This Entire Ghost Town in Connecticut Is For Sale For Under $2 Million

If you’ve been looking for a place to set up your very own Westworld-like theme park (Eastworld?), let us suggest Johnsonville, Connecticut, a small, abandoned mill town in East Haddam that’s now on the market for $1.9 million.

Founded in the 1800s, Johnsonville was a thriving place, thanks to the Neptune Twine and Cord Mill and its main product, fishing binding rope. In the 1960s, millionaire industrialist Raymond Schmitt bought the land around the old mill and started traveling around New England, collecting Victorian era buildings to create an 18th century village as tourist attraction. Schmitt moved the schoolhouse, a chapel, a general store, a livery stable, and other buildings to the site, but his vision never quite materialized. After he died in 1998, the town fell into disrepair without anyone to take care of it. Some even say Schmitt still haunts the place, along with old mill employees.

Now, the 62 acre property is owned by Connecticut-based Meyer Jabara Hotels, which bought the town in 2001 for $2.5 million. Over the years, the company has considered various plans, including “a restored village paired with a 55-and-over community; the addition of a boutique hotel and restaurant; and a destination spa and retreat,” according to a 2015 article in the Hartford Courant from when it was previously on the market (after an sale by auction fell through).

In addition to the buildings that Schmitt added, Johnsonville also has a pond, covered bridge, a wooden dam, and a waterfall.

Though no one lives in Johnsonville, the town has had visitors; it was featured in a music video for Billy Joel’s 1993 hit “The River of Dreams,” the 2014 horror movie “Deep in the Darkness,” and the Cuba Gooding Jr. film “Freedom.”

The property is currently listed with William Raveis for $1.9 million.

h/t 6sqft