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

ST. BARTHOLOMEW’S ANGLICAN CHURCH
BETHLEHEM CHAPEL
659 North Road (Lot D, DL 688, PL LMP16164, PID: 018-715-508)
Constructed: 1892; restored, 1990s
Type of construction: Wood frame, shingle siding
Reason for inclusion:
HISTORICAL IMPORTANCE TO COMMUNITY,
HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
The oldest building in Gibsons, the building that now comprises the Bethlehem Chapel
within the walls of the expanded and updated Anglican Church has played a signifi cant
role in the community for over 100 years.
The building was constructed at the instigation of a Mr. Hyde in memory of his son,
Arthur, who died in a smallpox epidemic. Hyde purchased and donated an acre of land
to the Anglican Diocese. Father Henry Glynne Fiennes Clinton directed volunteers in
clearing the site and erecting the small wooden church. Fr. Clinton was a heroic fi gure
who famously sounded the alarm during Vancouver’s Great Fire of 1886, and spearheaded
the opening of Vancouver’s fi rst Public Library in 1887. This 1889 building later served as
the nave of an enlarged building and was incorporated as a chapel in the new church designed
by architect Richard Williams and built around the original structure in 1995. The
new church also incorporated the 1989 Parish Hall. During the construction, the newlynamed
Bethlehem Chapel was carefully restored, using photographs and records from the
Sunshine Coast Museum and Archives.
The chapel retains a modest bell tower over the original entrance, with a 1901 vintage bell
acquired when St. Aiden’s Church in Roberts Creek was incorporated with St. Bart’s. This
bell is a relic of the S.S. Deerhound which plied the St. Lawrence before being brought to
the West Coast to serve as Union Steamships’ Lady Evelyn. A 70-pound, 16” brass bell
made to order in 1963 is a companion to this historic bell.
Gibsons Heritage Inventory and Register 51
photo by Going Coastal Communications Group, 2003