A Brushy Ridge Mystery: New Canaan’s ‘Mount Lebanon’

If you’ve ever taken a ride up Brushy Ridge Road, you might have noticed an ancient stone arch on the side of the street framing a rusted wrought-iron gate. It is seemingly a gateway to nowhere, as looking beyond it one can’t see a house, cemetery, steps or anything of apparent significance. Adding to the mystery is another arch at the top of Brushy Ridge that looks like something out of Stonehenge. Rewind about 140 years. Local history says that William H. Thomson was a doctor in New York City in the mid-late 19th century.