ONCE UPON A TIME IN GIBSONS The Town of Gibsons Heritage ...

Work continued on the building and Fr. James Andrew Quigley was the fi rst to occupy the
priest’s quarters in 1946.
The growing congregation spurred a renovation in 1959, with wings added to accommodate a
crying room, space for the choir and organist, and more seating. Plain windows were replaced
with stained glass.
In 1962, the Church’s name was changed to “St. Mary’s.”
In 1963, Fr. Francis Nash purchased present 1.6-acre church site, with a small house set on back
of property (which he used as Priest’s Quarters) and another smaller dwelling. When the Crucil
site was sold in 1963, the church was moved in sections to its present location at Park Road and
Gibsons Way.
As Father Nash’s successor preferred to live at the Sechelt rectory (which had been the usual
practice for priests assigned to the Sunshine Coast parishes), the small house was converted into a
parish hall.
In 1971, Fr. Lehner blacktopped the driveway, leveled the site, planted evergreens and lawn.
Eventually the congregation’s volunteer gardeners would take the Most Improved Garden award
for this site, two years running.
In 1986, an architect was hired to design a new parish hall and oversee interior renovations to
the church. By 1988 the new parish hall was completed. The church’s nave had been enlarged
through the removal of interior walls and relocation of confessionals to the sacristy. New fl oor
supports and concrete leveling added to the building’s structural integrity.
Most recently, the present site was subdivided and half of the property was sold with the funds
used to pay for a property at the corner of Shaw and Charman Roads above Gower Point. Plans
for a new church to be constructed sometime before 2010 are currently being considered.
Gibsons Heritage Inventory and Register 37