All language subtitles for Mysteries.of.the.Abandoned.Hidden.America.S04E07.1080p.WEB.h264-FREQUENCY_track3_[eng]

[narrator]
A secret desert facility
that prepared a team for

America's most
destructive mission.

[Peterson] Nothing was
the same after that.

It changed the world.

[narrator]
A downtown church that became
a haven from hostility.

These guys were just going
crazy trying to get away from

all of this mob violence.

[distant siren wailing]

[narrator] And the lair of
a figure that tormented a town.

I'm not claiming to know
what this thing is.

Only God knows.
But we saw it.

[suspenseful music playing]

[narrator] In Northwest Utah
sits a remote desert facility,

forever entwined with
the most destructive forces

known to humanity.

[Peterson]
This area was so secret that
you actually needed five levels

of passes to be able to even
step foot on

this ground out here.

[Dr. Davis-Hayes] We're in
the northwest of Utah,

right on the border
with Nevada.

[narrator] A vast,
restricted area

stretches across the landscape.

[Morgan] You have a large number
of wooden buildings.

They look weather-worn.
They look beat up.

[Dr. Auerbach] A bit farther
out, there's something curious.

These deep, concrete-lined pits
that seem to have

no obvious purpose.

[narrator] But some remains
offer clues to the site's past.

Among the structures that are
present here is one that looks

distinctly like
it's a control tower.

[Dr. Auerbach] And those long
concrete strips,

those have got to be runways.

All the indications are that
this was a military

installation, most likely
an Air Force base.

[narrator] For years,
this place marched

to the incessant
drumbeat of war.

[Peterson] I don't think
these airmen

really knew what awaited them.

They were playing for
the highest stakes imaginable.

There would be
a heavy price to pay.

[narrator]
This remote Utah location had
a monumental impact on one of

history's greatest conflicts.

Jim Peterson has spent years
unpacking its secrets.

[Peterson] As we stand here,
you can almost feel the history

of this area.

This is the very spot that
our grandfathers were standing.

[narrator] This desert area
would be transformed by

the call of duty.

In the 1930s, there were few
testing sites for

America's air forces.

But as World War II began to
rage across Europe,

that had to change.

[cannon blasts]

Congress apportioned money for
the establishment

of U.S. Air Corps bases
across the nation.

[Peterson] The property was
purchased in 1939.

The building of
the base started

in a very slow way in 1940.

[narrator] This is
Wendover Air Force Base.

Initially, just a small
airfield home to two dozen

troops, a devastating strike on
American soil would

rewrite its destiny.

[explosion rumbles]

With the Japanese attack on
Pearl Harbor,

December 7, 1941, the nation
awoke to the reality

of foreign aggression.

The attack galvanized
the nation

and the U.S. government
during the war.

Wendover rapidly expanded in
a blitz of construction.

It quickly transformed from
a base with a dozen buildings

to 668 buildings.

[Peterson]
As the base was expanding,
we needed a lot of people here.

At its very peak,
it was just under 20,000.

If you were an officer,
you could bring your family.

[narrator] Here, the men
received what was known

as Phase II training.

Phase I training, a pilot would
be trained maybe in

Kansas City, a bombardier in New
York, a radioman in Texas.

Wendover is where they actually
came together and formed up

as a group.

The site's main purpose was
bombing training,

but they learned
other things,

like flight formation
and navigation.

[narrator] Some of World War
II's greatest heroes heroes

would train at Wendover.

We had some of
the famous groups like

the Bloody Hundredth,
the 306 bomb group

that was the first
bomb group

to actually drop bombs on
Germany itself.

[narrator]
On top of the hundreds of
barracks, the sprawling site

included a power plant,
a rec center, a dining hall,

and a hospital.

[Peterson] The hospital here at
Wendover is rather large,

it's a 300-bed hospital.

There were a number of babies
that were born here to

the officers' wives.

