Johnsonville will be featured in an episode titled “Connecticut’s Ghost Town” on the National Geographic Channel show Abandoned.
The show description, according to their website, states that the Johnsonville episode is “an extraordinary opportunity to explore not just an abandoned building, but an entire town…Jay, Dan and Mark expect to find well-preserved properties, but are shocked by excessive mold, mildew and disrepair. After struggling to negotiate fair prices, Jay decides to make an unprecedented offer to buy an entire schoolhouse.”
described Johnsonville as a once “thriving mill village and later a tourist resort.” Johnsonville has sat empty since about the early 1990s when its owner, Raymond Schmitt, got into a dispute with local zoning officials and closed the resort. After he died in 1998, his heirs auctioned off all Schmitt’s holdings, including Johnsonville.
Vintage photographs detailing Johnsonville before it fell into disrepair were provided to National Geographic by the .
The episode will air on the National Geographic Channel on Wednesday, September 19 at 9:30 p.m. ET.
