Original subtitles

[narrator] A rural structure in Wisconsin

linked to the founding of an American institution.

[Meigs] It was a kind of hotbed for political movement

that would profoundly affect the country.

[mysterious music playing]

An isolated stronghold in Greece that incurred

a sultan's wrath.

Tens of thousands were killed, enslaved, or forced to flee.

[suspenseful music builds]

And a compound in Seattle

rocked by a high-profile military scandal.

There was tremendous pressure on the American government

to assure the world that they would get justice.

[tense music playing]

On the Greek island of Chios are clifftop ruins,

once the scene of a vicious massacre.

[mysterious music playing]

We're just a couple of miles inland, but we feel worlds away

from the famous beaches and turquoise waters

this place is known for.

[Bell] It's arid and craggy, with steep-sided mountains

and deep ravines.

You can't imagine this was ever an easy place to live.

And then you notice that it's a town

clinging to the hillside.

[Rose] Given how well it blends with the surroundings,

it's pretty clear that this place was designed

to be secret and hidden.

Among the devastated remains, there are few clues

as to who lived here.

[Bell] This must have once been a bustling settlement.

It's now a ghost town.

[Meares] All the buildings have been built

right on top of each other.

So the people here were clearly petrified of something.

But who or what was it?

For centuries, the residents

of this isolated town stayed concealed.

But in the aftermath of a rebellion,

they found themselves surrounded by a brutal force

fueled by revenge.

[Meares] They were there to carry out

the sultan's orders -- complete annihilation.

Archaeologist Olga Vassi has spent more than 30 years

unearthing the secrets of the islanders

who once sheltered here.

[Dr. Vassi speaking]

[Meares] But hiding wasn't their only defense.

The town sits upon a rock face at 1,300 feet,

and on either side are these really deep gorges,

and there's only one way in and out, one single gate.

[Dr. Vassi speaking]

This is the town of Anavatos.

More than two miles inland, hidden inside

their mountaintop fortress, the residents were protected

from the frequent coastal pirate raids,

but their safety came at a cost.

[Dr. Vassi speaking]

The population built a cistern to store

what little rain fell in this arid climate.

It was just enough to eke out an existence.

[Dr. Vassi speaking]

Cut off from the world, the people here cared little

about the Italian merchants who ruled Chios for centuries.

They continued to speak Greek and follow the Orthodox faith,

as generations before them had done.

[Rose] For more than 100 years, life at Anavatos remained

relatively unchanged, until 1566,

a new empire arrives -- the Ottomans.

[suspenseful music builds]

The Ottoman Empire controlled large swaths

of the Middle East and North Africa.

As well as modern-day Greece, their domination of the region

brought a new peace to Anavatos.

[Meares] They had this really powerful navy,

so the threat of piracy really dissipated.

This meant that the residents didn't have to cram inside

the fortified village for safety.

They could start to spread out and build bigger homes

outside the walls.

[mysterious music builds]

For more than 200 years, Chios was largely at peace

under Ottoman control.

It seemed as if the harsh life of the residents

was beginning to ease.

But in the early 1800s, a movement was gathering pace

in mainland Greece which would change the fate of the island.

Over the years, revolutionaries in Greece began

to fight and organize for independence,

hoping to overthrow their oppressors

and gain freedom.

[Rose] But rebellions are expensive, so they went

to wealthy expat communities in the US, Britain,

and across Europe for support.

[Bell] After years of gathering resources and people,

on March 25th, 1821, a national uprising began,

but not on Chios.

There were more than 100,000 people living on Chios

who were now in an impossible position.

Their island was more than 100 miles

across the Aegean Sea from mainland Greece,

where the rebellion had launched.

But Turkey, home of the Ottoman Empire,

was right on their doorstep.

[Rose] Chios is just a little more than four miles

across the water from mainland Turkey.

If they took up arms against their occupiers,

they're incredibly vulnerable to Ottoman attack.

But in March 1822, the Greek Revolution

would arrive, whether they liked it or not .

[Rose] A band of rebels from the nearby island of Samos

landed here and began launching attacks on the Ottomans.

[Dr. Vassi speaking]

[Bell] The Ottomans responded by sending

tens of thousands of troops to the island.

Their orders were to unleash hell

on rebels and civilians alike.

It would become known as the Chios Massacre.

[Dr. Vassi speaking]

[Meares] For two weeks, their army would massacre,

torture, and imprison thousands, and completely level towns.

