Beban House Garden Restoration

What can I do to help the Beban House Garden Restoration?

• Do you have photos or recollections of the garden?
• Do you know others who do?
• Can you donate plants, materials, supplies or services?
• Are you willing to do leg-work (or arm-work)?
• Have you joined the Botanical Garden Society?
• Write to us.

The images on this page are copyrighted.
Historical photos are from the Larry Beban Giovando collection. Thanks to Lanarc for scanning. While the house is much the same as in the photos, the gardens have largely disappeared.

Beban House exterior. Undated. Larry Giovando collection.

Beban House History

(adapted from the "Stark Report" by Stuart Stark and Robert Patterson, 1993)

Beban House was apparently built in the early 1930s by Frank and Hannah Beban. Frank Beban travelled to San Francisco in 1906 from his native New Zealand and then north in 1907 to Canada, where he arrived in Cumberland and took a contract to cut mine timbers. He undertook a variety of work, including mule stable foreman at Extension, south of Nanaimo. He had a lumber mill at Extension, with a reported 50,000 board foot daily output. In addition, he owned the Beban coal mine, which was also situated near Extension.

In 1930, Frank Beban purchased 160 acres of property north of Nanaimo's boundaries. A previous farmhouse was on the property but was soon superceded by a new $25,000 home, now known as Beban House. Designed in a rustic style, the house is clad in unusual half-log siding and has a large front porch and a side entrance via a porte-cochère.

The Beban family lived there for over 20 years, developing lovely gardens around the house and a horse-racing track elsewhere on the property.

After Frank Beban died in the 1950s, the City of Nanaimo purchased the Beban Estate for $53,000. The City intended to use the property as the replacement for Central Sports Ground that was to become the site of Harbour Park Mall. The City developed Beban Park for recreation, with major buildings on the site. At various times, community offices, storage, and a summer children's day camp operation took up residence at Beban House. [In 1995 the City designated Beban House as a Heritage building and undertook extensive restoration. In the fall of 1996 Tourism Nanaimo relocated to the newly refurbished heritage landmark. Alterations to the grounds during this period were minor.]

Today, Beban House is a fine building, unique on Vancouver Island. The landmark presence of this house on Bowen Road gives Nanaimo one of its few tangible links with its earlier history, especially in the north end of the city.

It doesn't look like this any more, folks. This is part of the garden that we aim to restore.
The front of Beban House would be out of the frame to the right. Undated. Larry Giovando collection.

Subcommittee

(Adapted from the Spring 1997 CVI-BGS Newsletter)

A committee of CVI-BGS members was formed in January 1997 and a path forward was established with support from Cyril Hume from Victoria. The subcommittee broke out into subcommittees with the research, planning and design subcommittees getting the project moving.

After interviews with the Beban family and archival research of photos and literature, the subcommittee will establish a garden design to recapture the "look" of the gardens when the Beban family occupied the house.

The first goal of the subcommittee is to complete and install the window boxes and hanging baskets known to have complemented the Bebans' home when they occupied the house.

Members: Catherine Gisborne, Debra Bodner, Jonathan Berry, Sarah Ebell, Jessica Gemella, Dave Lindsay, Kathie Furuness.

(2008) Beban House at 2290 Beban Road, Nanaimo, BC, Canada, is now the home of Tourism Nanaimo

URL: This web page is:
http://members.shaw.ca/berry5868/bebangar.htm
May 12, 1999. Last modified February 14, 2008.

Beban House. Undated. Larry Giovando collection.