Watch the video and you may believe you’re in the Middle East. I’m actually at Opa-locka Historic City Hall. Once described as “America’s only City Hall with minarets,” and architectural cues from Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves! 1920′s Opa-locka is a creation of famed aviator Glenn Curtiss, who had a vision of a community drawn from the architecture of the Arab world. Mizner did it in Palm Beach, George Merrick in Coral Gables with a Mediterranean Revival - why not a town straight out of The Arabian Nights! What could go wrong, right? Well, the Great Hurricane of 1926 pretty much doomed the project; but good news - it’s currently getting a huge renovation!
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