Anavatos wouldn't be spared either.

In April 1822, Ottoman soldiers had made it

to the foot of the mountain.

When they saw them approaching, the residents,

terrified, retreated behind the old fortified walls.

[Dr. Vassi speaking]

This was now a siege with only one way in or out.

[suspenseful music playing]

In 1822, the residents of Anavatos

on the island of Chios were surrounded by an enemy force.

After a Greek rebellion against their Ottoman overlords,

revenge was swift and violent.

Suddenly, the Ottoman troops are rushing inside,

and their orders are "Kill or enslave

the population of the town."

[tense music playing]

[Rose] These soldiers simply set light to the church,

burning to death everyone that was sheltering inside.

[suspenseful music playing]

[Dr. Vassi speaking]

But that wasn't the end of the horror.

[Dr. Vassi speaking]

[Meares] It's said that they jumped to their death

rather than meeting such a horrible fate.

In what became known as the Chios Massacre,

the population of Anavatos and the island was decimated.

It's said that 25,000 were killed, 45,000 enslaved,

and tens of thousands more fled.

Four-fifths of the population gone.

News of what happened here spread like wildfire

across the globe and rallied support for the Greek cause.

[Dr. Vassi speaking]

In 1832, Greece finally gained its freedom,

but Chios wasn't included in the treaty.

After the devastating response to the uprising,

little opposition remained on the island, and it stayed

under Ottoman control for another 80 years.

[Rose] Those who survived continued to live in Anavatos,

but soon disaster would strike once more.

[violent rumbling]

[Meares] Only 50 years after this horrible massacre,

there was a massive earthquake, and like much of the island,

Anavatos is left in ruins.

In the years after the quake, some of the town's residents

settled at the bottom of the hill,

while others departed for good,

leaving the ancient settlement to fall into ruin.

[mysterious music playing]

Since 1998, Olga and her team have been working

to excavate and restore the abandoned old town.

[Bell] While many of these buildings have been,

for years, devoid of life, one person was drawn

to the quiet majesty of this ghost town.

Mrs. Smaragda first visited Anavatos as a child in 1949,

long before there were paved roads here.

Seeking a peaceful retirement, she returned in the 1990s

to make it her home with only her animals for company.

[Mrs. Smaragda speaking Greek]

[translator] I've enjoyed my life.

I traveled, I had fun, I partied.

In 1991, I left everything behind and I came to Anavatos,

more than anything, for peace of mind.

I wouldn't change it.

It doesn't compare to any place in the world.

[Mrs. Smaragda speaking Greek]

[mysterious music playing]

In Seattle, on the edge of the Puget Sound,

a scenic park bears traces of a miscarriage of justice

during a national crisis.

[mysterious music playing]

It's a 534-acre expanse of hiking trails and wilderness.

[mysterious music continues]

[Prof. Mitchell] But across the site are

these smart properties that don't look

like your typical park buildings.

[Dr. Nusbacher] The houses are boarded up.

The windows are boarded over.

This is a neighborhood that has been shut down.

[intense music playing]

[Prof. Mitchell] Inside, the buildings are

in a really bad state of disrepair.

There's peeling paint, holes in the walls,

and exposed rafters in the ceilings.

Trying to piece together

what this place was used for isn't easy.

[Dr. Nusbacher] One of these buildings

has got cages in it... big cages.

These cells would hold men accused of a breakdown of order

and a brutal killing. But not all was as it seemed.

[Dr. Nusbacher] This starts as a scuffle,

and it turns into a riot and then a murder.

The court-martial brings in its verdict --

guilty.

[Hamann] But what we were able to discover was,

it was an absolute travesty of justice.

[enigmatic music playing]

[Hamann] In 1985, I was a young news reporter,

and I was assigned to one of the most

dull, boring assignments you could have at that age.

The local community was trying to decide what to do

with a sewage treatment plant.

But there was more in this park than just a sewage plant.

When a park ranger pointed out a strange headstone

in the military cemetery, it would send Jack Hamann

on a decades-long hunt for the truth.

[Hamann] It says,

"Guglielmo Olivotto, Italian soldier."

And it said that he died on August 14, 1944.

What was an Italian soldier doing being buried

in an American graveyard in World War II?

When you see something like this,

it just piques your curiosity.

I had no idea how big it would become.

In a quiet Seattle park are the scattered remains

of a once sprawling facility.

When the United States Army began construction here

in 1898, many considered it a remote outpost...

that would soon change.

