Abandoned Towns

Not a town · New Haven County, Connecticut

Little People Village

A Depression-era toy village in the woods between Middlebury and Waterbury, better known for the legends told about it than for its builder.

Not a town

Little People Village was never a town. It is the ruin of a miniature village of small concrete and stone houses that a gas station owner built in the woods on the Middlebury and Waterbury line, and it stands on private land (WFSB, February 2024; Ghost in My Machine, May 2020).

The label

Why Little People Village is called a ghost town

The site is in our index because a long-running ghost town directory lists it, under the name Little People Town, with tiny doll-like houses, a carved stone throne and a run-down full-size house as its remains. The entry and the visitor letters under it, dated 2001 and 2003, pass on the stories that made the place famous: a man who heard voices and built houses for them, a wife who drove him to it, a throne where one of them died. Those are legends, and they differ with every telling. Middlebury's town historian, Robert Rafford, told WFSB in February 2024 that the village is not the work of fairies and that "that kind of legend is online." A 2020 post on The Ghost in My Machine calls it an abandoned fairy village. The ruin is abandoned, but it was one man's project on his own land and never a settlement.

History

Little People Village then

The Ghost in My Machine pieced the history together from Middlebury Historical Society research, a Connecticut Magazine feature and land records. William Joseph Lannen of Naugatuck bought land between Middlebury and Waterbury in 1924 and opened a gas station on the main road between the towns. A straightened road took the traffic away around 1928. Lannen then planned a nursery and built small houses of brick, concrete, ceramic and metal; early newspaper reports called it a village or a toytown. WFSB's 2024 report puts the building during the Great Depression and describes the houses as concrete set with stones and ceramics. By 1939 newspapers were describing the village as run down. Lannen later worked for the Connecticut Light & Power Company and died in 1958; the land was sold to a relative shortly before his death and sold again in 1960.

A story that the village was a stop on the trolley line to Quassy Amusement Park is also a legend: Quassy's marketing director told Connecticut Magazine it was never associated with the park. The castle-like stone building that visitors take for the builder's house is, by the same account, what is left of his gas station garage.

1924. William J. Lannen buys land between Middlebury and Waterbury and builds a gas station.

c. 1928. A straightened road bypasses the station; Lannen starts building miniature houses.

1939. Newspapers describe the village as in decline.

1958. Lannen dies; the land has just been sold to a relative.

1960. The property is sold again.

2003. A visitor reports No Trespassing signs and that the owners have destroyed the stone throne.

2024. WFSB reports that a planned rebuild of I-84 Exit 17 may reach the site; CTDOT says it is too early to say.

Today

What is there now

What is left sits in the woods near Interstate 84 Exit 17, beneath power lines, close enough to the highway that WFSB reported in February 2024 that the state's planned redesign of Exit 17 could damage it. The Connecticut Department of Transportation told the station the project was "still in preliminary design" and that it was too early to say whether the area would be affected. Rafford said he is asked about the village more than anything else in town and has written to the state asking that it be declared a historic site.

The land is privately owned. The Ghost in My Machine, in May 2020, found only a few badly decayed structures left and advised against going. A visitor in January 2003 reported plenty of No Trespassing signs on the way in, and that the owners had destroyed the stone throne because they were tired of people coming onto the property. We give no map or directions to the site for that reason.

Questions

Common questions

Is Little People Village a ghost town?

No. It was never a town. It is a ruined miniature village that one man, gas station owner William J. Lannen, built in the woods starting around 1928, and it is on private land.

Is the Little People Village legend true?

The stories of voices, a cursed throne and a murderous wife are legends with many versions. Middlebury's town historian told WFSB in 2024 that the legend is an online one; the records show a gas station owner building a toy village.

Can you visit Little People Village?

No. The land is private and was posted with No Trespassing signs by 2003, and a 2020 account advises against going. We do not publish directions.

Sources

Sources and credits

  1. ghosttowns.com, Little People Town, read October 29, 2026: the listing, the remains it gives (small houses, a carved throne, a run-down house), the legends, and visitor letters dated June 11, 2001 and January 25, 2003 (No Trespassing signs, the throne destroyed by the owners). Its county, Fairfield, is wrong: Middlebury and Waterbury are in New Haven County.
  2. Lucia Peters, "Abandoned: The Forgotten Fairy Village of Waterbury, Connecticut," The Ghost in My Machine, May 4, 2020: William J. Lannen, the 1924 purchase and gas station, the road change around 1928, the 1939 reports, his death in 1958 and the 1958 and 1960 sales, the garage ruin, the Quassy denial quoted from Connecticut Magazine, private ownership, and the advice not to visit.
  3. Audrey Russo and Quinn Pramberger, "Fairy Forest in Middlebury is a treasure that soon could be gone," WFSB, February 26, 2024: the Depression-era builder, the concrete, stone and ceramic houses, the site near I-84 Exit 17 under power lines, CTDOT's statement, and town historian Robert Rafford's remarks.