Strange little ghost town is abandoned yet again
For 50 years or so, the weird tale of Johnsonville, Connecticut, was dominated by an eccentric millionaire who half-conjured the quasi-Victorian ghost town from thin air, purely as a passion project for himself and his wife. And then, abruptly, the millionaire just left it behind.
Add to the list another (would-be) owner with abandonment issues.
Just before Halloween of last year, Johnsonville sold at auction for $1.9 million. The buyer was to take possession of a three-times-abandoned mill town in the Moodus section of East Haddam. The property's 62 acres contain a milldam, a millpond and eight historic buildings, some of them original to the site and some trucked in by Ray Schmitt and his wife to create their little hobby town: the Neptune Mill office, an 1845 general store, Gilead Chapel (rescued by Carole Schmitt from becoming a beauty salon).
The buyer's plans never became public, which is just as well: The deal fell through, the Hartford Courant reports, and now the town is back on the market.
This time the owners are dropping the auction tack and returned to a traditional listing. They want $2.4 million for Johnsonville, and they tell the Courant that they've had interest already, both from losing bidders and new prospects: "We've got buyers at the table, from developers to summer camps and beyond."
Though most of the prospective buyers intend to incorporate Johnsonville into their plans, the current owners indicated that the survival of the village is far from certain.
"One or two are just looking at doing away with Johnsonville."
And click here to read Yahoo Homes' original, in-depth story of Johnsonville's eccentric past — including the insult that evidently led Ray Schmitt to walk away from his passion project.
Also on Yahoo Homes:
• Cursed, neglected Mike Tyson mansion will become a what?! (40 photos)
• Vacationing family stumbles across abandoned French chateau, decides to restore it (55 photos)
• The mystery of a Forest Service engineer's amazing 1974 Cocktail Construction chart
Video report on Johnsonville from last fall:
