A prolific builder in Mississauga, Harold Shipp was known for his trademark “Shipp-built” brick embedded in his homes—and now his former home received recognition with a heritage nod.
Shipp was a renowned Mississauga builder, developer and philanthropist in Mississauga. He died in 2014, but not before leaving his mark on the city.
He was a “significant cultural figure in the story of Mississauga,” Matthew Wilkinson, Mississauga Heritage Advisory Committee committee member and historian with Heritage Mississauga, said at the Feb. 10 heritage committee meeting.
With his father, GTA developer Gordon Shipp, Harold Shipp built nearly 900 homes in Applewood Acres, Applewood Heights and Applewood Hills in the 1950s. At the time, it was the largest single subdivision built by a family developer in Canada, according to a story on Visit Mississauga. The Shipps went on to build more homes in the Credit Woodlands and Streetsville.
An Applewood Acres sales pavilion. Photo: City of Mississauga report, courtesy of Dave Cook
Shipp was elected president of both the Toronto and Canadian Home Builders’ Associations. He received numerous accolades, including both the Queen’s Silver Jubilee and Canada 125 medals. Shipp gave back to the community extensively, most notably the Harold G. and June C. Shipp Stroke Centre at Trillium Hospital’s Mississauga campus.
Harold Shipp’s family home at 500 Comanche Rd., south of the QEW, off Mississauga Road, was recently approved for a heritage designation under the Ontario Heritage Act for its physical, design, historical, associative and contextual value at the Feb. 10 Heritage Advisory Committee.
The Comanche Road house epitomizes “well-to-do 60s suburban architecture and is contextually related to the Credit River and nearby transportation routes that helped give rise to sprawling homes in the area now known as Mississauga,” the committee report notes.
Shipp had one of his engineers design the ranch-style bungalow in 1966, and it was built the same year. The Shipp family lived there from 1967 to 2009.
His trademark “Shipp-built” brick graces this home. In a sales video for the property, while pointing to the brick, Shipp says: “That’s what makes me proud of this home. It makes it very unique, and I hope that whoever buys it does not ever have a wish to remove it.”
The “Shipp Built” brick. Photo: City of Mississauga report, courtesy of Dave Cook
The home is unique, said Wilkinson, who had an opportunity to visit Shipp there before he died. There are views of the Credit River, a lot of glass in the rear facade and a massive open space in the interior.
“It really is a grand home in an understated way from the road itself,” Wilkinson said. “I would argue it is more impactful architecturally inside.”
A recent interior photo of 500 Comanche Rd. Photo: Royal LePage Real Estate
The house had all the amenities popular in the sixties, including an in-ground pool, a four-car attached heated garage, a sauna, a large kitchen with a barbecue range, a sunroom and a great room with a fireplace, the heritage report notes.
The house was designed with entertaining in mind, and the Shipp family hosted “frequent parties,” the report notes.
Sitting on a gentle slope with access to the Credit River, the property was once home to an apple orchard and the river provided water for the trees.
A recent interior photo of 500 Comanche Rd. Photo: Royal LePage Real Estate
The home sold for $3,100,000 in 2012, and was listed for $8,999,999 in 2024, but didn’t sell, according to online real estate records.
The listing stated the 8,000-square-foot home has been “meticulously renovated inside and out.”
For more information, see the meeting here.
Lead photo: Royal LePage Real Estate
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