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00:01One man's eccentric vision in the jungles of Malaysia.
00:05Many of the locals are convinced that this site is haunted,
00:08and it's not really surprising because this building has seen a lot of action
00:12and not all of it pleasant.
00:15A pioneering palace in Chicago, the largest of its kind in the world.
00:22It was IMAX before they even invented IMAX.
00:25And Nazi towers in Berlin, defended to the bitter end by the only fighters left in town.
00:33Let's call them what they were. They were child soldiers.
00:46In the German capital is a rare survivor of a time when the city resembled a post-apocalyptic wasteland.
01:00We're in the center of Berlin, and in a public park, there is what appears to be a hill,
01:09and as you get closer, it has got a massive old building right in the middle of it.
01:17It's got these two really huge protrusions that kind of look like castles,
01:22but it's just a big, hulking mess of concrete.
01:27Once you get inside, you realize there is much more to this place
01:31than is immediately visible above the ground.
01:35It seems to disappear into the earth.
01:39We are only getting a fractional glimpse at the size of it.
01:49When the enemy was at Berlin's doorstep, this structure became both a target and a lifeline.
01:57The city's inhabitants came streaming in to what was one of the last safe places in the city.
02:04These towers are the last thing keeping Berlin alive.
02:12But it wasn't soldiers manning the tower. It was women and children.
02:17The kids got as young as about 14 years old.
02:20Yet they would rather die than surrender.
02:23This became the final holdout in the last stand of the Third Reich.
02:37The first time I came in here, I had already built it up in my head.
02:41And even that didn't live up in the slightest to what we were actually seeing.
02:46Athena Karens works for an organization that has unearthed hidden layers of this structure.
02:53The scale of this building when it was still standing is almost impossible to comprehend.
02:57For decades, it sat as an inaccessible hunk of concrete on top of this park.
03:05Surrounding it were tales of rumors from Berlin's darkest days under the Nazi regime.
03:13Hermann Göring, the commander of the Luftwaffe, promised the people of Germany that Berlin would never be bombed.
03:25But early in the Second World War, a mistake by a German pilot started a chain reaction that proved Göring
03:34wrong.
03:35On the 24th of August, 1940, a German bomber gets lost.
03:42It accidentally drops a rack of bombs onto London.
03:55That first night, only 22 planes actually made it to Berlin.
04:01Most get lost in bad weather and miss their targets.
04:05The only damage inflicted is to kill an elephant at Berlin Zoo.
04:09Yet it proves British bombers have the range to strike the German capital.
04:16It was enough to break the illusion that Berlin was safe.
04:20And the vulnerability of Berlin was exposed incredibly quickly.
04:24And in order to protect the city, the Nazis build massive anti-aircraft towers.
04:34The German word for anti-aircraft is Fliegerabwehrkanone, anti-aircraft cannons.
04:42And that shortens to flak.
04:45These were flak towers, flak torme.
05:04These towers were originally meant to deter planes from coming near the center of the city.
05:10And the idea that Hitler had in his mind was something a bit like a medieval castle.
05:15They take thousands of soldiers and hundreds of POWs to build these towers in just less than six months.
05:26Six stories high, the four towers were topped with flak guns and anti-aircraft machine guns.
05:34The dream was partially to show the military might of his empire, but also to actually serve a military purpose.
05:42In late 1943, Allied bombers shift their focus from industrial districts to civilian neighborhoods.
05:52The flak tower is called into action on an almost daily basis.
05:58People may be more familiar with the bombing of London, known as the Blitz.
06:02But in terms of numbers, it doesn't compare with the bombardment of German cities.
06:08Those people defending this flak tower witnessed 363 air raids strike Berlin.
06:16People who were in this building during air raids said that it kind of felt like being at a ship
06:20at sea.
06:21Even though it was a massive concrete building secured on an 84-meter sand bed, still it rocked with the
06:29guns.
06:30As bombing intensified, citizens sought refuge from the Allied onslaught.
06:36In addition to serving as flak towers, this is going to be a perfect place for an air raid shelter.
06:44Slices of Berlin life had to move into the Humboldt-Hein flak tower.
06:50There were children who were going to school.
06:54There were maternity hospitals.
06:56That was the only safe place in Berlin to give birth.
07:01The Allies were tightening the noose around Berlin.
07:05So the Nazis shipped out every soldier available to the front lines.
07:12For every man that they sent out, they brought in about eight children.
