That town was Opa-Locka.
First I should tell you how this place came to be, so that means I gotta tell you about Glen Curtiss. See, Glen was a pretty big deal in the aviation industry - in fact he was a pioneer of it! He was also big into building and racing motorcycles. And just look at that movie star face!
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| Glen Curtiss www.motorcyclemuseum.org |
Glen also had an interest in city development. And in the early 1920s, we got Opatishawockalocka, which would quickly be shortened to Opa-Locka. Curtiss wanted to take the world described in The Thousand and One Nights and make it a Sunshine State reality. He hired architect Bernhardt Muller to help him bring his Arabian dream to life. 105 Moorish style buildings later the small community of Opa-Locka was in full force.
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| Opa-Locka City Hall ca. 1930 photograph by G.W. Romer www.floridamemory.com |
But I have to be honest with you because I have been here and I have seen these things. Opa-Locka is a sad town now. I know, it's hard to hear that. It was just as hard for myself to discover on one hot breezy day last June.
As we drove down Ali-Baba Ave., burned rubber down Sesame St., and smoothly sailed past Sharazad Blvd. all I saw were the run down buildings with barely a hint of the Baghdad bliss that Curtiss had hoped to leave behind. Opa-Locka has the highest rate of violent crime in the United states.
Still I'll always believe in the dream that Glen Curtiss had for this town, and I'd like to think how magical and beautiful it must have been to live in this city when it was in its heyday.
We'll always have City Hall...
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| Opa-Locka City Hall ca. 2012 |
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| Opa-Locka City Hall ca. 2012 |
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| Opa-Locka City Hall ca. 2012 |
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| Opa-Locka City Hall ca. 2012 |
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| Opa-Locka City Hall ca. 2012 |
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| Opa-Locka City Hall ca. 2012 |
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| Opa-Locka City Hall ca. 2012 |
