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Even before the slow trickle of northward-moving settlers from the vast Southland had made its way into what would later become the village of Shady Vale, the Druids had been there. The house that Adrianne had wanted for many years--a house of her own--was built there, and they lived there for a time...but they never lived anywhere long. Still, the house remained, and one day Adrianne brought her infant daughter back. And there, when Andrea was still a young child, Adrianne died. No one in the village knew who the mysterious autumn-haired woman was, and her daughter, Andrea--known more commonly as Anne--grew up on the charity of the innkeeper, and the village midwife, Granny Melaton. It took an absence and a return, no longer under the shadow of lacking a father's name, for Andrea to find that she loved her valley home and the promise of quiet stability to be found there, a promise too seldom fulfilled.... Anne's House The house in Shady Vale, sometimes called Anne's House, is one of the Druids' places of refuge, and the home of Andrea's heart. As my own house-of-dreams, a certain amount of care has been spent on imagining it, and you are invited to take a tour. Anne's House is a white two-story frame house, about a quarter mile south of the South Road Inn (the Ohmsford's inn) in Shady Vale. It sits down in a hollow, screened from the road by trees and bushes. Roses climb the south side of the house. The porch and foundation are constructed of riverstones, layered with cement. A large front door opens into a wide hallway. To the left a door opens into a room, intended to be a sitting room, but stuffed with boxes and junk. To the left, double doors open into the living room. A large fireplace stands at the opposite end of the room. On the inner wall of the living room, near the fireplace, are two doors. The one to right leads into the study/library. The one on the left stands open on a staircase that winds upward. Past the living room, the front hall jogs and narrows. To the left a door opens into the dining room. Straight ahead the door opens into the kitchen. Another door in the kitchen also leads to the dining room. The kitchen is well-furnished (for the times) with a sink (with hand pump) and a large stove, and several tables, workspaces and cupboards. The door to the pantry is on the far end of the room. The back door opens to the west, from near the pantry door. Going upstairs, at the top you find yourself midway along the upstairs hallway. A door stands opposite the stair entrance. Down the hall to the left and right, doors to the bedrooms open on both sides.

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"So far, so good," said Anne, nodding cautious approval. "But, Gilbert, people cannot live by furniture alone. You haven't yet mentioned one very important thing. Are there trees about this house?" . "Heaps of them, oh, dryad!" . "Well, after that, there's no use asking you if there's a brook anywhere near. That would be expecting too much." . "But there is a brook--and it actually cuts across one corner of the garden." . "Then," said Anne, with a long sigh of supreme satisfaction, "this house you have found is my house of dreams, and none other.". . . . -L. M. Montgomery

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