Coral Castle
Museum - Homestead, FL
Pictures and visitor info from a trip to
the Coral Castle Museum located in Homestead, Miami-Dade County, Florida.
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 Dixie Highway |
 Coral Castle Monument |
 Coral Castle Museum Sign |
| Coral Castle
is a very unique "residence" built by Edward Leedskalnin, a Latvian
immigrant, over the course of twenty eight years (1923-1951). This popular South Florida tourist attraction is located at 28655 South Dixie Highway, Homestead, FL 33030. The museum's staff can be reached by phone at (305) 248-6345. Coral Castle Museum is open to the public Sunday through Thursday from 8 AM to 6 PM. On Fridays and Saturdays the attraction is open a bit longer from 8 AM to 8 PM. The cost of admission is $9.75 for adults, $5 for children aged 7 to 12, $6.50 for senior citizens, and free for children 6 years of age or younger. There are also discounts for groups of 10-39 people ($7.75 each) or groups of forty people or more ($6.50). The group rates for children and seniors are slightly lower. |
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 Coral Castle Map |
 Photo of Edward |
 Museum Cafe & Dining Area |
| An abbreviated
version of the story behind this amazing structure is that "Ed" built it as
a monument for "Sweet Sixteen", a 16 year old girl named Agnes Scuffs, who
called off their engagement in Lativa the day before the wedding.
She said that Ed, at 26 years of age, was too old for her. A heartbroken Edward left Latvia and traveled through Canada, California, Texas and eventually ended up in South Florida. In the early 1920's, he began carving the pieces of the castle dedicated to his lost love. Coral Castle was originally known as "Rock Gate Park" and Ed gave tours of his creation for a small fee (at first $0.10 and $0.25 years later) to any interested visitors. |
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 Historic Redland |
 Admission 10 Cents |
 Walkway To Entrance |
| All of the coral
used to build Coral Castle was excavated from the land Ed owned in Florida
City and from the land around the castle in Homestead.
Coral weighs about one hundred and twenty five pounds per cubic feet. Every section of the massive castle walls (8' x 4' x 3') weigh about thirteen thousands pounds (6.5 tons). Ed moved them by himself using engineering principles similar to those used to create the pyramids in Egypt and simple hand tools made out of old automobile parts. |
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| Just about every feature inside of the castle was built of coral including the three ton gate, the reading chairs, the Florida table, the lounge chairs, the Polaris telescope, the moon fountain, the rocking chairs, the sun dial, the camera stand, the planets, the throne room, the sun couch, the nine ton gate, the well, the bathroom, the bedroom, the repentance corner, the obelisk, the feast of love table, the children's playground, the lookout tower, the grotto of the three bears, Ed's living quarters, and the tool room. | ||
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| Most of Ed's tools
were used auto parts and he also used old automobile pieces for items such
as the BBQ cooker.
The gates were balanced and mounted on vehicle axles or rotated on transmission gears. |
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| One of my favorite parts about visiting Coral Castle Museum is seeing the large lizards with bright orange and yellow heads and tails. Pictures of these colorful lizards can be seen in the middle of Page 2. | ||
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| The United States
Department of Interior placed Coral Castle on the National Register of
Historic Places in 1984.
This attraction has also been featured on TV shows such as "That's Incredible" TV, the "In Search Of..." TV, "You Asked For It", and "Ripley's Believe It or Not". Billy Idol's song titled "Sweet Sixteen" was also written about Edward's former fiancée. |
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