07:15The way that they sold this to the parents is they say,
07:18here they'll be safe, they'll be in a bomb-proof building,
07:21they'll still do their 18 hours of school a week,
07:23but during the night, they will be heroes of the Reich.
07:26They will be defending our city.
07:27The official title of these children who were working and fighting here
07:32were the Luftwaffehilfen, the Air Force Helpers.
07:36Let's call them what they were.
07:37They were child soldiers.
07:39These kids were about to come up against an army, thirsty for revenge.
07:50Berlin, April 1945.
07:54Soviet troops are the first of the Allied forces
07:57to arrive at the city's doorstep.
08:00On the 16th, they cross the Oder River.
08:04The Battle of Berlin has begun.
08:08But the mass of Berlin's defence was teenagers, old people,
08:15women who'd been brought in to fire anti-aircraft guns.
08:19They were given a hasty preparation,
08:22handed a weapon, and being told,
08:24the Russians are coming, start shooting.
08:30As the Soviets got even closer to the city,
08:33many Berliners, many of whom were already homeless,
08:35started flooding into the Flak Tower.
08:37This building that was originally designed
08:40to only host about 15,000 civilians
08:42regularly had up to 50,000.
08:46The Humboldtine Flak Tower was targeted
08:49as a major obstacle to Soviet advances
08:52into the centre of the city.
08:54You can only imagine the deafening sound
08:57of bombs and artillery hitting the walls.
09:00It must have felt like the whole place
09:02was going to collapse in on you.
09:06Despite a barrage of artillery,
09:08the towers, with their eight-feet-thick
09:11reinforced concrete walls, held firm.
09:15But Berlin was crumbling around them,
09:18and Hitler saw the writing on the wall.
09:21The Humboldtine is not far from Hitler's bunker.
09:25And when the news came that Hitler had killed himself,
09:29that the Führer was dead,
09:32they lost the ability to cope.
09:36The Soviets were particularly brutalised
09:38by Nazi ideology.
09:40The men coming in here did have revenge on their mind.
09:44Which also led to large swaths of suicides,
09:47particularly among women and girls,
09:49many of whom threw themselves down the spiral staircase
09:52instead of living in a world where they had lost.
09:56But their sons and brothers,
09:59the young boys left behind,
10:01refused to lay down their arms.
10:15They hold out for another day after the city garrison had surrendered.
10:20But finally, Soviet troops take the building on May 3rd, 1945.
10:26One of the few structures remaining,
10:29over 80% of the city,
10:31has been levelled.
10:35After World War II, Berlin was divided into different sectors.
10:39The French are going to control the sector that has these flak towers.
10:43Their attempt to demolish them only partially succeeds,
10:48leaving two of the four towers standing.
10:52And they rapidly determine
10:54that they cannot realistically destroy the flak tower
10:59without destroying Berlin around it.
11:03So the French decide to bury it.
11:07Berlin was massively destroyed,
11:10so rubble from across the entire French sector
11:12was piled up to make a small mountain
11:15atop of the building.
11:16And that is what we see today.
11:18At the time, it was simply a pile of rubble,
11:20but over the years,
11:21it's become covered with topsoil,
11:23with trees, with bushes,
11:24and now it is a beautiful park
11:26with this massive relic in the middle.
11:33For decades,
11:35people wanted to forget the horrors of the war,
11:38and the tower's legacy remained buried,
11:40until the Berlin Underworlds Association began digging.
11:46A historical society found an entranceway in the rubble,
11:50and an entire subterranean world opened up.
11:54They began to lead the public
11:56into these fated hallways
11:58for the first time in 60 years.
12:08In a busy neighborhood of North Chicago,
12:12an ornate structure stands out from the crowd.
12:20On one of these streets,
12:22we see this massive facade
12:24with the word uptown emblazoned on it.
12:28When you step into this place,
12:29it's almost like you're being transported
12:31into another world.
12:34There's grand columns
12:35that are reaching into the ceiling.
12:37There's relief carvings everywhere you look
12:40in a sweeping staircase in the lobby.
12:43There are thousands of upholstered chairs
12:45facing a grand stage.
12:47This was a place to entertain.
12:50Once the jewel in the city's crown,
12:52it was the largest of its kind in the world.
12:56But a reckoning was coming
12:58that would bring this party to an end,
13:01and ultimately make way for a new one.
13:04One man saw the opportunity
13:06to bring new life into this building.
13:09You walk into this place,
13:10and you can't help but fall in love with it.
13:13A new era saw the volume cranked up to 11.
13:18All the shows that played here
13:19were top-notch performers on their way up.
