On US 1 in Homestead, about 35 miles south of Miami and the last real town before the Keys, there is a walled garden of limestone furniture: a 5,000-pound heart-shaped table, rocking chairs that rock, a bathtub, a telescope aimed at the North Star, a sundial, a crescent moon, and a stone gate so perfectly balanced that a child could once push it open with one finger. Every piece was cut, carved and set by one man, working alone, mostly at night, over 28 years.
Ed
Edward Leedskalnin was born in 1887 in what is now Latvia. At 26 he was engaged to a girl ten years younger, Agnes, whom he called his Sweet Sixteen. She called off the wedding the day before the ceremony. Ed left for America, arrived in New York in April 1912, drifted through lumber camps, caught tuberculosis, and moved to South Florida for the climate in 1923. He stood about five feet tall and weighed around 100 pounds. He had a fourth-grade education.
He started carving in Florida City. When a subdivision was planned next door in the mid-1930s, he hired a truck and moved the whole thing, piece by piece, about 10 miles up the road to a 10-acre lot in Homestead. It took three years. He kept building until he died in 1951, at 64. He charged ten cents for a tour, later a quarter, and would ring a bell when visitors arrived.
The numbers
- More than 1,100 tons of oolitic limestone, quarried on site. Locals call it coral rock; it is actually fossilized shell and coral compressed into stone.
- Wall sections 8 feet tall, 4 feet wide, 3 feet thick, each over 5.8 tons.
- No mortar. The blocks sit on each other by weight and fit.
- No witnesses. Ed worked by lantern light and stopped when people came by.
How did he do it?
Ask Ed and he said he knew "the secrets of the pyramids" and understood "the laws of weight and leverage." That line, plus the night work, launched decades of theories: anti-gravity, magnetism, lost Egyptian knowledge. The less exciting answer is on the wall of the gift shop: old photographs of Ed's tripods, chain hoists, block-and-tackle rigs and a winch made from truck parts. A patient man with leverage and all the time in the world can move a lot of rock. The famous nine-ton gate stopped turning in 1986; when engineers pulled it they found it rotated on a metal shaft resting on a truck bearing. Engineers, not aliens.
Visiting: Coral Castle is at 28655 S. Dixie Highway (US 1), Homestead. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1984. Billy Idol's 1986 song "Sweet Sixteen" is about Ed and Agnes; the video was shot here.
On the way to the Keys
Homestead is the last stop on the mainland before the 18-Mile Stretch and the Overseas Highway. If you are driving to Key West, Coral Castle is a 45-minute detour that most people never take, and it is open every day. Do it on the way down, then spend your Key West days on the water: a reef snorkel trip, a sunset sail, or a backcountry dolphin and sandbar trip into the flats. Key West's own oddities, Robert the Doll and the six-toed cats, are in our haunted Florida guide.
Questions people ask
Who built Coral Castle?
Edward Leedskalnin, a Latvian immigrant who stood about five feet tall and weighed about 100 pounds. He worked alone, mostly at night, from 1923 until his death in 1951.
How much does Coral Castle weigh?
More than 1,100 tons of oolitic limestone, all quarried and placed by one man without mortar.
Why did he build it?
For a fiancée in Latvia, Agnes, who called off their wedding the day before the ceremony. Ed called her his Sweet Sixteen and said the castle was for her. She never came.
How did Leedskalnin move the stones?
Old photographs show tripods, chain hoists, block-and-tackle rigs and a homemade winch. The balanced stone gate was found to turn on a metal shaft and a truck bearing when it was removed in 1986.
Where is Coral Castle?
28655 S. Dixie Highway (US 1) in Homestead, Florida, about 35 miles south of Miami and on the main road to the Florida Keys.