Aunt Susanna's Thanksgiving Dinner

After spending many hours searching through microfiche in my university's library, I rediscovered an 100-year-old short story by L.M. Montgomery. The story is called "Aunt Susanna's Thanksgiving Dinner," and you can read it here exclusively. "Aunt Susanna's Thanksgiving Dinner" was originally published in 1907 in The Housewife, the year before Anne of Green Gables was published. To my knowledge this story has never been republished since.

The story is about four sisters: Laura, Kate, Margaret, and Agnes, who narrates the tale. Each girl has her own ambitions. Laura wants to be an artist, Kate plays the violin, Margaret wants to get a college education, and Agnes wants to be a writer. Aunt Susanna faintly approves of Margaret's desire for an education, but disapproves of the artistic, musical, and literary goals of her other three nieces. The sisters try to please Aunt Susanna, hoping their wealthy aunt will send Margaret to college.

The story begins when Aunt Susanna arrives at her nieces's home. She's full of criticism, but also needs a favor. She is in a bind, and must travel from town to visit a sick relative. She needs the girls to prepare Thanksgiving dinner for her and Mr. and Mrs. Gilbert upon their return home. Agnes has just told Aunt Susanna that she's a good cook, so she feels she must agree to prepare the meal. With trepidation, Agnes says she will cook dinner, and Kate volunteers to help her.

Despite the their best efforts, Agnes and Kate's Thanksgiving preparations turn out to be a disaster. Will they be able to save Thanksgiving and win Aunt Susanna's approval?

Read the original scanned story text below or download a PDF version here:





Updated to add: Long after I posted this story on my website, it was gathered into another collection online.

Reference:
Montgomery, L.M. (1907, November). Aunt Susanna's Thanksgiving Dinner. The Housewife. pages 5 and 14.

Created October 2, 2007. Last updated November 24, 2022.
© worldofanneshirley.com

Anne of Green Gables (2007)

Anne of Green Gables (2007) is a play adapted by Peter DeLaurier from the novel by L.M. Montgomery. The play premiered at the at The People's Light & Theatre Company in January 2007 as part of the Philadelphia New Play Festival. It was nominated for Outstanding New Play in the annual Barrymore Awards. The play was directed by Shannon O'Donnell.

Playbill described the story as follows: "Matthew Cuthbert and his no-nonsense sister Marilla send for an orphan to help with the farm at Green Gables. But instead of a sturdy boy, they get skinny Anne Shirley, an accident-prone redhead with a natural flair for drama. It doesn't take long though for this imaginative young heroine to work her way into the hearts of her reluctant new parents, and to transform their stodgy, old-fashioned neighbors on Prince Edward Island into a host of 'kindred spirits.' This new adaptation captures all the spirit of the beloved classic. Best appreciated by ages 7 and up. www.peopleslight.org."

Anne of Green Gables was published by Playscripts, Incorporated in 2009, and is available for purchase at the Playscripts website.

Image Credit:
Promotional artwork for Anne of Green Gables (2007) from the Playscripts website.

Acknowledgement:
Thank you to Peter DeLaurier for sending me info about his play.

Reference:
Jones, Kenneth. (2006, December 28). Nine Theatres to Sprout Premieres in First Philly New Play Fest in Early 2007. Playbill. Retrieved from: https://web.archive.org/web/20070930191530/http://www.playbill.com/news/article/104459.html

Created September 9, 2007. Last updated May 20, 2024.
© worldofanneshirley.com

The Site of Lucy Maud Montgomery's Cavendish Home

The Site of Lucy Maud Montgomery’s Cavendish Home is the place L.M. Montgomery called home for most of her life and where she wrote Anne of Green Gables. It is part of L.M. Montgomery's Cavendish National Historic Site, which also includes the neighboring Green Gables house. You can walk between the two sites by going through “The Haunted Wood,” a place that L.M. Montgomery named herself and shared with her famous creation Anne Shirley.

After her mother’s death of tuberculosis, L.M. Montgomery was raised by her maternal grandparents, Alexander and Lucy Woolner Macneill, in Cavendish at their homestead. Cavendish was L.M. Montgomery’s home for over three decades from 1876 to 1911. L.M. Montgomery wrote with deep fondness of her Cavendish home, calling it “hallowed ground.” It was the land she loved and wrote about, even after she married and left Prince Edward Island.



