All language subtitles for Mysteries.of.the.Abandoned.S13E07.1080p.WEB.h264-CBFM_track3_[eng]

[narrator]
One man's eccentric vision
in the jungles of Malaysia.

[Rose] Many of the
locals are convinced

that the site is haunted
and it's not really surprising

because this building
has seen a lot of action

and not all of it pleasant.

A pioneering palace in Chicago,

the largest of its kind
in the world.

It was IMAX
before they even invented IMAX.

And Nazi towers in Berlin,
defended to the bitter end

by the only fighters
left in town.

[muzzle blasts]

[Kerins] Let's call them
what they were --

they were child soldiers.

[enigmatic music playing]

[mysterious music playing]

In the German capital
is a rare survivor of a time

when the city resembled
a post-apocalyptic wasteland.

[mysterious music playing]

[Dr. Nusbacher]
We're in the center of Berlin,

and in a public park,

there is what appears to be
a hill, and as you get closer,

it has got a massive
old building

right in the middle of it.

[Dr. Landdeck]
It's got these two
really huge protrusions

that kind of look like castles,

but it's just a big,
hulking mass of concrete.

[Selwood] Once you get
inside, you realize

there is much more to this place
than is immediately visible

above the ground.

It seems to disappear
into the earth.

We are only getting
a fractional glimpse

at the size of it.

[Dr. Nusbacher]
You can see blasts, dings,

chunks that have been
ripped out of the concrete.

When the enemy
was at Berlin's doorstep,

this structure became
both a target and a lifeline.

[Selwood]
The city's inhabitants
came streaming in to what was

one of the last safe places
in the city.

These towers are the last thing
keeping Berlin alive.

But it wasn't soldiers
manning the tower.

It was women and children.

The kids got as young
as about 14 years old.

Yet they would rather die
than surrender.

This became the final holdout
in the last stand

of the Third Reich.

[enigmatic music playing]

[Kerins]
The first time I came in here,

I'd already built it up
in my head,

and even that didn't live up
in the slightest

to what we were actually seeing.

Athena Kerins works
for an organization

that has unearthed
hidden layers

of this structure.

The scale of this building
when it was still standing

is almost impossible
to comprehend.

For decades,

it sat as an inaccessible
hunk of concrete

on top of this park.

Surrounding it
were tales of rumors

from Berlin's darkest days
under the Nazi regime.

[Dr. Nusbacher]
Hermann Goering,

the commander of the Luftwaffe,

promised the people of Germany

that Berlin would
never be bombed.

But early
in the Second World War,

a mistake by a German pilot
started a chain reaction

that proved Goering wrong.

On the 24th of August, 1940,
a German bomber gets lost.

It accidentally drops
a rack of bombs onto London.

Revenge is swift.

British prime minister,
Winston Churchill,

immediately orders the
Royal Air Force to retaliate.

That first night, only 22 planes
actually made it to Berlin.

Most get lost in bad weather
and miss their targets.

The only damage inflicted
is to kill an elephant

at Berlin zoo.

Yet it proves British bombers
have the range to strike

the German capital.

It was enough
to break the illusion

that Berlin was safe,

and the vulnerability of Berlin
was exposed incredibly quickly.

[Dr. Nusbacher] And in order
to protect the city,

the Nazis build massive
anti-aircraft towers.

The German word
for anti-aircraft is

Fliegerabwehrkanone,
anti-aircraft cannons,

and that shortens to flak.

These were flak towers --
Flaktürme.

This is
the Humboldthain Flak Tower.

Its design reflects
Hitler's specific whim,

which he sketched
on a scrap of paper.

[enigmatic music playing]

[Kerins]
These towers were originally
meant to deter planes

from coming
near the center of the city,

and the idea that Hitler
had in his mind

was something
a bit like a medieval castle.

They take thousands of soldiers
and hundreds of POWs

to build these towers
in just less than six months.

Six stories high,
the four towers

were topped with flak guns
and anti-aircraft machine guns.