[narrator]
By 1944, about 50,000 airmen
had passed through Wendover,

but its mission was far
from over.

Soon a classified project would
take over the base, and change

the course of history.

Ever since the 1930s and the
discovery of fission, there was

a great concern in American
government circles that

the Germans would develop
a nuclear weapon first, and this

prompted them during the war to
start their own project.

[narrator]
The Manhattan Project was
created to develop the world's

first atomic bomb, and use it
before the enemy could.

What needed to happen next was
to take that engineering design

and turn it into an actual
deliverable weapon, and Wendover

was selected as the base where
that would take place.

Overseeing the program was
Colonel Paul Tibbetts.

He was training pilots to fly
modified B-29 bombers.

The modified B-29s had to have
all of the extra weight

stripped out of them,
because it was going to be

carrying a bomb that was vastly
heavier than anything that it

had carried before.

[narrator]
An elite team was assembled,

the 509th Composite Group.

[Morgan] This was a super
secret mission.

Most of the men didn't know
what this special group was

about to do, and they didn't
understand that they would be

dropping a bomb that had
harnessed the power of the sun.

[Dr. Auerbach] Wendover was also
absolutely crawling with G-men.

Over 400 FBI agents worked
in plainclothes,

carefully listening for anyone
who was blabbing.

[narrator] Despite the secrecy,
the men knew they were working

with a whole new type of bomb.

[Morgan] Two different bombs
were developed --

Little Boy and Fat Man.

This was done to hedge
our bets, just in the event

that one didn't work out.

The bombs that they were
training with at Wendover were

filled with the same electronic
components, but with no

nuclear materials.

One of the challenges that
they had was they developed

this weapon, is that it was so
big, it couldn't be rolled

under the airplane.

So at Wendover,
they designed this loading pit

and it has a regular
service station

type hydraulic lift in it.

[narrator] In late May 1945,
the 509th Composite Group left

for Tinian Island in the Pacific
Ocean to launch their mission.

It was one that would change
the world forever.

[narrator]
The 509th Composite Group that
trained here at

Wendover Airfield,

was tasked with
a terrifying responsibility,

one that would usher in
a new era for humanity.

In late May 1945,
the 509th Composite Group left

for Tinian Island.

It was there that you had
the infrastructure and the

proximity to Japan that made it
such an appropriate spot to

launch the mission.

[Morgan] At 2:45 AM,

on August 6th, a B-29 nicknamed
Enola Gay, piloted by

Group Commander Paul Tibbetts,
took off from Northfield Tinian.

[Dr. Auerbach] On 8-15,
the world's first atomic bomb,

Little Boy, was dropped on
the city of Hiroshima.

Everything within
the initial blast radius --

buildings, animals, people --
was simply vaporized.

Beyond that, you had a heat
wave that melted things.

And beyond that, the blast wave
that simply knocked

everything down.

And meanwhile, a mushroom cloud
that spread radioactive matter

across a vast area.

[narrator] Three days later,
the men who trained at Wendover

were called into action again,
and the Fat Man bomb was

dropped over Nagasaki.

On August 15,
1945, the Japanese Emperor

Hirohito announced
the country's surrender.

[narrator] The scale of death
and destruction caused by

the bombs was unprecedented.

It was estimated by
the U.S. military

that 70,000 people
died at Hiroshima and 40,000

at Nagasaki.

The true death toll is much
larger and hard to estimate

accurately, but it was
certainly tens of thousands

who would die long
lingering deaths in subsequent

days, months, and years because
of radiation exposure.

[Peterson] It's hard to evaluate
without being there

and being a part of it.

At the time, we didn't
see alternatives.

That was the alternative to end
the war, and that's what

they chose to do.

[narrator] With its epic mission
accomplished, activity at

the base dwindled over
the next few years.

Basically, everybody went home.

Wendover hadn't been a big town
before, when it went back to

a very small town.

