Live in Park Lake/Highland
The same brick streets and pre-war houses as the historic district next door, and none of the protection or the paperwork that comes with it.
Park Lake/Highland is 263 acres north of East Colonial Drive built around two lakes, Park Lake and Lake Highland, and it shares a boundary with Lake Eola Heights. What it does not share is the designation. The City of Orlando has created six local historic districts since 1980, the most recent in 2000, and none of them covers these streets. That single administrative fact is what separates the two neighborhoods: here nobody needs a certificate of appropriateness to alter a façade, add a garage apartment or knock a house down, and nobody can stop a neighbor doing the same. At a USGS-measured 76.2 feet, this is the second-lowest reference point of any Orlando guide on this site, a few inches above Thornton Park, and still seventy-six feet and forty miles from the coast. Storm surge is not the risk. The two lake basins and how the ground drains into them are, and that is a question about a specific lot rather than about the neighborhood.
The neighborhood that looks designated and is not
The City of Orlando's neighborhood layer draws Park Lake/Highland as 263 acres running north from East Colonial Drive, with North Quarter and North Orange to the west, Colonialtown North to the east and Lake Formosa to the north. Lake Eola Heights, a designated local historic district, adjoins it directly to the south. Park Lake and Lake Highland both sit inside the boundary.
Park Lake/Highland is 263 acres north of East Colonial Drive, wrapped around two lakes that give it its name, Park Lake and Lake Highland. The houses are pre-war, the streets are brick under the oaks, and to anyone walking it the place is indistinguishable from Lake Eola Heights, which begins on the other side of Colonial. The two neighborhoods share a boundary in the city's own map.
They do not share a designation, and that is the whole difference. The City of Orlando has created six local historic districts since 1980: Downtown, Lake Cherokee, Lake Copeland, Lake Eola Heights, Lake Lawsona and Colonialtown South. The most recent of those was designated in 2000. None of them covers Park Lake/Highland, and nothing in the record suggests one is coming.
What that means in practice cuts both ways, and a buyer should be clear about both edges. Nobody here has to take an addition, a garage apartment or a repainted façade to the Historic Preservation Board, wait for a hearing, pay a $250 application fee and then get a City Council vote. If your plan is to restore a 1920s house and put a modern extension on the back, you can simply do it, subject to zoning and the building code. The same rule protects nothing. A pre-war house next to you can be taken down and replaced with whatever the lot allows, and the city has no mechanism here to stop it. On streets whose value is largely the streetscape, that risk is real, not theoretical.
The absence of designation has a quieter consequence too. Because the area has never been nominated, there is no National Register documentation of when these blocks were platted or what was built on them, of the sort that exists in detail for the district immediately south. This guide can tell you what the city's neighborhood layer says and what the school and the parks department publish. It cannot give you a sourced build-out date for the housing stock, and it is not going to invent one.
At a USGS-measured 76.2 feet above sea level, this is the second-lowest reference point of any Orlando neighborhood on this site, a few inches above Thornton Park. That is still seventy-six feet, and still forty miles inland, so the storm-surge argument that organizes the Miami and Tampa pages does not reach here either. What is different from the higher ground west and south is that two lake basins sit inside the neighborhood, and freshwater flooding on a chain-of-lakes water table is a lot-by-lot question. Look at a lakeside lot in October, when the levels are up after the wet season, rather than in April when they are at their lowest.
The rest of the case is location. Lake Highland Preparatory School opened on Highland Avenue in 1970 and now spreads over 43 acres, which puts the largest independent school in the city inside the neighborhood boundary and its traffic on the eastern streets twice a day. Mills 50, the Main Street district at Mills Avenue and Colonial Drive with the Vietnamese and Asian American businesses it is known for, is on the south east corner. AdventHealth Orlando is a couple of miles west, Loch Haven Park and its museums are north up the Orlando Urban Trail, and downtown is close enough that the commute is a non-event. Colonial Drive is the price: six lanes of state road along the southern edge, and the thing that makes the walk to Lake Eola less pleasant than the distance suggests.
