Bala’s Museum with Memories of Lucy Maud Montgomery keeps the door to 1922 wide open. When the author of Anne of Green Gables vacationed in Bala that summer, the experience sank so deep into her imagination that she set her novel The Blue Castle here — the only one of her books not set on Prince Edward Island. This privately run, family-owned museum, opened in 1992, restores a heritage house to the year Montgomery fell for the village.
Inside, the collection reads like a love letter to her Bala summer. Handwritten excerpts from her Bala diary sit beside photographs of the people and places she wrote about, and the silver tea service given to her as a wedding present in 1911 still gleams in its case. Film fans get a jolt of recognition: the boat that sank beneath Megan Follows in the Anne of Green Gables television movie is preserved here. Costumed guides lead tours for children, and the gift shop is considered one of the finest Anne-themed shops in Canada.
It’s a small, seasonal museum with a big story — proof that a single summer in Muskoka could redirect one of Canada’s most famous imaginations. Call ahead before visiting, as tours run at set times.