Highland Park is a small incorporated village in eastern Polk County, set in the hilly Lake Wales Ridge country east of Scenic Highway 17 near Babson Park, with a Lake Wales mailing address and ZIP 33898 (Wikipedia and Polk County guides, 2025). It was founded in 1919 and incorporated in 1927, and it still operates its own village government with a mayor and commission, which is unusual for a community this small.
The village began as a seasonal resort community in the early 1900s, drawing Northern visitors, including Quaker industrialists, to the Ridge, and it grew up around a golf course that remains a defining feature today, now operating as Lekarica Hills (The Ledger, 2009, and golf directories, 2025). That history gives Highland Park a coherent identity as a historic golf-course village rather than a generic plat.
Because this is a tiny village rather than a builder subdivision, the money is made or lost on the individual home and lot, not on a townwide average. The drivers are the lot, its elevation and golf or wooded setting on the Ridge, the age and condition of the home, and any deed restriction, village rule, or golf-club arrangement, all of which have to be read per address from the listing and the village.
The pitch is a quiet, established small-village address with a golf-course setting near Lake Wales. The work is the diligence: homes here are few and turn over rarely, so confirm the lot, the condition, the utilities and any private-road status, the school assignment, and the real drive to Lake Wales, Babson Park, and the US 27 corridor before you buy the history.
