Going...going...gone! The abandoned mill village called Johnsonville - located just 30 minutes away from Hartford, Conn. - went up for auction last week and reportedly sold to an unnamed buyer for $1.9 million.
The town went under the hammer Oct. 28 with bids starting at $800,000 and a $10,000 deposit on Auction.com. The reserve price was undisclosed but according to the Yahoo Blog, the purchase price well exceeded the reserve price.
The 8-parcel, 62-acre village was a mill town, which began operating in the 19th century. The town was built around the Moodus River. As the twine hub slowly lost its luster, eventually in 1972, an aerospace engineer Raymond Schmitt purchased the town, The Daily Mail reported.
According to the Curbed, Schmitt shipped several Victorian houses on the lot and even got a chapel and stable from Massachusetts to complete the venue. He apparently wanted to turn the place into a theme park. He even purchased a paddleboat from the world fair to ferry people around the property on the river.
However, things went downhill after lightening struck the mill in 1972, and soon after he also got into a fight with the local administration that shut down the entire town. Schmitt passed away in 1998 and since then, the property lay deserted.
A developer reportedly purchased the place in 2008, but never really built anything or used the space. Perhaps that had something to do with the spook factor.
Johnsonville is supposedly a haunted town now and rumors have it that spirits of the residents as well as Schmitt roam the town. Since Schmitt died before he could realize his dream of turning the town into a theme park, his ghost still lurks around to protect his beloved village.
"The Village of Johnsonville is considered a special purpose property, given the uniqueness and nature of it," realtor Jim Kelly told Housing Wire.
"Whether the draw is the historical roots, the potential for the land's usage, or just the eeriness of the stories associated with it, this property is drawing a considerable amount of attention from a large field of potential investors," he said of the property when listing it.
Take a virtual tour of Johnsonville in the video below:
