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

FIR TREE
Christensen Village Care Facility
Shaw Road
photo by Going Coastal Communications Group, 2006
Reason for inclusion:
HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
Thor Christensen’s original 10-acre property
on Shaw Road was sold to the Town (at half
its then-market value) with the stipulation that
it not be re-sold, that its trees be preserved if
possible (particularly the “Three Sisters”) and
that it be used for community benefi t or recreation.
When the site was developed by the Good
Samaritan Society for seniors’ housing and care
facilities, contractors designed the facilities to
incorporate as many of the trees in the landscaping
as possible. One of the “Three Sisters,”
a beautifully-proportioned fi r, stands outside the
cottages set aside for Alzheimer patients.
Thor Christensen moved to Gibsons from the Cariboo at the age of 30. Unable to fi nd work as a
carpenter on the Coast, he hired on at Brittania Mines building support beams for the tunnel works
and visiting his wife (who died young) and two children on the Shaw Road property whenever
possible.
The Christensens lived modestly, supplying most of their needs from their chickens and gardens
on the property, and heating the house with the kitchen wood stove. Thor lived alone on the property
and his hobby was cutting wood for the stove. Three outbuildings were always well-stocked
with well-seasoned kindling and fi rewood.
A strong man with a grip of iron well into his eighties, Thor Christensen loved the trees on his
property and many of them had stories associated with them. One of the trees still bears the rope
scars from a boat-building exercise. The boat was constructed on the property, then manoeuvred
down the then-unpaved Highway 101 to Gibsons Harbour for launching.
Christensen named three of the most graceful trees on the property after his three sisters at home
in Norway.
He developed a strong friendship with John Kavanagh, a local developer who had hoped to build
a “green” housing development on the Christensen property that would have preserved much of
the timber. To that end, at his own considerable expense Kavanagh had the trees on the property
surveyed, tagging and numbering each.
When Christensen decided instead to sell the property to the Town, he hoped that the majority of
the tagged trees could be saved.
Landscape Architect Judith Reeve indicated that two of Christensen’s “Three Sisters” and many
of the old fruit trees were cut down, but the developers tried to work in harmony with Christensen’s
heritage wherever possible - even saving the conifers along Shaw Road and a rose bush
that has entwined itself among them.
Gibsons Heritage Inventory and Register 89