Ferndale, FL

Ferndale is a census-designated place in southeastern Lake County, Florida, on the western shore of Lake Apopka. The 2020 census counted 548 residents. Minneola borders it to the west, Montverde sits to the southeast, and the roads around County Road 455 connect the community to the rolling country south of the lake. Ferndale is treated as a rural historic community in Lake County’s planning map, with special attention to its two-lane roads, tree cover, hills, cemetery, and open landscape.

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Ferndale Preserve gives the place its clearest outdoor landmark. The 192-acre conservation area includes wetlands, pine flatwoods, sandhill, scrub, and a roughly four-mile multi-use trail for hikers, bicyclists, and equestrians. The preserve’s western shoreline views look across Lake Apopka, and educational panels describe both the land’s earlier farming and its restoration. Lake County’s Ferndale Center District is planned around small-scale commercial, civic, and residential uses along County Road 455. Ferndale is a small Lake County community where a rural crossroads, a protected lakeshore, and the Orlando region’s growing edge meet.