"Bala's Museum: with memories of Lucy Maud Montgomery"
in the Muskoka region of Ontario is housed in the Tourist Home where Montgomery
ate her meals during a two week stay in the region in the summer of 1922.
In 1990, Bala residents Jack and Linda Hutton learned that their beloved
Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery and her family had spent a summer
holiday in Bala. When they then heard that the former tourist home, where
Maud and her family dined in 1922, was for sale, Jack and Linda bought
and lovingly restored it as a local history museum.
Lucy Maud Montgomery loved the beauty of Bala, and writes in her Journal
"Bala is a dear spot-somehow I love it. It has the flavor of home-perhapes
because of its pines which are plentiful hereabout" (Selected
Journals of L.M. Montgomery: Volume III: 1921-1929).
The experience in Bala inspired the author. Maud created a comedic love
story for adult readers called The Blue Castle which was published
in 1926. Set in Ontario, it is the only novel she ever wrote that is takes
place entirely outside of her home of Prince Edward Island.
Bala's Museum now displays not only historical materials from Bala's past,
but also material relating to Lucy Maud. The silver tea service that was
Maud's wedding present; first and early editions of her books; the boat
used in the most recent movie version of Anne of Green Gables are
among the many objects in the museum. The museum holds unique activities
such as an annual lawn party called a 'Re-enactment of L.M. Montgomery
arriving in Bala on July 24th' and the 'Cran-Anne Look-Alike Contest'
in October.
How to get to Bala: Bala is about 200 km north of Toronto, Ontario.
Take Highways 400 and 11 north to Gravenhurst. Follow Highway 169 west
roughly 22 km to Bala. In Bala, turn down either River Street or Maple
Street off Highway 169 and drive two blocks until you see their picket
fence.
For more information, contact Jack or Linda Hutton at balamus@muskoka.com
Their web site at www.bala.net/museum
The Inn at Roselawn
It takes less than a minute's walk
from Bala's Museum to The Inn at Roselawn,
which used to be called Roselawn Lodge, where Lucy Maud Montgomery and
her family (husband and two sons) stayed in the summer of 1922. Maud writes
in her journal, The Selected Journals of L.M. Montgomery, Volume III:
1921-1929, page 61-62:
Sunday, July 30, 1922
"Roselawn" Bala, Muskoka
Roselawn is a boarding house on the Muskoka river... We only room here. We get our meals up the street* at a certain Mrs. Pykes who is a lady cumbered with much serving. The situation here is very lovely. The lawn runs down to the river where the bank is fringed by trees. It is beautiful at all times but especially at night when the river silvers under the moon, the lights of the cottages twinkle out in the woods along the opposite bank, bonfires blaze with all the old allure of the camp fire, and music and laughter drift across from the innumerable canoes and launches on the river.
* Then a tourist home, it is now rearranged as the Bala's
Museum.
Unfortunately, the original building of Roselawn in which Maud stayed
burnt down in 1941; however, the building's lovely atmosphere is the same
as before. The twin building next to the one L.M.M. stayed in has survived
to this day, and, though the inside has been partially renovated, it provides
a perfect picture of the house she describes in her journals.
In 1996, Roselawn Lodge was purchased by Mr. & Mrs. Hutton, the owners
of the Bala's Museum. Roselawn Lodge was reborn as The Inn at Roselawn
which is in among the trees facing the Moon River and provides lovely
accommodations.
For more information, contact Jack or Linda Hutton at
balamus@muskoka.com
Their web site at www.bala.net/museum
Annes from the look-a-like contest in 1995.
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LMM News99 & 2000 & 2001 & 2002
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