Following her grandmother’s death in 1911, L. M. Montgomery married Ewen MacDonald and left Cavendish for Ontario. The homestead remained in the Macneill family, but the house was closed after L.M. Montgomery moved away. Around 1920, much of the original homestead fell to ruin, except for the kitchen. Today, the farm property is still owned by the Macneill family. In the 1980s, John Macneill, a great-grandson of Alexander and Lucy Woolner Macneill, and his wife Jennie Macneill tended to the site and opened it to visitors. The site has now been passed down to their son David Macneill, who operates and cares for it.



Little remains of the home itself apart from a hole in the ground, the foundation, and the stone cellar, but in recent years, the kitchen structure was returned to the site. Although much of the structure is gone, you can explore the site, and see the gardens, forests, and landscape that inspired L.M. Montgomery to write Anne of Green Gables and many of her other stories. She loved the old apple trees, birches, poplars, spruces, pathways, and flower gardens surrounding her home.









There are placards placed around the homestead property with quotes from L.M. Montgomery’s journals that help visitors see through her eyes. L.M. Montgomery began writing Anne of Green Gables in the kitchen of the Cavendish homestead, and wrote most of it in her cherished bedroom by its gable window. Nearby, you can walk down “Lover’s Lane” or you can spook yourself along the “The Haunted Wood” path, which leads to the Green Gables house. Montgomery named these places in her real life, and she brought them to life for her readers in Anne of Green Gables.



There is a bookstore at the site with many books by and about L.M. Montgomery as well as other gifts. You can also see the desk and scales from the old Cavendish Post Office, which L.M. Montgomery and her grandparents ran from their kitchen.

When the old house fell apart in the 1920s, only the kitchen survived. L.M. Montgomery’s uncle moved this part of the building and used it as an outbuilding in the barnyard to house animals and later as a storage shed. In the 1960s, a Catholic priest and historian named Father Francis Bolger was researching L.M. Montgomery and writing a biography about her. Father Bolger asked the Macneills if he could use the kitchen building, and they gave him permission to use it. He moved the kitchen structure to his summer home and cleaned and repaired the building, and then he used it as his writing cottage. In 1974, Father Bolger published a biography on L.M. Montgomery called The Years Before Anne. In 2017, both John Macneill and Father Bolger passed away. After Father Bolger’s death, the kitchen was returned to the Macneill property in late 2018. Visitors can now see this portion of the original homestead, which is located next to the bookstore and is a museum.

The idea of a home is a key theme in many of L.M. Montgomery’s stories, including Anne of Green Gables. For me, it was special to visit the place L.M. Montgomery called home.


Official Websites:
The Site of Lucy Maud Montgomery's Cavendish Home
L.M. Montgomery's Cavendish National Historic Site, Parks Canada

Location:
The Site of Lucy Maud Montgomery's Cavendish Home
8521 Cavendish Road Rte, PE-6, Cavendish, PE C0A 1N0, Canada.

Image credits:
Photographs by World of Anne Shirley.

References:
Cavert, Mary Beth. (2024). The House of Home: Montgomery’s Macneill Grandparents’ Homestead. The Anne of Green Gables Manuscript. Retrived from: https://annemanuscript.ca/stories/the-house-of-home/

Hamilton, Kathleen and Frei, Sibyl. Finding Anne on Prince Edward Island. Ragweed Press. 1998.

Krzewinski, Agatha. The Original Homes of Lucy Maud Montgomery. Anne of Green Gables. Sullivan Entertainment. Retrieved from: https://www.anneofgreengables.com/blog-posts/the-original-homes-of-lucy-maud-montgomery

L.M. Montgomery's Cavendish National Historic Site. (2024). Retrieved from: https://parks.canada.ca/lhn-nhs/pe/cavendish

Piece of L.M. Montgomery's childhood home returned to original homestead. (2018, December 18). CBC News. Retrieved from: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/prince-edward-island/pei-lucy-maud-montgomery-kitchen-building-homestead-1.4951107

The Site of Lucy Maud Montgomery's Cavendish Home. Retrieved from: https://www.lmmontgomerycavendishhome.com/

Created July 17, 2007. Last updated July 20, 2024.
© worldofanneshirley.com

The Cavendish Post Office

The Cavendish Post Office (aka the Green Gables Post Office) is a modern post office featuring a historical exhibit about the postal service and L.M. Montgomery called, “Yours sincerely, L.M. Montgomery.” Located in Cavendish, Prince Edward Island, close to the site of L.M. Montgomery’s Cavendish Home and Green Gables, the exhibit at the post office enlightens visitors about how the postal service played an important role in L.M. Montgomery’s life and early career as a writer.



L.M. Montgomery was raised by Alexander and Lucy Woolner Macneill, her maternal grandparents, in Cavendish. The Macneill family ran the Cavendish Post Office for generations from when it first opened in 1833 until it closed in 1913. As she grew up, L.M. Montgomery helped her grandparents run the post office from the kitchen of their homestead. The post office played an important role in rural Cavendish and was a gathering place for the community to share news.



