“I don’t know why I go walking at night/But now I’m tired and I don’t want to walk anymore/I hope it doesn’t take the rest of my life/Until I find what it is that I’ve been looking for.”
Some Billy Joel for ya. While he penned those lyrics for the tune “The River of Dreams,” he might as well have been writing about Raymond Schmitt, the former owner of a Connecticut town where the video for the 1993 hit was filmed. Because apparently, Schmitt now supposedly roams the county in ghost form.
Ain’t afraid of no ghosts? Put your millions where your mouth is and buy the place — it’s for sale.
Established in 1802 as a milling town, the since-abandoned Johnsonville, CT was purchased by Schmitt in the 1960s, who attempted to turn the town into a tourist attraction by moving Victorian-era buildings onto the site. Think a quaint little schoolhouse. Chapel. Livery stable. Schmitt’s plan, however, never came to fruition and the land was sold to a hotel chain after his death.
Now, because the hotel group’s plans for a mixed-used development have fallen through, the parcel outside of East Haddam is back on the market and listed with William Raveis for $1.9 million.
Including additional features like a former bank, restaurant and barn as well as a pond, covered bridge, dam and waterfall, Raveis says Johnsonville is an “incredible investor opportunity.”
If you want to bid, here’s where. And if it helps, take a gander at a video of what the town looked fiver years ago.
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