A post-war neighbourhood inside the City of Orlando, built on land annexed in the 1950s, wrapped around Lake Druid and bordered by Corrine Drive — where a long-running City complete-streets project is the thing most likely to change life on the ground.
Harry P. Leu Gardens sits on the neighbourhood’s western side, the Cady Way Trail runs through toward Winter Park, and the Corrine Drive corridor carries the commercial district that trades under the Audubon Park Garden District name.
Location Context
North-east Orlando in Commissioner District 3, bordered by Corrine Drive, Virginia Drive, Utah Boulevard and Bennett Road, with Baldwin Park immediately east along the same Corrine Drive corridor and Winter Park to the north.
Housing Overview
The neighbourhood was laid out as a post-war subdivision in the 1950s, and the housing reflects it: single-storey homes of that era on regular lots under mature canopy, with later renovation and replacement mixed through. Nothing here carries a historic-district overlay, so alteration and rebuilding have proceeded without design review.
1950s single-storey homes
Mid-century ranch houses
Renovated post-war homes
Later infill and new construction
Where Audubon Park sits
North-east Orlando, around Lake Druid, with Harry P. Leu Gardens on its western side and Baldwin Park east along the Corrine Drive corridor.
Interstate & expresswayLakesStreets, lakes and roads: US Census Bureau TIGER. Marker positions are approximate.
The Corrine Drive project, and what is actually funded
The single most consequential thing happening to this neighbourhood is a road. The City of Orlando runs the Virginia–Forest–Corrine Corridor Project, covering roughly 2.6 miles of Virginia Drive, Forest Avenue and Corrine Drive from Orange Avenue to Bennett Road, applying complete-streets techniques — pedestrian and bicycle safety, resurfacing, accessibility upgrades. The current improvement focus is the segment between East End Avenue and Northwood Terrace Drive, inside the Garden District.
The sequence so far is documented on the City’s own project page. The City took ownership of these roads from Orange County in January 2022. Interim resurfacing finished in April 2022 at about $31,000. A pedestrian hybrid beacon went in that June at roughly $500,000 from Orlando STOPS safety funds. A quick-build bike path pilot finished in September 2023, and complete-streets engineering and design were funded for FY2024 at about $1.4 million in federal metropolitan-area money, with construction anticipated in FY2026.
The part a buyer should register is the funding gap. The City puts the total estimated project cost at about $22 million, of which roughly $4.6 million is funded and about $14.3 million remains unfunded, and states plainly that construction plans and timelines have yet to be determined. An earlier and separate MetroPlan Orlando complete-streets study for Corrine Drive ran from 2017 to 2019 and is not the live project.
So the honest position is that the corridor is being rebuilt in stages, some of it is paid for and some of it is not, and the schedule is genuinely open. That is worth knowing before assuming either that the street will be transformed next year or that nothing will change.
The gardens, the airport and the base next door
Harry P. Leu Gardens is the defining amenity. Harry and Mary Jane Leu bought the house and about forty acres in 1936 and deeded the property to the City of Orlando in 1961. The gardens now run to nearly fifty acres of landscaped grounds and lakes, and a fifteen-acre portion — the Mizell-Leu House Historic District, with three historic buildings — was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on 29 December 1994. It is City-owned and open to the public.
Two pieces of aviation and military history sit on the neighbourhood’s edges and get confused with each other. Orlando Executive Airport, three miles east of downtown, opened in 1928 as Orlando Municipal Airport, became Orlando Army Air Base in 1940, was renamed Herndon Airport in 1961 and took its present name in 1982. Showalter Field is a different place: the original Showalter Airpark operated from 1945 to 1951 and its name now attaches to a sports complex at Cady Way Park in Winter Park.
East along Corrine Drive lies Baldwin Park, built on the former Naval Training Center Orlando, which closed under the 1993 BRAC round. Blue Jacket Park, named for the Navy term for an enlisted sailor, is a remnant of that history. The two neighbourhoods share the Corrine Drive corridor on the City’s own maps.
One thing this neighbourhood does not have is a historic-district overlay. Orlando has six locally designated historic districts and Audubon Park is not among them. For an owner planning to renovate, that absence is not a footnote — it is the difference between a building permit and a design review.
Buyer Considerations
—There is no local historic designation here, so exterior work follows ordinary City of Orlando permitting rather than a Certificate of Appropriateness — a meaningful difference from Thornton Park or College Park
—The Virginia–Forest–Corrine corridor project will change the street a property fronts or backs onto; check the City project page for the current segment and schedule before you buy on or near Corrine Drive
—Houses of this era commonly warrant attention to roof age, electrical panel type, supply-line material and window condition, confirmed by inspection
—Confirm the parcel is inside City of Orlando limits rather than unincorporated Orange County — the boundary in this part of the metro is not tidy, and the Property Appraiser record settles it
Seller Considerations
—The absence of design review is a genuine advantage to a buyer intending to renovate, and worth saying rather than leaving them to find out
—Buyers ask about the Corrine Drive project directly; knowing which segment is funded and which is not is better than a vague answer
—On a house of this age a pre-listing four-point inspection lets you price the roof, panel and plumbing questions instead of having a buyer price them for you
Nearby Amenities
✓Harry P. Leu Gardens
✓Cady Way Trail
✓Lake Druid Park
✓Blue Jacket Park nearby
✓Audubon Park Garden District on Corrine Drive
Transportation
✓Corrine Drive
✓Bennett Road
✓Virginia Drive
✓East Colonial Drive (SR 50) nearby
✓Cady Way Trail
✓LYNX bus network
Market information is provided for general education, may change without notice, and should be independently verified before making real estate decisions.
Curious About Audubon Park?
Ask us anything — property types, timing, or how this community compares to others you're considering.
A New Urbanist neighbourhood inside the City of Orlando, built on the site of the former Naval Training Center Orlando — which means its ground has an environmental record most Orlando neighbourhoods do not, and a buyer should know how to read it.
Single-family detached homes · Townhomes and row houses · Stacked flats and apartments
The City of Orlando is a municipality of about 320,000 people inside an Orange County of roughly 1.47 million — which means most addresses that read “Orlando, FL” are not in the city at all.
Historic bungalows and frame vernacular homes · Downtown high-rise condominiums · Mid-century ranch homes
A city of about 30,000 north of downtown Orlando, built around a chain of lakes and a brick-street commercial core — where more than half the housing predates 1970 and the median home is worth nearly twice the county figure.
Mid-century ranch and split-level homes · Pre-war frame and masonry houses · Lakefront estates