After her grandfather’s death in 1898, L.M. Montgomery left her teaching post in Lower Bedeque and returned home to Cavendish to live with her grandmother. She helped her grandmother, working at the post office as its assistant postmaster.



Having a post office in her home was fortunate for L.M. Montgomery. As a young writer who struggled to obtain paper, L.M. Montgomery wrote poems and stories on the backs of red postal letter bills. Living in the post office benefited L.M. Montgomery in another way. It allowed her to submit her stories and poems to publishers in secret. No one had to know if she received a rejection letter, and she could privately correspond with editors.



In 1905, L.M. Montgomery began writing Anne of Green Gables while sitting at the end of the table in the Macneill kitchen. After completing the book, L.M. Montgomery submitted it to several publishers, and the story was rejected repeatedly. L.M. Montgomery then stored the manuscript in a hatbox. In 1907, she decided to try submitting Anne of Green Gables for publication again, and she packaged and mailed her manuscript to L.C. Page Company, a publisher based in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. Fortunately for all of us, Page accepted the manuscript, and Anne of Green Gables was published in 1908.



Much of the original Macneill homestead is gone now, but the original kitchen structure has recently been returned to the Macneill property.

In the 1970s, the government planned for a new post office to pay tribute to Prince Edward Island during its centennial anniversary of joining Canada in 1873. The post office was designed to honor L.M. Montgomery and Anne of Green Gables with a special museum exhibit. A building resembling the original Macneill homestead was relocated from Rocky Point on the other side of Prince Edward Island to a site near the original Macneill homestead in Cavendish. The building was restored and decorated with authentic decorations and postal artifacts. The exhibit was designed and produced by the Canadian Museum of History in collaboration with Canada Post.



As a side note, the post office is located next door to the Cavendish United Church, which was the Presbyterian Church in L.M. Montgomery's day. Montgomery and her family attended this church.

The Cavendish Post Office is a wonderful place to visit because it played a key role in L.M. Montgomery’s life and the origin of Anne of Green Gables. It's open in the spring through the fall from May through October. If you mail a letter or postcard from this post office, it will be stamped with a special Anne of Green Gables, Cavendish PE postage mark.


Official Websites:
Yours Sincerely, Lucy Maud Montgomery Exhibition
Cavendish Post Office, Cavendish Beach, Prince Edward Island

Location:
The Cavendish Post Office
8555 Cavendish Rd, Cavendish, PE C0A 1M0, Canada.

Image credits:
Photographs by World of Anne Shirley.

References:
Epperly, Elizabeth R. Writing in the Kitchen: An Animation. The Anne of Green Gables Manuscript. Retrieved from: https://annemanuscript.ca/stories/macneill-kitchen-animation-writing-the-opening-pages-of-the-manuscript-3/

Hamilton, Kathleen and Frei, Sibyl. Finding Anne on Prince Edward Island. Ragweed Press. 1998.

Yours Sincerely, Lucy Maud Montgomery. Canadian Museum of History. Retrieved from: https://www.historymuseum.ca/exhibitions/lucymaudmontgomery/

Created July 17, 2007. Last updated July 17, 2024.
© worldofanneshirley.com

Cavendish United Church

L.M. Montgomery was an active member of the Cavendish Presbyterian Church, located a short walk away from her home in Cavendish, Prince Edward Island.

The church was built in 1902 to replace an older church that Montgomery and her family attended, which was located next to the Cavendish Cemetery. L.M. Montgomery's uncle donated the land for the new church. Later, in 1925, the church became the Cavendish United Church.

During the years between 1902 and 1911, L.M. Montgomery was an active member of the Cavendish Presbyterian Church. She served as the choir director and organist and taught Sunday school there. L.M. Montgomery met her future husband Ewen MacDonald through the church. He was its minister from 1903 to 1906. In 1911, L.M. Montgomery got married and left Prince Edward Island to move to Ontario.

After her death in 1942, L.M. Montgomery's funeral was held in this church. In 1974, the church dedicated a memorial stained glass window to L.M. Montgomery in honor of her 100th birthday.

The Cavendish United Church is located next door to the Cavendish Post Office (aka The Green Gables Post Office). There's a pretty path from the church and Cavendish Post Office that leads to the Site of L.M. Montgomery's Cavendish Home.



Location:
Cavendish United Church
8543 Cavendish Rd, North Rustico, PE C0A 1X0, Canada.