13:29David Sivchik has been a custodian
13:31of this historic building
13:32for nearly 30 years.
13:35But he first visited as a young boy
13:38in the late 1950s.
13:42We'd come see the feature films
13:44with my parents.
13:46I would come here, order my popcorn,
13:49and through the windows here,
13:50I could still watch the film.
13:53This was still the golden age of Hollywood,
13:57a time when the movie theater was king.
14:01In these days before television,
14:04movies played a huge role in people's lives,
14:07especially people who lived in cities like this.
14:09People were going to the movies
14:10as much as three times a week,
14:12and sometimes they would sit
14:13through a double feature.
14:15In this heyday of films,
14:17lavish theaters were popping up
14:19across the country.
14:21And I'm of the age where
14:23every theater was a movie palace,
14:25so I was under the impression
14:27that every neighborhood had one of these.
14:30Little did I know how special
14:31this building actually was.
14:34This is the Uptown Theater.
14:39It opened in 1925 to great fanfare.
14:44To mark the occasion,
14:45the entire city turned out.
14:47There were two whole weeks of parades,
14:49and 12,000 people were out on the streets.
14:53This theater had seating for 4,500 people,
14:57making it the biggest movie theater in the world
14:59at the time it opened.
15:01There were 131 full-time employees here.
15:05Not a single expense was spared.
15:07The lobby, for example,
15:09was modeled after the Palace of Versailles.
15:12So as you entered the grand lobby here,
15:14immediately your eyeballs popped out
15:16at the opulence of the theater.
15:19The chandeliers alone cost $30,000
15:22back in 1925 when it opened.
15:25That would be something like half a million today.
15:28At one point, there was even a Rembrandt
15:31hanging on one of the walls.
15:32The auditorium is so vast
15:34that the screen was 60 by 30.
15:36So it was IMAX before they even invented IMAX.
15:39The building as a whole
15:41was designed to function as a one-stop shop.
15:45This was built for an urban,
15:49pedestrian, streetcar-riding population.
15:52So they had amenities.
15:54They had a nursery.
15:54You could drop your kids off
15:56and go see an afternoon matinee.
15:59Can you imagine people doing that today?
16:01It's just inconceivable.
16:04For decades, the Uptown Theater thrived
16:07and was at the heart of the local community.
16:11But the popularity of home television sets
16:14in the 1950s was compounded
16:17by dramatic changes to theater building.
16:20The priority was now on quantity,
16:23not quality.
16:24It was hard for them to compete
16:27with a multiplex built out
16:29by the interstate somewhere
16:30that might have eight or 12 screens.
16:33This shift in moviegoing
16:36made these really lavish places
16:38like the Uptown completely obsolete.
16:42But one young entrepreneur
16:44saw an opportunity in its fading grandeur
16:47and would breathe it new life.
16:50Some of the biggest names in entertainment
16:53have stood on that stage.
17:02In 1975, Jerry Mickelson,
17:05the current owner and music promoter,
17:08discovered Chicago's Uptown Movie Theater.
17:11Though largely unused,
17:13its original grandeur still shone through.
17:17You walk into this place
17:19and you can't help but fall in love with it.
17:21The lobby is spectacular.
17:23I got married in the lobby.
17:26Jerry was searching for a theater
17:28that could host top bands and rock concerts
17:31without the restrictions he encountered
17:33in the center of Chicago.
17:36Originally, we started downtown
17:38at some beautiful old theaters,
17:40but the old theaters became very restrictive
17:42with who they would let in to play at their venues.
17:47Chicago had a lot of rules.
17:49The stagehands had to belong to the union.
17:51The police were keeping an eye on illicit activity.
17:55There were noise ordinances.
17:57When Bob Marley came into a downtown theater,
18:00the people that owned the theater went nuts
18:02because as soon as he walked in,
18:04they're smoking ganja.
18:05We got hassled all day long.
18:06He got hassled.
18:08But here in Uptown,
18:10it was a little bit more free,
18:12maybe a little bit more like the Wild West.
18:14You could get away with a lot more here.
18:18Free of all the rules and restrictions,
18:20the Uptown was a perfect fit
18:22for famous musicians and raucous concerts.
18:25So Jerry leased this grand old lady from its owners.
18:30On October 31st, 1975,
18:33we presented our first concert here
18:35with Phi Wei, Bill, and the Tubes.
18:38And it was perfect for a rock and roll band.
18:41You would have the green room in back.
18:44You would have space for the band
18:45and the various hangers on.
