A trip to PEI for Anne of Green Gables reasons

"It's delightful when your imaginations come true, isn't it?"

This trip really was a bookish dream come true. I wanted to write this round up for myself to look back on in the future, but also I hope if you love Anne or dream of doing a similar trip that you enjoy reading this!

Before I really dived into all things Anne of Green Gables and Lucy Maud Montgomery, I was staying in Charlottetown for a few days. There are two Anne musicals on every single summer in Charlottetown that I went to see. The first was Anne of Green Gables, obviously based on the first book, then Anne & Gilbert, based on the second and third books in the series (Anne of Avonlea and Anne of the Island). I absolutely loved Anne of Green Gables the musical, it was so funny and the songs perfectly complimented the story. Schools and youth theatres should be putting this show on, there’s a whole song about ice-cream! Anne & Gilbert was also quite fun, but there was a slightly modern lens across the songs and script which sometimes I didn’t gel with. I was probably feeling a bit purist since I’d been rereading and on this trip for such a specific purpose. It’s a newer musical, it opened in 2005, compared to 1965 which adds a bit of charm (fun fact, Anne of Green Gables is Canada’s longest running musical since it was on annually until the 2020 season was cancelled). You can’t help but root for Anne and Gilbert to realise how much they love each other though.

Cavendish, Prince Edward Island is where Lucy Maud Montgomery was raised my her grandparents. This small town about 45 mins from Charlottetown is where Green Gables Heritage Place is, along with other key Lucy Maud/Anne things to see and do.

My first morning staying in Cavendish, I jumped out of bed, braided my hair and went straight to Green Gables Heritage Place. Home to the MacNeil family, relatives of Lucy Maud Montgomery’s grandparents, it is the home that inspired Green Gables and has been owned by National Parks Canada since the 1930s. It’s a historic house museum set up to resemble the home described in Montgomery’s novels, with red cordial on the kitchen shelves, and the characters clothes out on their beds.

In the grounds surrounding the house, you can walk both The Haunted Wood and Lover’s Lane trails. Both are lined with signs about Montgomery’s childhood in the area and quotes from other stories and diaries where she mentioned these trails and their nicknames before including them in Anne of Green Gables. As you enter through a barn, there was a bunch of clothes for dressing up and snapping a picture in front of a photo wall. But I was already on theme with my braids and puffed sleeve dress! I spent hours on site wandering the trails, through the grounds, through the house, bought a raspberry cordial from the shop (was fizzy soft drink, like creaming soda), and just enjoying being there. It’s crazy because it feels like a fictional place come to life, when really it was originally the other way around.

Also at Green Gables Heritage Place there is a big exhibit all about Lucy Maud Montgomery, the Anne series, and the enduring love for the story all around the world. They had a typewriter she owned, a first edition of Anne, and display a bunch of editions with different covers and in different languages. That was my favourite.

Lucy Maud Montgomery’s Cavendish Home is the site of her grandparents home and post office where she grew up and was living while she wrote Anne of Green Gables. This house and Green Gables Heritage Place were connected by one of the trails, you could technically still walk it today (you’d just have to cross a golf course and one road).

On this walk, you’d go past the local graveyard and Lucy Maud Montgomery is buried there. Brought home after she died in Toronto in 1942. Just across the street is Montgomery Park, which features a statute of Montgomery.

As I mentioned above, Lucy Maud Montgomery’s grandparents ran a post office. There is a different post office which features a mail specific exhibit on Montgomery - extra nerdy but I found it fascinating because it’s about how she’d mail away her stories and manuscripts in secret and could intercept her own mail. Plus how many steps on the long journey her manuscript for Anne took to her publishers in Boston. Right next door is the church Montgomery went to also.

While everything in Cavendish is so close together, to visit Montgomery’s birthplace museum is a little further. Her mother died when she was a toddler, which is when her father sent her to live with her grandparents. This house was theirs when they were first married, the museum also has some of Montgomery’s scrapbooks and photos on display which have been donated by family.

The Lake of Shining Waters has two bodies of water competing for fame. MacNeil’s Pond, pictured above, is by Cavendish Beach. But Montgomery herself has said that it’s the pond at her cousin’s she always pictured. Still owned and operated by the Campbell family to this day, the Anne of Green Gables Museum is a historic house museum where Montgomery stayed many times. She was married in front of the fireplace pictured below, that organ was played at her wedding, and they have THE glass cabinet where Katie Maurice lived (if you’ve read the books you’ll know Anne’s imaginary reflection friend). They also had so many copies of the books, all signed and gifted to the family. This was a really special spot to visit.

If you’ve read this whole thing, thank you so much. I’m not over it and would love to keep talking about everything, so please comment below if you love Anne, if you’ve been to Prince Edward Island, or if you’d like to go!