(photo © kiwidutch)
We are in the “village” of Avonlea, on Prince Edward Island… well it’s not really a village in the conventional sense, but it is at least the place where many historic buildings pertaining to Lucy Maude Montgomery, the author of “Anne of Green Gables“ have been transported and preserved.
It’s the relocation process of the Church that truly fascinates me.
Wow! what an undertaking…. and to look at the result you would never think that it had been dismantled the way it was.
This is the original Presbyterian Church from Long River, built in 1872.
L.M. Montgomery attended this church with her Montgomery and Campbell cousins.The architect was Mr. G. Baker, and Mr. Dempsey was the main builder.
The Montgomery Family pew was on the right hand side towards the side, A choir sang hymns in the church and an organ was added in 1901, although church records show that introduction of music into services met at first with some opposition.
(photo © kiwidutch)
Over time, the families who used the church moved away from Long River and the church was less frequently used, the last service was held in 1967. It was later bought by a private investor and was then acquired and bought to the Avonlea Village in 1999 for restoration and preservation, where a site for it had already been decided.
It quickly became clear the the church could not be relocated in one piece, so experts decide to make three horizontal cuts would be made to make four manageable pieces suitable for transportation. Under each cut, massive iron beams were inserted so that the sections that needed to be realigned on top of them could be supported. Then two of the islands largest cranes worked together on the back and the front of the sections to load separate transport trucks for each section.
(photo © kiwidutch)
(photo © kiwidutch)
The route that the convoy needed to take needed to be meticulously planned, the quicker main roads contained bridges that would be too narrow to be passable, too much traffic would be disrupted and too many overhead power lines would need to be cut to allow the transport trucks to pass.
An alternative route needed to be found and the solution was found in less used back roads where the route might be less direct, but the disruption of traffic was less and where it was possible to temporarily lift bridge guard rails.
(photo © kiwidutch)
Hand chiseled blocks of sandstone and gravel that made the new foundation were put in place, and cranes were bought in to re-build the dismantled pieces in reverse order, base first, the upper window sections and finally the steeple.
(photo © kiwidutch)
With excellent teamwork from masons, carpenters, electricians, crane operators, glaziers, laborers, plumbers resulted in the entire project being completed in an amazing eight days.
(photo © kiwidutch)
(photo © kiwidutch)
The Church is not the only building to be re-located here… amongst others, the Cavendish House and the Belmont School where L.M. Montgomery taught from 1896-1897 were transported too. Lucy Maude Montgomery is shown at the far right in the photograph below, with the pupils that she taught.
(photo © kiwidutch)
(photo © kiwidutch)
(photo © kiwidutch)
(photo © kiwidutch)
(photo © kiwidutch)
(photo © kiwidutch)
(photo © kiwidutch)
We are in central Maine, we look at our location on the map and look wistfully at our proximity to Canada. My American friend has visited some of the major Canadian cities further west but amazingly, never been directly north to the intersection of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island.
