Anne Of Green Gables House and National Historic Site

Anne Of Green Gables House is located in Prince Edward Island National Park, which was set aside in 1937 to protect for all time the coastal landscape characteristic of the Maritime Plain natural region. It includes lengthy spans of sand dunes, fresh water ponds, salt marshes, and forests. In 1998, six kilometres of the Greenwich Peninsula were added to Prince Edward Island National Park, to protect unique dune formations, rare plants and animals, as well as archaeological findings dating back 10 000 years. The park also includes cultural landmarks such as Green Gables and Dalvay-by-the-Sea National Historic Site.

Anne Of Green Gables House has become famous around the world as the inspiration for the setting in Lucy Maud Montgomery's classic tale of fiction, Anne of Green Gables. In real life, this farm was the home of David Jr. and Margaret Macneill, who were cousins of Montgomery's grandfather. The farm was first settled in 1831 by David Macneill Sr. Although L.M. Mongomery never lived here, she grew up nearby with her grandparents. She came to know her cousins' farm through her explorations of the surrounding woodlands and places she discovered and named such as Lover's Lane and the Haunted Wood. Soon after Anne of Green Gables was published in 1908, people began coming to Cavendish in search of Green Gables, along with the other places and people of Avonlea in the novel. Most of what Montgomery describes in her book was the product of her own creativity, sometimes complemented by the inspiration of a real-life setting.

" Cavendish is to a large extent Avonlea. Green Gables was drawn from David Macneill's house, though not so much the house itself as the situation and scenery, and the truth of my description of it is attested by the fact that everyone has recognized it. " L.M. Montgomery, The Selected Journals of L.M. Montgomery, Vol. II, Friday, Jan.27, 1911.

Montgomery's spiritual connection to her home community continued throughout her life. As a minister's wife living in Ontario, the author's occasions to return home were limited, yet all but one of her 20 novels have Prince Edward Island as the main setting. Montgomery often visited or stayed with the Webb family at Green Gables during return visits to the Island, and when she died in 1942, she was buried in the Cavendish cemetery. Shortly after her death, the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada recognized L.M. Montgomery as being a person of national historic significance and a monument and plaque were erected at Green Gables.

Information obtained from Parks Canada