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Nalcrest Florida and The Former Fedhaven Florida

by Mike Miller
(Mount Dora, Florida)

A stretch of Florida State Road 60 runs 45 lonely miles between Lake Wales and Yeehaw Junction. Lots of cattle land on both sides of the road, and few developments and populated places.

About 11 miles east of Lake Wales, you will come to a road heading south, Doherty Road. For almost 50 years, a sign pointed the way to the two communities of NALCREST and FEDHAVEN. Fedhaven changed its name recently to Lakeshore, but it's still the same place it always was although it suffered a lot of damage from three hurricanes back in 2004.

NALCREST is an acronym that stands for National Association of Letter Carriers Retirement, Education, Security and Training. It was designed and built by the union that represents letter carriers of the U.S. Postal Service.

Ground was broken and construction started on NALCREST back in 1962. It is primarily a community of garden apartments on a couple of hundred acres on the north shore of Lake Weohyakapka.

All residents of this community have to be retired members of the National Association of Letter Carriers. A funny thing about NALCREST is that mail is not delivered to individual apartments; residents have to walk to the local post office to get their mail.

Nearby Lakeshore was called FEDHAVEN for most of the years since it was built. It is about one mile east of NALCREST and was developed as a retirement community for retired federal employees. FEDHAVEN was built about the same time as NALCREST.

FEDHAVEN was eventually sold to private developers who changed the name to Lakeshore.

Drive to the end of Doherty Road off State Road 60. The road stops at Leisure Lane. Leisure Lane West takes you to NALCREST and Leisure Lane East takes you to Lakeshore.

Take a look. At least you'll be able to say you saw these unusual little Florida retirement communities.