In 1976, Wendover Airfield was
turned over to Wendover,

Utah as a municipal airport.

[narrator]
Today, historic Wendover
Airfield is open to the public.

Jim and his team are working
hard to preserve and showcase

its incredible history.

This is the most original
remaining base in the country.

It's kind of been
preserved in time.

Wendover is where
the atomic age began.

It certainly had
a major part of it.

It's not something that we want
to repeat, but it's not

something that we want to
forget either.

[narrator]
In downtown Jacksonville, lies
an abandoned church that played

an important role in
an era-defining event that

would change the city
and the nation forever.

[Yates] It was one of
the bloodiest days

in the history of
the city of Jacksonville.

[Meigs] From a distance,
you might think, OK, this is

just another downtown church,
but as you get closer,

you can see the windows are
boarded up,

the front door is bolted shut.

[narrator]
The church is an intriguing mix
of preservation and neglect.

[Rodriguez-McRobbie] The
church's interior is stunning.

You've got beautiful stained
glass windows,

impressive woodwork.

There are a few still here,
but they've been pushed off

to the side.

It's almost like they're
patiently awaiting there to be

services inside
the church again.

[Meigs] There's a kitchen,
there's meeting rooms,

but it's dusty, it's neglected.

Clearly no one's been using
this space

for many, many years.

[narrator]
For some, this church's
significance isn't related

to religion,
but to the life-saving shelter

it gave during
a desperate time.

I remember it as being a place
where children were able to

escape the carnage,
the bloodbath that was taking

place outside its walls.

-[siren wailing]
-[indistinct crowd ruckus]

[narrator] The church on this
corner can trace its beginnings

all the way back to the mid-19th
century, just five years after

the Civil War.

A northern abolitionist
named

John Sanford Swain
came down

here to build a church that
would be dedicated to his hope

of racial equality.

[narrator]
The original church burned

in the Great Jacksonville Fire
of 1901.

Swiftly rebuilt, the new church
continued its tradition of

inclusivity and was renamed
the Snyder Memorial Methodist

Episcopal Church.

Throughout the first half of
the 20th century,

the church had an open door
policy, helping anyone who was

in need, whether that was
spiritual counseling,

or just a place to sleep.

[narrator]
In 1960, this welcoming
reputation was put to the test

in the most dramatic
of circumstances.

All of us, me and seven kids,
were squeezed into this area

trying to hide from what was
going on out there.

Didn't want anyone to see us.

[narrator] Alton Yates, 24 years
old at the time, was shepherding

children away from a riot that
would later become known as

Axe Handle Saturday.

His journey to this violent day
began a few months earlier when

he joined a group called
the NAACP Youth Council.

Established in 1909,
the National Association for

the Advancement of
Colored People was

an interracial organization.

By the Great Depression, it was
the most prominent civil rights

organization in the U.S.

To highlight the injustices of
segregated America,

The NAACP in Jacksonville
decided to focus on

the segregated lunch counters
of the department stores that

were once centered around
the park outside the church.

[narrator] These protests were
called sit-ins.

What this would entail would be
Black people or a group that

was integrated taking seats at
whites-only lunch counters.

They would be refused service,
but they would remain there

sitting peacefully
until closing.

[narrator]
In Jacksonville, activists were
often insulted and humiliated,

but all-out violence was
usually avoided.

But one Saturday morning,
that all changed.

We could see a truck parked
across the street at

Henning Park, and there were men
on the back of this truck

passing out baseball bats
and ax handles.

-[glass breaking]
-[indistinct ruckus]

[narrator]
On the morning of Saturday,
August 27th, 1960,

a number of activists
were preparing

for a sit-in protest at

a department store in
downtown Jacksonville.

Around the corner,
a truck parked outside

the Snyder Memorial Church was
offloading axe handles to a mob

of white supremacists and KKK
members, who were intent on

stopping the protest.

