narrator] Hidden away
in suburban Michigan,

on the edge of
the Great Lakes,

this forgotten building
shaped America into

an industrial powerhouse.

Certainly,
there's no one in this area
that doesn't know the history

of the company that
used to be in this building.

But they may not realize
the importance or significance

or the role that it played
in larger American,

or even global history.

[narrator]
The inside of the building

holds some clues to its use.

When you're inside,
it's this huge, open space.

What did they need
all of this space for?

I mean, it looks to me
like it was once a factory.

An enormous factory that
would have accommodated
a lot of people.

But the question is...

what were they making here?

[Matt Anderson] This was
a state-of-the-art factory

built with a eye toward
the 20th century.

[narrator]
This building's location
gives a big hint

to what it was used for.

[Rob] We're in
Detroit, Michigan,

and if we're talking
Detroit factories,

then we're
talking about cars.

[narrator]
A unique process
implemented here

would transform manufacturing
across the world.

But it would come at a cost.

It may not look like it,
uh, right now,

but we are standing
in what was the single-most

important industrial complex
of the 20th century.

[narrator]
This was Henry Ford's
most revolutionary factory,

the
Ford Highland Park Plant.

Matt Anderson, curator at
the Henry Ford Museum,

knows plenty about
Ford and his motors,

but has never stepped foot
inside this factory.

We're now a century removed
from the glory days

of this plant,
if you will, but still,

walking through here
you get a sense

of something immense,
something important

having happened
inside this structure.

[narrator] None of this
would have been possible

without one
engineering prodigy.

Almost from birth, certainly,
from a very young age,

Henry Ford was captivated
and fascinated by machinery.

[narrator]
Ford left his family farm
at the age of 16

to move to Detroit
and become an engineer.

[Linda]
The Ford Motor Company
was founded in 1903.

And in 1908 they produced

their game-changing vehicle,
the Model T.

[narrator]
And it was here
at Highland Park

where this vehicle would
roll out onto the road.

[Dr. Corina Kwami]
Henry Ford wanted to
create a car for the masses.

So it needed
to be durable, safe,

but also cheap.

Ford realized if
a quality car could be built

and priced affordably enough

he could tap
middle class Americans

and working class Americans.

[narrator]
But Henry Ford wanted
a new style of factory.

And so, in 1909,

plans were drawn up
for the Highland Park Plant.

Highland Park gave
Henry Ford a chance

to design the plant
from the ground up

with the space
that he needed.

[narrator]
This factory opened in 1910

and started churning out
Model Ts straight away.

The larger space meant that
Ford could bring more of

the manufacturing
process in-house,
increasing efficiency.

But Ford knew that
he could do more.

If we could
turn back the clock

and come here 100 years ago,

we can imagine what
we might've seen,

uh... rails on the ground

guiding chassis from
Model T automobiles

as they moved
through the plant.

[narrator]
Ford was influenced

by the meat-packing
facilities in Chicago.

They had been using
moving conveyors

to move an animal carcass
through the plant.

[narrator] Henry Ford is
credited as being the first

to implement this
revolutionary process,

the moving assembly line.

But his concept
would almost cause

a revolt among his workers.

Some workers described
this as a form of hell

with workers, essentially,
being tuned into robots.

The worker day
lasted about nine hours

and the pay daily
was only about $2.34,

which even at that time
was quite challenging.

From the moment
the assembly line started

workers were leaving
the factory in droves.

Within a year
of the line starting,

the company had to
replace 90% of its workforce.

[narrator]
To counter the resignations,

Ford made a potentially
disastrous decision.

To plug the massive holes
in its workforce,

the company employed vast
swathes of recent immigrants.

Hoping that their
precarious positions

would make them
easier to exploit.

But this only led
to more problems.

The language barrier
hindered communications
across the line.

[Linda] But even
more than that,

people coming from Europe
were also bringing with them

their socialist ideals,
and Ford did not want that.

[narrator]
The awful working conditions

across the auto industry
in Detroit

created a perfect
atmosphere for revolt.

[Rob] Unions were
beginning to move in

and organize strike action
at other factories.

Something had to change

and change fast.

[narrator]
The Highland Park Plant
saw Henry Ford

perfect construction
of his unique vehicle,
the Model T.

But his workers were
walking out just as quickly.

