Leaskdale Manse, Presbyterian clergy house in Uxbridge, Canada.
Leaskdale Manse is a two-story clergy house made of yellow brick, standing beside St. Paul's Church in the rural Ontario hamlet of Leaskdale. The building has a T-shaped floor plan, a cross-gabled roof, and a wooden porch typical of late 19th-century parsonages in this region.
The manse was built in 1886 by carpenter William Gordon and bricklayer Valentine Brooks as the residence of the pastor of St. Paul's Presbyterian Church. Lucy Maud Montgomery and her husband, Reverend Ewan Macdonald, lived here from 1911 to 1926, and their three sons were born in the house. It was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1994, and the Township of Uxbridge had bought it in 1992.
The manse is named for Leaskdale, the hamlet where it stands. Montgomery's novel Rainbow Valley draws heavily on her life here, including a Presbyterian minister and his children. Her posthumously published journals describe the house and its surroundings in detail, and a 2010 restoration used those writings as a reference.
The manse stands at 11,909 Durham Regional Road 1, north of St. Paul's Church and south of Leaskdale Creek. The Township of Uxbridge bought the property in 1992, and the Lucy Maud Montgomery Society of Ontario has owned and run it as a museum since 2013. The interior layout survives, but few original furnishings remain.
The 2010 restoration relied on Montgomery's own journal descriptions of the house's architecture and furnishings as its reference. Most original furniture was sold or donated by her children, but a large donation of antique furniture from Parks Canada arrived in 2010, and some artifacts and letters from her years here remain.
The community of curious travelers
AroundUs brings together thousands of curated places, local tips, and hidden gems, enriched daily by 92,775 contributors worldwide.