[Kerins] The dream was partially
to show the military might

of his empire,

but also to actually serve
a military purpose.

In late 1943, Allied bombers
shift their focus

from industrial districts
to civilian neighborhoods.

The flak tower
is called into action

on an almost daily basis.

[Selwood]
People may be more familiar
with the bombing of London,

known as the Blitz,

but in terms of numbers,
it doesn't compare

with the bombardment
of German cities.

Those people defending
this flak tower

witnessed 363 air raids
strike Berlin.

[Kerins] People who were in
this building during air raids

said that it kind of felt
like being at a ship at sea.

Even though it was a massive
concrete building secured

on an 84-meter sand bed,
still, it rocked with the guns.

As bombing intensified,
citizens sought refuge

from the Allied onslaught.

In addition to serving
as flak towers,

this is going to be
a perfect place

for an air raid shelter.

[Dr. Nusbacher] Slices
of Berlin life had to move

into
the Humboldthain Flak Tower.

There were children
who were going to school.

There were maternity hospitals.

It was the only safe place
in Berlin to give birth.

The Allies were tightening
the noose around Berlin,

so the Nazis shipped out
every soldier available

to the front lines.

[enigmatic music playing]

For every man
that they sent out,

they brought in
about eight children.

The way that they sold this
to the parents is they say,

"Here they'll be safe,

"they'll be
in a bomb-proof building,

"they'll still do
their 18 hours of school a week,

"but during the night they
will be heroes of the Reich,

they will be
defending our city."

The official title
of these children

who were working and fighting
here were the Luftwaffenhelfer,

the Air Force Helpers.

Let's call them
what they were --

they were child soldiers.

These kids were
about to come up against

an army thirsty for revenge.

[enigmatic music playing]

Berlin, April 1945.

Soviet troops are
the first of the Allied forces

to arrive
at the city's doorstep.

On the 16th,
they cross the Óder River.

The Battle of Berlin has begun.

[Dr. Nusbacher]
But the mass of Berlin's defense

was teenagers, old people,

women who'd been brought in
to fire anti-aircraft guns.

They were given
a hasty preparation,

handed a weapon, and being told,
"The Russians are coming.

Start shooting."

[Kerins] As the soviets
got even closer to the city,

many Berliners, many of whom
were already homeless,

started flooding
into the flak tower.

This building
that was originally designed

to only host about
15,000 civilians

regularly had up to 50,000.

The Humboldthain Flak Tower
was targeted

as a major obstacle
to Soviet advances

into the center of the city.

[Selwood] You can only imagine
the deafening sound of bombs

and artillery hitting the walls.

It must have felt
like the whole place

was gonna collapse in on you.

Despite a barrage of artillery,
the towers,

with their eight feet thick
reinforced concrete walls,

held firm.

But Berlin was
crumbling around them,

and Hitler saw
the writing on the wall.

[Dr. Nusbacher]
The Humboldthain

is not far from Hitler's bunker.

And when the news came
that Hitler had killed himself,

that the Führer was dead,
they lost the ability to cope.

[Kerins]
The Soviets were particularly
brutalized by Nazi ideology.

The men coming in here
did have revenge on their mind,

which also led
to large swaths of suicides,

particularly among
women and girls,

many of whom threw themselves
down the spiral staircase

instead of living in a world
where they had lost.

But their sons and brothers,
the young boys left behind,

refused to lay down their arms.

[Dr. Nusbacher]
Even after Hitler kills himself,

even after Berlin surrenders,

these towers
just keep on fighting.

They hold out for another day

after the city garrison
had surrendered.

But finally,

Soviet troops take the building
on May 3, 1945.

One of the few
structures remaining,

over 80% of the city,
has been leveled.

[mournful music playing]

[Dr. Landdeck]
After World War II,

Berlin was divided
into different sectors.

The French
are gonna control the sector

that has these flak towers.

Their attempt to demolish them
only partially succeeds,

leaving two
of the four towers standing.

