Opa-locka was formed from the imaginative sight of Glenn Curtiss, an American aviation pioneer and also the founder of US aircraft industry. It is a small community lying in Northwestern part of Miami-Dade County in Florida. With an over-all area of 4.2 sq miles, Opa-locka founded as a town back in May 14, 1926.
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| Arabian nights theme. |
From the first given name of the land “Opa-tisha-worka-locka”, meaning “a big island covered with trees and swamps”, it easily turns shorten later in time to Opa-locka. The city is full of Moorish architecture giving an ambiance of some fancy Arabian nights. It also contained stuffs like train, airport, golf course, hotel, archery club and zoo park allowing its up-rose for civilization. With the themed names of streets, 105 buildings, Curtiss built a wonderful city.
Yet, there is this one bad incident happened on September 1926, a hurricane, causing of night-mare scene destruction on many architectures. Luckily, for those Moorish style buildings which survived the hurricane, Opa-locka retains its awesome and exceptional appearance. When the US Navy made a base airport in the city, Opa-locka just regained its thrive from the disaster came by. However, the base closed on 1950s making the city experience a bit downfall. Months have past and Opa-locka continued to decline earning a second name of “struggling community” in South Florida. The city started to recover during the term of Mayor Joseph Kelly whose aims are to lessen the crime, maintaining financial stability and keeping the city clean. Through those aims, the residents garnered pride for the city.
Opa-locka may be small and has few resources, but the people there find ways on how to make their city profitable.