[Hamann] At the start of World War II,

after the bombing of Pearl Harbor,

this was one of the main avenues for soldiers and material

to be sent across to the Pacific.

[Dr. Nusbacher] Port companies, which were American soldiers

trained to onload and offload ships in combat zones,

were preparing in Seattle to deploy

to the war in the Pacific.

[enigmatic music playing]

This is Fort Lawton --

20,000 troops, including these port companies,

were stationed here.

But reflecting wider society,

they were not all treated equally.

[Pedrick] More than one million African-American men and women

served during World War II, but, at this point in history,

the military is still legally segregated.

[Dr. Nusbacher] The United States Army

tried to keep Black soldiers

in subservient roles and away from combat.

Merely because of their race, they were seen as manual labor.

And so you see a large number of Black men assigned

to the port companies.

In 1943, during the Allied victory in North Africa,

huge numbers of Italian soldiers were captured.

Many of them were brought to Fort Lawton as POWs.

[Hamann] This building would have had not just Americans,

but a considerable number of Italian prisoners of war.

Those who were willing to pledge allegiance

to the Allies were given the opportunity

to work in return for pay,

and they formed what were called Italian service units.

The Italian soldiers, for the most part,

absolutely loved being here.

Italy was poor, it was at war, but here they were given meals,

they were treated pretty well.

But a gravestone in the fort's cemetery

hints that relations at the base were strained.

Guglielmo Olivotto, now buried here,

was part of the 28th Italian Service Unit

stationed at Fort Lawton.

They lived in barracks, in a remote corner of the base,

right next to the segregated Black American port companies.

[Hamann] August 14th, 1944 was a big day

for these Black soldiers because on August 15th,

they were supposed to ship out.

[Dr. Nusbacher] As soldiers and sailors have done

since the dawn of time, here are some soldiers

who are going to cut loose in town before shipping out.

[Hamann] At the very same time, Italians, too, were able

to leave the base and do much the same thing.

When both groups returned to the fort that night,

it would result in a tragic confrontation.

[Hamann] Drunken insults are exchanged,

and an Italian soldier hits the Black soldier hard enough

to knock him out. Other Black soldiers

started to shout out, "Hey, we've just been attacked."

For 40 minutes, it was just an all-out melee.

The military police were finally alerted to the riot

taking place in this secluded part of the base.

They restored order, but it soon became clear

that someone was unaccounted for.

[suspenseful music playing]

[Dr. Nusbacher] Early in the morning,

one Italian soldier was found hanging on some wires

on the assault course.

[Prof. Mitchell] It was the body of

Private Guglielmo Olivotto, and he had been lynched.

The prime suspects were the African-American soldiers

of the port companies.

In the days after the riot,

400 port company soldiers were imprisoned.

while the authorities tried to determine

who to charge with rioting and murder.

[Hamann] This is the guardhouse.

The biggest suspects would be housed here,

which was the most secure place.

A formidable military lawyer named Leon Jaworski

was brought in to prosecute the Army's case

against 43 Black soldiers.

Just four months after Olivotto's death,

the all-white military court reached their decision.

They found, of the 43 defendants,

28 of them guilty of rioting,

and two of them guilty of manslaughter.

The sentences ranged from six months in prison

to 25 years of hard labor.

All but one of the Black soldiers convicted

were dishonorably discharged.

It seemed that justice had been done.

[Dr. Nusbacher] But when you look closer,

You see that that is not what happened here.

[Prof. Mitchell] It turned out that an important piece of evidence

was omitted from the court-martial proceedings.

During their research, Jack and his wife discovered

that another branch of the Army had investigated

the riots and the murder.

Their findings were handed over to the lead prosecutor,

Leon Jaworski, but crucially, not to the defense.

My wife came across this amazing report

by General Cooke that was classified for 50 years.

And, in that big report, we were able to find

that the Army had every reason to know

that these Black soldiers pretty much didn't do

what they were being accused of.

And beyond that, the reasons the riot went on

had all been completely covered up by Leon Jaworski.

Jaworski was a guy who was determined

to get a victory, not necessarily justice.

He had convinced this military trial that Black soldiers

were upset about Italians because they were being given

no better rights than these former enemies,

these -- these prisoners of war.

[Prof. Mitchell] But there was more evidence of animosity

between white GIs and the Italians,

which boiled down to white Americans being

resentful of Italian soldiers dating local, white women.

They attracted the attention of a lot of the young ladies

in Seattle, many of whom's boyfriends

or husbands were overseas.