18:47The band certainly wanted to play here
18:50because there weren't restrictions
18:51that stopped them from really putting on
18:54their very best show.
18:55And the fans loved coming here
18:57just to take in the beauty of the theater,
18:59but also the fact that they were really so close
19:02to the stage, no matter where you are.
19:05The sight lines, you know,
19:07sitting anywhere in this theater
19:08is really spectacular.
19:10The acoustics are perfect.
19:13So the Uptown Theater
19:14became one of the go-to destinations
19:16for the top bands of the day.
19:20There's Grateful Dead stickers on the back of seats.
19:23There's an ode to Bruce Springsteen
19:25that's written on the women's bathroom stall.
19:29Seeing Springsteen was always great here.
19:32The Grateful Dead, Bob Marley, Frank Zappa.
19:35I mean, all the shows that played here
19:37were top-notch performers on their way up.
19:40But the owners weren't living up
19:42to their end of the bargain.
19:45They extracted every penny that they could,
19:47but they never reinvested it back into the theater.
19:50And for a place like Uptown,
19:52that really was its death sentence.
19:55December 19th, 1981,
19:57before I had to buy the oil to heat the theater
19:59because the owners couldn't afford to do it,
20:01and the bathrooms were barely functioning
20:03on the day of the show,
20:05and they decided to close it.
20:08The theater changed hands again,
20:09and the next owner really was just buying it
20:13as a salvage opportunity.
20:15They stripped out the plumbing and the fixtures,
20:17and they sold everything off that they could.
20:22In the mid-1990s,
20:24David and a friend got involved
20:27in trying to save the building
20:28from its slumlord owners.
20:32Unfortunately, they failed
20:33and neglected to heat the building.
20:35There were all these drain lines
20:37transitioned through the roof.
20:38They froze.
20:40They burst.
20:41Consequently, you had all that water
20:43cascading through the building.
20:45It was kind of heartbreaking
20:46to see the condition the building was in.
20:48This lobby was full of nothing but junk.
20:53While David managed to keep the building alive,
20:56an old face eventually returned with a plan
20:59to restore it to its former glory.
21:04I couldn't afford to buy it in 1981.
21:07It wasn't until 2008
21:08that I finally put all the pieces together
21:11to make this work
21:13and immediately started to put money into it
21:16to preserve it.
21:22The three original chandeliers were salvaged
21:25and are being kept in storage.
21:28By court order,
21:29they'll be refitted
21:30when the theater's restoration work
21:32is 85% complete.
21:35With plans to bring rock bands back to its stage,
21:39David is waiting with bated breath
21:41for opening night.
21:43I've been here since 1996
21:45trying to save this building
21:47and working on keeping it alive
21:50and maintaining it.
21:51Hopefully I'm in the front row
21:53and I'm going to rent a tuxedo
21:55and I'm going to pop a bottle of champagne
21:57and hopefully we're going to get there
21:59in my lifetime.
22:05In the Malaysian state of Perak
22:08sits a majestic ruin
22:10plagued by the ghosts of its past.
22:20This region is hot
22:22and it's humid
22:22and it's covered in rain forest
22:24so when you see this grand building
22:26sitting in the middle of it all,
22:27it's a surprise.
22:29At first glance,
22:31it feels like the kind of castle
22:32you might expect to see
22:34in the Scottish highlands.
22:35So what's it doing here in Malaysia?
22:38It's a strange blend of architecture.
22:40You have Scottish and Moorish
22:42and Italian influences.
22:44Some areas seem to be
22:45in pretty good condition,
22:47especially from the outside.
22:48But then there are other parts
22:50that look like they've been
22:51completely destroyed.
22:53One thing we can say for certain
22:55is this doesn't look like
22:57a stronghold built for defence.
22:59The inside, although bare,
23:02feels like it could have been
23:03someone's home.
23:04This site holds a tale
23:06of one man's ambition
23:08which rode a wave
23:09of colonial expansion.
23:12He arrived with a humble dream
23:14which could only be realised
23:16because of the might
23:17of the British Empire.
23:19It's a story that changed
23:21the course of history
23:22and it begins with a theft.
23:30In the jungles of Malaysia,
23:33legend has it that this place
23:35is haunted.
23:37Local resident Hakim
23:39is a believer.
23:43When I first came here,
23:45I felt that there was
23:47something here.
23:48Something that was watching me
23:51from afar.
23:52I felt eyes on me.
23:58The ghost stories
24:00that surround this building
24:01are born out of its
24:03turbulent past.