Alton Yates was leading a group
of teenagers to the sit-in.

We walked in and took our seats
at the lunch counter,

and just about time we were
seated, the guys out here

spotted us sitting
at the counter.

And when they did, they came in
with their axe handles

and they started beating us.

[narrator] But they weren't
the only ones targeted.

I was 17 years old,
and I was an employee of

Marson Cafeteria.

And that's the building here,
and I worked

in the dishroom,
washing dishes.

[narrator]
After leaving his place of
work, Nat Glover was one of

the many African Americans
who was unfortunately in

the wrong place at
the wrong time.

They quickly confronted me
right here

in the middle of the street

because they had the whole
street blocked off.

And they started to hit me with
the ax handles.

The victims of this violence
appealed to the local police,

but they pretty much just stood
aside and let

this thing play out.

I ran over to the police
officer and I said to him,

"Officer, please help me."

And this officer said,
and I'll never forget it,

those words ring
in my ears right now --

he said, "You better get out of
here before they kill you."

[narrator]
Back at the protest, Alton knew
he had to get his group of

teenagers away from the mob.

But I was very careful asking
them not to run, because if

they ran, they would draw
attention to us.

So we walk as calmly as
we possibly could.

And we got to this door to
the Snyder Memorial Church

and I just, on a hunch,
tried the door.

To my amazement, it was
unlocked, but it swung open

and we rushed in.

[narrator] Nat Glover took
a different route to safety.

I ran towards my home and they
chased me, but I don't know to

this day when they stopped
chasing me, because I was so

afraid, I did not look back.

[narrator]
On hearing about the mob,
a local African-American gang

called the Boomerangs rushed in
to offer some sort

of protection.

Only then did the police
finally intervene.

Of the 62 arrests made that
day, 48 were African-Americans.

And one thing this underscores,
is that when the police finally

did spring into action,
they apparently were targeting

their efforts on containing
Black people.

[narrator] Life Magazine
published a photo of one of

the victims, sparking
a national outcry.

In Jacksonville,
the response of many was to

boycott downtown businesses.

The African-American community
had had enough.

And now the businesses were
even starting to question

the need for segregation
in their stores.

It was all coming to a head.

[narrator]
During this tumultuous time,
Snyder Memorial Church once

again played an important role.

This was the location of
the first interracial meetings

of the business community
and the Black community to

settle the problems of
segregation and integration

in Jacksonville.

[narrator] Thanks to these
meetings at the church,

in April, 1961, Jacksonville
lunch counters were
desegregated.

Three years later,
the landmark Civil Rights Act

was passed.

For Snyder, though, its days of
influence were on the wane.

[Meigs] As people moved out to
the suburbs, attendance at

the Snyder Memorial Church
services began to fall off,

and eventually the church
emptied out.

By the 1990s, it had ended
its weekly services

and eventually shut
down altogether.

[narrator]
Added to the National Register
of Historic Places in 2013,

the church is safe
from demolition,

but without a congregation,
remains frozen in time.

[narrator]
In 2020, Jacksonville took
steps to reappraise its past by

renaming the park outside
Snyder Memorial in honor of

civil rights activist
and Jacksonville native,

James Weldon Johnson.

And there have been recent
talks of turning the church

into a civil rights museum.

[Dr. Mitchell] But for now,
it sits empty,

a place of reflection,

especially for those who once
desperately sought refuge here.

[Yates] I've always been
thankful for the fact that

that side door was open.
That, to me, was a miracle.

[narrator]
Although Snyder will be forever
linked to Axe Handle Saturday,

for some, this awful event
served as a source

of inspiration.

I was ashamed of having ran,
and that in effect, changed

my life, because it did leave on
my mind and my heart

that I would never run away from
another fight.

[narrator] Nat Glover would use
this newfound resilience

and determination to make
history, becoming the first

Black sheriff in Florida since
1888, and the first ever

in Jacksonville.

