Aladdin City, Florida
Encyclopedia
Aladdin City is an unincorporated community in Miami-Dade County
, Florida
, United States
. It is located about 20 miles (32.2 km) southwest of Miami
within the unincorporated community of Redland
. It is notable as the site of a planned community
-- similar to Opa-locka
, Coral Gables
, and Miami Springs, Florida
-- whose development was snuffed out by the abrupt end of the Florida land boom of the 1920s
.
, a pioneer in the manufacture of mail-order "kit" homes, purchased a large parcel of land in the Redland area. Otto and William Sovereign, the founders of the company, began to build a Moorish-themed city made up primarily of buildings featured in their 1920 industrial catalog. It was planned to have a population of 10,000.
After forming the Aladdin City Sales Co. in December 1925, the Sovereign brothers promoted the building of a "dawn-to-dusk" house on opening day on January 14, 1926, flying in all of the materials on six chartered aircraft from Fort Lauderdale
on that single day. The Homestead Leader reported that hundreds of spectators gathered to watch the aircraft shuttle in the materials and to watch the crew of 21 carpenters, plasters, electricians, plumbers, and cement workers put up the house. Construction of the house commenced at 7:00 a.m., and was finished at dark, complete with electricity, plumbing, sidewalks, and landscaping. A few days later, an advertisement in the Miami News boasted that 874 homesites had been sold on opening day.
Already operating five house manufacturing plants in the United States and Canada, the Aladdin Company announced plans to open a sixth plant in Aladdin City to provide an instant industrial base. The Sovereigns also sought to attract other manufacturing plants to the city. In addition, the Seaboard Air Line Railway, which was constructing its new extension from central Florida to Homestead
, planned to maintain a train station in the new city.
Despite sales moving forward, the development encountered logistical problems brought on by the railroad companies' October 1925 embargo on Florida of all but foodstuffs and other essentials, followed by the January 1926 sinking of the Prinz Valdemar
in Miami Harbor, which blocked access to the sea. Although these events turned out in retrospect to be the first sign of the end of the land boom, the Sovereign brothers remained optimistic. In a full-page February 1926 advertisement in the Homestead Leader, the Aladdin Company announced: "Long-delayed arrival of machinery and equipment for development has interfered with our progress schedule, but, with shipping conditions improving, our engineers will show immediate and resultful activity."
On February 22, 1926, the development was incorporated as the ninth community in the Redland district by the directors of the Redland District Chamber of Commerce, which sought to take advantage of the thousands of dollars Aladdin was spending to promote the community. On Sunday, March 14, 1926, in a ceremony led by the Sovereign brothers and other officials of the Aladdin City Sales Co., the cornerstone
of a one-story bank building "of Persian design" was laid at the corner of Ali Baba Circle and West Cairo Street. Negotiations were purported to be under way at that point to start banking operations upon completion of the building. Following the ceremony, the Pioneer Society -- which was composed of Aladdin City investors -- held a meeting and elected officers.
Subsequent advertisements in March and April of 1926 continued to promise improved homesites, business sites, and apartment sites for 25% down, and invited prospective purchasers to visit and see "the beautiful Spanish bungalows already built and under construction" as well as "the road crushers building wonderful 100-foot boulevards; the swift completion of your bathing pool and sunken gardens; beautiful, distinctive Spanish boulevards; business blocks being built; industrial projects taking form—in short, the building of a city complete in itself."
Although the railroad companies lifted their embargo in May 1926, the land boom had nevertheless begun to peter out, and the September 1926 Miami Hurricane
caused an emphatic collapse in real estate prices. While a number of homes, a town hall, and the promised Seaboard extension and Aladdin City train station were built, the development became dormant. Some promotional activity continued; the Aladdin City Handicap was run at Hialeah Park
through 1931. In December 1930, at the onset of the Great Depression
, the Sovereign brothers conducted a raffle of two homes and ten lots in a nationwide competition among purchasers of Aladdin kit homes. The winners of the two homes, both of whom were from the northeastern U.S., also received round-trip tickets to Aladdin City. The Sovereign brothers planned a similar raffle for the end of 1931. However, in March 1934, the Sovereigns returned the lots to acreage in a revised plat, and continued to liquidate their already deeply discounted land holdings. The Aladdin City Sales Co. was finally dissolved by proclamation in November 1936.
A couple of the Aladdin homes survived over the years, but without the community and the commercial buildings, which remained on the drawing board. The last of these homes reportedly suffered severe damage in Hurricane Andrew
in 1992. The wooden train station -- unique among Seaboard stations in South Florida, which were routinely constructed out of stucco or concrete -- was reported to be still standing as of 1985, but was apparently torn down after suffering damage in Hurricane Andrew.
Two hundred-foot wide boulevards, Sovereign Boulevard (the only street without a Moorish name) and Aladdin Boulevard, radiated from the northeastern and northwestern curves of Ali Baba Circle. Damascus Street and Cairo Street extended from the east and west sides of the circle, with Cairo Street bisecting Ali Baba Circle south of the bathing pool site. Hassan Street extended west from the intersection of Aladdin Boulevard and Ali Cogia Circle West and east from the intersection of Sovereign Boulevard and Ali Cogia Circle East. Running in a north-south direction west of Ali Cogia Circle was Mustapha Avenue, which ended at Aladdin Boulevard. North of Ali Cogia Circle ran Bagdad, Sinbad, Cathay, and Sahib Streets in an east-west direction. Running parallel to Farm Life School Road at the other end of these streets was Mecca Avenue.