24:05There's a good reason
24:07this grand residence
24:08looks like it could be
24:09a Scottish castle
24:10and that's because Scotland
24:12is where its story begins
24:14with a man named
24:15William Smith.
24:17William Kelly Smith
24:19was born in 1870
24:21to relative poverty.
24:23At the age of 20,
24:25he decided to seek his fortune
24:26on the other side of the world
24:28in the British colony
24:29of Malaya,
24:31today known as Malaysia.
24:33This was an era
24:35when Europe was claiming
24:35overseas properties
24:36for their own
24:37and they did it
24:38with little regard
24:38to the native people.
24:40By the time William Smith
24:41arrived in the colony,
24:43it was well established
24:44and ripe for exploitation.
24:47Smith embarked
24:48on survey work
24:49as a civil engineer
24:51for a massive road
24:52building program.
24:53With little competition,
24:55he quickly earned
24:56enough money
24:57to buy a plot of land.
25:00And Smith purchased
25:01a thousand acres of land
25:03where the house sits today.
25:04But he didn't yet
25:05have the funds to build it.
25:07All he had for years
25:08was a small wooden bungalow.
25:10He tried his luck
25:11at a few other businesses,
25:12which all failed.
25:14But with his next venture,
25:16marriage,
25:17he'd hit the jackpot.
25:19In 1903,
25:20he met 25-year-old Agnes,
25:22a wealthy heiress
25:23to a Liverpool cotton merchant family.
25:26After a whirlwind romance,
25:28they married
25:29and Smith came into
25:30$300,000
25:31of Agnes's
25:33inheritance money.
25:35This was a vast fortune,
25:37the equivalent
25:38to around $10 million
25:39today.
25:41Based on what I understand
25:45about Mr. William,
25:47he was very protective
25:48of his family.
25:50Also,
25:50he would do anything
25:52for the comfort
25:52of his wife and children.
25:56Agnes hated
25:58the wooden bungalow,
25:59so William starts
25:59work on a brick house.
26:01It was complete
26:02by 1910
26:04and was the beginning
26:05of what would become
26:06Kelly's Castle.
26:10Smith continued
26:11to frivolously
26:12invest his wife's
26:13inheritance
26:14into his many
26:15failing businesses,
26:16among them
26:17a coffee plantation,
26:18sawmill,
26:19and dredging company.
26:20But with one venture,
26:22he would strike it lucky.
26:24Smith had previously
26:26started a rubber plantation,
26:27and now,
26:28with the extra funds,
26:29he could expand it.
26:31And soon,
26:32he had the largest
26:32in the Batu Gajar area.
26:35What's fascinating
26:36about rubber,
26:37and you might not
26:38think there's much,
26:38is how rubber trees
26:40got to Malaya
26:41in the first place.
26:42It's a story
26:44that began
26:44with a theft.
26:46Rubber trees
26:47are native
26:47to the Amazon
26:48and they didn't
26:49grow anywhere else.
26:50Brazil,
26:51for many years,
26:52had a complete
26:53world monopoly.
26:54The British
26:55weren't happy
26:56about this,
26:57and they started
26:57to try and smuggle
26:59seeds out of the country.
27:00But every attempt
27:01failed,
27:02as the seeds
27:03turned rancid
27:03before they got
27:04back to England.
27:05But in 1876,
27:08a man named
27:09Henry Wickham
27:09successfully transported
27:1170,000 seeds
27:12back to London
27:13using banana skins.
27:16Once there,
27:17the botanists
27:18successfully germinated
27:20the seeds,
27:21which were then
27:21sent out to the colonies
27:23that had the right
27:23climate for them
27:24to thrive,
27:26Malaya was by far
27:27the most productive.
27:30This,
27:31coupled with the
27:31huge demand
27:32from the U.S.
27:33automobile industry
27:34in the 1900s,
27:36created a massive boom
27:37in the rubber trade.
27:39Rubber was suddenly
27:41like gold,
27:42and money from
27:43Smith's plantation
27:44was pouring in.
27:45He began expanding
27:47his brick house
27:48into the home
27:49he'd always dreamed of.
27:52Work started in 1915,
27:55and William was
27:56desperate to make
27:57a statement to show
27:58that he was part
27:59of the colonial elite
28:00in Malaya.
28:01And in the Victorian era,
28:03to do that,
28:04you needed a castle estate,
28:06and William wanted
28:07his to be the biggest.
