In the garden of the Historic Leaskdale Church (the former St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church) stands the life-size bronze statue of the famous Canadian author, Lucy Maud Montgomery (1874-1942). Montgomery came to live with her grandparents at Prince Eduard Island after her mother passed away when she was almost two years old. From a young age, she loved to read and write, and by 16 years of age, she started publishing her poetry and short stories in the local newspapers. Montgomery became a teacher and studied literature at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. In 1908 she published her first novel, Anne of Green Gables. At its center is a young red-haired orphan girl, Anne Shirley, who gets adopted by elderly siblings and comes to live on Prince Eduard Island. It quickly became a best-seller, translated to over 36 languages, and adapted into dozens of movies, TV series, films, radio, stage, and web productions, making Montgomery and Prince Eduard Island famous. In 1911, she married Ewen Macdonald, a Presbyterian minister, and left Prince Eduard Island following his assignment at St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church, Leaskdale. There she wrote her 11 books from the Leaskdale manse and raised her children. In 1926, they moved to a new congregation in Norval, Ontario, and nine years later to Toronto. Her final resting place is in the Cavendish Cemetery on Prince Edward Island. During her lifetime, she became one of the most popular authors in the world and published 20 novels, 500 poems, 530 short stories, and 30 essays. In 2006, The Lucy Maud Montgomery Society of Ontario, which operates the Leaskdale Manse National Historic Site at Montgomery house, purchased the St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church to preserve and establish it as the L.M. Montgomery National Historic Site. In 2012, L.M.M.S.O launched the project to place a life-size bronze statue of Montgomery on the church grounds. The first statue of her in the world. They managed the fundraising and chose the local artist, Wynn Walters, to create it. On June 20th, 2015, the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, Elizabeth Dowdeswell, unveiled the sculpture in a special ceremony. In her statue, Montgomery sits on a bench in the garden, looking across the fields she loved, holding a book. After visiting the statue, explore the exhibition about Montgomery inside the church and pay a visit to Leaskdale Manse, Lucy Maud Montgomery Home, which nowadays is a museum dedicated to her legacy and showcases her life while living in Leaskdale. Read more...