Historic Opa-locka
Welcome to Opa-locka, Florida, one of Miami-Dade County’s oldest incorporated cities, one that boasts the largest collection of Moorish Revival architecture in America.
We’ve curated your visit by organizing our landmarks into two categories: civic and commercial, as well as residential. We encourage you to take your time, relax, and enjoy the walk or drive while transporting yourself back to the heydays of the late 1920s.
Opa-locka Company Administration Building
777 Sharazad Boulevard
Built at an estimated cost of $150,000.00, it was the crown jewel of Curtiss’ vision and Muller’s talent. The main attraction that would define the scale and growth of this exciting new development, the Opa-locka Company Administration Building was, in essence, a premiere sales office for the development and intended to house civic and municipal efforts, including the Opa-locka Chamber of Commerce. Completed in August of 1926, this three-story structure was architect Bernhardt Muller’s career-defining best, serving as a true Moorish Revival wonder that would take common Persian, Arabian, Chinese, and Middle Eastern influences and create a composite design that resembled a spectacular palace. The design was largely inspired by the Arabian Nights story of the “Tale of Two Cadettes,” specifically Emperor Kosroushah’s palace, with a whimsical courtyard garden named after Princess Periezade “with its three great rarities: The Talking Bird, the Golden Water, and the Singing Tree.”
The structure is on both the National Register of Historic Places and the Opa-locka Historic Registry.
The site of Opa-locka’s chartering as a town on May 14, 1926, it is said that the structure was the largest available at the time to house 28 people to gather and vote Opa-locka as a municipality. This number represented a large enough percentage to have a development turn into a town. This was also the first civic structure to be completed in Opa-locka. According to the May 1, 1927, Opa Locka Times, “Hugh Robinson was re-elected chief of the department and three assistant chiefs were also named, Jack Chase in charge of personnel, R. A. Sampson in charge of fire prevention and Carl Long in charge of equipment.” At this time, the station also received new equipment, which included “a 350-gallon pumper and a 1250 gallon chemical and ladder truck,” with a siren being mounted on the roof, with the number of blasts from the siren designated the location of a fire.
The structure is listed on the Opa-locka Historic Registry.
Opa-locka Fire and Police Hall
151 N. Perviz Avenue
Seaboard Air Line Opa-locka Railroad Station
490 Ali Baba Avenue
Built by 35 men of the Donathan Building Company of Miami, construction of the $50,000.00 reinforced concrete and masonry structure began December 15, 1926, and was completed by April of 1927. The Arabian Nights story of which the building was inspired was, appropriately, “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves.”
Owned and constructed by the Seaboard Air Line Railroad Company, the 1925 decision to bring the Seaboard’s railroad down from its last station in West Palm Beach to Miami cemented the plans for Opa-locka to incorporate as a development company and break ground by January 1926. The passenger and freight station served passengers and surrounding industries for nearly four decades, when in the late 1960s the arrival of the Interstate System and the fanfare around automobiles shut down the station due to declining usage.
The structure is on both the National Register of Historic Places and the Opa-locka Historic Registry.
Hurt’s Business Center
492 Opa-locka Boulevard
Recorded as the first apartment house and store structure in the framework of Opa-locka and inspired by the Arabian Nights story “The Stone City,” this building was owned by Harry Hurt, a salesman, and entrepreneur who had his building montaged by the Opa-locka Company. Completed sometime in the Summer of 1926, the building originally housed apartments, the Aero Service Station (gas station), the Opa-locka Garage (auto shop), a sandwich shop, the Seaboard Barbershop, Michael & Wheeler Insurance and Home Real Estates, the first location of the Opa-locka Chamber of Commerce, U.S. Post Office (P.B. Samson was the postmaster), and the Opa-locka Market. There was also a community center / social hall where early meetings of Reverend Harvey Ressler’s Episcopal Church. In later years, the building served as a hotel, among other service-oriented uses.
The structure is on both the National Register of Historic Places and the Opa-locka Historic Registry.
