Original subtitles

[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.