Johnsonville 'Ghost Town' Attracts Highest Bid of $1.9 Million

The auction for an abandoned village in East Haddam started out at $800,000 and stayed at $900,000 for more than a day. Bidding closed a little after 1 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 30, and the highest bid was $1.9 million, The Hartford Courant reports.

After the auction closed, the listing was removed from the website and brings viewers to a screen that says (appropriately enough, for an abandoned village) —

“Sorry - Nobody’s home. The page you’re looking for could not be found.”

A call to listing agent Jim Kelly was not returned as of press time.

According to the Hartford Courant, the auction was extended past its original ending time, when new bids were placed in the auction’s final moments.

As for Dan Sinker, the man who tried to buy Johnsonville using the power of Twitter and a Google doc, he seems to be taking the loss in stride.

“That town we were buying has disappeared from the auction site,” he tweeted. “Goddammit. This is why we can’t have nice towns.”

Click here to read about the history of Johnsonville and scroll down to view video footage of the property. Visit The Hartford Courant website for its article on Johnsonville.

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Photo Credit: Screengrabs from Vidaao video