Opa-locka Bank
940 Caliph Street
As part of Curtiss’ long-term vision for Opa-locka, he dreamed up sections of his city to have even more defined themes that would challenge Muller to create other worlds in and around the Orientalist movement of the era. One of which was Egyptian Revival, with the only building to have been completed in such a style was the Opa-locka Bank completed in late 1926, whose Arabian Nights story connection was the “Tale of Zayn al Asnam.” As a result of the economic downturn and swift decrease in sales of properties early on, the building was never used as a bank, hence the nickname “The Bank That Never Was,” although it did contain a vault within. The original designs were intended to look like a prince’s temple from Luxor, with grand columns, palm trees, and Egyptian detail. However, not long after its completion, the First Baptist Church of Opa-locka purchased it, and has since been used for religious purposes.
The structure is on both the National Register of Historic Places and the Opa-locka Historic Registry.
Private Residences
Although not inclusive of every registered or non-registered historic site still standing, the below list, organized alphabetically by street names, seeks to define the original owner names, the drawings or photographs that exist in archives, as well as the date of the elevation drawings, most of which designed by Muller associates Carl Jensen and J. Lieske.
Out of respect for the property owners, we do not include addresses and kindly ask you to respect their privacy when appreciating their home from a respectable distance.
Dunad Avenue
Harry Hurt House
Original design unknown, circa mid-1926
Maj. Henry W. Baird House
Original design unknown, circa early 1926
Walter and Frieda Tooker House
Original design dated November 29, 1926
H. S. Wheeler House
Original design unknown, circa early 1926
Walter and Florence Griffith House
Original design dated May 25, 1927
Robert McMullin House
Original design unknown, circa early 1926
B.J. and E. Retta Fryatt House
Not a Muller design, built in early 1926
Oliver and Dora Sumner House
Not a Muller design, built in early 1926
Jann Avenue
Walter and Carrie Dove House
Original design dated November 16, 1926
C. E. Etheredge Home Collection
Several homes on this block, with available original designs dating back to August 20, 1926
S. K. Haislip House
Original design dated August 23, 1926
Peri Street
William and Kathleen Tinsman House
Original design dated October 20, 1926
A.E. and May Wagner Sackett House
Original design unknown, circa early 1926
J.W. and Jennie Crouse House
Original design dated August 27, 1926
W. H. Helms House
Original design dated August 12, 1926
Frank Bush Family House
Original design unknown, circa early 1926
Sesame Street
Fred and Isabelle Helms House
Original design unknown, circa late 1926
Lew M. Taber Duplex
Original design dated November 16, 1926
Higgins Duplex
Original design dated November 26, 1926
Lew M. Taber Duplex
Original design dated November 27, 1926
Frank Bush Apartments
Original design dated November 26 1926
W.F. and Ursula Orman House
Original design dated August 30, 1926
Sharar Avenue
Carl E. and Hazel Long House
Original design unknown, circa late 1926
George Gough and W. Webster House
Original design unknown, circa late 1926
R. D. Logan House
Original design dated November 18, 1926
Roy and Alice Helms House
Original design dated November 12, 1926
Clarence and Marie Etheredge
Original design unknown, circa late 1926
Etheredge Collection (Cont’d)
Original design dated September 30, 1926
George Cravero House
Original design dated September 14, 1926
W.H. and Mildred Kendrick House
Original design dated August 24, 1926
E. W. and Lillian Bostik House
Original design dated August 26, 1926
John F. and Bessie Shuck House
Original design dated August 5, 1926
R.C. and Mildred Wilkins House
Original design unknown, circa late 1926
Opa-locka Company Foreman House
Original design unknown, built in late 1926
Superior Street
Rue M. and Mamie Griffiths House
Original design dated December 20, 1926
Charles and Ada Akers Home (1/2)
Original design unknown, circa late 1926
Charles and Ada Akers Home (2/2)
Original design unknown, circa late 1926
W.H. and Mildred Kendricks
Original design unknown, circa late 1926
George A. Rose House
Original design dated December 22, 1926
York Street
George C. and Jessie Van Kessel
Original design dated February 11, 1927