And they rapidly determine

that they cannot realistically
destroy the flak tower

without destroying Berlin
around it.

So the French decide to bury it.

[Kerins] Berlin was
massively destroyed,

so rubble from across
the entire French sector

was piled up to make
a small mountain

atop of the building,
and that is what we see today.

At the time,
it was simply a pile of rubble,

but over the years,
it's become covered

with topsoil, with trees,
with bushes,

and now it is a beautiful park

with this massive relic
in the middle.

[enigmatic music playing]

For decades,

people wanted to forget
the horrors of the war,

and the tower's legacy
remained buried...

until the Berlin Underworlds
Association began digging.

A historical society found
an entranceway in the rubble,

and an entire subterranean
world opened up.

They began to lead the public
into these fated hallways

for the first time in 60 years.

[enigmatic music playing]

[mysterious music playing]

In a busy neighborhood
of North Chicago,

an ornate structure
stands out from the crowd.

[enigmatic music playing]

[Meigs] On one of these streets,
we see this massive facade

with the word "Uptown"
emblazoned on it.

[Gutierrez-Romine]
When you step into this place,

it's almost like you're being
transported into another world.

[Meares] There's grand columns

that are reaching
into the ceiling.

There's relief carvings
everywhere you look

and a sweeping staircase
in the lobby.

[Gutierrez-Romine]
There are thousands

of upholstered chairs
facing a grand stage.

This was a place to entertain.

Once the jewel
in the city's crown,

it was the largest of its kind
in the world.

[Gutierrez-Romine]
But a reckoning was coming

that would bring this party
to an end

and ultimately make way
for a new one.

[Meares]
One man saw the opportunity

to bring new life
into this building.

[Mickelson]
You walk into this place

and you can't help
but fall in love with it.

A new era saw the volume
cranked up to 11.

All the shows that played here
were top-notch performers

on their way up.

[enigmatic music playing]

[mysterious music playing]

David Syfczak
has been a custodian

of this historic building
for nearly 30 years.

But he first visited
as a young boy

in the late 1950s.

[Syfczak] We'd come see
the feature films
with my parents.

I would come here,
order my popcorn,

and through the windows here,
I could still watch the film.

[awe-inspiring music playing]

This was still the golden age
of Hollywood,

a time when the movie theater
was king.

[Meigs] In these days
before television,

movies played a huge role
in people's lives,

especially people
who lived in cities like this.

People were going to the movies
as much as three times a week,

and sometimes they would sit
through a double feature.

In this heyday of films,
lavish theaters were popping up

across the country.

And I'm of the age
where every theater

was a movie palace.

So I was under the impression

that every neighborhood
had one of these.

Little did I know how special
this building actually was.

This is the Uptown Theatre

[awe-inspiring music playing]

It opened in 1925
to great fanfare.

[Meares]
To mark the occasion,

the entire city turned out.

There were two whole weeks
of parades

and 12,000 people
were out on the streets.

[Meigs] This theater
had seating for 4,500 people,

making it the biggest
movie theater in the world

at the time it opened.

There were 131
full-time employees here.

[Meares] Not a single expense
was spared.

The lobby, for example,
was modeled

after the Palace of Versailles.

[Syfczak] So as you entered
the Grand Lobby here,

immediately your eyeballs
popped out at the opulence

of the theater.

[Meigs] The chandeliers alone
cost 30,000 dollars,

back in 1925
when it opened.

That would be something
like half a million today.

At one point,
there was even a Rembrandt

hanging on one of the walls.

[Syfczak]
The auditorium is so vast

that the screen was 60 by 30,

so it was IMAX
before they even invented IMAX.

The building as a whole
was designed to function

as a one-stop shop.

[Meigs]
This was built

for an urban pedestrian,
streetcar-riding population.

So they had amenities.
They had a nursery.

You could drop your kids off
and go see an afternoon matinee.

Can you imagine
people doing that today?

[laughing]
It's just inconceivable.

For decades,
the Uptown Theatre thrived

and was at the heart
of the local community.

