Farm market store and heritage home to be demolished for condos in Brampton

A popular farm market store and a designated heritage home will likely be torn down for a condo and townhouse development in Brampton.

The iconic Apple Factory at 10020 Mississauga Rd. in Brampton confirmed in July that they would be closing at the end of the year after a 44-year run.

And now the City of Brampton’s Heritage Board is considering a proposal to demolish a circa-1880s farmhouse on the same property.

Glen Rouge Developments is proposing three high-rise residential towers and six blocks of stacked townhouses on the property, according to a report to the Oct. 17 Heritage Board meeting.

The towers, which would front onto Mississauga Road and Bovaird Drive, range from 23 to 25 storeys with nine storey podiums. Two landscaped amenity spaces would be between the towers, with additional open air amenity spaces between the stacked townhouse blocks.

The proposed development is a part of a larger planned community known as Mount Pleasant Heights, which will include low, medium, and high-density residential developments, an elementary school, community services, parks and a new road network.

The City of Brampton designated the farmhouse on the Apple Factory property as a heritage site on April 21, 2021.

The home exhibits design elements of the “Gothic Revival” architectural style such as a cross gable roof, centre gables with a window opening and verge board, a one-storey bay window with decorative brackets and dichromatic buff brick accents over the door and window openings, according to the designation.

It once was in a thriving agricultural area with many farmhouses. But in recent years, the area has been transitioning from rural to urban.

“Along with other farmhouses on the west side of Mississauga Road, this brick residence maintains a visual and historical link to the former character of the area,” the city notes in the designation document.

But the heritage home is now in the way of a Region of Peel plan to widen Mississauga Road from four to six lanes to accommodate the new residential developments.

A report prepared on behalf of Glen Rouge Developments proposes demolishing the home and salvaging and documenting elements of the home. This involves documenting the existing farmhouse through measured drawings and high-resolution photographs, salvaging materials (e.g. brick, stone), and interpreting the site’s agricultural heritage.

“While the proposed demolition constitutes a negative impact to the property’s cultural heritage value and attributes, the farmhouse has been disconnected from both its on-site and surrounding agricultural context for many years,” the report notes.

Currently, the farmhouse is the only remaining building of the historic farmstead. The settler farm originally contained an orchard owned by Margaret Brien. In 1880, a farmer named James H. Scott purchased the land, where he built the farmhouse in the early 1880s.

According to the 1901 census, the Scott farm included three barns and outbuildings in addition to the farmhouse, which is all that is left of the farmstead today.

The Scott family owned the property until 1914 and then various other owners held the farm. In 1979, the Apple Factory was established by the Laidlaw family (local apple growers), as a commercial outlet to sell their produce. Shortly thereafter, it was expanded to include a bake shop and butcher shop.

The city report notes the home is “in fair-to-poor condition with localized areas of defective condition.”

Although moving the home was considered, the developer suggests the structural condition and the size property limit this option, according to the report.