Aided by excellent weather the results were outstanding by any measurement. With the help of the Ontario Provincial Police and commissionaires, both automobile traffic and foot traffic were kept in hand and cars parked in an orderly fashion. A public address system played music and gave instructions not only to the customers but to the sales staff as well. If a home was sold, an announcement would be made instructing the sales staff to ‘mark off a house number’ from their list.
To keep tabs on the progress of the building, an ingenious, wall-length master plan, which showed just what stage each house had reached at any given time, was erected.
On Friday, May 9, a total of 10 homes were sold grossing $151,000. Saturday, crowds increased and business swelled to $174,000 and by Monday, $750,000 had been reached.
It was Mother’s Day. Prospective customers tour the model homes.
Home-builders in the United States predicted the Shipps might set a record for the entire continent. In December, the firm was rewarded by being named the only Canadian builder to win the award in a U.S. builders’ merchandising contest for their highly successful spring campaign. Shipp beat out two large California home building firms. The award is made only to firms which have sales in excess of 100 homes per year.
Catchy names were given to each of the eight styles of houses. These names have stayed with area residents over the years and are often referred to in conversations, but few people know what the names of their homes stand for or the origins of the names.
The Victoria model was named after Harold Shipp’s daughter Victoria. The Breezy Brae was named after the 33 acres (13.3ha) of lands purchased from Harry Whitehead, a ‘Gentleman Farmer’. He had purchased his farm from Charles Watson who had given it the name Breezy Brae. The Watsons were a prominent family who owned much of the property on both sides of Middle Road (QEW) and all had given their farms various names. The Hargord model got its name from the combination of Harold and Gordon, thus the Hargord. The Shipp-Shape model received its name from the company name. Two homes, the Mid Century and the Mid Century Deluxe were so named because the building of Applewood Acres took place at the Mid Century, the 1950s. The name Wedgewood, however, was selected, as Harold Shipp would say many years later, “because it simply had a nice ring to it”. No explanation was given about spelling Wedgewood with an ‘e’.
The Candish name is a combination of letters, Can-di-sh. It was selected to pay tribute to the firm that provided the first funding for Applewood Acres, Canada Life, the ‘di’ a tribute to Ron Dymond, Zone Manager of Canada Life and the ‘sh’ for Canada Life’s staff architect, Bill Sheets.
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