Ed Leedsklanin & Ide Neff: Two Characters

  Like his fellow eccentric Ed Leedsklanin, Ide Neff was disappointed in love as a young man.

  Rather than build a coral castle like Ed Leedskalnin did, he vowed never to cut his hair or shave as long as he lived.  

  He lived in the little coral rock house on the northeast corner of City Hall in FloridaCity. 

 Ide rode around town on a bicycle with his hair in the bike’s basket to keep it out of the wheels.  

  He owned land on the FloridaCityCanal east of Krome Avenue, which was known as IdeNeffPark and was used for picnics.  

  Neff signed a contract with the Spark’s Circus as the “Wild Man from Missouri”, probably in the circus’ side show.  

  In addition, he was to receive his board and room and $300 in cash for the circus season.

  He returned to FloridaCity for the winter and his hair was hopelessly matted into two thick strands which he arranged to stand out as horns when he was on display.

His beard was looped up and knotted, but when undone fell in two strands like ropes within a foot of the floor.  

  He made and sold postcards of himself which now sell for over $50.00 on the Internet.  

When he became old and unable to care for himself, James Roberts, a policeman turned barber, shaved Ide’s head and beard and Ide was sent off to the “Old Peoples Home” in Kendall where he died shortly.

  A 1912 newspaper article listed Ide Neff as a house painter, and a 1912 photo showed Ide in a motor launch with Mr. and Mrs. E.H. Ring, the boat’s owners, and with Mr. Ring’s brother-in-law Edgar Thomas who later became one of FloridaCity’s founding commissioners.

  The first reference to Ed Leedskalnin was in a HomesteadEnterprise February 27 1923 newspaper snippet: “E. Leedskalnin, a Californian, has purchased an acre of the R.L. Moser homestead and is planning to erect a home soon.” And what a home it was to be! The property was southwest of FloridaCity.

  Sometime after being rejected by his “sweet sixteen” fiancée who would not immigrate to this country from Latvia to marry him, Ed embarked on construction of his “castle” which reputedly he had hoped would lure his sweet sixteen here. Famous Miami photographer Gleason Waite Romer photographed Ed in 1925 when his place was called CoralRockCastle.   

 It was also called “Rock Gate.”

By January of 1930, Ed had already put together enough of his famous “Ed’s Place” to attract the Homestead Rotary club to visit him.

  Ed moved his Rock Gate from southwest of FloridaCity to its current location as CoralCastle just north of Homestead on US1 in 1937.  

Very secretly he loaded the huge stones onto a trailer at night when he could not be watched.

  His contractor then towed the trailer to the new site and again at night Ed unloaded the huge rocks.

  Ed wrote several books which would today qualify him as a misogynist.  

These books occasionally appear on Internet auctions and are very expensive because collectors with unusual interests covet them.

Unlike Ide Neff who had a very unusual appearance, Ed Leedskalnin liked to be photographed in suit and tie.  

Ed is remembered as liking to attend movies at the Seminole Theatre.  

  Most of what we know about Ide Neff is thanks to the research conducted by Jean Taylor, author of The Villages of South Dade.

  Bob Jensen is Vice President for Community Liaison at 1st National Bank of South Florida, president of the FloridaPioneerMuseum, and a retired Navy Commander.