History of the Shining Waters Country Inn

The Shining Waters Country Inn has a unique history closely tied to the life of renowned author Lucy Maud Montgomery. The original Inn building was the former home of Pierce and Rachel MacNeill and was located on a portion of the large John MacNeill farm in the centre of Cavendish. The MacNeills were one of the original founding families of Cavendish. Pierce and Rachel MacNeill were Lucy Maud Montgomery's cousins and lived directly across the street from her in Cavendish.

When the Federal Government decided to establish the Prince Edward Island National Park in the 1940's most of the original MacNeill farm was purchased and the MacNeill home was declared surplus to their needs. The home was purchased by Leta Andrew and moved by horses and sleigh to its current location on Cawnpore Lane (Rte 13). Leta added on to the building and opened it in 1942 as one of the Island's earliest tourism accommodation facilities – “Shining Waters Lodge”. Later she also added a number of cottages.

Montgomery's vivid images make it clear that many of her stories are based on real locations in the Cavendish area. Like many authors, however, Montgomery argued that her characters were not based on real people but were solely of her own creation. Many readers strongly suspect that this is not entirely true. Many believe, for example, that the character Rachel Lynde was based on Rachel MacNeill. The most fascinating parallel lies between her main character – Anne Shirley – and the actual orphan, Ellen MacNeill.

Author John Willoughby in his book “Ellen” describes the life of this orphan girl and points out the dramatic similarities between her life and that of the character Anne Shirley. Willoughby believes that Ellen was a Home Child, sent from an orphanage in England. Pierce and Rachel MacNeill were an elderly farming couple and decided to seek out a young boy to help them on the farm. Much like Anne Shirley, they requested a boy from the orphanage and when they picked the orphan up at the Kensington train station, a girl had been delivered. In fact Ellen arrived with her older brother, but the brother was adopted by another family.

The Home Children was a somewhat tragic chapter in Canada's immigration history. These “orphans” were collected off the streets of London and other cities and placed in large orphanages run by various charitable organizations. One of the largest was the Bernardo Orphanage. The rationale was that these children would be saved from their squalid life on the streets and be sent to live a healthy life with rural families in Canada and Australia. In fact, many of these children were not orphans but were taken away from their destitute families only to be sent to farms where they were often treated as little more than indentured servants. Ellen MacNeill was one of the fortunate children who was embraced as a full member of her new family. She grew up and lived a happy life in Cavendish. There is a picture of the original MacNeill farmhouse (prior to the many renovations) in our lounge, together with a picture of Shining Waters Lodge circa 1950 showing the Inn and cottages.

We are very proud of the rich history of our Inn and we strive to maintain its character. The newer north wing of the Inn has relatively modern rooms with level floors. The older south wing still maintains the feel of a 150 year old farmhouse. Several of the rooms are quite small, they have angled ceilings and sloping floors. Some guests find them quite dated, while our “Anne” fans think they have been taken back in time to the land of “Anne”. We have also maintained one exterior wall of the original farmhouse, hidden away under one of our stairways. Touching the well aged cedar shingles brings the true age of the building into clear perspective.

The Shining Waters Country Inn and Cottages was purchased by Philip and Marilyn Wood in 1996. Their daughter, Kathleen, lives with her 4 daughters in the big yellow house at the north end of the property. She is our housekeeping supervisor. Her second eldest daughter is named Ellen and, perhaps not surprisingly, for the last several years she has worked at the Anne of Green Gables Store in Avonlea Village. If you visit, please say hello!