One of Vancouver’s biggest old homes is even larger, and is virtually new inside
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The historic Wilmar mansion in Vancouver’s Southlands neighbourhood is back on the market, priced at $10.998 million.
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The phrase “old meets new” is overused, but in this case it fits. The exterior of the Tudor-revival building at 2050 Southwest Marine Dr. has been restored to its 1925 glory, but the 11,000-sq.-ft. interior is virtually new.
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In fact, part of it is a new addition — a formal living room with a giant marble fireplace was added to the eastern end of the main floor, which is now 3,300 square feet. The house has eight bedrooms and 11 bathrooms over four levels, which you can access through an elevator.
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Realtor Clair Rockel says the 10,936-sq.-ft. mansion is “a deal in this market” for a luxury estate.
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“It works out to $1,000 a square foot, which anyone who watches Vancouver real estate understands is a very, very aggressive price per square foot,” said Rockel.
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Some history is in order.
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Wilmar was built by railway baron Willard Kitchen, who made his fortune as a railroad contractor in New Brunswick before moving to B.C. and getting involved with the Pacific Great Eastern Railway, which is now B.C. Rail.
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In 1925, Kitchen commissioned architects James Anderson Benzie and William Bow to build a 9,000-sq.-ft. house on nearly a hectare of land. It cost $40,000 to build, and had a view of the Fraser River, Vancouver Island and Mt. Baker from the back.
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“Shaughnessy just didn’t have a view or the big, wide open spaces that Southwest Marine did, so that’s where (rich) people gravitated to in the ’20s and ’30s,” said heritage expert Don Luxton.
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“People were looking for property, so they were building farther out.”
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The name of the house came by combining the first three letters in the first names of Willard Kitchen and his wife Mary. Three generations of the family lived in the mansion, but it ended with the death of granddaughter Judith Jardine in 2006.
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In Jardine’s will, she left her $40 million estate to the Vancouver Foundation, and Wilmar went on the market. It was still in original shape, with oak floors, lead-glass windows, plaster ceilings and walls, and state-of-the-art (for 1925) icebox and servant call buttons.
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Tudor Revival show home forms part of exclusive Wilmar estate
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A shy and reclusive heiress who lived alone for 20 years in a rambling mansion on Southwest Marine Drive left the bulk of an estate worth $40 million to the Vancouver Foundation, it was revealed Thursday.
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But the home’s large size and heritage status made it a complicated property to sell or redevelop. Property records show it sold for $2.836 million in 2011, and $7.5 million in 2015.
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There was a public outcry when it looked like the house would be demolished. Several agents were involved in redeveloping the property.
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In 2023, it was one of the properties involved in the bankruptcy of Coromandel Properties, which had a plan to save the mansion and its garage/coach house, and build four new luxury townhomes on the site.
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The mansion and coach house/garage were sold to Jaswinder Kaur Bhugra in 2024 for $4.025 million, and the project was finally finished. One of the townhomes was sold for nearly $3.7 million in January 2025.
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One of the early proposals would have seen the old mansion turned into two units, but it’s still one house, designed by architect Stuart Howard.