- There is no local historic district here, so no certificate of appropriateness is required for exterior work
- The same absence means a neighboring pre-war house can be demolished and replaced with whatever zoning allows
- Check the zoning on adjoining lots, not just your own, before you pay for the streetscape
- Two lake basins sit inside the neighborhood. View a lakeside lot in October rather than April
- Pre-war stock predates every modern wind code. Commission a wind mitigation report before you offer
- Colonial Drive is six lanes on the southern boundary, and it shapes which blocks are actually quiet
How Park Lake/Highland got here
- 1900sThe blocks around Park Lake and Lake Highland are subdivided and built out. Because the area has never been nominated, there is no National Register documentation of those dates the way there is for Lake Eola Heights immediately south.
- 1970Lake Highland Preparatory School opens on Highland Avenue, at the eastern edge of the two lakes.
- 1980The City of Orlando designates its first local historic district, downtown, and begins the overlay program that eventually covers six neighborhoods.
- 2000Colonialtown South becomes the sixth local historic district. It is still the most recent, and Park Lake/Highland is not among them.
- 2023Lake Highland Preparatory School opens the Porter Family Center for Innovation and Academics in August, on campuses that now run to 43 acres.
Lake Highland Park, Loch Haven and the Orlando Urban Trail
Lake Highland Park at 1132 Ferris Avenue is the neighborhood's own park: lakes, open ground and bike and jogging trails, open sunrise to sunset, with a connection onto the Orlando Urban Trail. The trail is the useful part. It runs north toward Loch Haven Park, where the art museum, the science center and the Mennello sit together, and it is the only continuous route out of here that avoids Colonial Drive.
What the map does not show: the lakes are the reason to live here and the reason to inspect carefully. Ask how the specific lot drains, ask what the water did in the last heavy wet season, and look at the shoreline in October rather than in the dry months when everything looks fine.
Elsewhere in Orlando, not Park Lake/Highland
22 places, with real drive times
Road-adjusted distance and drive time from the centre of the community to each destination, nearest first. Filter by category.
Showing 1–12 of 22 places, nearest first.
Method: distances and drive times are computed from a representative point in the neighborhood, using straight-line distance multiplied by a road factor and a tiered speed model: honest ranges, not routed times. Anything the table puts south of here has Colonial Drive in the way, which the model does not know about.
Every gym within reach
There is no municipal recreation center inside the neighborhood. What there is is a lakeside city park, a paved trail running north out of it, and the Lake Eola loop a couple of miles south for anyone who wants the busier route.
- Runs past Lake Highland and north toward Loch Haven Park and the museums
- Lake Highland Park itself has bike and jogging trails, open sunrise to sunset
- The Lake Eola loop is about a mile and a quarter south and is the city's default running route
- Summer moves all of this to early morning or after dark
| Facility | What it is | Drive |
|---|---|---|
| Lake Highland Park open | The city park on Ferris Avenue: lakes, open space and bike and jogging trails, open sunrise to sunset. It is the closest thing the neighborhood has to a shared facility. | 3–4 min |
| Orlando Urban Trail open | The paved trail that runs past Lake Highland and on north toward Loch Haven Park, and the only continuous route out of the neighborhood that does not involve Colonial Drive. | 3–4 min |
| Loch Haven Park open | Open ground and paths around the museums to the north, reachable on the trail rather than by car. | 5–7 min |
| Lake Eola Park open | The mile loop at the middle of the city, south past Colonial Drive. Flat, lit and busy from dawn. | 5–7 min |
The free option is the trail and the park at the end of it, both city facilities and both a walk from most of the neighborhood.
