Lucy Maud Montgomery

The history of the Manse dates to 1886. The building became an Ontario Historic Site in 1965 and a National Historic Site in 1997.  In 1974, white stucco was applied to the exterior limestone bricks.  In 2001, Uxbridge Township and L.M.M.S.O. removed the stucco, returning the exterior to the original brick.

Today, the physical integrity of the Manse is strong, much as it was during her stay from 1911 to 1926.

Home and garden, dear to L. M. Montgomery, were her environment, crucial to her literary imagination.  This is where she stood.  This is what she saw.

The historical plaque erected on the front lawn of the Manse property reads as follows:  “[Ontario Coat of Arms]  LUCY MAUD MONTGOMERY.  In this house author of “Anne of Green Gables” lived for fifteen years, and here wrote eleven of her twenty-two novels, including “Anne of the Island” (1915) and “Anne’s House of Dreams” (1916).  Born in 1874 at Clifton, Prince Edward Island, she was educated at Charlottetown and Halifax.  From 1898 to 1911, she lived at Cavendish, P.E.I., and there began her career as a novelist.  In 1911 she married the Rev. Ewan Macdonald, a Presbyterian minister, and came with him to Leaskdale.  They moved in 1926 to Norval, and nine years later to Toronto, where she died in 1942.  Mrs. Macdonald was awarded the O.B.E. by King George V in 1935. Archaeological and Historic Sites Board of Ontario.”

And, looking to the future… Work has begun…

We’re cleaning up the Leaskdale Manse
we’re sweeping floors,
dusting furniture and
straightening everything out.
We’re mending bedticks,
sewing on buttons and patching clothes.
We’re prying secrets out of walls,
gathering dreams from gardens and
pulling tales out of floorboards.
We’re bringing the Manse back to life.
Come see how we’ve restored
Lucy Maud Montgomery’s home.
Come uncover stories of a gifted story-teller
her dreams, her angst, her sensitivity.
Saved within these walls.
Waiting to be discovered.
Wanting to be told. *

* Adapted from Rainbow Valley by L. M. Montgomery.