Edward Leedskalnin was born January 12, 1887, according to World War I draft registration records, in Stāmeriena parish, Latvia. Little is known of his childhood, aside from the fact that he was not wealthy and achieved only a fourth-grade education.

 At the age of 26, he was engaged to marry Agnes Scuffs, a girl ten years younger. However, the girl that Leedskalnin referred to as his "Sweet Sixteen" broke the engagement the night before their wedding.

Several years later, he emigrated to North America, where he found work in lumber camps in Canada, California, and Texas. Another, more reliable version is that he left Latvia due he was involved in 1905 year Latvian uprising against their Russian rulers, which resulted with burning of many landlords estates and a year later- with Tzar's military intervention and repressions. At least several close relatives from his family told about his involvment in "revolutionary" actions.

After contracting a case of tuberculosis, Leedskalnin moved to the warmer climate of Florida around 1919, where he purchased a small piece of land in Florida City. Over the next 20 years, Leedskalnin putatively constructed and lived within a massive coral monument he called "Rock Gate Park", dedicated to the girl who had left him years before. Working alone at night, Leedskalnin eventually quarried and sculpted over 1,100 short tons (997903 kg) of coral into a monument that would later be known as the Coral Castle. Leedskalnin gave polite, but cryptic answers to visitors' questions regarding his construction methods, which to this day remain a mystery. In spite of his private nature, he eventually opened his monument to the public, offering tours for 10 cents. He was a surprisingly accommodating host, even cooking hot dogs for visiting children in a pressure cooker of his own invention.

This building was originally located in Florida City in the 1920s; then in the mid 1930s Leedskalnin moved it single-handedly to its present location on a 10-acre (4.0 ha) site near Homestead, Florida. In December 1951, he left a note on his front gate which read "Going to the Hospital", and rode a bus to Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami. He died three days later of malnutrition due to stomach cancer,