Hometown Tales Podcast

Monday, December 29, 2008

Homestead, FL - The Coral Castle

“I have discovered the secrets of the pyramids, and have found out how the Egyptians and the ancient builders in Peru, Yucatan, and Asia, with only primitive tools, raised and set in place blocks of stone weighing many tons!” - Edward Leedskalnin

Reclusive and heart-broken, Edward Leedskalnin built the Coral Castle (today on the National Register of Historic Places) with his own two hands in the 1920s. All alone he moved over 1100 tons of rock and coral harvested from his property. What he created is a vast assembly of massive 8′ high coral rock walls, multi-ton doorways that open with the slightest pressure, a rocking chair weighing thousands of pounds that can be rocked with a finger, an underground structure reached by climbing down a one-piece spiral stone staircase to a subterranean refrigerator and a five thousand pound heart-shaped coral rock table with a red blooming ixora growing from its center.He spent 28 years working on the Coral Castle. Ed was working on the Coral Castle up until his death in December of 1951.

Ed’s notebooks are laden with schematics for magnetism and electrical experiments. Although he possessed only a fourth-grade education it seems he had discovered a means to reduce the gravitational pull of the earth. He wrote a series of pamphlets which included his theories on magnetism and cosmic force that have engineers baffled even today.Why do he do it? For the love of his “Sweet Sixteen” Agnes Scuffs. Coming from his native Latvia, Agnes had promised to marry him and then changed her mind at the last minute. Ed never married and died a single man. Although she was invited several times to visit the Coral Castle, Agnes never saw Edward Leedskalnin’s great achievement dedicated to her.