Italian Americans had been labeled "enemy aliens,"

facing internment camps, mass surveillance,

and a wave of discrimination.

Yet in some people's eyes,

the captured Italian soldiers here

were being treated far too well.

And it was a story really all across America

of an increasing resentment of, "Why are these Italians

being given so much freedom?"

The classified Cooke report proved Jaworski withheld

evidence of these tensions from the defense,

allowing him to present a one-sided story

of these Black American soldiers being guilty

beyond the shadow of a doubt, an incomplete account

that the all-white jury was all too willing to believe.

The report also revealed explosive new evidence

about who really murdered Olivotto.

In 1944, an Italian POW named Guglielmo Olivotto

was murdered during a riot at Fort Lawton.

An all-white jury convicted 28 Black soldiers of rioting

and two for the manslaughter of Olivotto.

But in 2002, while reinvestigating the case,

Jack Hamann and his wife uncovered classified documents

that revealed who actually killed Olivotto.

We suddenly realized who had the means,

the motive, and the opportunity.

One white MP in particular, by the name of Clyde Lomax,

the man we later learned was himself quite racist,

who disliked the Italians --

he was the one who came across the beginnings of the riot

who decided not to immediately intervene or call for help.

He was the one who disappeared when Olivotto was found missing.

And he was the one who found Olivotto

at 5 o'clock the next morning.

And the US Army has told us since

that if he were still alive,

they would have prosecuted him for Olivotto's murder.

Jack and his wife published their findings in 2005,

shedding new light on the mistrial

and scapegoating of all 30 Black American soldiers.

In 2007, the U.S. Army Review decided

to drop all of the charges.

[Prof. Mitchell] The Army also granted

honorable discharge to the men, but at the time of the ruling,

only two of the defendants were actually still alive.

I can't speak for the families except to say that some of them

were clearly and understandably overjoyed to know

that their husband or father or grandfather

had been exonerated from this.

But for many others, it was delayed justice.

And delayed justice is not the same as real justice.

[enigmatic music playing]

In the 1970s, most of Fort Lawton

was converted into a city park. For more than 30 years,

Seattleites enjoyed it with little idea

of the miscarriage of justice that took place here.

[Hamann] This is the story that belongs to these men

who were here young, away from home, trying to do

their duty in a time of war, and yet having

to have this giant injustice for their entire life.

In the heart of London,

on the banks of the River Thames,

stands a towering structure,

witness to the city's darkest days.

[Selwood] In an area of modern skyscrapers,

there's this 10-story Art Deco building.

It's imposing, striking, and looks entirely out of place.

[enigmatic music playing]

[Dr. Loh] It sits right on the waterfront,

and you can imagine that the river was crucial

to its original purpose.

But inside the vast edifice, there is little evidence

of what that purpose was.

It's like something out of a dystopian movie.

[Selwood] With these massive holes in the floor,

there are deadly consequences if you're not careful.

Once a vital lifeline for the city's population,

this complex became collateral damage during a brutal war.

[Dr. Nubia] But the greatest danger would not come from afar,

but right next door.

The catastrophe holds the record

for the largest single explosion in London.

[Rule] At one time, this was part of the Port of London,

which was the busiest and the most commercially

successful port probably in the entire world.

[intense music playing]

Fiona Rule has spent over a decade

studying this historic area known as Silvertown.

[Rule] Silvertown was part of the Port of London,

which was an enormous complex of enclosed docks,

warehouses, and factories

that lay along the banks of the Thames.

It would become the beating heart

of the capital city's trade and manufacturing.

But in the early 1800s,

this future seemed inconceivable.

The Docklands were a radical solution to the growing problem

of the Thames.

[Selwood] Goods and materials were flooding in

from every corner of the British Empire.

Ships were fighting for space.

The port of London was thrown into chaos.

Silvertown was uninhabited marshland

which many thought was impractical to develop.

But a visionary engineer named George Parker Bidder believed

it could be transformed into a dock capable of handling

hundreds of thousands of tons of shipping every year.

It would cost over $150 million in today's money.

Constructors began to dig deep to drain the marshland.

[Selwood] The new Victoria Dock. opened in 1855.

It became a hive of activity, providing thousands of jobs.

Over the next 50 years, many factories were built

and hundreds of thousands of workers flocked

to new neighborhoods created in the area.

Among them was the family that built this structure.

[Dr. Nubia] Vernon & Sons wanted to construct a building

that would be the perfect example of its kind.