[enigmatic music playing]

But the popularity
of home television sets

in the 1950s was compounded
by dramatic changes

to theater building.

The priority was now
on quantity, not quality.

[Meigs] It was hard
for them to compete

with a multiplex built out
by the interstate somewhere

that might have eight
or 12 screens.

This shift in moviegoing
made these really lavish places

like the Uptown
completely obsolete.

But one young entrepreneur
saw an opportunity

in its fading grandeur...

and would breathe it new life.

Some of the biggest names
in entertainment

have stood on that stage.

[awe-inspiring music playing]

In 1975, Jerry Mickelson,

the current owner
and music promoter,

discovered
Chicago's Uptown Movie Theatre.

Though largely unused,
its original grandeur

still shone through.

You walk into this place,

you can't help
but fall in love with it.

The lobby is spectacular.

I got married in the lobby.

Jerry was searching
for a theater

that could host top bands
and rock concerts

without the restrictions
he encountered

in the center of Chicago.

[Mickelson] Originally,
we started downtown

at some beautiful old theaters,

but the old theaters
became very restrictive

with who they would let in
to play at their venues.

[Meigs] Chicago had
a lot of rules.

The stagehands
had to belong to the union.

The police were keeping an eye
on illicit activity.

There were noise ordinances.

[Mickelson] When Bob Marley
came into a downtown theater,

the people
that owned the theater went nuts

because as soon as he walked in,
there's smoke and ganja.

We got hassled all day long.
He got hassled.

[Gutierrez-Romine]
But here in Uptown,
it was a little bit more free,

maybe a little bit more
like the Wild West.

You could get away
with a lot more here.

Free of all the rules
and restrictions,

the Uptown was a perfect fit
for famous musicians

and raucous concerts.

So Jerry leased
this grand old lady

from its owners.

On October 31st, 1975,

we presented
our first concert here

with Fee Waybill and The Tubes.

[Meigs] And it was perfect
for a rock and roll band.

You would have
the green room in back.

You'd have space for the band
and the various hangers-on.

[Mickelson] The band certainly
wanted to play here

because there weren't
restrictions that stopped them

from really putting on
their very best show,

and the fans loved coming here

just to take in the beauty
of the Theatre,

but also the fact that they were
really so close to the stage,

no matter where you are.

The sight lines, you know,

sitting anywhere in this theater
is really spectacular.

The acoustics are perfect.

[drums playing]

[Meigs]
So the Uptown Theatre became

one of the go-to destinations

for the top bands
of the day.

[Meares] There's Grateful Dead
stickers on the back of seats.

There's an ode
to Bruce Springsteen

that's written
on the women's bathroom stall.

[Mickelson] Seeing Springsteen
was always great here.

The Grateful Dead,
Bob Marley, Frank Zappa.

I mean, all the shows
that played here

were top-notch performers
on their way up.

But the owners weren't living
up to their end of the bargain.

[Gutierrez-Romine]
They extracted every penny
that they could,

but they never reinvested it
back into the Theatre,

and for a place like Uptown,

that really was
its death sentence.

[Mickelson]
December 19th, 1981,

boy, I had to buy the oil
to heat the theatre

'cause the owners
couldn't afford to do it.

And the bathrooms
were barely functioning

on the day of the show,
and they decided to close it.

[Meigs] The Theatre
changed hands again,

and the next owner
really was just buying it

as a salvage opportunity.

They stripped out the plumbing
and the fixtures,

and they sold everything off
that they could.

In the mid-1990s,

David and a friend got involved
in trying to save the building

from its slumlord owners.

[Syfczak] Unfortunately,
they failed

and neglected to
heat the building.

Where all these drain lines
transitioned through the roof,

they froze, they burst.

Consequently,
you had all that water

cascading through the building.

That was kind of heartbreaking

to see the condition
the building was in.

This lobby was full
of nothing but junk.

[sad music playing]

While David managed
to keep the building alive,

an old face eventually returned
with a plan to restore it

to its former glory.

