OPA-LOCKA COMPANY ADMINISTRATION BUILDING

New York architect Bernhardt Emil Muller designed the Opa-locka Company Administration Building, which was completed in the summer of 1926. Hired by inventor, aviator, and Opa-locka founder Glenn Curtiss, Muller based the identity of Curtiss’ third South Florida development on the popular novel The Arabian Nights Entertainments. At the center of the development was a grand palace whose design drew inspiration from the novel’s description of the palace of Emperor Kosroushah. The building features ornamentations often seen in ancient structures and sites of worship in Persian and Arabic cultures, in places such as Egypt, Morocco, and Tunisia. This was the largest of the Moorish Revival-style buildings in Opa-locka and served as the company’s real estate headquarters. Even before the City of Opa-locka purchased the building for their City Hall in 1939, it served as the center of community activities, including city meetings and communal celebrations. In 1982, it was listed in the National Register of Historic Places, individually, and as part of the Opa-locka Thematic Resource Area.