The idea was to conjure up a slice of Middle Eastern splendor, in Florida. Up went minarets and pastel-colored domes, and streets got names like Ali Baba and Aladdin. The result — the town of Opa-locka — came to house the largest concentration of Moorish revival architecture in the United States. Now, however, it is just another poor, crumbling American community, albeit one fighting to resurrect itself with art. Opa-locka — the name comes from a Seminole Indian word meaning big island covered with trees and swamps — was founded in 1926 as part of a construction boom in southeast Florida. The surge saw other communities also arise with particular kinds of architecture such as Coral Gables, with Mediterranean-style buildings, or Miami Springs and its taste of the Spanish missions that dotted the US southwest. ‘During the 1920s there is this real state-craze, a lot

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