Heritage log house in Point Grey to be relocated to Vancouver Island this fall | Daily Hive

1912-built heritage log house of late B.C. artist in West Point Grey to be relocated to Vancouver Island this fall

The 1912-built heritage log house at 4686 West 2nd Ave. in Vancouver's West Point Grey neighbourhood. (Sotheby's International Realty)

A house located near the southeast corner of the intersection of Blanca Street and West 2nd Avenue will be on the move in Fall 2025, quite literally.

The single-family lot of 4686 West 2nd Ave. — roughly three city blocks south of Spanish Banks Beach in Vancouver’s West Point Grey neighbourhood — is set to be redeveloped, based on a September 2023 application to build a new single-family house on the property.

Currently, the site is occupied by a 1912-built, two-storey house with six bedrooms and four bathrooms across nearly 4,900 sq. ft. of building floor area.

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While this is an old structure, it is not just any house; it is listed in the City of Vancouver’s Heritage Register, which means the property is formally recognized for its heritage value.

According to the Vancouver Heritage Foundation, this house at 4686 West 2nd Ave. was designed in 1912 by architects Perry and Fowler and built by Kaul and York for lawyer James Francis Joseph Cashman. Cashman, originally from Ontario, practiced law there before relocating to Vancouver.

Although Perry and Fowler’s partnership was brief, both left a lasting mark on the city’s architecture. The home is recognized as an example of the Arts and Crafts style, noted for its use of local materials, a prominent stone chimney, and its close integration with the garden.

4686 West 2nd Avenue Vancouver heritage log house

The 1912-built heritage log house at 4686 West 2nd Ave. in Vancouver’s West Point Grey neighbourhood. (Sotheby’s International Realty)

The massive stones used in the foundation, chimney, and verandah were barged in from the Capilano River, while the cedar logs cladding the exterior were floated from Halfmoon Bay on the Sunshine Coast. From Spanish Banks Beach, the logs were dragged uphill to the site by horse.

For well over half a century, during the latter half of the property’s history, this house has been a meeting place for B.C. business leaders, entrepreneurs, artists, and politicians. It was owned by artist and art collector Jean Fahrni.

After Fahrni died in 2019 at the age of 101, the process began to dispose of the property.

In her obituary, it was celebrated that she was a trained nurse before becoming an influential person in B.C.’s arts and culture scene. She was a pioneering ceramic artist, a founding member of the B.C. Potter’s Guild, and a close friend of renowned Haida carver Bill Reid.

The 1912-built heritage log house at 4686 West 2nd Ave. in Vancouver’s West Point Grey neighbourhood. (Sotheby’s International Realty)

Her passion for Asian ceramics led her to amass a 600-piece teaching collection, which was stored at her West Point Grey log house for over two decades. She later donated this collection to the Museum of Vancouver, where she organized influential exhibitions and served as president of the Canadian Society for Asian Arts.

“In September of 1950, Jean and [her husband] Harry found and fell in love with their ‘forever’ home, the old giant log house on 2nd Avenue near Blanca Street,” reads the obituary.

“The story of her collection is a true Vancouver story, starting with the one fact of where the collection was housed for over 25 years; Jean’s giant log home on the west side of Vancouver, where local artists, dignitaries and politicians would frequently gather, share ideas and indulge in Jean Fahrni’s plum wine.”

Records show the property changed hands in November 2022 in a deal worth $8.5 million — just over half of its original listing price of $16 million. As of July 2024, the property carries an assessed value of $9.013 million, including $8.548 million for the land and $0.465 million for the structure.

Beyond being formally recognized for its heritage value in the register, there are no legal protections for retaining the structure and altering it through renovations.

But there are no plans for demolition; it will be retained without compromising its heritage value — at another location.

The 1912-built heritage log house at 4686 West 2nd Ave. in Vancouver’s West Point Grey neighbourhood. (Sotheby’s International Realty)

The 1912-built heritage log house at 4686 West 2nd Ave. in Vancouver’s West Point Grey neighbourhood. (Google Maps)

After severing the house from its foundations and separating the structure into two sections, Nickel Bros., a local company with proven expertise in moving structures, will begin the careful process of moving this house, starting on the night of Nov. 5, 2025.

Cassidy Vander Ros of Nickel Bros told Daily Hive Urbanized that the two sections of the house will be loaded onto trucks and moved a few blocks to Locarno Beach, where the sections will be transferred onto a barge. From there, the house will be towed to Patricia Bay on Vancouver Island for temporary storage at the company’s facility.

Altogether, the entire relocation from West Point Grey to Patricia Bay is expected to take about 15 hours.

She also confirmed the structure will continue to be used as a residence.

Nickel Bros. turned heads in August 2023 when they relocated the historic Kitsilano “Little Yellow Schoolhouse” by truck and then a barge from Kitsilano Beach to the Squamish Nation’s Capilano reserve in North Vancouver, where it has now been refitted for its new use as a language and cultural immersion learning hub.

In November 2024, they also relocated UBC’s historic Old Fire Hall to a nearby temporary storage site. Sometime over the coming years, the heritage structure will be moved again and repurposed as a landmark centrepiece amenity building for the new Lower Mall Student Residence complex.

The 1912-built heritage log house at 4686 West 2nd Ave. in Vancouver’s West Point Grey neighbourhood. (Sotheby’s International Realty)

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