Image credits:
Screencapture of the Cavendish United Church from Google Street View.
Photograph of pathway by World of Anne Shirley.

References:
Collins, Carolyn Strom. Discovering L. M. Montgomery and ‘Anne’ in Cavendish. The Anne of Green Gables Manuscript. Retrieved from: https://annemanuscript.ca/stories/discovering-l-m-montgomery-and-anne-in-cavendish/

Hamilton, Kathleen and Frei, Sibyl. Finding Anne on Prince Edward Island. Ragweed Press. 1998.


Created July 17, 2007. Last updated July 18, 2024.
© worldofanneshirley.com

Dalvay-by-the-Sea

Dalvay-by-the-Sea is a National Historic Site on the north shore of Prince Edward Island, Canada in Prince Edward Island National Park.

Dalvay-by-the-Sea was built by Alexander MacDonald, a wealthy industrialist from Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. MacDonald fell in love with the region after he and his family vacationed on Prince Edward Island in 1895. After visiting the island, he bought 120 acres of land on the north shore and built a summer home there. MacDonald named his house “Dalvay-by-the-Sea” after his childhood home in Scotland. The building is a beautiful example of Queen Anne Revival architecture, featuring dormers, bay windows, and gables, and it overlooks the ocean and Dalvay Lake.

After MacDonald’s death, Dalvay-by-the-Sea changed hands several times. The property is now owned by Parks Canada. Dalvay is a seasonal hotel and restaurant, which is open from May until the end of October and managed by D.P. Murphy Group of Companies. You can book a stay at the hotel in a room or cottage or stop by for a meal. You may also make reservations for high tea on specific dates throughout the summer and fall.

For fans of Sullivan Entertainment’s Anne of Green Gables miniseries, Dalvay-by-the-Sea is recognizable as the White Sands Hotel. Anne Shirley, played by Megan Follows, recited “The Highwayman” there, impressing her friends and family from Avonlea and the wider population of Prince Edward Island. At the beginning of the sequel, Anne of Avonlea, Anne is busy writing on the dunes with Dalvay-by-the-Sea in the background when her manuscript is blown away by the wind, and she chases the loose pages. In addition, Dalvay-by-the-Sea was featured prominently as the White Sands Hotel in Sullivan Entertainment’s Road to Avonlea television series. Felix King worked at the hotel, and Hetty King became the hotel’s co-proprietor.

Dalvay-by-the-Sea is a beautiful place, and so is the view from the grounds. I spent some time enjoying the landscape from an Adirondack chair in the front yard of the hotel.



It’s a short walk from the hotel to Dalvay Beach, which is a striking and peaceful place.



The drive along the north shore near the hotel is remarkably pretty with lush grasses and dunes.



During my visit to Prince Edward Island, I didn’t have a chance to stay at Dalvay-by-the-Sea or dine there, and I never saw the interior. I hope to visit it again one day and stay there.


Official Website:
Dalvay by the Sea

Location:
Dalvay-by-the-Sea
16 Cottage Crescent, Dalvay, PE, C0A 1P0, Canada.

Image credits:
Photographs by World of Anne Shirley.

References:
Read More about Dalvay’s History. Dalvay by the Sea. Retrieved from: https://www.dalvaybythesea.com/history

Dalvay-by-the-Sea National Historic Site. Parks Canada. Retrieved from: https://parks.canada.ca/lhn-nhs/pe/dalvay

Introducing The "Real" White Sands Hotel - Dalvay By The Sea. Anne of Green Gables. Sullivan Entertainment. Retrieved from: https://www.anneofgreengables.com/blog/introducing-the-real-white-sands-hotel-dalvay-by-the-sea

Pacheco, Adriana. 10 Anne of Green Gables Famous Filming Locations. Anne of Green Gables. Sullivan Entertainment. Retrieved from: https://www.anneofgreengables.com/blog/10-anne-of-green-gables-famous-filming-locations

Created July 17, 2007. Last updated July 12, 2024.
© worldofanneshirley.com

Confederation Centre of the Arts

The Confederation Centre of the Arts is a cultural arts center located in downtown Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada. The Centre includes a performing arts theater and a visual arts gallery, and many of its exhibits and productions focus on Canadian identity and heritage. In 1964, Queen Elizabeth II officially opened the Centre to the public. Since 1965, the Centre has hosted the annual Charlottetown Festival each summer. The Confederation Centre of the Arts holds the Guinness World Record for presenting the longest running annual musical theatre production, Anne of Green Gables — The Musical, a musical based on the novel Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery.



