School museum where L.M. Montgomery taught forced to close its doors

The Lower Bedeque Schoolhouse Museum will not be open to the general public this summer.

Anne of Green Gables author Lucy Maud Montgomery was a teacher at the school for a short period in the late 1890s. The museum is visited by hundreds of tourists each year who want to see places with a connection to the famous Island author.

It normally is open for visitors for about eight weeks each summer.

L.M. Montgomery: Of school and scandal

9 years ago

Duration 1:26

L.M. Montgomery's diaries reveal that, while engaged, she had a love affair with a man whose family lived across the street from the Lower Bedeque schoolhouse where she taught.

But there aren't enough community volunteers to keep it going this year, said schoolhouse chair Mary Kendrick.

"We did approach the province to see if they would be interested in taking it over and they were thinking about it. That's as far as we got," she said.

'No young people volunteering'

"And I did approach the Bedeque Historic Society, but they're in the same boat that we are. Most of their members are late 60s, mid-70s and first of all can't take on another project ... and there's no young people volunteering."

Two students were usually hired each summer for the museum.

Kendrick said a local person will be taking a few bus tours through this summer by appointment only.

Kendrick said she hopes a solution can be found to reopen the museum in the future.

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