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A Village To Call Your Own
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Business New Haven
11/13/2000
By: Priscilla Searles
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The those with a fertile imagination and deep pockets, a quiet little village located in East Haddam, known as Johnsonville, can be yours to have and to hold.
It was once an operating mill village: In the early 19th century, twine was produced on the site. Today the 61-acre site includes numerous buildings dating from the 1800s and 1900s.
The $3 million site is being shown by Keith J. Kumnick of Colliers Dow & Condon Realtors in Hartford. Tranquil and peaceful, the village of Johnsonville gives one a feeling of stepping back in time. The Victorian-era village has more than a dozen buildings, some of which have been lovingly restored.
Among them is a restaurant, Victorian stable, chapel, several shops, an office, schoolhouse, several residences and various maintenance buildings. The picturesque site looks like a perfect location for a Hollywood motion picture.
How this postcard-perfect New England village come to be? In the 1960s, the property was purchased by Raymond Schmitt, owner of an aerospace firm. At the time, the village was a working mill town, and Schmitt maintained it as such until the mill itself was hit by lightning in the 1970s, destroying the structure.
Schmitt purchased a number of additional buildings and had them moved to the site, furnishing each with antiques. He had an exceptional collection of antique horse-drawn carriages, which he displayed in the livery stable when he wasn't bringing them and his team to carriage rallies.
Johnsonville remained a private dream for Schmitt for many years, a place to house to antique furniture, memorabilia and even a steam-engined fire truck. Those lucky to be around on the several days a year he the opened the site to the public were always in for a special treat. Schmitt often made the site available for various charity functions.
It's hard to know where to start when it comes to looking at the buildings. With four homes on the property, there's no shortage of places to stick your head in. One of the jewels is the Emory Johnson homestead. Built in 1846 by the son-in-law of one of the original owners of the mill, the four-bedroom house has three fireplaces, pillared porches, a formal garden and original Victorian-era details. In later years it served as a museum depicting décor and furnishings of the 1800s.
A small one-and-a-half story single-family dwelling was built in 1900. A two-story Colonial-style house was built in 1846. The remaining residence is a two-story dwelling built in 1800.
The office, overlooking the 15-acre Johnson Millpond, was built in 1899. The former location of the Neptune mill office, the building was once a post office. The Gilead Chapel, which seats approximately 75 worshippers, was built in 1876 and moved to the village from Waterford in the late 1960s.
No one knows the exact age of the one-room Hyde School, which was the original schoolhouse for the community of East Haddam. The Red House Restaurant was built in 1900 and has been renovated into a restaurant/banquet facility for 150-200 people. A clock and toy store, originally used as a meeting house, was built in the 1800s; Frank General Store was built in 1845 in Peru, Mass.
The Gilbert Livery Stable was reportedly built in Winsted in 1920. Its three levels contain oak stalls with unusual woodwork, including beadboard and raised panels. All of this is in a beautiful setting with views of the river, a millpond, island, waterfall and some man-made features such as a covered bridge, wooden dam, paddlewheel riverboat.
Schmitt died in 1998, and without his supervision, maintenance of the property became problematic. The antiques are gone but the buildings remain, waiting for someone creative to bring the village of Johnsonville back to life. Maybe buying your own village for only $3 million is a bargain.
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