[enigmatic music playing]

[Mickelson] I couldn't afford
to buy it in 1981.

It wasn't until 2008

that I finally put
all the pieces together

to make this work
and immediately started

to put money into it
to preserve it.

[enigmatic music playing]

The three original chandeliers
were salvaged

and are being kept in storage.

By court order,
they'll be refitted

when the theatre's
restoration work

is 85% complete.

With plans to bring rock bands
back to its stage,

David is waiting
with bated breath

for opening night.

[Syfczak] I've been here
since 1996

trying to save this building
and working on keeping it alive

and maintaining it.

Hopefully I'm in the front row
and I'm gonna rent a tuxedo

and I'm gonna pop
a bottle of champagne and...

hopefully we're gonna get there
in my lifetime.

[hopeful music playing]

[mysterious music playing]

In the Malaysian state of Perak

sits a majestic ruin plagued
by the ghosts of its past.

[mysterious music playing]

[birds chirping]

[Rose] This region
is hot and it's humid

and it's covered in rain forest.

So when you see
this grand building

sitting in the middle of it all,
it's a surprise.

[Bell] At first glance,
it feels like the kind of castle

you might expect to see
in the Scottish Highlands.

So what's it doing here
in Malaysia?

[Rose] It's a strange blend
of architecture.

You have Scottish and Moorish
and Italian influences.

[Bell] Some areas seem to be
in pretty good condition,

especially from the outside,

but then there are other parts

that look like they've been
completely destroyed.

One thing we can say for certain

is this doesn't look like
a stronghold built for defense.

The inside, although bare,

feels like it could've been
someone's home.

This site holds a tale
of one man's ambition,

which rode a wave
of colonial expansion.

[Dr. Loh] He arrived
with a humble dream

which could only be realized

because of the might
of the British Empire.

[Bell] It's a story that changed
the course of history,

and it begins with a theft.

[mysterious music playing]

In the jungles of Malaysia,

legend has it that this place
is haunted.

Local resident Hakim
is a believer.

[Muhaimin speaking in Malay]

[translator]
When I first came here,

I felt that there was
something here,

something that was watching me
from afar.

I felt eyes on me.

[Hakim speaking in Malay]

[mysterious music playing]

The ghost stories
that surround this building

are born
out of its turbulent past.

[Bell] There's a good
reason this grand residence

looks like it could be
a Scottish castle,

and that's because Scotland
is where its story begins,

with a man named
William Smith.

[piobaireachd music playing]

William Kellie Smith
was born in 1870

to relative poverty.

At the age of 20, he decided
to seek his fortune

on the other side of the world,

in the British colony
of Malaya,

today known as Malaysia.

[Rose] This was an era
when Europe was claiming

overseas properties
for their own, and they did it

with little regard
to the native people.

[Dr. Loh] By the time
William Smith

arrived in the colony

it was well established
and right foot exploitation.

Smith embarked on survey work
as a civil engineer

for a massive
road building program.

With little competition,
he quickly earned enough money

to buy a plot of land.

[Rose] And Smith purchased
a thousand acres of land

where the house sits today,

but he didn't yet have
the funds to build it.

All he had for years was
a small wooden bungalow.

[Bell] He tried his luck
at a few other businesses,

which all failed.

But with his next
venture, marriage,

it hit the jackpot.

In 1903, he met
25-year-old Agnes,

a wealthy heiress to a Liverpool
cotton merchant family.

After a whirlwind romance,
they married,

and Smith came into
300,000 dollars

of Agnes's inheritance money.

This was a vast fortune,

the equivalent to around
10 million dollars today.

[Hakim speaking in Malay]

[translator]
Based on what I understand
about Mr. William,

he was very protective
of his family.

Also, he would do anything

for the comfort of
his wife and children.

[Hakim speaking in Malay]

Agnes hates
the wooden bungalows,

so William starts work
on a brick house.

It was complete by 1910
and was the beginning

of what would become
Kellie's Castle.