In 1905, they opened Millennium Mills.

It was one of the largest bread flour factories in Europe.

When it was in operation, the grain would have been taken

right up to the top floor,

and then as it was being processed,

it would come down floor by floor.

[enigmatic music playing]

The mill was built using a revolutionary

construction material -- reinforced concrete.

Its strength and durability even under extreme temperatures

guarded against the dangers

of the mechanized flour-making process.

[Selwood] Because of the heat, friction, and very fine

particles of grain dust floating around in the air,

these mills were particularly susceptible to fires

and even violent explosions.

Despite the owners' best efforts, a tragic accident

would lay waste to Millennium Mills.

But it would not come from inside these walls.

[Dr. Nubia] At the beginning of World War I,

the Ministry of Munitions were looking for a place

where they could produce their munitions.

They identified a building just a few hundred yards away.

The former chemical factory began producing vast quantities

of TNT in the heart of Silvertown,

surrounded by thousands of homes and businesses.

It was a risky decision, but in the name

of the war effort, the Ministry pressed ahead anyway.

But this decision would soon backfire.

In 1917, the Millennium Mills flour factory

in London, Silvertown

was sitting beside a ticking time bomb.

During the First World War, the government had opened

a new munitions factory right next door.

[intense music playing]

A fire broke out detonating 50 tons of TNT.

[Dr. Loh] The blast could be felt right across London,

and the shock waves heard over 100 miles away.

[Rule] Burning debris was sent hurtling out of the factory,

and some of it landed on the mills,

and the mill was left to burn.

[melancholic music playing]

It was London's largest explosion on record.

The entire area and the mills lay in ruins.

[Dr. Nubia] The blast tragically killed

73 people and injured 400 more.

Thousands of people were left homeless.

Out of the ashes, Millennium Mills rebuilt

its operation bigger than ever, renovating

the entire structure.

But soon it would be caught in the crosshairs once more.

[Dr. Nubia] The mill had recovered from the Silvertown explosion,

but by the end of the 1930s, a new war was on the horizon.

The mills would soon fall victim to the devastating

new face of war -- the Blitz.

As German bombers reached London in 1940,

they set their sights on civilian targets,

and Millennium Mills and Victoria Dock

became prime targets.

On the 7th of September, 1940, the Millennium Mills

sustained heavy damage.

[intense music builds]

Despite the carnage caused by Hitler's Luftwaffe,

in 1953, the mill was rebuilt a second time

and they entered a period of prosperity and productivity.

[Selwood] However, the boom wouldn't last

and the next threat to Millennium Mills

came not as destruction, but replacement.

[Rule] The demise of the Port of London

can be summed up in one word, containerization.

Once these enormous ships started to be used,

they were simply too big to get down the Thames.

In 1993, the mills finally closed their doors

for the last time.

For many years, these towering structures remained abandoned

as the modern city grew around them.

But their haunting decay would soon find them

a place on the silver screen.

[soft music playing]

These ruins piqued the interest of some big names in Hollywood.

The derelict mills featured

in Stanley Kubrick's "Full Metal Jacket,"

"The Batman," and many other films.

Today, there are plans to transform them

into a hub of work and creative spaces,

surrounded by thousands of new homes.

In the rural town of Fillmore, Wisconsin,

is a compound with links to a national sensation.

[mysterious music playing]

We're in the beautiful Wisconsin countryside.

It's a small community, but a look at the graveyard

will tell you this place has deep roots.

[intense music playing]

By the main road,

a timber-framed structure appears to stand alone.

This building has almost a European look to it.

[Auerbach] This is the kind of architecture you'd see

in England or the German states in the 1600s,

but it's very rare in the United States.

[Meigs] You see the remains of a large cellar

behind the building.

The product that was made here would become

something of a sensation across the country.

[Gutierrez-Romine] But the changes it brought about

would shift the country's political landscape

into what we see today.

[mysterious music playing]

Retired history professor Michael Besch first visited

this unusual structure in 2019.

I came out here, looked at the place,

and I got drawn in.

He quickly realized there was more here

than initially meets the eye.

[Dr. Besch] It's become quite a journey.

We're discovering something every time we come here.

Many of the original buildings now lie in ruins,

but the central structure gave Michael

a clear indication of their roots.

[Dr. Besch] It's what we call a half-timbered construction.

So you've got timbers going crosswise

and then filled in the middle with bricks.

And then they also put stucco over the top.