In West Virginia, a set of
abandoned structures is at

the heart of one of
America's strangest mysteries.

[Wamsley] I don't think this
thing was planned or plotted.

There was a lot of people
seeing it and it still hasn't

been explained to this day.

This is Point Pleasant,
a small West Virginia town on

the Ohio River.

This place really has
a "Stranger Things" vibe to it.

Point Pleasant is a cozy,
quiet, sleepy little town.

But just a few miles north,
there's a whole ruinous

concrete mess of structures.

[Dr. Szulgit] This place is
a mishmash.

Some look like thick concrete
domes, while others are pillars

of some kind.
What was this place?

These tall, lanky concrete
buildings have a real

dystopian feel.

It looks like a kind of
postmodern Stonehenge.

[narrator]
What happened here turned
nightmares into reality.

[Leport] I know what I saw.
I'm not crazy.

Those eyes, when you looked at
them, it was so red.

[narrator] Whatever the truth,
it culminated in a very

real catastrophe.
-People perished.

It's deemed the worst bridge
disaster in U.S. history.

[narrator]
On the surface,

Point Pleasant
looks like its name suggests,

a welcoming, safe
West Virginian town.

But lifelong resident Jeff
Wamsley knows there's more here

than meets the eye.

I grew up here and I was real
familiar with a lot of

the stories about
the abandoned buildings.

My dad brought me and my mother
up here looking for this thing,

sort of like a hunt
for Frankenstein.

[narrator]
Many claim what Jeff and his
family came looking for lurked

among these buildings several
decades before he was born,

when America was fighting
the Axis powers on two fronts.

During World War II, this was
a top secret military facility.

[narrator]
This was the West Virginia
Ordinance Works, but locals knew

it by another name.

This area was what we call
the TNT area because

they manufactured TNT.

[narrator]
Used in everything from
landmines to artillery shells,

Trinitrotoluene, or TNT,
was a key weapon in

America's arsenal.

This site is over 8,000 acres
and it employed about 3,500

people working
around the clock.

This place was built to produce
720,000 pounds of TNT

every single day.

You have a lot of bunkers that
still exist up here.

There's over
a hundred of these.

They were made to store
ammunition and live explosives.

[narrator]
Yet when the explosions of
World War II ended, so did

these buildings' glory days.

In 1945, the world returned to
peace, and this war factory was

shut down and abandoned.

It became a desolate military
area left over from

World War II.

[narrator]
These buildings quietly
crumbled for over 20 years,

but their demise was
dramatically disturbed when

an event here would change
Point Pleasant forever.

There were two young couples
riding around about 11:00 PM.

and they saw what they thought
was just a person standing in

the middle of the road.

As they got closer
in their vehicle,

they realized that it was
not a person.

It looked like a large bird of
some sort or some creature.

[Meares] They panicked,
and they turned around.

And as they did,
they realized that this

creature started flying over
their car, chasing them.

[Wamsley] They sped up to about
90 to 95 miles an hour.

And whatever this thing was
stayed over top of their car.

As they got to the lights of
the city, this thing veered off

into a cornfield.

[narrator]
The two young couples were so
distressed, they turned

to the authorities.

Soon as they got back into
town, they reported what

they had encountered to
the sheriff's department.

[Thomas] Whatever they saw,
it definitely scared them.

The sheriff's office said that
they were visibly shaken.

[narrator]
Wanting to see if the strange
beast was fact or fiction,

people like Faye Laport
visited this desolate facility

to try to catch a glimpse.

What she encountered has stuck
with her to this day.

I saw the biggest pair of
feathered wings, but it didn't

have, like, a beak like
a bird does.

It just had
those two holes in it.

But the rest of it was in
the shape of a man with legs.

It just jumped on the hood of
the car and crouched in like

a gargoyle, and watched me
and my brother.

And then it kind of just stood
up and jumped down off the car.