28:11Kelly's Castle
28:12was designed
28:13to incorporate
28:14Scottish,
28:15Moorish,
28:15and Indian
28:16architectural elements,
28:18features which
28:18you can still see today.
28:20Ornate garages
28:21were packed full
28:22of the latest motor cars.
28:24Elaborate dining rooms
28:26welcomed guests
28:27and hosted
28:27lavish dinner parties,
28:29all maintained
28:30by an army of servants.
28:34The plan included
28:3614 rooms,
28:37an indoor tennis court,
28:38a rooftop courtyard,
28:40a cellar,
28:40stables,
28:41and a six-story tower
28:43that would house
28:44Malaya's first elevator.
28:50So at the time,
28:51to build such a mansion
28:53in Malaya
28:53was a grand
28:54and novel thing.
28:56It became
28:57such a marvel
28:58to people around here.
29:00It invoked
29:01that feeling
29:02of wow.
29:04Wow.
29:06More than 70 craftsmen
29:08from India
29:09were brought over
29:09to work on the castle.
29:11But this workforce
29:13would soon be decimated
29:14by a global pandemic,
29:16which would rip
29:17through the region.
29:24In 1915,
29:26William Kelly Smith
29:27began work
29:27on his dream castle
29:29in Malaysia,
29:30then the British colony
29:32of Malaya.
29:33Construction was brought
29:34to a halt
29:35during World War I.
29:36and just as the conflict
29:38ended in 1918,
29:40tragedy struck.
29:42In November,
29:43a Spanish flu epidemic
29:45passed through Malaya,
29:46killing 35,000 people,
29:48many of them
29:49William's Indian workers.
29:52Construction
29:53eventually got
29:54underway again,
29:55but Smith
29:56wouldn't live
29:56to see his castle
29:57completed.
30:00He went to Europe
30:01to visit his wife,
30:02Agnes,
30:02and their son,
30:03Anthony,
30:04who was attending
30:05boarding school there.
30:06As part of the trip,
30:08William went to Lisbon
30:09with the intention
30:10of picking up
30:10his new elevator.
30:12But while he was there,
30:13he caught pneumonia
30:14and died
30:15at the age of 56.
30:18Agnes was said
30:19to be so heartbroken
30:20that she never
30:20returned to Malaya.
30:21She sold the estate
30:22and Kelly's castle
30:24was never completed.
30:25And it didn't take long
30:26for the jungle
30:27to take hold
30:27once again.
30:33In 2000,
30:34the Malaysian government
30:35restored the
30:36dilapidated old estate
30:38with the hopes
30:38that it would draw
30:39in tourists.
30:40And it does.
30:42But one of its main draws
30:44appears to be
30:44the many ghost stories
30:46that surround this place.
30:47Many visitors
30:48claim to feel
30:49a strange presence here.
30:53Some say
30:54it's the Indian workers
30:55that died
30:56because of the Spanish flu.
30:57Others think
30:58it's the restless spirit
31:00of William Kelly Smith
31:01prowling the floors
31:03of his unfinished mansion.
31:04Perhaps he just
31:05doesn't want strangers
31:06walking around
31:07in his home.
31:15On the waters
31:16of San Francisco Bay
31:17is a facility
31:19that from great tragedy
31:20became the toast
31:21of a nation.
31:27So we're on this peninsula
31:28jetting out
31:29into the bay
31:30with rolling
31:31tree-covered hills
31:32sloping down
31:33to the water.
31:35You see these
31:37sprawling remains,
31:38but it's hard
31:39to get a sense
31:40of what their purpose
31:41might have been.
31:43And there's this
31:44vast red brick building
31:46with towers
31:47and crenellations.
31:48It's like a castle.
31:49This doesn't feel
31:51like somewhere
31:52that was actually
31:53used for fortifications.
31:55The sheer size
31:57of the site
31:58suggests that
31:59whatever happened
32:00took place
32:01on a supersized scale.
32:03There are these
32:04vast rooms
32:05with rows
32:05and rows of columns
32:06stretching out
32:07into the distance.
32:08Other areas
32:09are clearly being
32:10used for storage.
32:11There's old cars
32:12and furniture
32:13and boxes on shelves.
32:15Just when you think
32:17that this was
32:17a civilian facility,
32:19you start to see
32:19military rations
32:21and stretchers.
32:23This complex
32:24was the brainchild
32:25of a man
32:26who wanted to
32:26revolutionize an industry
32:28at a time
32:29when San Francisco
32:30was reduced
32:31to smoking rubble.
