Lake Anne was developed by Mr. R M Rothgeb, a Raleigh engineer who lived on Rothgeb Drive off White Oak Road in Raleigh. Lake Anne subdivision was named for his daughter who was an opera singer of some renown. You can read more about her here.

The lake itself and the first section of development were begun in 1951, according to Fred Hobbs, a local surveyor. The first section included East Lake Anne Drive and West Lake Anne Drive to the bridge over Turkey Creek. The remainder of West Lake Anne Drive and sections adjacent thereto were developed in the mid sixties.

According to Mr. Hobbs, the first house was built at 6436 E Lake Anne Drive in 1953. Some records indicate Gordon Vaughn built the next house at 6416 E Lake Anne in 1958. Aaron & Garnett McCrickard built the next house in 1959 at 6404 E Lake Anne and the neighborhood really began to develop, continuing to its present size. The McCrickard's lived in Lake Anne for sixty years. They passed away just eighteen days apart in January 2019. Later that year, residents voted to name the children's play area by the lake McCrickard Park to honor our founding neighbors' many contributions to our community.

In the beginning, all the common property was owned by a corporation formed by Mr.Rothgeb. The corporation was known as the Capital Development Company. As he sold lots, Mr. Rothgeb would assign each new lot owner a share or shares of the corporation so that each lot owner would be part owner of the common property. During this time, Mr. Rothgeb managed the corporation, assigned the shares to new lot owners and personally took care of all the common property (mowing the grass, etc.). After his death, the ownership and maintenance of common property became a problem. So around 1986, the Board headed by Jim Jacobs arranged, with the help of attorney Al Purrington, to have all ownership of all common property transferred from current owners of lots, some of which were still owned by Mr. Rothgeb’s estate. Records indicate Rothgeb's daughter Anne, the neighborhood's namesake, held co-ownership of the lot at 6808 Lake Anne until 1991.

The new entity, the Lake Anne Homeowner’s Association, Inc. now owns all common property and every resident is a member authorized to use the property according to rules made and revised from time to time by the Board of Directors. The transfer of all stocks was finalized in 1989 under the leadership of Ross Rhudy.

The land was probably a farm before it was developed. Hal Burrows, a longtime resident of Lake Anne, says that when it snows, he can see the outlines of plowed furrows on his property. Also, the contractor who installed footings for his house in 1970 found an Indian arrowhead during the excavation.