This creature that was seen
here in the TNT area became

known as the Mothman.

Was over 100 reported sightings
in that first few months.

[narrator]
Along with wings and humanoid
features, all the reports claim

the Mothman had one
striking feature.

Those eyes were just really
huge, but just red.

All you saw when you first
looked at it was those eyes.

It was like it was illuminated,
and it scared me.

[narrator]
To this day, experts still
debate exactly what Faye

and the other witnesses saw.

[Thomas] This is the 1960s,
the height of the Cold War,

and Americans are constantly
hearing whispers about what

the military is involved with,
what's going on

behind the scenes.

This all fed into a paranoia
that maybe there were things

out there that the government
wasn't telling us about.

With this in their heads,
perhaps the witnesses mistook

a large bird that lived in
these old buildings

for the Mothman.

There are some creatures that
live in the TNT area which

might explain the sightings.
One is the sandhill crane.

There are also some owls,
and perhaps their eyes,

which can turn red,
freaked the people out.

And the American entertainment
industry was feeding off

American anxiety.

The comic book superhero Batman
had a nemesis named

Killer Moth.

[narrator]
But if the Mothman was
a creature of the imagination,

it doesn't explain what
happened next.

[Meares]
During the time of the Mothman
sightings, there were also

reportedly visits to Point
Pleasant from the infamous

Men in Black, who would come
around and kind of observe

the population in dark
black suits.

[Wamsley]
A lot of the witnesses claimed
that these Men in Black would

approach them and ask them not
to talk about what they had

been seeing, just kind of
keep quiet.

[narrator]
But just a year after
the Mothman was first seen,

something hit this town that
was firmly rooted in reality.

People claimed that they saw
this Mothman creature going

back and forth across the river
before that disaster.

[narrator]
In the late 1960s,
many townsfolk of

Point Pleasant, West Virginia,
reported encounters with

a strange creature
nicknamed the Mothman.

No matter if it was fact
or fiction, a dramatic event

was about to rock this sleepy
place to its core.

[Wamsley] It was at 5:00 PM,

on December 15th, 1967,
a Friday evening,

about a week and a half
before Christmas.

[Meares]
The Silver Bridge was part of
Route 35 and it transported

folks across the Ohio River.

It was packed with traffic of
people trying to get home.

And suddenly, it lurched to one
side, went back to the middle,

and then completely collapsed.

[rumbling]

[narrator]
46 people died, making it
the deadliest road bridge

collapse in American history.

It hurt a lot of people's lives
there where they lost so many

and their family members.

[narrator]
Officials claim the collapse
was due to a broken link in

the chain
suspending the bridge.

Yet some believe a more
sinister force connecting

the disaster to these buildings
might have been at work.

Everybody said that that
Mothman thing was on the bridge

two days or something like
that before.

[narrator]
Whether or not the Mothman was
involved in the bridge

collapse, sightings of
the creature diminished.

The Mothman sightings kind of
waned because everybody's

attention went towards
the rescue effort.

[narrator]
In the following years
and decades, these buildings

continued to crumble
and the Mothman became

a creature of legend.

Today, nearly 60 years later,
the Mothman has not returned.

While the TNT area has become
a wildlife reserve, the town of

Point Pleasant celebrates
its mysterious past.

[Wamsley] We have the Mothman
Museum here in Point Pleasant,

a Mothman festival.

So the town has basically
embraced Mothman as part

of their history.

Yet, despite many seeing
the Mothman as a fun Cold War

story, others are still adamant
that it lived in

the buildings here.

I haven't forgotten it,
because it's burned in my mind.

So far, my mind is still good,
and I thank God for that.

[narrator]
In upstate New York,
there's a strange building that

traveled halfway across
the world to become the prize

of a medical pioneer.

It's absolutely magical here.

It's just hard not to feel
almost the spirit of how

the place was in
the early 1900s.