A county-wide district, and the largest private school in the city inside the boundary
Hillcrest Elementary is just south across Colonial Drive on East Concord Street, with Howard Middle further down and Edgewater High in College Park to the west. Orange County Public Schools is a single county-wide district that assigns by address and runs magnet and choice programs alongside assignment.
| School | Board | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Hillcrest Elementary School | Orange County Public Schools | The public elementary school on East Concord Street, just south across Colonial Drive. Orange County assigns by address, so confirm the parcel rather than the neighborhood. |
| Howard Middle School | Orange County Public Schools | The middle school for much of downtown Orlando, on Robinson Street in the former Orlando High School building. |
| Edgewater High School | Orange County Public Schools | A large public high school on Edgewater Drive in College Park, and the assigned high school for part of this area. |
| Orange County's magnet and choice programs | Orange County Public Schools | Magnet and choice programs run county wide alongside assignment, with their own application window. Missing the window leaves you with the catchment. |
| Lake Highland Preparatory School | Independent | PreK to 12, opened in 1970 at 901 Highland Avenue and now spread across 43 acres. It is inside the neighborhood, which is unusual for a school of this size, and it shapes the traffic on the eastern streets at drop-off and pick-up. |
Check the specific address in the district's school locator rather than trusting a neighborhood name, and apply inside the choice window if a magnet place matters. Lake Highland Preparatory School, PreK to 12 and on 43 acres at 901 Highland Avenue, is inside the neighborhood itself, which is why the private option here is a walk for some families and a traffic problem for others.
Month by month, what living here looks like
Not a highlights reel: the actual annual rhythm, including the dates residents have to remember.
- Highs around 22 °C and lows near 10, the coolest and driest stretch of the year
- The lake paths and the urban trail are at their best
- Peak visitor season, and I-4 traffic to match
- The driest month on average and the best for anything outdoors
- Comfortable enough to walk to Mills 50 at midday
- A good month for roof and exterior work, and no board hearing stands in the way here
- Warming into the high twenties, with humidity returning late in the month
- Oak pollen is at its worst, and the canopy over these streets is heavy
- Spring break brings the metro's heaviest visitor traffic of the year
- Warm and still mostly dry, the last month before the air changes
- Insurance renewals cluster ahead of hurricane season
- Lake levels are at their lowest, which is the wrong time of year to judge a lakeside lot
- The rainy season begins, usually in the second half of the month
- Afternoon thunderstorms become a daily fixture
- Central Florida is the most lightning prone region in the United States
- Atlantic hurricane season runs 1 June to 30 November
- Daily storms and mid thirties with humidity
- The lakes come up, and this is the season to watch how a lot drains
- The hottest and wettest month; outdoor life moves to early morning and after dark
- The school runs stop and the eastern streets go quiet
- Afternoon storms are reliable enough to plan the day around
- Peak humidity and the start of the serious part of hurricane season
- Seventy-six feet up and forty miles inland: the risk is wind and freshwater flooding, not surge
- Term starts, and with it the traffic around the Highland Avenue campus
- Statistically the peak of Atlantic hurricane activity
- Binding restrictions mean you often cannot buy a new policy with a named storm in the basin
- Hurricane Charley crossed the city in 2004, which is the local reference point rather than any coastal surge
- The rains taper off and the humidity finally breaks
- Still hurricane season, and October storms have crossed the peninsula before
- Lake levels are at their highest, which is the right time to look at a lakeside lot
- Hurricane season ends on 30 November and the dry season starts
- Comfortable enough to be outside all day again
- Snowbird traffic returns and the metro fills
- Warm days, cool evenings and almost no rain
- The museums at Loch Haven are a short ride up the trail
- The pay-off for August
14 more photographs of Orlando and the region
Drawn from the site's shared, freely licensed Orlando photo library, not photographs of Park Lake/Highland itself. Filter by category.
Showing 1–12 of 14 photographs.
About these photographs. Openly licensed images from the site's shared Orlando library, found on Wikimedia Commons and served from there with full attribution. None of them is presented as a photograph of Park Lake/Highland.