Anne of Green Gables — The Musical was performed at the Confederation Centre of the Arts every summer from 1965 until 2019. In 2020, performances of the musical paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the musical returned to the stage in 2022. Beginning in 2024, Anne of Green Gables — The Musical will be performed every two years instead of annually.

I saw the musical at the Confederation Centre of the Arts in 2006. While I was in Charlottetown, I enjoyed waking through the main hallway of the Centre where there were several displays relating to the long-running musical. I especially liked this model of the Anne of Green Gables — The Musical set.



There was a display with costumed mannequins depicting a scene from the musical.



The displays included several drawings of costumes designed for actors performing in the musical, such as this dress for Mrs. Sloane.



There were several posters from prior productions of Anne of Green Gables — The Musical.



There was also information about the writers and musicians who brought Anne of Green Gables to the stage.



In addition, there was a display on L.M. Montgomery, the creator of Anne Shirley. Many of L.M. Montgomery's manuscripts are held by the Confederation Centre of the Arts.



Official Website:
Confederation Centre of the Arts

Location:
Confederation Centre of the Arts
145 Richmond St, Charlottetown, PE C1A 1J1, Canada.

Image credits:
Photographs by World of Anne Shirley.

Reference:
Longest running annual musical theatre production. Guiness World Records. Retrieved from: https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/114132-longest-running-annual-musical-theatre-production

Created July 17, 2007. Last updated July 9, 2024.
© worldofanneshirley.com

The L.M. Montgomery Institute at the University of Prince Edward Island

The L.M. Montgomery Institute was founded in 1993 to promote research on the life and writings of L.M. Montgomery. It is part of the University of Prince Edward Island, a public university in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada. The L.M. Montgomery Institute is located in the Robertson Library at the University of Prince Edward Island, which houses a large collection of publications and artifacts about L.M. Montgomery.

From 1893–1894, L.M. Montgomery attended school at Prince of Wales College in Charlottetown. In 1969, Prince of Wales College was amalgamated with St. Dunstan's University to form the University of Prince Edward Island. The former Prince of Wales College buildings from L.M. Montgomery’s time are now part of Holland College in downtown Charlottetown.

During my visit to Prince Edward Island, I visited the L.M. Montgomery Institute at the Robertson Library. The librarian there was very kind and helpful. There was a bronze bust of L.M. Montgomery in the library by Claude Patrice Roussel.


Official Websites:
L.M. Montgomery Institute
Robertson Library at the University of Prince Edward Island

Location:
L.M. Montgomery Institute at the University of Prince Edward Island
550 University Ave, Charlottetown, PE C1A 4P3, Canada.

Image credit:
Photograph by World of Anne Shirley.

Created July 17, 2007. Last updated July 2, 2024.
© worldofanneshirley.com

Cavendish Cemetery

The Cavendish Cemetery is a historic cemetery in Cavendish, Prince Edward Island, Canada. The cemetery is the final resting place of L.M. Montgomery. She is buried alongside her husband, the Reverend Ewen Macdonald.

The entrance to the Cavendish Cemetery has a large metal archway reading, "Resting Place of L.M. Montgomery, Cavendish." The cemetery is located in walking distance from the Green Gables Heritage Place and the site of L.M. Montgomery's Cavendish Home. It is open to the public, and visitors can enter and pay their respects at L.M. Montgomery's grave.



L.M. Montgomery's mother, Clara Woolner Macneill Montgomery, is buried nearby in the Cavendish Cemetery. Clara died of tuberculosis in 1876 when L.M. Montgomery was 21 months old.

L.M. Montgomery grieved the loss of her mother throughout her life. On December 29, 1921, L.M. Montgomery wrote in her journals, "Somehow, I have an odd feeling that mother is very near me as I write. Does human personality survive death? And is it possible that when we think of our dead it summons them irresistibly to us?"



After the death of her mother in Cavendish, L.M. Montgomery remained there with her maternal grandparents, Alexander Macneill and Lucy Woolner Macneill, who raised her at the Macneill homestead. Alexander Macneill died in 1898, and Lucy Woolner Macneill died in 1911. L.M. Montgomery's grandparents are buried next to L.M. Montgomery's mother.


Location:
Cavendish Cemetery
PE-13, Cavendish, PE C0A 1M0, Canada.

Image credits:
Photographs by World of Anne Shirley.

Reference:
Montgomery, L.M. The Selected Journals of L.M. Montgomery, Volume III: 1921-1929. ed. Mary Rubio and Elizabeth Waterston. Oxford University Press, 1992. page 33.