Miami-Dade County, Florida
Miami-Dade County is a county located in the southeastern part of the state of Florida. As of 2010 U.S. Census, the county had a population of 2,496,435, making it the most populous county in Florida and the eighth-most populous county in the United States...
, Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. It is located about 20 miles (32.2 km) southwest of Miami
Miami, Florida
Miami is a city located on the Atlantic coast in southeastern Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, the most populous county in Florida and the eighth-most populous county in the United States with a population of 2,500,625...
within the unincorporated community of Redland
Redland, Florida
Redland, sometimes pluralized The Redlands, is an agricultural community in metropolitan Miami, Florida, United States, about southwest of Downtown Miami. Many farms, original clapboard homes of early settlers, u-pick'em fields and coral rock walls dot the landscape. It is named for the red clay...
. It is notable as the site of a planned community
Planned community
A planned community, or planned city, is any community that was carefully planned from its inception and is typically constructed in a previously undeveloped area. This contrasts with settlements that evolve in a more ad hoc fashion. Land use conflicts are less frequent in planned communities since...
-- similar to Opa-locka
Opa-locka, Florida
Opa-locka is a city located in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. As of the mid decade census, the population was 15,376 as recorded by the U.S. Census Bureau....
, Coral Gables
Coral Gables, Florida
Coral Gables is a city in Miami-Dade County, Florida, southwest of Downtown Miami, in the United States. The city is home to the University of Miami....
, and Miami Springs, Florida
Miami Springs, Florida
Miami Springs is a Miami suburban city located in Miami-Dade County, Florida. The city was founded by Glenn Hammond Curtiss, "The Father of Naval Aviation", and James Bright, during the famous "land boom" of the 1920s and was originally named Country Club Estates...
-- whose development was snuffed out by the abrupt end of the Florida land boom of the 1920s
Florida land boom of the 1920s
The Florida land boom of the 1920s was Florida's first real estate bubble, which burst in 1925, leaving behind entire new cities and the remains of failed development projects such as Aladdin City in south Miami-Dade County and Isola di Lolando in north Biscayne Bay...
.
Development
In late 1925, The Aladdin Company of Bay City, MichiganBay City, Michigan
Bay City is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan located near the base of the Saginaw Bay on Lake Huron. As of the 2010 census, the city's population was 34,932, and is the principal city of the Bay City Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is included in the Saginaw-Bay City-Saginaw Township North...
, a pioneer in the manufacture of mail-order "kit" homes, purchased a large parcel of land in the Redland area. Otto and William Sovereign, the founders of the company, began to build a Moorish-themed city made up primarily of buildings featured in their 1920 industrial catalog. It was planned to have a population of 10,000.
After forming the Aladdin City Sales Co. in December 1925, the Sovereign brothers promoted the building of a "dawn-to-dusk" house on opening day on January 14, 1926, flying in all of the materials on six chartered aircraft from Fort Lauderdale
Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Fort Lauderdale is a city in the U.S. state of Florida, on the Atlantic coast. It is the county seat of Broward County. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 165,521. It is a principal city of the South Florida metropolitan area, which was home to 5,564,635 people at the 2010...
on that single day. The Homestead Leader reported that hundreds of spectators gathered to watch the aircraft shuttle in the materials and to watch the crew of 21 carpenters, plasters, electricians, plumbers, and cement workers put up the house. Construction of the house commenced at 7:00 a.m., and was finished at dark, complete with electricity, plumbing, sidewalks, and landscaping. A few days later, an advertisement in the Miami News boasted that 874 homesites had been sold on opening day.
Already operating five house manufacturing plants in the United States and Canada, the Aladdin Company announced plans to open a sixth plant in Aladdin City to provide an instant industrial base. The Sovereigns also sought to attract other manufacturing plants to the city. In addition, the Seaboard Air Line Railway, which was constructing its new extension from central Florida to Homestead
Homestead, Florida
Homestead is a city in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States nestled between Biscayne National Park to the east and Everglades National Park to the west. Homestead is primarily a Miami suburb and a major agricultural area....
, planned to maintain a train station in the new city.
Despite sales moving forward, the development encountered logistical problems brought on by the railroad companies' October 1925 embargo on Florida of all but foodstuffs and other essentials, followed by the January 1926 sinking of the Prinz Valdemar
Prinz Valdemar
The Prinz Valdemar was a 241' steel hulled schooner named after Prince Valdemar of Denmark. It was built in 1891 in Elsinore, Denmark along with its sister ship Prinsesse Marie, as one of the last great ships of the sailing ship era. It was based in Esbjerg, although registered on the nearby island...
in Miami Harbor, which blocked access to the sea. Although these events turned out in retrospect to be the first sign of the end of the land boom, the Sovereign brothers remained optimistic. In a full-page February 1926 advertisement in the Homestead Leader, the Aladdin Company announced: "Long-delayed arrival of machinery and equipment for development has interfered with our progress schedule, but, with shipping conditions improving, our engineers will show immediate and resultful activity."
