Anne of Green Gables Museum

Anne of Green Gables author Lucy Maud Montgomery called the small farm of Silver Bush on Prince Edward Island her home. Owned by her Uncle John and Aunt Annie Campbell, she once professed, “I love this old spot better than any place on earth.”

Since the series debut in 1908, Prince Edward Island (and in particular the town of Avonlea) has captured the imagination of countless kindred spirits who identified with the cast of characters conjured from Montgomery’s imagination. Pulling up to the enduringly charming home on the Campbell House homestead that Montgomery once called her “wonder castle,” it’s easy to see why. Pilgrims to the 110-acre plot of farmland are rewarded with a museum specifically dedicated to the life and works of the author. The white house — replete with the novel’s eponymous green gables and bright white siding — seems not just inspired by, but pulled directly from the pages of the classic series of books.

The museum guides visitors through the cottage by way of a self guiding tour with stops highlighting Montgomery’s personal effects, ranging from the author’s delicate needlework and carefully preserved photographs hand-developed by the author, to the “enchanted bookcases” so often referenced by Anne throughout the novels. Carriage rides are offered across the farm, though the pond (aka “the Lake of Shining Waters”) is within easy walk of the main house of the museum. For a more adult touch, the hearth of the home (upon which Montgomery herself was wed) has become a popular destination for bookish romantics to tie the knot.

In such an ideal, bucolic setting brought to life in such painstaking detail by the museum, it’s hard not to feel transported to a world in which Montgomery’s iconic protagonist — Anne Shirley of temper as fiery as her hair — was once a real, live girl who would have called the Campbell House home.