[Alcock] We are on the edge of
the Catskill Mountain Range,

a haven for New York City.

[Prof. Zarsadiaz] It's
picturesque, it's beautiful.

A lot of people escape to
the Catskills for rest,

relaxation, to find some sense
of balance.

[narrator] Through the trees,
a distinctive derelict

structure appears.

[Dr. Szulgit] It's clearly got
Asian influences with this

peaked green, possibly copper
roof -- it's a real anomaly.

When you look closer,
you can see a number of ornate

stone carvings and statues,
which make this place seem like

a temple or a place
of reflection.

[Prof. Zarsadiaz]
There's these stickers
in the basement that say

"St. Louis 1904," what does that
have to do with this building?

[narrator]
The couple who lived here was
celebrated by high society,

yet would be embroiled in
a deadly scandal.

When her calling card fell out
of the suspect's pocket,

the police must have thought
they'd unearthed a major

terrorist conspiracy.

Author and current owner,
Katrin Schumann, has known

about this unique building
since she was a young girl.

I grew up in the area and so it
was always this kind of hidden,

slightly scary place for me.

There were a lot of
"no trespassing" signs around it

on the trees.

[narrator] This structure was
originally constructed in Japan,

but then it was
transported to Missouri

for one of America's great
international expositions.

[Prof. Zarsadiaz]
The 1904 World's Fair in
St. Louis occurred at a time

when America was growing, and
a lot of countries also want to

showcase and highlight all
the technologies and cultural

innovations that
were occurring.

An x-ray machine,
wireless

telephone communication,
even the precursor to

the fax machine was here.

Over 60 countries were in
attendance and their exhibition

spaces showed off each nation's
unique architectural style.

[narrator]
Japan's contribution to
the exhibition

was greater than most.

♪♪ meet me at the fair ♪♪

[Dr. Szulgit] In the early
1900s, Japan was booming.

It was trying to leave
its isolationist feudal days

behind and it was westernizing
rapidly and it wanted

the world to know.

The Japanese government spent
lavishly on their buildings

with examples of gardens,
temples and mansions, as well

as this place which was
modeled after an ancient

Japanese imperial palace.

[narrator] This is
the Pine and Maple Palace,

known in Japanese as Shofu-Den.

But its journey to New York
from Missouri would be sparked

by an unlikely visitor.

Jokichi Takamine was born in
Japan but learned his English

from a Dutch family, so oddly
spoke English with

a Dutch accent.

[Schumann]
So he spent his teenage years
and his young adult years

learning how to communicate
with the Western world.

He was an accomplished
scientist, but also had

a business mind, so he ended up
making a good amount of money

and being a very
successful businessman.

[narrator] But it wasn't
economic reasons that tied

Takamine to the United States.
It was love.

Jokichi Takamine came to
the United States and stayed in

the guest house of a family
called Hitch in New Orleans,

and they had a young daughter
named Caroline, and the two of

them fell in love.

Takamine and Caroline
Hitch married.

It was in many ways very
controversial and scandalous

for the time because dozens of
states had some variations of

laws that did not allow for
interracial couples to

get married.

[Schumann] It was
an extraordinary relationship.

He was from a samurai family
and he was very intelligent,

so I'm sure he was quite exotic
and felt like quite the catch.

[narrator]
With a strong marriage,
Takamine's business interest

began to flourish, and he took
patents out on a number of

medicines, making
him a millionaire.

But he was on the verge of
a breakthrough which would

change medicine forever.

[narrator]
Shofu-Den, on the edge of
the Catskills in New York,

was first constructed in Japan
and shipped to St. Louis for

the 1904 World's Fair.

But Jokichi Takamine,
the man responsible for

bringing it to the Empire
State, is one of medicine's

great unsung heroes.

In 1901, Takamine discovered
how to artificially

synthesize adrenaline.