On February 22, 1926, the development was incorporated as the ninth community in the Redland district by the directors of the Redland District Chamber of Commerce, which sought to take advantage of the thousands of dollars Aladdin was spending to promote the community. On Sunday, March 14, 1926, in a ceremony led by the Sovereign brothers and other officials of the Aladdin City Sales Co., the cornerstone
Cornerstone
The cornerstone concept is derived from the first stone set in the construction of a masonry foundation, important since all other stones will be set in reference to this stone, thus determining the position of the entire structure.Over time a cornerstone became a ceremonial masonry stone, or...
of a one-story bank building "of Persian design" was laid at the corner of Ali Baba Circle and West Cairo Street. Negotiations were purported to be under way at that point to start banking operations upon completion of the building. Following the ceremony, the Pioneer Society -- which was composed of Aladdin City investors -- held a meeting and elected officers.
Subsequent advertisements in March and April of 1926 continued to promise improved homesites, business sites, and apartment sites for 25% down, and invited prospective purchasers to visit and see "the beautiful Spanish bungalows already built and under construction" as well as "the road crushers building wonderful 100-foot boulevards; the swift completion of your bathing pool and sunken gardens; beautiful, distinctive Spanish boulevards; business blocks being built; industrial projects taking form—in short, the building of a city complete in itself."
Demise
Although the railroad companies lifted their embargo in May 1926, the land boom had nevertheless begun to peter out, and the September 1926 Miami Hurricane
1926 Miami Hurricane
The 1926 Miami hurricane was a Category 4 hurricane that devastated Miami in September 1926. The storm also caused significant damage in the Florida Panhandle, the U.S. state of Alabama, and the Bahamas...
caused an emphatic collapse in real estate prices. While a number of homes, a town hall, and the promised Seaboard extension and Aladdin City train station were built, the development became dormant. Some promotional activity continued; the Aladdin City Handicap was run at Hialeah Park
Hialeah Park Race Track
The Hialeah Park Race Track is a historic site in Hialeah, Florida. Its site covers 40 square blocks of central-east side Hialeah from Palm Avenue east to East 4th Avenue, and from East 22nd Street on the south to East 32nd Street on the north. On March 5, 1979, it was added to the U.S...
through 1931. In December 1930, at the onset of the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
, the Sovereign brothers conducted a raffle of two homes and ten lots in a nationwide competition among purchasers of Aladdin kit homes. The winners of the two homes, both of whom were from the northeastern U.S., also received round-trip tickets to Aladdin City. The Sovereign brothers planned a similar raffle for the end of 1931. However, in March 1934, the Sovereigns returned the lots to acreage in a revised plat, and continued to liquidate their already deeply discounted land holdings. The Aladdin City Sales Co. was finally dissolved by proclamation in November 1936.
A couple of the Aladdin homes survived over the years, but without the community and the commercial buildings, which remained on the drawing board. The last of these homes reportedly suffered severe damage in Hurricane Andrew
Hurricane Andrew
Hurricane Andrew was the third Category 5 hurricane to make landfall in the United States, after the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935 and Hurricane Camille in 1969. Andrew was the first named storm and only major hurricane of the otherwise inactive 1992 Atlantic hurricane season...
in 1992. The wooden train station -- unique among Seaboard stations in South Florida, which were routinely constructed out of stucco or concrete -- was reported to be still standing as of 1985, but was apparently torn down after suffering damage in Hurricane Andrew.
Geography
Aladdin City is located at 25.567046°N 80.453846°W, with an elevation 10 feet (3 m).Original layout
The original community was centered around a large oval -- known as Ali Baba Circle -- oriented on a north-south axis. The interior of the oval was planned as Ali Baba Park, with a large bathing pool in the middle. The top half of an even larger oval, Ali Cogia Circle, surrounded Ali Baba Circle. Both circles were planned as the site of the city's commercial district. The southern tip of Ali Baba Circle led onto Hainlin Mill Drive, while Farm Life School Road (SW 162nd Avenue) extended from the northern tip and also continued south from the intersection of Ali Baba Circle and Hainlin Mill Drive.Two hundred-foot wide boulevards, Sovereign Boulevard (the only street without a Moorish name) and Aladdin Boulevard, radiated from the northeastern and northwestern curves of Ali Baba Circle. Damascus Street and Cairo Street extended from the east and west sides of the circle, with Cairo Street bisecting Ali Baba Circle south of the bathing pool site. Hassan Street extended west from the intersection of Aladdin Boulevard and Ali Cogia Circle West and east from the intersection of Sovereign Boulevard and Ali Cogia Circle East. Running in a north-south direction west of Ali Cogia Circle was Mustapha Avenue, which ended at Aladdin Boulevard. North of Ali Cogia Circle ran Bagdad, Sinbad, Cathay, and Sahib Streets in an east-west direction. Running parallel to Farm Life School Road at the other end of these streets was Mecca Avenue.