Tag: Whistler Skiers Chapel

The Skiers’ ChapelThe Skiers’ Chapel

September 5, 2023 Whistler Museum 0 Comments

The Whistler Mountain Skiers’ Chapel was one of the most iconic buildings from the early development of Whistler as a ski resort. Remembered for its distinctive A-frame design, the building was one of the first skier chapels in Canada, as well as one of the first interdenominational churches in Canada.

The chapel was designed from conception to be integrated into the ski culture blossoming in Whistler. Franz Wilhelmsen, president of Garibaldi Lifts Ltd, set aside a small parcel of land for an alpine skiers’ chapel. Wilhelmsen had fond memories of skiers’ chapels in the alpine villages of Norway, his home country, and envisioned something similar on Whistler Mountain. Likewise, the chapel’s status as an interdenominational chapel was envisioned since its beginning. Marion Sutherland and Joan Maclean, who formed the original board of trustees and established the fundraising committee in 1966, ascribed to different denominations of the Christian faith; Sutherland was a Protestant and Maclean belonged to the Roman-Catholic Church.

A section of the original blueprints by Asbjorn Gathe for the skiers’ chapel.

Fundraising began in 1966 with Sutherland and Maclean seeking support from local faith communities, approaching both the Vancouver Council of Churches and the Kamloops diocese, both of which agreed to support the effort by supplying ministers. Architect Asbjorn Gathe contributed by donating plans for the chapel’s design, a simple A-frame, the layout left intentionally devoid of specific denominational features. A stained glass window designed by Donald Babcock was donated by the Southam family. Support for the chapel’s construction also came from local ski culture. Warren Miller, colloquially referred to as “dean of ski cinematographers,” held a benefit screening of his film Ski on the Wild Side and donated a portion of the proceeds to the construction of the chapel.

Warren Miller’s advertisement for his charity screening, with proceeds going to the Skiers’ Chapel and Ski Patrol, in Ski Trails Volume 1, No. 10, 1966.
The chapel’s iconic stained glass window by artist Donald Babcock. Wallace Collection

The $15,000 needed was swiftly raised, and the chapel’s construction was completed in December, the first service being held on Christmas Eve 1966. The dedication ceremony included representatives from Lutheran, United, Anglican and Jewish faiths. As Whistler expanded over the years, the chapel also grew and changed. It held regular services for many denominations, ranging from Catholic to Seventh Day Adventist. It also became a de-facto community center, as local groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous and community health services utilized the space.

The chapel with skis and a map of Whistler Mountain in the foreground. Whistler Mountain Ski Corporation Collection.
A view of the chapel’s entrance. Wallace Collection

The growth of Whistler and the chapel’s evolving role exposed the physical limitations of the A-frame building, forcing some groups such as the Whistler Community Church to split up services. Additionally, as the Creekside location developed, the chapel was forced to relocate multiple times, and was finally given the option to move to the new Village Centre. However, the projected moving cost of $10,000 and the growing spatial limitations prompted the Skier’s Chapel Society to launch a fundraising campaign for a new building in 1989.

The Skiers’ Chapel being moved to a new location adjacent to the Whistler Mountain Ski Club Cabin in 1979. Whistler Question Collection.

The vision for what the new chapel would be had changed by 1991, becoming more ambitious with the hope of constructing a building that could fulfill the needs of both secular and faith communities in Whistler. The committee also exchanged their plot of land in Village Centre for one in Village North in 1996. Both the Catholic Church and the Whistler Community Church, two of the chapel’s larger congregations, decided to pursue their own buildings, but the Whistler Skiers’ Chapel Society continued to fundraise for a new interfaith building in the Village, spearheaded by members of the Jewish faith and United Church, as well as community members with no particular religious affiliations.

By 1999, the majority of the funds for a new building in Village North had been raised through donations from organizations including the Chan foundation, the RMOW, and the Whistler Blackcomb Foundation, as well as more personal donations. $2 million was donated by the Young and Barker families in honour of William Maurice Young, who had been the president of the Whistler Mountain Ski Corporation. When the new interfaith building opened, it was named Maurice Young Millennium Place (the building is now known as the Maury Young Arts Centre). The last service held in the original skier’s chapel was for Easter of 2000.

A proposed add-on to the Skiers’ chapel. Skiers’ Chapel Collection.

Framing WhistlerFraming Whistler

October 18, 2022 Whistler Museum 0 Comments

Today you are less likely to come across and A-frame in Whistler than you would have been a few decades ago. However, the once widely popular structure can still be spotted throughout Whistler’s older neighbourhoods and found in many photographs of Whistler’s mountain resort past in the Whistler Museum’s archival collections.

While A-frames have historically been used for various purposes around the world, the A-frame did not become widespread in North America until after the Second World War. It then became a popular vacation home for affluent middle class households, especially in the mountains. A-frames were relatively simple to build and were soon available in prefabricated kits. This popularity continued through the 1960s when Whistler Mountain was first being developed as a ski resort, so it is no surprise that A-frames began to appear throughout the area soon after development began.