[Dr. Szulgit]
This is a huge deal, so this
became a really important thing

to prevent people going into
shock during surgery, to get

their heart rate up, even to
restart their hearts in

certain conditions.

[Alcock]
It's impossible to estimate,
but over the course of the past

century, synthetic adrenaline
must have saved tens of

thousands of lives.

You would think that Takamine
would be showered with

accolades, but he really didn't
get that much recognition

from the U.S.

[narrator]
However, Takamine would receive
one unique award from

the Emperor of Japan himself.

In 1904, the Emperor Meiji
decided to honor Takamine with

an unusual gift.

It was this building,
the Pine and Maple Palace

or Shofu-Den.

[Schumann]
The palace was disassembled in
St. Louis and put into crates

and loaded onto these trains
and then made it

across the country.

The crates were brought here
and unpacked and reassembled

into this place.

[narrator]
Once installed in New York,

Shofu-Den was wildly popular

and used by the Takamines as
a lavish setting to

entertain guests.

[Schumann] They hosted the
Princess and Prince of Japan in

the early 1900s, and they put on
a huge gala for them.

[narrator]
Jokichi Takamine also became
something of an unofficial

ambassador for Japan.

Takamine was really interested
in improving U.S.-Japan

relations, and in fact he is
responsible for the importation

of thousands of cherry trees
dotted across

the United States.

[narrator]
Jokichi and Caroline Takamine
lived peacefully at Shofu-Den

for almost 20 years.

But one day, events in New York
City threatened to turn

their lives upside down.

Anarchists associated with
left-wing and pro-immigration

groups began a series of
bombings in 1919.

But these were small-scale
and mostly aimed at

politicians and judges.

On September 16th of 1920,
a huge bomb was detonated just

outside the headquarters
of J.P. Morgan on Wall Street.

[explosion blasts]

[narrator]
30 people were killed
instantly, and nearly 150

others were severely wounded.

The police suspected
anarchist involvement,

but didn't have any leads.

[Alcock] However, the precursor
to the FBI, the Bureau of

Investigation, got a lead on
a tennis player,

Edwin P. Fischer,

who had sent warnings
to friends to stay away from

Wall Street that very day.

[Dr. Szulgit]
When he was arrested,

Caroline Takamine's calling card
fell out of his pocket.

When questioned by the police
who this Caroline was on

the calling card, he said that
she was the wife of a very

important explosives
manufacturer and that she would

get him out of there.

[narrator]
Fischer had met Caroline at
a country club near Shofu-Den

some years earlier, but it soon
became clear that he was not

capable of carrying
out the bombing.

[Dr. Szulgit]
Oddly, Fischer was discovered to
be wearing a complete tennis

outfit below his suit,
and when questioned as to why,

he said, "Well, I always need to
be ready for a match

at any time."

[Alcock]
Fischer claimed to have known
about the bombings because

he had received
a message from God.

No charges were pressed on
Fischer or the Takamines,

and the Wall Street bombing
remains unsolved to this day.

[narrator]
Fortunately, the Takamines
would not be harmed by this

scandal, although Jokichi died
just two years later.

Caroline moved away from New
York and sold Shofu-Den,

which would pass through
a number of hands.

[Alcock] It would become an inn
and a restaurant

for a short period before it
was bought

by a Japanese heritage group
in the 1980s.

[narrator]
Yet the cost of maintaining
a Japanese-built palace in

the Catskills would prove too
much for its owners.

The buildings became
dilapidated and the huge garden

started to be reclaimed
by the forest.

Today, Katrin Schumann
and her husband Kevin are in

the process of restoring this
palace to its former glory.

Obviously, buying this was
an enormous project.

[narrator]
Yet the man who first used
Shofu-Den as a home has left

an astounding legacy, both in
the medical field and on

the nation's capital.

But of course, this building is
a testament to his success

and his imaginations.

My hope for it is really just
to bring it back to life

and have people come and enjoy
it, and to continue telling

the story of its history.