[enigmatic music fading]

Smith continued
to frivolously invest

his wife's inheritance

into his many
failing businesses.

Among them a coffee plantation,
sawmill, and dredging company.

But with one venture,
he would strike it lucky.

[triumphant music playing]

[Bell] Smith had previously
started a rubber plantation,

and now, with the extra funds,
he could expand it,

and soon, he had the largest
in the Batu Gajah area.

What's fascinating
about rubber,

and you might not think
there's much,

is how rubber trees
got to Malaya

in the first place.

It's a story that began
with a theft.

[Dr. Loh] Rubber trees are
native to the Amazon,

and they didn't grow
anywhere else.

Brazil, for many years,
had a complete world monopoly.

[Bell] The British
weren't happy about this,

and they started to try
and smuggle seeds

out of the country.

But every attempt failed,

as the seeds turned rancid
before they got back to England.

But in 1876,
a man named Henry Wickham

successfully transported
70,000 seeds back to London

using banana skins.

[Bell] Once there,

the botanists successfully
germinated the seeds,

which were then sent out
to the colonies

that had the right climate
for them to thrive.

Malaya was by far
the most productive.

[enigmatic music playing]

[Rose] This, coupled
with the huge demand

from the US automobile industry
in the 1900s,

created a massive boom
in the rubber trade.

Rubber was suddenly like gold,

and money
from Smith's plantation

was pouring in.

He began expanding
his brick house

into the home
he'd always dreamed of.

[enigmatic music playing]

[Bell] Work started in 1915,

and William was desperate
to make a statement to show

that he was part
of the colonial elite in Malaya.

And in the Victorian era,
to do that,

you needed a castle estate,

and William wanted his
to be the biggest.

[enigmatic music playing]

[Dr. Loh]
Kellie's Castle was designed
to incorporate Scottish,

Moorish and Indian
architectural elements,

features which you
can still see today.

Ornate garages were packed full
of the latest motor cars.

Elaborate dining rooms
welcomed guests

and hosted lavish
dinner parties,

all maintained
by an army of servants.

[Rose] The plan included
14 rooms,

an indoor tennis court,
a rooftop courtyard,

a cellar, stables,
and a six-story tower

that would house
Malaya's first elevator.

[Hakim speaking in Malay]

[translator] So at the time,

to build such a mansion
in Malaya

was a grand
and novel thing.

It became such a marvel
to people around here.

It invoked that feeling of wow.

[Hakim speaking in Malay]

[enigmatic music playing]

More than 70 craftsmen
from India were brought over

to work on the castle.

But this workforce

would soon be decimated
by a global pandemic,

which would rip through
the region.

[music fading]

In 1915, William Kellie Smith

began work on his dream castle
in Malaysia

then the British colony
of Malaya.

Construction
was brought to a halt

during World War I.

And just as the conflict ended
in 1918, tragedy struck.

[Rose] In November,
a Spanish flu epidemic

passed through Malaya,
killing 35,000 people,

many of them Williams'
Indian workers.

Construction
eventually got underway again,

but Smith wouldn't live
to see his castle completed.

[Dr. Loh] He went to Europe
to visit his wife Agnes

and their son Anthony,

who was attending
boarding school there.

[Bell] As part of the trip,
William went to Lisbon

with the intention of picking up
his new elevator.

But while he was there,
he caught pneumonia

and died at the age of 56.

[Rose] Agnes was said to be
so heartbroken

that she never
returned to Malaya.

She sold the estate,

and Kellie's Castle
was never completed,

and it didn't take long
for the jungle

to take hold once again.

[sad music playing]

[enigmatic music playing]

In 2000,
the Malaysian government

restored the dilapidated
old estate

with the hopes
that it would draw in tourists,

and it does.

[Dr. Loh] But one
of its main draws appears to be

the many ghost stories
that surround this place.

Many visitors claim to feel
a strange presence here.

[enigmatic music playing]

[Bell] Some say it's
the Indian workers that died

because of the Spanish flu.

