Located in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States, the city of Opa-locka was the vision of the industrial designer and aviation pioneer Glen Curtiss, and was developed based on the Arabian Nights theme which is evident by the large collection of Moorish architecture throughout the city.
Founded in 1926, it has the largest collection of Moorish Revival architecture in the Western hemisphere. Mr. Curtiss and architect, Bernhardt Muller, built 105 buildings with an array of domes, minarets, and exterior staircases.
The streets have names like Sabur Lane, Sultan Avenue, Ali Baba Avenue, Perviz Avenue, Sharazad, Aladdin, and Sesame Street. In addition to the unique buildings, Mr. Curtiss completed his vision for Opa-locka; he had built a self-contained city with a hotel, three parks, golf course, archery club, swimming pool, two lakes, a large general aviation airport, and a railroad station which is currently the tri-rail station.
While the 1926 Miami hurricane badly damaged the city and brought the Florida land boom to a halt, several Moorish-style buildings survived. Twenty of the original Moorish Revival architecture buildings have been listed on the National Register of Historic Places as part of the Opa-locka Thematic Resource Area.
Opa-Locka hit a low point in the ’80s and ’90s when the city, plagued by drug-related crimes, was dubbed the murder capital of the country. Metal barriers were erected in the Triangle, one of the city’s main boulevards, to both block traffic and ideally stem the tide of violence. In 2004 Opa-locka had the highest rate of violent crime of any city in the United States.
Opa-locka is currently in a state of advanced decay as the cash-strapped city faces financial collapse. Many of the Arabian-inspired buildings are falling apart. And while the city has been fighting to recover from urban decline and high crime rates for decades, many are betting that its anomalous architecture may be the key to its future success.