Want your own personal village? Spooky abandoned North Carolina community hits the market for just $500,000 - including a mill, blacksmith and railway

Ready for a bigger home? Why settle for another house when there's an entire historic village for sale in rural North Carolina for just $500,000.

The picturesque remnants of an entire 'lost' community are located near Jordan Lake, and they include a general store, boarding house, and post office.

Erected in the 1800s, the abandoned community of Merry Oaks is a final vestige of the agrarian villages that once dominated rural North Carolina, but now have been razed to make room for more modern developments.

Perched atop 3.3 acres of land, Merry Oaks continues to conjure up images of an America that has long ceased to exist.

Merry Oaks stopped being an official postal address in the 1950s.

The Merry Oaks community is 150 years old, the agrarian village having been founded in the 19th century

The property sits atop 3.3 acres of lush North Carolina land and can be purchased for $500,000- cheaper than many houses go for in Raleigh

 This 150-year-old village, tucked away down a country road, has old wooden porches, atop which stand rocking chairs that creak when you sit in them. There are tall antique pillars, verdant farmland, and old oak trees.

The community transports you back into the past, when tired farmers rolled their tobacco after a long day at the plow, and villagers congregated in the street or at the local church to trade stories and gossip.

Merry Oaks, which is near the highway, is being listed for a mere $500,000 - much less than the cost of a house in Raleigh.

On Saturday, realtors will be hosting an open house- open village sounds more accurate- giving prospective buyers the chance to survey the Merry Oaks community.

According to Merry Oaks' Zillow page, 'The boarding house, post office, and general store have played host to weary travelers on horseback, artists and writers alike.'

Merry Oaks is one of the last farm communities that once dotted the New Hope River Valley, which is now submerged beneath the waters of Jordan Lake.

Nearby communities like Seaforth and Pearidge have been lost to Jordan Lake, their buildings, once loud with the life within them, now deep under water.

When the lake's level lowered in 2023, eerie vestiges of old homes, railway tracks, and highways were visible.

North Carolina's lakes have claimed many ghost towns, and Merry Oaks isn't entirely an exception. Its grist mill- a mill that once served the entire community- now rests beneath the lake.

Children in the community used to hop with jump ropes fashioned from vines

By the 1950s, the community had dwindled in size and no longer existed as an official address

The porches creak with every step- just like they did 150 years ago

It makes Merry Oaks' remaining property all the more special and all the more valuable.

In its golden years, before people started moving away, and before the lake started swallowing swathes of land, Merry Oaks was a lively place.

There was a one-room school, a grist mill by the lake, a blacksmith shop, a railroad and a train depot.

The village was fringed by a grove of leafy oak trees, and the villagers found joy in simple pleasures.

Donna Aiello, a real estate agent with LPT Realty- the agency selling the property- told WRAL News, 'When the farmers would come off the fields and host spirited parties and dances. Eventually one would challenge the rest to a rousing horse race around the span of the oak trees

The Yates clan owned the General Store, where villagers could go to purchase their sundries. A Yates-family descendant remembered that her great-great-grandmother used to trundle into town each day on her wagon for her teaching position at the school house.

On lazy Saturday afternoons, children hopped with skip ropes fashioned from vines, or they played baseball with hand-made hickory bats.

But in the early 20th century, around the time of the first world war, a high school across the Haw River in Moncure began to draw many students away. Merry Oaks High School closed in the early 1900s.

The population began drifting away and stores- including the Yates General Store- were forced to close down or relocate.

And in the 1950s, the Merry Oaks post office was merged with the post offices in New Hill and Moncure, and Merry Hills stopped being an official address.

In the past few years, local residents have worked hard to preserve what's left of Merry Oaks. By dint of extraordinary effort, they were able to save the property's historic church, which was in danger of being razed for a planned highway expansion.

The property once had a grist mill, which has since been flooded by Jordan Lake, but it still features a general store, boarding house, and post office

Merry Oaks remains unmarred by time, and realtors are hoping that whoever purchases the village will opt to preserve it rather than demolish it

The realtors are hoping that whoever purchases this property elects to preserve it and not demolish it.

The Merry Oaks legacy could abide, maybe in the form of a wedding venue or a quaint Airbnb. It could also be converted into a country music venue, in which musicians could play fiddles and strum guitars and resurrect the phantom of the old Merry Oaks community.

'I think this area, because there is so much growth and we have so many developers coming in and bulldozing areas, to have this little niche part of North Carolina preserved would be such a special thing,' Aiello said.

'We're hoping that somebody who has a love of history and a passion for restoration will come in and see the beauty in this property.'