Others think it's
the restless spirit

of William Kellie Smith

prowling the floors
of his unfinished mansion.

Perhaps he just doesn't want
strangers walking around

in his home.

[enigmatic music playing]

[mysterious music playing]

On the waters
of San Francisco Bay

is a facility that
from great tragedy

became the toast of a nation.

[mysterious music playing]

[Rose]
So we're on this peninsula
jutting out into the bay

with rolling tree-covered hills
sloping down to the water.

[Pedrick] You see these
sprawling remains,

but it's hard to get a sense
of what their purpose

might've been.

And there's this vast
red brick building

with towers and crenellations.
It's like a castle.

This doesn't feel
like somewhere

that was actually used
for fortifications.

The sheer size of the site
suggests that whatever happened

took place
on a super-sized scale.

[Zarsadiaz]
There are these vast rooms
with rows and rows of columns

stretching out
into the distance.

Other areas are
clearly being used for storage.

There's old cars and furniture
and boxes on shelves.

Just when you think that this
was a civilian facility,

you start to see
military rations and stretchers.

This complex
was the brainchild of a man

who wanted to revolutionize
an industry at a time

when San Francisco
was reduced to smoking rubble.

It was a massive investment,
a technical feat, really.

[Rose] But all of his efforts
would be undone

by a radical national reform.

Overnight, he goes
from entrepreneur to criminal.

[enigmatic music playing]

Frances Dinkelspiel
is an author and journalist

who has written extensively

about the industry
that made all this possible.

[Dinkelspiel]
I was working on a story
for "The New York Times."

There was a controversy
about the space

and how it would be used,

and I was absolutely
flabbergasted when I arrived.

It looked like
an old medieval castle.

This majestic structure
has less to do with royalty

and more to do
with a national indulgence.

[Pedrick] In the 1890s,

the California wine industry
was a mess.

Prices had been driven so low
that winemakers and growers

were barely breaking even.

People sort of thought
of California wines as cheap,

not that reliable,
kind of tasted funky at times.

One man would start a movement

to transform California's
dwindling wine industry

and its reputation.

[Rose] It was led
by a rather unlikely figure,

an accountant from England,

who didn't seem to know
anything about wine.

His name was Percy Morgan.

[Zarsadiaz] What he lacked
in wine knowledge,

he made up for it
in business smarts.

At the time, San Francisco

was the beating heart
of the industry

due to its cool climate.

Grapes from across the state
were crushed

and sent to wine houses
in the city,

where they would be stored
in large barrels to age.

And these wine houses
were all in fierce competition.

[Dinkelspiel] Percy Morgan
came up with an idea

to create sort of
a mega corporation,

and so in 1894,
he brought together

seven wine houses
in San Francisco,

and they created
the California Wine Association.

Also known as the CWA,
they now had

almost total control
of the state's industry.

But an epic disaster threatened
to derail their progress.

April 18th, 1906...

a massive
7.9 magnitude earthquake

hit San Francisco.

While the quake
lasts less than a minute,

it ignites several fires
across the city,

which burn for three days.

More than 3,000 people died

and 80% of the city
is destroyed.

Among the rubble are a number
of vital buildings owned

by the
California Wine Association.

Out of nearly 30, only three

of the city's commercial
wine establishments survive.

[Pedrick] Around
10 million gallons of their wine

was said to've been destroyed
in the earthquake

and the fires that followed.

[Rose] It looks
as if the state's wine industry

has been destroyed
beyond all repair.

But out of the ashes
of this tragedy,

Percy Morgan sees
another opportunity.

[Dinkelspiel]
Percy Morgan said,

"I'm not rebuilding
all these plants.

I wanna create
one master winemaking facility."

[Rose] He believed
that if the CWA could rebuild

in one big complex,
it would be more efficient,

and they could dominate
the industry.

[Dinkelspiel] And so the CWA

purchased 46 acres
in Point Molate

across the bay in San Francisco
to construct Winehaven.

Built in 1907,
one year after the fire,

Winehaven was
a state-of-the-art facility.