32:33It was a massive
32:35investment,
32:35a technical feat,
32:37really.
32:37But all of his efforts
32:39would be undone
32:40by a radical
32:41national reform.
32:43Overnight,
32:44he goes from
32:44entrepreneur
32:45to criminal.
32:51Frances Dinkelspiel
32:53is an author
32:53and journalist
32:54who has written
32:55extensively
32:56about the industry
32:57that made
32:57all this possible.
32:59I was working
33:00on a story
33:01for the New York Times.
33:03There was a controversy
33:04about the space
33:05and how it would be used.
33:07And I was absolutely
33:08flabbergasted
33:09when I arrived.
33:10It looked like
33:11an old medieval castle.
33:13This majestic structure
33:15has less to do
33:17with royalty
33:17and more to do
33:19with a national indulgence.
33:21In the 1890s,
33:23the California wine industry
33:25was a mess.
33:27Prices have been driven
33:28so low
33:29that winemakers
33:30and growers
33:31were barely breaking even.
33:34People sort of thought
33:35of California wines
33:36as cheap,
33:38not that reliable,
33:40kind of tasted funky
33:41at times.
33:42One man
33:43would start a movement
33:44to transform
33:45California's dwindling
33:46wine industry
33:47and its reputation.
33:49It was led by
33:51a rather unlikely figure,
33:53an accountant
33:53from England
33:54who didn't seem
33:55to know anything
33:56about wine.
33:57His name
33:58was Percy Morgan.
33:59What he lacked
34:00in wine knowledge,
34:00he made up for it
34:01in business smarts.
34:03At the time,
34:05San Francisco
34:05was the beating heart
34:06of the industry
34:07due to its cool climate.
34:09Grapes from across
34:10the state
34:11were crushed
34:11and sent to winehouses
34:13in the city
34:14where they would be stored
34:15in large barrels
34:16to age.
34:17And these winehouses
34:18were all
34:19in fierce competition.
34:22Percy Morgan
34:23came up with an idea
34:24to create
34:25sort of a mega corporation.
34:27And so in 1894,
34:29he brought together
34:30seven winehouses
34:31in San Francisco
34:32and they created
34:33the California Wine Association.
34:36Also known
34:37as the CWA,
34:38they now had
34:39almost total control
34:40of the state's industry.
34:44But an epic disaster
34:45threatened to
34:46derail their progress.
34:49April 18th, 1906.
34:52A massive 7.9 magnitude
34:54earthquake
34:55hit San Francisco.
34:57While the quake
34:58lasts less than a minute,
35:00it ignites several fires
35:02across the city,
35:03which burn
35:04for three days.
35:06More than 3,000 people died
35:08and 80% of the city
35:09is destroyed.
35:12Among the rubble
35:13are a number
35:14of vital buildings
35:15owned by the
35:16California Wine Association.
35:18Out of nearly 30,
35:20only three of the city's
35:21commercial wine
35:22establishments survive.
35:24Around 10 million gallons
35:27of their wine
35:28was said to have been destroyed
35:29in the earthquake
35:31and the fires that followed.
35:33It looks as if the state's wine industry
35:36has been destroyed
35:38beyond all repair.
35:40But out of the ashes
35:41of this tragedy,
35:42Percy Morgan
35:43sees another opportunity.
35:46Percy Morgan said,
35:48I'm not rebuilding
35:49all these plants.
35:50I want to create
35:51one master winemaking facility.
35:54He believed that
35:55if the CWA
35:56could rebuild
35:57in one big complex,
35:59it would be more efficient
36:00and they could dominate
36:01the industry.
36:03And so,
36:05the CWA
36:06purchased 46 acres
36:08in Point Milady
36:09across the bay
36:10in San Francisco
36:11to construct Winehaven.
36:13Built in 1907,
36:15one year after the fire,
36:18Winehaven
36:18was a state-of-the-art facility.
36:21You can't help
36:22but be impressed
36:23at this building.
36:24It cost about
36:25$6 million to construct.
36:26It was the largest winery
36:29in the world.
36:30It could store
36:3110 million gallons of wine.
36:34Its enormous size
36:36was complemented
36:37by its location,
36:38strategically chosen
36:39for maximum impact.
36:42Morgan had been
36:43really smart
36:45in where he chose
36:46to build Winehaven.
36:48When the Panama Canal
36:49opened in 1914,
36:51the shipping lanes
36:52led right past Winehaven.
36:53And suddenly,
36:54almost the entire world
36:56is within reach
36:57of the CWA.
