Coral Castle in South Miami-Dade

Coral Castle is not in the City of Miami: it stands at 28655 South Dixie Highway in unincorporated south Miami-Dade County, inside the Census Bureau's Leisure City area near Homestead.

The U.S. Census Bureau geocoder matches 28655 S Dixie Hwy to Leisure City CDP in Miami-Dade County and returns no incorporated place for the address (U.S. Census Bureau geocoder). With no city government at the address, the relevant government is the county: Miami-Dade County describes its Board of County Commissioners as the governing body of unincorporated Miami-Dade (About Miami-Dade County).

The addresses in circulation do not agree. The operator gives 28655 S. Dixie Highway, Homestead, FL 33033 as its address (Coral Castle), and the Miami-Dade County Historic Resource Guide lists the location as 28655 S Dixie Hwy, Miami (Miami-Dade County Historic Resource Guide). Neither postal name is the municipality: Homestead, incorporated on February 8, 1913, and Florida City, incorporated on December 29, 1914, are separate cities on the county's municipal list (Miami-Dade County Municipalities). The 1984 National Register form described the site as north of Homestead on U.S. 1, in extreme southern Dade County (National Register nomination, NPS).

Coral Castle charges $25 for adults and $10 for children ages 5 through 12, with children 4 and younger free, and its visitor page lists daily hours of 9AM to 8 PM, according to the operator.

Sources: Coral Castle, visit page for the first three rows; Coral Castle, Group Tours for the group row.

All tickets are bought on site and include a 30 minute documentary and a professionally led public tour (Coral Castle). The operator posts two different sets of hours. Its visit page says open daily 9AM to 8 PM, last tour at 7:00PM and gates closing at 7:30PM, while its site footer also lists open daily 9AM to 7 PM, last tour at 6:00PM and gates closing at 6:30PM, with no season named for either (Coral Castle; Coral Castle home page). Calling (305) 248-6345 before a late afternoon visit to the Homestead area attraction is the safe way to settle which applies that day (Coral Castle).

The operator states that Coral Castle is wheelchair accessible (Coral Castle).

By car, the operator directs drivers to exit 5 of the turnpike at SW 288th Street (Biscayne Drive) in the Homestead area; by transit, it describes a southbound rail trip toward Dadeland South, then bus 38 or 52, then bus 70.

The operator's driving route is exit 5, SW 288th Street/Biscayne Avenue, west on Biscayne to SW 157th Avenue, then a right onto 157th Avenue (Coral Castle directions). Its transit route runs from Tri-Rail to Metrorail southbound toward Dadeland South, then bus 38 or 52 to the South Dade Government Center, then bus 70 southbound toward the SW 344th Street Park and Ride, which stops near Coral Castle along the way (Coral Castle). The operator links the county transit website for more information, so route numbers should be checked against the county's current service before setting out (Coral Castle).

The site sits on U.S. 1, which the 1984 nomination form called the only artery connecting the South Florida mainland with the Florida Keys when Leedskalnin moved there; it records that drivers could see him reclining on his sculpted crescent moon atop the wall, waving to passersby (National Register nomination).

Coral Castle was built by one man, Latvian-born Edward Leedskalnin, from about 1923 until his death in December 1951, first southwest of Florida City and from 1937 at its present Miami-Dade site, according to its National Register nomination.

The nomination form, prepared by the Florida Division of Archives and dated April 2, 1984, says Leedskalnin was born in Latvia in 1887 and arrived in Florida City in the early 1920s; in 1923 he bought an acre of land southwest of Florida City for $12.00, on ground of oolitic limestone popularly known as coral rock (National Register nomination, NPS). He worked alone and at night, quarrying and setting pieces weighing several tons, with tools fashioned from old car parts, and charged a 10 cent admission at what became known as Ed's Place (NPS).

In 1937 he bought a ten acre tract on South Federal Highway (U.S. 1), moved his sculptures in a borrowed truck, rebuilt the perimeter wall and two-story tower from rock quarried on the new land, named it Rock Gate and raised admission to twenty-five cents (National Register nomination). He died at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami in December 1951, leaving no will; in 1953 Chicago businessman Julius Levin bought Rock Gate through probate court and opened it to the public as Coral Castle (NPS).

The start date is not settled in the record. The form's description dates construction from 1923, while affidavits that Levin collected in 1955 from over 250 Homestead area residents, quoted in the same form, say work began on or about 1921 (National Register nomination). The State Library and Archives of Florida describes the move to Homestead as around 1936 rather than 1937 (Florida Memory). The operator's site footer reads est. 1923 (Coral Castle).

Inside the Miami-Dade site's wall stand carved coral rock pieces, among them a 57,000 pound, 40 foot obelisk and a nine ton gate that swings on a single pivot.

Source for every row: Rock Gate (Coral Castle) National Register nomination, NPS.

The form sorts the Miami-Dade garden's work into domestic pieces, such as tables, reading chairs, beds and a throne room, and astronomical pieces, including Saturn, Mars, the moon phases, a sundial and the Polaris telescope; a thirty ton block crowning the north wall was the heaviest at Rock Gate (National Register nomination). Note the obelisk's own inscription says moved in 1939, a third date for the relocation alongside the 1937 and around 1936 dates above (NPS; Florida Memory).

Yes: Miami-Dade County designated Coral Castle a local historic site and it is listed in the National Register of Historic Places, which the county's resource guide dates to May 10, 1984.

The Miami-Dade County Historic Resource Guide lists the property as Coral Castle; Rock Gate; Ed's Place, with a local designation date of 11/19/81 and National Register listing on 5/10/84 (Miami-Dade County Historic Resource Guide). The nomination form gives a different local date, saying the Dade County Historic Preservation Board designated Coral Castle a local historic landmark in January 1982 (National Register nomination). The State Library and Archives of Florida also records the National Register listing in 1984 (Florida Memory).

Because the site is unincorporated, the county, not a city, handles its preservation reviews. The guide says the County Office of Historic Preservation manages unincorporated areas of Miami-Dade and cities without their own preservation ordinance (Miami-Dade County Office of Historic Preservation), and the 1984 form notes that changes at Coral Castle since 1981 had been reviewed and approved by Dade County's Historic Preservation Board (NPS).

Last verified: October 18, 2026, with the Coral Castle National Register form on NPGallery, the Miami-Dade Historic Resource Guide, the Census geocoder result for the address, the county municipal list and the operator's posted hours, prices and directions.