Old-school urban legend has it that the Rivercrest area at one time housed its own midget village. The village was active during the early 1960's with a chapel, stables, houses, etc. It was located on private property just down the hill behind one of the large estates, but it was open to the public. Access was via a separate road at the bottom of the hill. The origins of its name are a bit dubious; some state that it was due to the fact that the village actually housed midgets who milled about (whether they actually lived there or were part of some exhibit that would now be highly inappropriate, I do not know) and ran a restaurant for the visitors; others say that it's due to the fact that the buildings were coined "midget village" because of their small stature. This is the more logical explanation, as the owner of the property at that time was the head of a very prominent family and was known to spoil his children. It was most likely a play area for them. However, my father grew up in the area and does recall seeing midgets there, so who knows?? I remember him pointing it out to me as a child, from atop the hill and through the trees. At that time (late 1980s), there were several buildings on the site. I Google-mapped it and went back recently with a camera, however most of the buildings have been torn down. I'm not sure how recently this happened, but the ground underneath where they stood was freshly cleared. The original access gate still stands, but to enter through there would be fairly risky, as the area is somewhat visible. I was able to get on to the property by other means, to find that the chapel and stables were the only buildings still standing. Apparently those are in use by the country club groundskeepers, as we actually hid in the trees when a groundskeeper approached in his truck. Needless to say, we did not attempt to go inside. The scale of the chapel is difficult to gauge, but you can see the small stature of the stables, as compared to the truck and trailer parked in front of it. While tall enough to be functional, the roofline is incredibly low.
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