Created July 17, 2007. Last updated June 28, 2024.
© worldofanneshirley.com

Senator Donald Montgomery's House

L.M. Montgomery's paternal grandfather, Senator Donald Montgomery, lived in Park Corner, Prince Edward Island. L.M. Montgomery was deeply fond of her Grandfather Montgomery, writing in her journals that he was, “just like a grandfather out of a story. I love him. He is always so good and kind and gentle to me.” Her grandfather's house provided L.M. Montgomery with her inspiration for Anne and Gilbert’s home Ingleside. Items from this home appear in the Anne of Green Gables series and The Story Girl.

Donald Montgomery was known as "Big Donald" to differentiate him from his cousin who had the same name. He was a farmer and politician. During his political career, Donald Montgomery served as a representative, member, and speaker of the Prince Edward Island Legislative Assembly from 1838 to 1874. After Prince Edward Island became part of the Canadian Confederation in 1873, Montgomery was appointed to the Canadian Senate where he served as a senator from 1873 until his death in 1893.



Senator Donald Montgomery's house is located next to the Lake of Shining Waters and across the street from the Campbell Homestead (Silver Bush), which houses The Anne of Green Gables Museum.

In 2006, when I visited Prince Edward Island, the house was a museum called the Lucy Maud Montgomery Heritage Museum. The museum was my favorite L.M. Montgomery site because it featured a personal guided tour of the home by L.M. Montgomery's cousin, Robert Montgomery, a great-grandson of Senator Donald Montgomery. He was generous with his time, and it was a special experience to meet one of L.M. Montgomery's relatives. He lived the home, and unlike many other sites, the house included its original furnishings. It was full of antiques, books, artifacts, and photographs that told his family history. There were many treasures there that inspired L.M. Montgomery in her writing.



Over the years, Senator Donald Montgomery's house has been known by several names. It has been called "Park Corner," "Montgomery Manor," the "Heath Montgomery Home," and the "Lucy Maud Montgomery Heritage Museum." In 2011, L.M. Montgomery's cousin, Robert Montgomery, put the house up for sale. He sold it to his son Paul Montgomery, who renovated and redecorated the house and opened it as an inn. In its most recent form, Senator Donald Montgomery’s house is known as the “Montgomery Inn at Ingleside Prince Edward Island.”

When I visited the Lucy Maud Montgomery Heritage Museum, I saw many artifacts, but I'm not sure if any of these items are still on display at the inn.

Outside the house stands the pulpit stone referred to in The Story Girl.



I loved seeing the tea set that inspired Marilla Cuthbert's rosebud spray tea set. Anne admired its beauty and she hoped to serve Diana tea with this set in Anne of Green Gables.



I had the chance to see Magog, one of a set of china dogs that L.M. Montgomery wrote fondly about in her journals: "When I was a little girl, visiting at Grandfather Montgomery's, I think the thing that most enthralled me was a pair of China dogs which always sat on the sitting room mantel piece..." Her grandfather's dogs were white with green spots all over them. Unfortunately, Gog had a fall and broke, but Magog was still displayed.



After L.M. Montgomery got married, she spent part of her honeymoon in England and Scotland searching for china dogs just like her Grandfather Montgomery's set. She couldn't find an identical set, but she purchased a similar pair of china dogs with gold spots and brought them back home.

These china dogs make several appearances throughout the Anne of Green Gables series. In Anne of the Island, Anne Shirley meets Miss Patty and Miss Maria at Patty's Place, hoping to rent their house. L.M. Montgomery writes, "just behind each sat a large white china dog, with round green spots all over it, a green nose and green ears. Those dogs captured Anne’s fancy on the spot; they seemed like the twin guardian deities of Patty’s Place." Years later in Anne's House of Dreams, Miss Patty and Miss Maria give Anne the dogs as a wedding gift, noting that, "You will not have forgotten that Gog looks to the right and Magog to the left.” The china dogs preside over Anne and Gilbert's hearth and are also mentioned in Anne of Ingleside and Rainbow Valley.

I bought a pair of miniature Gog and Magog china dogs from Robert Montgomery's gift shop. He explained that they were made by an artist on PEI and said how special he thought they were because most Anne souvenirs were imported. I thought they were special too, and it seemed extra special for me to buy a pair of china dogs there while I was on my own honeymoon.

There was also a wall hanging featuring Magog and Gog.



Below Magog was the china fruit basket mentioned in The Story Girl (Chapter XII, The Blue Chest of Rachel Ward).



There were so many special photos and treasures around the house, including this music from the 1919 film Anne of Green Gables starring Mary Miles Minter.



After visiting the museum, I walked down "The Alpine Path," which led to the Lake of Shining Water.