[Dinkelspiel] You can't help
but be impressed
at this building.

It cost about 6 million dollars
to construct.

It was the largest winery
in the world.

Could store
10 million gallons of wine.

Its enormous size
was complemented

by its location,
strategically chosen

for maximum impact.

[enigmatic music playing]

Morgan had been really smart

in where he chose
to build Winehaven.

[Rose] When the Panama Canal
opened in 1914,

the shipping lanes led
right past Winehaven,

and suddenly,
almost the entire world

is within reach of the CWA.

[Dinkelspiel] Winehaven was
really a city-state.

Not only were, you know,
grapes brought here,

crushed here, stored here,
Winehaven made its own casks,

importing wood from Louisiana,
for example.

It had its own bottling plant.

A workforce
of skilled laborers

hailing from Italy and beyond

swelled to 400 people
during the harvest.

The company made sure
there was everything for staff,

including housing,
a post office, and a school.

[enigmatic music playing]

[Pedrick] But there was
a wave of change coming,

one that would transform
the United States

and threaten Winehaven's
very existence.

[hammers pounding]

Constructed in 1907,

Winehaven was
the biggest winery

in the world.

But little more
than a decade later,

radical reform brought it
to its knees.

At the stroke of midnight
on January 17, 1920,

the country goes dry

when Prohibition is enforced
across the nation.

This is the death knell
for Winehaven.

The workers at Winehaven
held a last lunch

probably here
on the loading dock.

They had been here
for more than a decade,

producing some
of the greatest wine

in the world,
and all of a sudden,

in the United States,
wine was mostly prohibited.

That was the end of production
of wine in Winehaven.

[Zarsadiaz] Percy Morgan,

the man who did everything
to make

the California Wine Association
successful...

was inconsolable.

[Dinkelspiel] Here he was,
an upstanding citizen,

one of the most respected
business people in California,

and all of a sudden,
a law declared

that he was morally corrupt.

[Pedrick] On the morning
of April 16, 1920,

still in his pajamas,

Morgan walked into the library
of his home and shot himself.

[Rose] After Winehaven
was shut down,

its warehouses
were still full of wine

that they hadn't
been able to sell.

[Dinkelspiel] So, stories are

that they dumped
a lot of this wine

right here into the bay,
and that days afterwards,

it was really easy
to catch fish,

who were so drunken
from the wine

that they just
sort of laid there.

[Rose]
The California Wine Association

sells off its assets
to avoid bankruptcy,

and this giant facility
is mothballed.

Despite Prohibition
ending in 1933,

it was only when
the nation was at war

that the building was
utilized once more.

[somber music playing]

After the surprise Japanese
attack at Pearl Harbor,

the United States
is drawn into World War II,

and Winehaven
is given a new lease on life.

[Dinkelspiel] The U.S. Navy
bought the property,

and they turned it
into a fuel storage facility

for the Pacific Fleet.

When the war ends,

the Navy continues
to operate the site,

adapting the cellars
against a new national threat

during the height
of the Cold War.

[Dinkelspiel] In the bowels
of this property,

the Navy set up a bomb shelter,

the remnants of which
you can still see today.

They have drinking water,
they have cots,

they have commodes.

They have all the things
you might need

if you had to hide out
from radiation

for an extended period of time.

Finally, in 1995,
the site was decommissioned.

[enigmatic music playing]

After the Navy withdrew
from Winehaven,

it became the property
of the city of Richmond.

[Pedrick] There've been
various proposals

of things to do
with the site, aaah --

At one point, there was an idea

of turning it
into a casino complex,

but nothing
ever really panned out.

And now the question remains,

will Winehaven
ever return to its roots?

[Dinkelspiel] In the last
five to ten years,

there was a winemaker
who was making wine

at Winehaven,
which was really exciting,

but nowadays it's mostly used
as a storage facility.

[Pedrick]
But if you look closely,

you can see that some
of these massive warehouses

are being used to store wine
once again.

[enigmatic music playing]