*The Whistler Skiers’ Chapel at the base of Whistler Mountain. Whistler Mountain Ski Corporation Collection.*

Some of the A-frames built in Whistler at the time were constructed right at the base of the Whistler Mountain lifts, including the Whistler Skiers’ Chapel, the first interdenominational chapel in Canada. The Whistler Skiers’ Chapel was constructed in 1966 after the first shortened season of skiing on Whistler Mountain. It was inspired by the memories of lift company president Franz Wilhelmsen who recalled small chapels in the ski villages of Norway where he had skied as a child. The lift company donated land near the gondola base and the A-frame design of the Chapel was provided free of charge of Asbjorn Gathe. Like Wilhelmsen, Gathe had been born in Norway. He studied architecture at the Federal Institute of Technology at the University of Zurich and then immigrated to Vancouver in 1951, where he worked as an architect. The Chapel was easily identifiable at the gondola base thanks to both its A-frame structure and its stained glass windows designed by Donald Babcock.

*One of the A-frames built by the lift company to house their managers. Wallace Collection.*

In 1966, the lift company also built two A-frames at the gondola base to serve as staff housing for its manager and their families (at the time, the Bright and Mathews families). The houses were situated right on the hill and Lynn Mathews, whose husband Dave was operations manager, recalled that their A-frame had seventeen steps up to the deck in the summer but only three in the winter when snow built up around them.

*The Burrows’ A-frame on Matterhorn, where the first editions of the Whistler Question were created. Burrows Collection.*

A-frames were popular away from the gondola base as well. When Don and Isobel MacLaurin built what at the time was their holiday home in the 1960s, they chose to build an A-frame themselves with help from local residents such as Murray Coates and Ron Mackie and beams from a 1915 school in Squamish that was being torn down. Similarly, when Paul and Jane Burrows moved to Whistler full-time in the 1970s they decided to build an A-frame in Alpine Meadows. Like many of the A-frame homes in Whistler, both these A-frames and the managers’ houses at Whistler Mountain later had extensions added onto them, changing the A-frame shape.

These are just a few of the A-frames pictured in the museum’s collections and while they may no longer look quite like the classic A-frame, some of them are still standing in Whistler today.

Canada’s First Interdenominational ChapelCanada’s First Interdenominational Chapel

December 24, 2019 Whistler Museum 3 Comments

Whistler has had some pretty memorable buildings constructed in the valley, but few are as instantly recognizable as the Whistler Skiers’ Chapel. This iconic structure stood in various locations in Creekside for decades and, based on the responses we get to any photograph of the Chapel, holds poignant memories for many residents and visitors, past and present.

The Whistler Skiers’ Chapel. Whistler Mountain Ski Corporation Collection.

Franz Wilhelmsen, the first president of Garibaldi Lifts Ltd., fondly remembered small chapels in ski villages of Norway where he had skied as a young boy, and the lift company was able to donate land for the Chapel right at the base of Whistler Mountain. In 1966, Marion Sutherland and Joan Maclean formed a Board of Trustees and a fundraising committee for the idea. They approached the Vancouver Council of Churches to supply ministers and the Diocese of Kamloops agreed to include Whistler in the territory of Father Wilfred Scott of Mount Currie.

There were many people who donated their time and money to the construction of the Chapel. The Chapel’s stained glass windows, designed by Donald Babcock, were gifted by Mr. & Mrs. Gordon Southam; Dewer Maclean donated a hand-lettered Founders book (currently in the Museum archives); and an organ was purchased with the proceeds from a ski movie night held in Vancouver.

The stained glass window of the Chapel. Wallace Collection.

The simple A-frame design of the Chapel was provided free of charge by Vancouver architect Asbjorn Gathe. Norwegian-born Gathe studied architecture at the Federal Institute of Technology at the University of Zurich before immigrating to Vancouver in 1951. He joined the firm of Frank Gardiner and Peter Thornton, becoming a partner in Gardiner, Thornton and Gathe in 1954 before leaving to start his own practice in 1966.

Gathe is best known for his three decades of work designing Westminster Abbey for Benedictine monks in Mission, BC, but he has also left a lasting mark on Whistler. In addition to donating his design for the Chapel, Gathe also designed Edelweiss Village (a twelve-unit complex near the Creekside gondola base) and is responsible for the design of Tamarisk.

When the Whistler Skiers’ Chapel opened in 1966, it became the first non-denominational chapel in Canada. It was purposely designed with no purely Christian symbols and its dedication ceremony included clergy from the Anglican, Lutheran, Jewish, and United faiths.

Tony and Irene Lyttle getting married in the Skiers’ Chapel, January 1967.

The first service held at the Chapel was for Christmas Eve and was open to any who wished to attend. The Chapel’s interdenominational Christmas Carol Service on Christmas Eve proved to be increasingly popular, and by 1978 two additional services had been added to accommodate the several hundred people who attended. By the mid-1980s, the demand had outgrown the small building and the Christmas Carol Service moved to the newly constructed Whistler Conference Centre. It continued to be an inter-denominational services, led in 1986 by Reverend Valerie Reay from the United Church and Pastor Lamont Schmidt of the Whistler Community Church, with carols led by the Whistler Singers under the direction of Molly Boyd.

Though the original Whistler Skiers’ Chapel was dismantled after a final Easter Service in 2000, the many weddings, christenings, and services held in the A-frame are well remembered by those who attended.