36:59Winehaven was really
37:00a city-state.
37:01Not only were,
37:02you know,
37:03grapes brought here,
37:04crushed here,
37:05stored here,
37:06Winehaven made
37:07its own casks,
37:08importing wood
37:09from Louisiana,
37:10for example.
37:11It had its own
37:12bottling plant.
37:14A workforce
37:15of skilled laborers
37:16hailing from Italy
37:17and beyond
37:18swelled to 400 people
37:20during the harvest.
37:22The company made sure
37:23there was everything
37:24for staff,
37:24including housing,
37:25a post office,
37:26and a school.
37:28But there was
37:29a wave of change
37:31coming,
37:32one that would
37:33transform the United States
37:35and threaten
37:36Winehaven's
37:38very existence.
37:43Constructed in 1907,
37:46Winehaven was the biggest
37:48winery in the world.
37:49But little more
37:50than a decade later,
37:52radical reform
37:53brought it to its knees.
37:56At the stroke of midnight
37:58on January 17, 1920,
38:01the country goes dry
38:02when prohibition
38:04is enforced
38:05across the nation.
38:07This is the death knell
38:09for Winehaven.
38:10The workers at Winehaven held
38:13a last lunch,
38:14probably here
38:16on the loading dock.
38:17They had been here
38:19for more than a decade,
38:21producing some of the
38:22greatest wine in the world,
38:23and all of a sudden,
38:24in the United States,
38:26wine was mostly prohibited.
38:27that was the end
38:29of a production of wine
38:31in Winehaven.
38:33Percy Morgan,
38:34the man who did everything
38:35to make the California
38:36Wine Association successful,
38:38was inconsolable.
38:40Here he was,
38:42an upstanding citizen,
38:44one of the most respected
38:45business people
38:45in California,
38:46and all of a sudden,
38:48a law declared
38:49that he was
38:50morally corrupt.
38:52On the morning
38:53of April 16, 1920,
38:56still in his pajamas,
38:58Morgan walked
38:59into the library
39:00of his home
39:01and shot himself.
39:04After Winehaven
39:06was shut down,
39:07its warehouses
39:07were still full of wine
39:09that they hadn't
39:09been able to sell.
39:11So stories are
39:13that they dumped
39:13a lot of this wine
39:15right here into the bay,
39:17and that days afterwards,
39:19it was really easy
39:20to catch fish
39:21who were so drunken
39:22from the wine
39:23that they just sort of
39:24laid there.
39:25The California Wine Association
39:27sells off its assets
39:29to avoid bankruptcy,
39:30and this giant facility
39:32is mothballed.
39:35Despite prohibition
39:36ending in 1933,
39:39it was only when
39:40the nation was at war
39:41that the building
39:42was utilized once more.
39:45After the surprise
39:46Japanese attack
39:47at Pearl Harbor,
39:48the United States
39:49is drawn into World War II,
39:51and Winehaven
39:53is given a new lease
39:55on life.
39:56The U.S. Navy
39:57bought the property
39:59and they turned it
40:00into a fuel storage facility
40:03for the Pacific Fleet.
40:05When the war ends,
40:07the Navy continues
40:08to operate the site,
40:10adapting the sellers
40:11against a new national threat
40:13during the height
40:14of the Cold War.
40:15In the bowels
40:16of this property,
40:17the Navy set up
40:19a bomb shelter,
40:20the remnants of which
40:21you can still see today.
40:23They have drinking water,
40:25they have cots,
40:26they have commodes,
40:27they have all the things
40:29you might need
40:29if you had to hide out
40:31from radiation
40:32for an extended period of time.
40:35Finally, in 1995,
40:36the site was decommissioned.
40:43After the Navy withdrew
40:45from Winehaven,
40:46it became the property
40:47of the city of Richmond.
40:49There have been
40:50various proposals
40:51of things to do
40:52with the site.
40:53At one point,
40:54there was an idea
40:55of turning it
40:56into a casino complex,
40:57but nothing ever
40:58really panned out.
41:00And now,
41:01the question remains,
41:02will Winehaven
41:03ever return to its roots?
41:05In the last
41:06five to ten years,
41:08there was a winemaker
41:09who was making wine
41:10at Winehaven,
41:11which was really exciting.
41:13But nowadays,
41:14it's mostly used
41:15as a storage facility.
41:17But if you look closely,
41:19you can see that
41:20some of these
41:21massive warehouses
41:22are being used
41:23to store wine
41:24once again.
41:30and see you soon.
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