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Return to Wonderland: Lia Fail
One of my favorite childhood books was the Elizabeth Enright classic, Gone-Away Lake. The novel centers on an old resort hidden deep in the woods that once had been a grand colony of elegant houses and extraordinary residents of a bygone era. I was enthralled by the story for reasons I can only now — 60 years later — fully appreciate. The truth is that this story reflected my own experience growing up in just such a magical community: Cos Cob, Connecticut’s, Lia Fail.
I missed Lia Fail’s heyday by half a generation. My brother, older by seven years, remembers neighborhood pool parties, riding in the meadow, even the children’s Lia Fail News, published by his pals. By the time I was old enough to know what I was missing, the other kids had all “gone away” to prep school or college. I felt as if I’d been left alone in an enchanted forest.
Yet the neighborhood’s unique history and secret treasures remained mesmerizing. To live there was a rare adventure worthy of its own novel.
Stone of Destiny
This extraordinary community began as a 30-acre compound owned in the early 20th century by lumber magnate David O’Neil. Of Irish descent, O’Neil had both romantic and poetic instincts. At the entrance to the heavily wooded estate stood a towering rock, which he christened Lia Fail, Celtic for Stone of Destiny, after the legendary coronation stone of Ireland’s High Kings. Thus was the neighborhood named.
The O’Neil family at first occupied a turn-of-the-century mansion set on the highest hill in Lia Fail. By my time, the house had changed hands, but we still gathered there for neighborhood parties. I remember the penetrating smell of damp stone and cinders from the mammoth fireplace, the wonder of a playing card tacked to the 15-foot ceiling by some brilliant magician at a long-ago birthday, the elaborate model railroad…
