Question: Where in Florida is America’s only city hall with minarets, inspired by Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves?
Answer: Opa-Locka City Hall
Opa-Locka was built during the Florida Land Boom of the 1920s, when films like Rudolf Valentino’s fantasy The Sheik and Douglas Fairbanks’ The Thief of Baghdad harnessed the sultry, romantic appeal of the Middle East into a full-blown cultural fad.
Florida was hot and tropical enough to feel exotic, so when developer Glenn Curtiss built Opa-Locka, he did so around an overt One Thousand and One Nights theme. In addition to the architecture, the streets were named Ali Baba Avenue and Sabur Lane.
