The history of Wedgefield is filled with twists and turns. A small community located 23 miles east of downtown Orlando, its origins are directly linked to the U.S. space program. Initially called Rocket City and sometimes referred to as Cape Orlando, it was originally intended for employees of NASA. Planned as a 20,000-acre development that would supply housing for Kennedy Space Center employees, the area grew rapidly in the early 1960s.<\/p>\n
When President Lyndon\u00a0Johnson moved the space industry to Houston, the boom went bust and Rocket City floundered. In the early 1970s, John D. MacArthur, the late billionaire insurance magnate and land developer from South Florida, tried to revive the community as Cape Orlando, but without much success. This changed when the Cape Orlando Corp. took over development in early 1983 and changed the name to Wedgefield Golf & Country Club to help present a new, more upscale image.<\/p>\n
Today, Wedgefield is a golf and country club community inhabited by 2,700 people, most of who commute to either Titusville or Orlando to work. Spread over 6,500 acres, it serves the Space Coast\u2019s burgeoning commercial space industry, \u00a0which is bringing back high-paying tech jobs to an area hit hard by the 2008 recession and the 2011 retirement of NASA’s space shuttle program.<\/p>\n
\u201cWedgefield is a very unique community. It really is an example of what a community can become when there are residents who are dedicated to making it work,\u201d said Orange County District 5 Commissioner Emily Bonilla. \u00a0\u201cI enjoy participating with them in neighborhood clean-ups, movie in the park, and other events. It is a place where everyone can come together and enjoy each other\u2019s company. Of course, no one celebrates Halloween like Wedgefield!<\/p>\n
Craig Cooke, owner and manager of Wedgefield Golf Club, moved to the community as a complete outsider four years ago but has acclimated quickly to the community he now calls home.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really enjoy the rural atmosphere here, plus being the owner of the golf club has afforded me every opportunity to get to know everyone in the community,\u201d he said. \u201cCombine this with the ease of travel this area provides to both the beaches and Orlando, and I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else.\u201d<\/p>\n
Built as the centerpiece of the community, the golf course and restaurant acts as a community center. It serves as the voting station, emergency\u00a0center and recreation area for the entire community.\u00a0\u201cIt all happens at The Wedge Bar and Grille,\u201d asserted Cooke.<\/p>\n
With the infrastructure of Orlando expanding east and the resurgence of the aerospace industry on the Space Coast, Wedgefield is well positioned to be one of Orange County\u2019s most desirable communities for years to come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The history of Wedgefield is filled with twists and turns. A small community located 23 miles east of downtown Orlando, its origins are directly linked to the U.S. space program. Initially called Rocket City and sometimes referred to as Cape Orlando, it was originally intended for employees of NASA. Planned as a 20,000-acre development that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":16324,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[263],"class_list":["post-16323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community-services","tag-orange-county-neighborhood-services"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n