Ford realized that you could
actually incentivize people

more with carrot,
rather than a stick.

So what he did was
reduce the working hours

for a day,
from nine to eight.

And also, he increased
the daily rate from

$2.34 to about $5.00.

[Matt] Workers were now
willing to stay for the job,

put up with the tedium,
and frankly,

the drudgery of
some of those tasks.

[narrator]
With Ford having
his pick of the best workers,

he went full throttle
at the factory.

[Linda] The introduction of
and the efficiency of
the assembly line

led to the Model T
dropping in price,

from $850 to $260.

Now, in today's money,
that would be drop from

$25,000 to $8,000.

[narrator] And Ford wasn't
the only one who benefited.

By increasing
his workers' wages,

Ford was effectively
elevating people

from working class
to middle class.

And with their
disposable income

they were spending
their money in Detroit,

boosting the local economy.

[Linda] Detroit
became a boom town.

16 years after Ford
increased his wages,

the population
of the city had tripled

to more than
one million people.

[narrator]
But all too soon
it would be time

for the Model T to
move on down the road.

The last Model T was built
in May of 1927.

And it was a tremendous run,
19 years of production,

15 million cars built.

[narrator] However,
the Model T wouldn't be

the last iconic vehicle
to come out of Highland Park.

Once production of
the Model T ended
at the factory,

Ford went back
to his farming roots.

And he started to use the same
principle of the assembly line

to manufacture
Fordson tractors.

Highland Park
continued to manufacture
tractors for decades.

Until Ford
sold the site in 1981,

ending 70 years of
auto industry history.

[narrator]
The Highland Park Plant
has been sitting dormant

for over 40 years,

with buildings
being raised bit by bit.

[Matt] I think one of
the great strengths

of Highland Park,
100 years ago,

is one of its great
weaknesses today.

This is essentially
a giant machine,

a machine that is fine-tuned
and designed to do nothing

but build Ford
Model T automobiles.

[Linda]
The Model T did what could
really only be done once.

This was the vehicle
that turned cars

from a plaything for the rich,

into the tool that
we use every day.

In a sense, in every car

that's on
the American road today,

uh, it owes a little bit
of its existence

to what happened
here in this factory.

[narrator]
On the outskirts of Glendale,
in Greater Los Angeles,

lies a collection of buildings
which sustain the spirits

of some of show business'
leading ladies.

We're in the Crescenta Valley.

A place where
Hollywood stars

and all sorts
of fascinating characters
have made their home.

[narrator]
Amongst the suburban houses,

one group
of buildings stands out.

There's a whole block
of what looks like these

Spanish-inspired,
Colonial cottages.

[Dr. Kenya Davis-Hayes]
Some of the red tiles
have fallen.

In some place
the roof itself is falling in.

But it does seem that
someone is making an effort

to care for this place.

[Joanna Linkchorst]
A lot of people are amazed
at how beautiful that it is.

My first time inside
these gates, on this property,

I absolutely
lost my heart to it.

The history, the trees,

the feel of this place
is so amazing.

[narrator] This place
was set up to counter

a terrible trend.

[Katherine Alcock]
It was often much
cheaper and easier

to throw your wife
into a sanitarium

than to go through
the process of divorce.

[narrator]
Yet, it was connected
to one of the most

famous movie stars
of all time.

The most infamous resident

was a woman by the name
of Gladys Pearl Eley

and her daughter
paid for her care.

[narrator]
The first stone
of this compound

was laid a century ago,

at a time when
this valley was booming.

This place is
currently cared for

by Joanna Linkchorst.

[Joanna]
I was born and grew up
in the Crescenta Valley.

There was actually
an advertisement at one time

from the Crescenta Valley
Chamber of Commerce

that we had the most
healthful air in the world.

[narrator]
This valley would inspire
one pioneering doctor.

[Katherine]
In 1881,
Dr. Benjamin Briggs launched

a worldwide search
for the perfect place

to create a series
of sanitariums.

Places where people
with respiratory illnesses,

particularly,
diseases of the lung,

could come and live
a more healthier life.

Settling on
the Crescenta Valley,

Briggs chose this place
because it was dry,

it was clean,
really good drinking water.

[narrator]
The demand for physical
and mental health facilities

in California was high.

But the focus was not
always on patient welfare.