L.M. Montgomery gives an explanation for this name in her 1917 autobiography, titled The Alpine Path: The Story of My Career. In the opening, Montgomery writes:

"Many years ago, when I was still a child, I clipped from a current magazine a bit of verse, entitled 'To the Fringed Gentian,' and pasted it on the corner of the little portfolio on which I wrote my letters and school essays. Every time I opened the portfolio I read one of those verses over; it was the key-note of my every aim and ambition:

'Then whisper, blossom, in thy sleep
   How I may upward climb
 The Alpine path, so hard, so steep,
   That leads to heights sublime;
 How I may reach that far-off goal
   Of true and honoured fame,
 And write upon its shining scroll
   A woman’s humble name.'




The Alpine Path is a pretty forested pathway.



As I walked through, I saw L.M. Montgomery's Lake of Shining Water though the trees.



Here is the Lake of Shining Water.



I visited many years ago, and the museum is currently an inn, so I'm not sure where all the artifacts are currently located. I wonder if any are still displayed at the house.

On July 5, 2024, the house was listed for sale, so if you’re interested in owning a historic home on Prince Edward Island and have $899,900 Canadian dollars to spare, the house could be yours.


Official Website:
Montgomery Inn at Ingleside Prince Edward Island

Location:
Senator Donald Montgomery's House. Montgomery Inn at Ingleside Prince Edward Island.
4615 Route 20, Park Corner, 4615 PE-20, Kensington, PE C0B 1M0, Canada.

Image credits:
Photographs by World of Anne Shirley.

References:
The Hon. Donald Montgomery, Senator. The Parliament of Canada. Retrieved from: https://lop.parl.ca/sites/ParlInfo/default/en_CA/People/Profile?personId=9612

Kitts, Colleen. (2016, April 15). Historic Montgomery house gets a new life thanks to Lucy Maud descendant. CBC News. Retrieved from: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/prince-edward-island/montgomery-inn-pei-1.3537617

Lucy Maud Montgomery museum up for sale. (2012, August 21). CBC News. Retrieved from: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/prince-edward-island/lucy-maud-montgomery-museum-up-for-sale-1.1212105

Montgomery, L.M. Anne of the Island. L.C. Page & Company, 1915.

Montgomery, L.M. Anne's House of Dreams. McClelland, Goodchild and Stewart, Limited. 1917.

Montgomery, L.M. The Alpine Path. Fitzhenry & Whiteside Limited, 1997. pages 74–75.

Montgomery, L.M. The Selected Journals of L.M. Montgomery, Volume I: 1889-1910. ed. Mary Rubio and Elizabeth Waterston. Oxford University Press, 1985. page 25.

Montgomery, L.M. The Selected Journals of L.M. Montgomery, Volume II: 1910-1921. ed. Mary Rubio and Elizabeth Waterston. Oxford University Press, 1987. page 76.

Senator Donald Montgomery House. Canada’s Historic Places. Parks Canada. Retrieved from: https://www.historicplaces.ca/en/rep-reg/place-lieu.aspx?id=20523

Property Description for 4615 Route 20. RE/MAX Canada. Retrieved from: https://www.remax.ca/luxury/pe/park-corner-real-estate/4615-route-20-wp_idm73000004-27124644-lst


Created July 17, 2007. Last updated July 25, 2024.
© worldofanneshirley.com

The Anne of Green Gables Museum

The Anne of Green Gables Museum is a private house museum dedicated to the life of L.M. Montgomery that is located in the Campbell Homestead in Park Corner, Prince Edward Island. Despite its name, which causes some confusion, the museum primarily focuses on L.M. Montgomery and not on Anne of Green Gables.

Throughout her life, L.M. Montgomery loved to visit her Aunt Annie Macneill Campbell, Uncle John Campbell, and her jolly cousins at Park Corner. L.M. Montgomery called their house Silver Bush, and it was her inspiration for Pat Gardiner’s home in her novels Pat of Silver Bush and Mistress Pat.

The Anne of Green Gables Museum, which opened in 1972, contains many artifacts related to L.M. Montgomery. It is still owned and run by members of the Campbell family. A portion of the home functions as the museum where you can do a self-guided tour, while the remainder is their private residence.



East of the Campbell house is Campbell's Pond. This simple name was too prosaic for L.M. Montgomery, who renamed the pond the "Lake of Shining Waters." Montgomery later immortalized this name by having Anne Shirley rename Barry’s Pond the "Lake of Shining Waters” in Anne of Green Gables.



The museum contains the blue chest, which L.M. Montgomery wrote about in The Story Girl.



