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 to represent a typical one-room, country schoolhouse in Prince Edward Island in the late 1800s. Stand at the front of the classroom and imagine yourself stepping into Montgomery's shoes or channel your inner Anne Shirley, envisioning your first day as a teacher at the Avonlea school. The original desks are more than a century old and so are the slates (Watch out, Gilbert!). The schoolroom features displays of old books, educational materials, and school supplies.



Several replica dresses were displayed from 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.
Map copyright Google Maps.

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 August 9, 2024.
© worldofanneshirley.com

Bideford Parsonage Museum

The Bideford Parsonage Museum is a historical museum located in Bideford, Prince Edward Island.

L.M. Montgomery lived in this parsonage with the Reverend and Mrs. Estey from 1894–1895 while she taught school in Bideford. This was L.M. Montgomery’s first teaching position after leaving Prince of Wales College. Montgomery’s early experiences as a teacher at Bideford’s one-room schoolhouse were later reflected in her portrayal of Anne Shirley’s experiences as a new teacher at the Avonlea School in Anne of Avonlea. During her time in Bideford, Montgomery wrote a great deal, but she continued to receive rejection letters for her stories.

One of the most memorable scenes from Anne of Green Gables originated from a humorous accident at the Bideford Parsonage. In chapter XXI, titled “A New Departure in Flavorings,” Anne accidentally flavors a layer cake with anodyne liniment instead of vanilla and then serves it to the minister and his wife.

L.M. Montgomery wrote about the real event that inspired Anne’s tea-time mishap in her autobiography The Alpine Path:

“The notable incident of the liniment cake happened when I was teaching school in Bideford and boarding at the Methodist parsonage there. Its charming mistress flavoured a layer cake with anodyne liniment one day. Never shall I forget the taste of that cake and the fun we had over it, for the mistake was not discovered until tea-time. A strange minister was there to tea that night. He ate every crumb of his piece of cake. What he thought of it we never discovered. Possibly he imagined it was simply some new-fangled flavouring.”

The Bideford parsonage served as the home to many clergy members until it passed into private hands. In 1999, members of the local community came together to obtain provincial government funding to purchase, preserve, and carefully restore the parsonage. The museum opened in the year 2000, after which restoration of the building continued to return the structure to its authentic appearance in the late 1890s.

The museum is now filled with information on the culture and lifestyle of the era, and it holds many artifacts contributed by the community. Along with learning about the time period, you can view L.M. Montgomery’s old bedroom (pictured below) and look out the window, which faces the bay.



Here's the lovely view of the bay from the yard of the Bideford Parsonage Museum:




Official Website:
Bideford Parsonage Museum

Location:
Bideford Parsonage Museum
North Cape Coastal Drive, 784 Bideford Road, Rte 166, Bideford, PE C0B 1J0, Canada.



Image credits:
Photographs by World of Anne Shirley.
Map copyright OpenStreetMap.

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

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

Lucy Maud Montgomery Birthplace

The Lucy Maud Montgomery Birthplace is a historical museum located in New London, Prince Edward Island.

L.M. Montgomery was born in this house on November 30, 1874. Her parents, Hugh and Clara Montgomery, lived here after their marriage and during L.M. Montgomery’s infancy. Sadly, Clara died of tuberculosis when L.M. Montgomery was just 21 months old. After her mother’s death, L.M. Montgomery was raised by her maternal grandparents, Alexander and Lucy Macneill, in Cavendish, Prince Edward Island at their homestead.

At the time of L.M. Montgomery’s birth, the town of New London was called Clifton. L.M. Montgomery described her first home in her journals as a yellowish-brown house, but it is currently painted white and green, echoing the colors of Green Gables. When Anne visits her birthplace in Anne of the Island, Montgomery used her own birthplace as the model, weaving a personal thread into the fabric of her beloved story.

The house is now a small museum where visitors can explore Montgomery's first home, including the bedroom she was born in (shown below).



The house has been furnished with authentic Victorian pieces to give visitors a sense of what the home might have looked like at the time of Montgomery’s birth. There are quilts, flowers made from human hair, and a stove and cooking utensils from the time period. The home overlooks the New London Harbour and sand dunes, which feature in Montgomery's writings.

The special exhibits include a replica of L.M. Montgomery's wedding dress, veil, and shoes from her marriage to Ewen MacDonald.



The Lucy Maud Montgomery Birthplace also displays her personal scrapbooks from the time when she was a student at Prince of Wales College and from her years as a teacher and writer. The scrapbooks contain copies of her stories and poems, mementos, and personal treasures that she saved.



Throughout the museum, there are articles, rare books, dolls, press clippings, photos and memorabilia related to L.M. Montgomery’s life and legacy.


Official Website:
Lucy Maud Montgomery Birthplace

Location:
Lucy Maud Montgomery Birthplace
6461 PE-20, New London, PE C0A 1M0, Canada. At the intersection of Routes 6 and 20.



Image credits:
Photographs by World of Anne Shirley.
Map copyright OpenStreetMap.

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