Village of the Holy Spirit! Filipino church group buys an entire Connecticut ghost town for $1.85million after it spent years languishing on and off the market

  • Church group Iglesia Ni Cristo bought the long-abandoned town of Johnsonville, Connecticut on Friday
  • The international Christian group headquartered in Quezon City, Philippines paid $1.85million for the town
  • Entire 62-acre ghost town includes an old post office, a schoolhouse, a general store, and church
  • Now the church group plans to preserve the town and use it for recreational and worship purposes

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An eerie abandoned ghost town in Connecticut has been purchased by a Filipino church group for $1.85million.

Iglesia Ni Cristo (Church of Christ) bought the entire 62-acre hamlet of Johnsonville, Connecticut in a swift transaction that closed on Friday, promising to bring new life to the abandoned town.

Johnsonville, a former mill town turned into a Victorian tourist attraction by an eccentric millionaire, had been on an off the market for years.

'We would like to see it brought back to life,' Joji Crisostomo, an Iglesia minister, told the Hartford Courant.

'We don't like the term 'ghost.' I don't think anybody likes that.'

Representatives of the Iglesia Ni Cristo church group tour the ground of Johnsonville, a ghost town in Connecticut, before buying the entire hamlet for $1.85million

Representatives of the Iglesia Ni Cristo church group tour the ground of Johnsonville, a ghost town in Connecticut, before buying the entire hamlet for $1.85million

The property includes an old post office, a schoolhouse, a general store, the original homestead of the mill owners, and an abandoned church.

The property includes an old post office, a schoolhouse, a general store, the original homestead of the mill owners, and an abandoned church.

An official with Iglesia Ni Cristo takes possession of the keys to Johnsonville's various buildings at the closing on Friday

An official with Iglesia Ni Cristo takes possession of the keys to Johnsonville's various buildings at the closing on Friday

Origins: Johnsonville started in the 19th century as a mill town built around an active twine mill operation on the Moodus River. Shown above is the original Neptune mill in 1832. It was struck by lightning in 1972 and burned

Origins: Johnsonville started in the 19th century as a mill town built around an active twine mill operation on the Moodus River. Shown above is the original Neptune mill in 1832. It was struck by lightning in 1972 and burned

The church group, which is headquartered in Quezon City, Philippines but has branches throughout the Northeastern US, hasn't finalized plans for the town but hopes to preserve its historic buildings and renovate a chapel on the property, Crisostomo said.

Iglesia Ni Cristo was founded in 1914 and describes itself as 'the fulfillment of biblical prophesies on the true Church of Christ in these last days for man's salvation.'

Emissaries from the group first visited Johnsonville in late June, and the all-cash sale went through quickly, surprising local officials who had seen the property languish on the market for years.

'This happened awfully quick,' Emmett J. Lyman, the first selectmen of East Haddam, told the Courant. 

'My thought was, it's going to take a week or two; they're going to look at stuff and evaluate what they've got. Not so.' 

The property includes an old post office, a schoolhouse, a general store, the original homestead of the mill owners, and an abandoned church.

A lake on the property, seen above, once had a paddleboat brought in for tourists, which sank after years of disrepair

A lake on the property, seen above, once had a paddleboat brought in for tourists, which sank after years of disrepair

Emissaries from the group first visited Johnsonville in late June, and the all-cash sale went through quickly, surprising locals

Emissaries from the group first visited Johnsonville in late June, and the all-cash sale went through quickly, surprising locals

The buildings include an old post office, schoolhouse, general store (pictured) and the original homestead of the mill owners

The buildings include an old post office, schoolhouse, general store (pictured) and the original homestead of the mill owners

Empty for decades: Above, one of the properties in the village, which has been closed to visitors for decades before the sale

Empty for decades: Above, one of the properties in the village, which has been closed to visitors for decades before the sale

A church official is seen signing the closing documents in the all-cash sale of the abandoned hamlet on Friday

A church official is seen signing the closing documents in the all-cash sale of the abandoned hamlet on Friday

Members of the Philippines-based church group pose as they celebrate the purchase of the hamlet of Johnsonville

Members of the Philippines-based church group pose as they celebrate the purchase of the hamlet of Johnsonville

Johnsonville was part of a thriving mill community in the 1800s. 

In 1972, millionaire industrialist Raymond Schmitt, owner of aerospace part firm AGC Inc, bought the property after a lightning strike destroyed the mill.

Schmitt decided to create a Victorian-era tourist attraction, so he traveled around the northeast, buying up entire buildings and shipping them to the town.

In addition to the vast array of properties he purchased, he also bought a paddleboat from the World's Fair in the 1960s.

He later transported it to Johnsonville, where he hoped to use it to ferry passengers around the lake in the middle of the property.

But although Schmitt allowed visitors onto the grounds, and weddings were occasionally held at the Swiss chalet-styled restaurant, the town never truly became a bustling hub for tourists.

After Schmitt got into a dispute with local officials in East Haddam, he shut down the village in 1994 and put the property up for sale. 

Millionaire Raymond Schmitt decided to create a Victorian tourist attraction out of the hamlet. But the town never became a bustling hub for tourists, and he closed it after a dispute with local officials. Above, visitors explore Johnsonville in the 1970s

Millionaire Raymond Schmitt decided to create a Victorian tourist attraction out of the hamlet. But the town never became a bustling hub for tourists, and he closed it after a dispute with local officials. Above, visitors explore Johnsonville in the 1970s

He died four years later, and the property fell into disrepair. Even the paddleboat began sinking into the lake.

For the past few decades, 'No Trespassing' signs have hung off the properties, warning curious travelers to stay away. 

Connecticut-based hotel company Meyer Jabara Hotels was the seller in the Friday deal, and paid $2.5million dollars for the property back in 2001. 

In October of 2015, Johnsonville was put up for auction, with the highest bid coming in at $1.9million, however the offer fell through.

At that time, Chicago-based writer and designer Dan Sinker led a campaign on Twitter to try and raise enough money to buy the deserted hamlet, convincing 108 people to contribute to the purchase.

That plan eventually fizzled out though.