It was erected by a man named Ernst Klessig.

He was part of a wave of immigrants

fleeing Europe for Wisconsin

after a series of failed revolutions in 1848.

[Meigs] In Germany, many residents believed

they would find better prospects if they could emigrate

to the United States.

[Zarsadiaz] In fact, from 1830 to around World War I,

about 90 percent of German immigrants

chose the US as their home.

[Meigs] The whole Upper Midwest became a land where you were

as likely to hear German in your local market as English.

Ernst quickly settled down in eastern Wisconsin

and started a family farm

in the image of his previous home.

In 1850, he married another German, Liberta Poetsch,

and they began building Saxonia House.

[mysterious music playing]

[Dr. Besch] This construction was common in the area

that the family came from, which is in Saxonia, in Germany.

But it was totally unique for this part of the country.

It was much more than just a family home.

The size of the structure reflects its function

as an inn, the local church, and a space capable

of hosting social gatherings.

At its heart was a product -- the driving force

behind the whole operation. Tucked away in the trees

are the remnants of this business.

[Dr. Besch] It was actually built

by hollowing out a hillside, building the archway

over the top, so it's a built cave.

This cave was part of a brewery Ernst constructed in 1860.

It would produce a drink completely new

to many across the US.

[Meigs] This was a beer produced at lower temperatures,

and it produced a lighter, crisper drink -- a lager.

If you look at some of the famous names

in American beer, like Pabst, Schlitz, Miller,

those companies got their start during this era.

[Gutierrez-Romine] At Saxonia House,

the Klessig's business was becoming

a considerable operation, and they had the capacity

to produce about 1,000 barrels a year.

Saxonia was a social hub, reflecting German traditions

with drinking and dancing.

But this lifestyle wasn't embraced by everyone.

And soon violence would erupt

as a wave of nativism swept the nation.

In the 1850s, Saxonia House in Wisconsin was operating

as a lager brewery and meeting hall,

a focal point for the German immigrant community

to drink, dance, and socialize.

But they faced a backlash from authorities

driven by the powerful Temperance Movement.

[Meigs] Lot of those people were suspicious

of these hardy immigrants getting together

and brewing this beer and enjoying

these oversized mugs of refreshing lager

on a Sunday afternoon.

This tension didn't just happen in Wisconsin,

but across the country as German taverns and beer

became more and more popular.

So-called nativist parties,

such as the Know Nothing Party, were gaining traction,

running on an anti-liquor, anti-immigration ticket.

[Meigs] They began to crack down on taverns, on beer-drinking,

and on this kind of culture in general.

In Chicago, in the summer of 1855,

tensions came to a head in what became known

as the Lager Beer Riot.

These riots were a response to increased licensing fees,

but also Sunday closure laws.

[tense music playing]

A protest by supporters of eight German saloon keepers,

who violated these laws sparked a brutal police crackdown

ordered by the nativist Mayor.

It resulted in one death and several dozen arrests.

These shocking events mobilized immigrant voters

across the Midwest.

Groups began to meet at places like Saxonia House

to discuss politics.

These German immigrant activists

were known as Forty-eighters,

inspired by the 1848 revolutions

that had swept across Europe.

[Zarsadiaz] Forty-eighters were known in Germany as people

who pushed for democracy and human rights.

So they found a natural home here in the US

in a growing political party.

They called themselves the Republican Party.

The party had formed in nearby Ripon, Wisconsin,

and the Forty-eighters, were at the heart

of its development.

[Dr. Besch] Their overriding idea was freedom,

self-expression, ability to pursue your own interests,

your own desires, your own business.

So those ideas would have been talked about here.

[Meigs] This Republican Party would become the driving force

to ending slavery, the conflicts over which,

of course, led to the Civil War. Through that period,

Saxonia House continued to operate as a tavern

because, of course, the Civil War didn't have

as much of a disruptive impact in regions like this.

Ernst Klessig died in 1864, and his wife took over

the running of the brewery with her new husband.

But by the early 1900s, the family moved on for good.

The building and farm changed hands

several times subsequently.

Eventually, it was left vacant

and began to fall into to disrepair.

In the late '90s, the Klessig family's descendants

held a reunion here.

The Friends of Saxonia House Group was created,

and they purchased this land in 1999.

[inspirational music playing]

[Gutierrez-Romine] In addition to the house,

there are plans to build and restore other buildings

on the property to make it a visitor's attraction.

And of course, there will be a beer hall.