You can also see L.M. Montgomery's enchanted bookcase. As a child, she talked to her reflection in the glass, which was her imaginary friend Katie Maurice. This bookcase was originally located at the old Macneill homestead in Cavendish (The Site of Lucy Maud Montgomery's Cavendish Home) where L.M. Montgomery was raised by her grandparents. The bookcase was moved before the old home was demolished. Readers of Anne of Green Gables will recognize this story as being one shared with Anne Shirley. In Anne of Green Gables, Anne talks to her imaginary friend Katie Maurice, which was her reflection in the bookcase at the Thomas home.



On July 5, 1911, L.M. Montgomery married the Reverend Ewen MacDonald in the parlor at the Campbell house in front of the fireplace.



L.M. Montgomery had her own little bedroom at the Campbell house. The view from her window overlooked the Lake of Shining Waters. You can pay to take a carriage ride around the lake.



The museum displays a large collection of first edition books by L.M. Montgomery, photographs, and other artifacts, including a quilt and lace made by L.M. Montgomery.



There are also clippings from magazines and letters written by L.M. Montgomery. I had trouble photographing many of them because of the poor lighting, reflections, and harsh glare off the glass covering them.



This museum is nice to visit if you wish to learn more about L.M. Montgomery and the places that inspired her, but it's important to keep in mind that the focus is the author herself.


Official Website:
The Anne of Green Gables Museum

Location:
The Anne of Green Gables Museum
4542 PE Route, 20 Park Corner Ln, Kensington, PE C0B 1M0, Canada.

Image credits:
Photographs by World of Anne Shirley.

References:
Hamilton, Kathleen and Frei, Sibyl. Finding Anne on Prince Edward Island. Ragweed Press. 1998.

Created July 17, 2007. Last updated July 22, 2024.
© worldofanneshirley.com

Lucy Maud Montgomery Lower Bedeque School

The Lucy Maud Montgomery Lower Bedeque School is a historical museum located in Central Bedeque, Prince Edward Island.

L.M. Montgomery taught in a one-room schoolhouse in Lower Bedeque from 1897–1898. This was her third and final teaching position. She enjoyed her time in Lower Bedeque, finding it a lively and friendly place with many young people. During L.M. Montgomery’s year in Lower Bedeque, she boarded with Mr. and Mrs. Cornelius Leard. She fell in love with their son, a young farmer named Herman Leard, and wrote about him in her journals. In March 1898, L.M. Montgomery’s grandfather Alexander Macneill died, and she returned home to live with her grandmother in Cavendish.



The Lower Bedeque School that L.M. Montgomery taught in was restored. It represents a typical one-room, country schoolhouse in Prince Edward Island in the late 1800s. You can stand at the front of the class at the podium and imagine teaching a class of students. The original desks are more than a century old and so are the slates. There are displays of old books, educational materials, and school supplies.



There were several replica dresses on display that were worn at performances of Anne of Green Gables: The Musical. The school was registered as a Heritage Place by the province of Prince Edward Island in 2005.



The Lower Bedeque School was originally located on Route 112. I visited the museum at its original location in 2006. In 2019, the museum was closed due to a lack of volunteers. In 2021, the entire building was moved to a new location in Central Bedeque to a park across from the Bedeque Area Historical Museum.

The Bedeque Area Historical Museum currently maintains and manages the school museum. There are several exhibits in the Lower Bedeque School, namely: Introduction to the Schoolhouse, Lucy Maud Montgomery's Time in Bedeque, Maud's Secret Bedeque Romance, Saving the Lower Bedeque School, Early Education in Prince Edward Island, and Montgomery's Loyalist Roots.

Official Website:
Lucy Maud Montgomery Lower Bedeque School at the Bedeque Area Historical Museum

Location:
Lucy Maud Montgomery Lower Bedeque School
950 Callbeck St, Bedeque, PE C0B 1C0, Canada.

Image credits:
Photographs by World of Anne Shirley.

References:
School museum where L.M. Montgomery taught forced to close its doors. (2019, June 24). CBC News. Retrieved from: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/prince-edward-island/pei-bedeque-schoolhouse-lucy-maud-montgomery-1.5187652

P.E.I. school where L.M. Montgomery taught being moved to new site. (2021, June 9). CBC News. Retrieved from: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/prince-edward-island/pei-lower-bedeque-school-montgomery-moving-1.6059539

Lower Bedeque School Gets a New Home. (2021, June 1). Bedeque Area Historical Museum. Retrieved from: https://www.bedequemuseum.ca/historical-society/lower-bedeque-school-gets-a-new-home


Created July 17, 2007. Last updated June 27, 2024.
© worldofanneshirley.com