The Saint Anne's Shrine community was developed by Irwin A. Yarnell, the same man who planned Highland Park. It was made up of mostly Catholic French Canadians. Also known as Ste Anne des Lacs. Saint Anne is popular among water faring peoples in Canada, and since the community is built around a lake, she seems an appropriate patron. The shrine was built by Emey Massicotte, and was a popular stop for those on pilgrimages through the years.

excerpts from Mary Updike's book Among the Groves - A Florida Childhood Remembered (printed: Sole Sisters 2002)

The shrine consisted of a cluster of about 30 homes, arranged in a perfect circle around its central lake.  This neighborhood was considered a mission by the Catholic Diocese of St. Augustine, which until the early 60’s, covered the entire state...To have so many Catholics congregated in one small area set St. Anne’s Shrine apart in this part of Florida.  Additionally, because the shrine was located deep within the groves, two miles from the highway, it was as geographically isolated as it was culturally distinctive...

The small wooden church that had been built in the early part of the century by the French Canadians was never locked. 

Although paint was peeling from its exterior wood, its beautiful stained glass windows were intact, and the dark interior of the church was dramatically split by colorful shafts of light from those windows.  The interior was always cool and smelled of incense...

The church was situated on the edge of a tropical hammock and adjacent to it stood a stone grotto where tiers of candles in red, green, and blue votive glass burned throught the day and night.  Although the population of St. Anne’s Shrine had waned, travelers who knew of the shrine’s existence sometimes left Hwy 60 and drove through the groves, curious to see what was left of it.  A small, grey box with a slit on the top of it still stood near the grotto to collect the written petitions of the shrine’s visitors.  The grotto was modeled after the famous shrine at Lourdes and featured a statue of a kneeling St. Bernadette gazing upon an apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  The stations of the cross, carved in stone tableaus, stood intermittently along a pathway that wound through the hammock.  Set more deeply within the hammock and surrounded by thickets of palmetto stood a second altar.  This one was dedicated to St. Theresa.  Interspersed among the magnolias, sabal palms and oaks were several other life-like statues of various saints...

Rising from the saw grass and cattails on the shoreline of the lake was a life-size statue of Jesus attired in a white robe with a scarlet cape.  The statue rested on a marble base that was about 10 feet high and upon which were inscribed the Latin phrases, “Cor Jesu, adveniat regum tuum; Pax nostra, Miserere nobis.” (Heart of Jesus, thy kingdom come; our peace, Have mercy on us.)

The community of St. Anne’s Shrine continued its decline until the place was all but a ghost town in the late 50’s. The low stone wall around the perimeter of the lake was crumbling in places and patches of nut grass sprouted from the cracks and potholes in St. Anne’s circular concrete road.  A stone gazebo resembling a small Greek temple, was anchored in the middle of the lake, but it too was crumbling.  It was no longer tended by grey-haired residents in row boats who once adorned it daily with fresh flowers...

Driving Directions from 1548 Highland Park Dr, Lake Wales, FL to 1000 Saint Anne Shrine Rd, Lake Wales, FL