Unfortunately,
there was a dark side

to this movement
in the early 20th century.

Woman were
more at risk at being

thrown in to some of
these institutions.

[Joanna] It was as simple
as going to a pharmacist

to say, "Hey, my wife needs to
be put away in an asylum,"

to get them put away.

[narrator]
This place would
fight against oppression,

but would face challenges
from one infamous resident.

[narrator]
In the rarefied air

of California's
Crescenta Valley,

lies a forgotten
compound of cottages.

There are lots of
little signs and notices
throughout the complex,

but one which appears
bigger and more important
than the others

bears the word "Rockhaven."

[narrator] This is Rockhaven,

also known as the
Screen Actors' Sanitarium.

Rockhaven was
to be a sanitarium

to be run by woman
for women only.

To give them safe,
dignified treatment

in a home-like setting.

[narrator]
Founded in 1923
by Agnes Richards,

this site has been
without residents

for almost 20 years.

Agnes Richards was
a very powerful, strong woman,

and strong women
attract strong women.

So as a result,
she ended up treating

a lot of the most
famous Hollywood icons.

[narrator]
During the 1920s,

Rockhaven cared
for the mental health

of a number of
Hollywood's leading ladies.

Including Gwen Lee,

Billie Burke, and Peggy Fears.

But no one was prepared

for Rockhaven's
most troublesome inmate.

The most infamous resident
in Rockhaven

was Gladys Baker Eley.

One of the reasons
was that...

she felt the need
to escape.

Gladys had been in and out
of mental institutions.

And she was diagnosed
with paranoid schizophrenia,

as well as
delusions of persecution.

So this is one of
the rooms that

Gladys was cared for in.

And on one
particular occasion,

she tied bed sheets together
and she went out...

of that window.

[narrator]
Like many of
Rockhaven's residents,

Gladys' care was
paid for by her daughter.

[Katherine]
Gladys particularly
wanted to escape

because she believed
that her daughter

could look after her better.

Her daughter
was rich and famous

and her name was
Marilyn Monroe.

[narrator] However,

Marilyn never visited
her mother at Rockhaven.

Privately,
Marilyn Monroe was terrified

to go down the same
path as her mother.

And publicly,
Marilyn Monroe's PR team

told her to deny any existence
of her mother at all.

So from what we know about
Marilyn Monroe's early life

is that she was only
sporadically cared for
by her birth mother,

had spent time
in orphanages,

and just didn't have
the stability that would've

served her as she
moved into adulthood.

[narrator] As Gladys
recovered in Rockhaven,

Marilyn's star was rising.

But the spotlight
would take its toll.

She was briefly admitted

to a padded cell in 1961

where she was
struggling with insomnia,

as well as
extreme exhaustion.

So Marilyn Monroe, of course,
was trying to self-medicate,

but then she was
also heavily medicated

by various different doctors.

[narrator] In 1962,

Marilyn Monroe died
from a drug overdose.

Even though Marilyn
never visited her mother

and even though her mother
was a huge absence
for much of her life,

she still provided
for her in her will.

Leaving a large
chunk of her fortune

to ensure her mother
was well looked after.

Rockhaven allowed her mother
to stay there for free

until her $100,000 trust fund

kicked in to pay
for the services.

[narrator]
But as Gladys recovered

and moved out of
Rockhaven in the late '60s,

the sanitarium's
whole purpose changed.

Rockhaven
decided to start pivoting

and make it
more about elder care

and Alzheimer's
and dementia issues.

And converted the dorms
into a the little hospital.

[Katherine]
Rockhaven was run,

essentially as
a retirement home until 2001,

when rising costs
forced it to close.

[narrator]
Rockhaven has
been empty and decaying

for almost two decades.

Today, the future for
Rockhaven is still unclear.

The City of Glendale
stepped in and purchased
Rockhaven

to prevent the buildings
from being demolished.

With the hope of
turning it into some sort of

community park
or attraction.

Unfortunately, however,
with rising costs

and different priorities,

they've not been able to
make good on that intention.

[narrator]
The City of Glendale
declared Rockhaven

as surplus property
in a state of arrested decay.

This is not just what they
were calling surplus property.

This is our history.

And it should be
open to everybody.

Businesses can
come in that, I think,

should have to
do with wellness,

that have to do with
women's businesses,
that have to do with

benefitting the community.