Edison & Ford Winter Estates Museum

If you get to Ft. Myers in Southern Florida and want a break from the pool or beach this is a great museum to visit.

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We paid our admission and opted for the docent-led tour after reading reviews on Yelp that this was better than self-guided tours.  Our docent was incredibly knowledgeable having done this for 12 years. It's a walking tour with stops along the way where we learned a lot about Edison and how Ford ended up next door with his winter estate.

[Of course Blogger loads my photos in reverse order!]

Our last stop was in this barn looking at some original Ford vehicles.

These are all in working order and are driving weekly.

Here's Ford.  He was younger than Edison and went to work for Edison until he branched out on his own.  

They continued to be good friends spending winters in Ft. Myers with Edison or once Ford built his home next door.  The Fords would always arrive in time for Edison's birthday February 11th.  They stopped coming after Edison's death in 1931.

Below is Edison's winter house.  There's actually two of them next door to each other.  Edison had the second one built for a long time friend and business partner, Esra Gilliland.  Gilliland purchased it from Edison and refused to sell once he and Edison had a falling out.  Edison had control of the electricity and water and just turned them off.  Gilliland sold it.

Windows were side open for us to peer in and take photos.

This estate came to Ft. Myers for $1 from the widow of Edison with the stipulation that it become a museum.

It had frontage on the wide river which flows into the Gulf of Mexico.  When Edison first built this place there were no railroads to Ft. Myers.  From Jacksonville on the east coast he had to take a boat around the Keys and into this bay.  His long wharf is long gone.  The wharf was exceptionally long to reach the deepest channel where boats could unload.

Another view of the first house.  The wing on the left had Edison's study and second floor lodgings for cook and handyman couple. 

Our docent in the blue shirt gesturing.

Edison purchased property across the road for his laboratory and to grow a wide variety of plants he hoped would be natural rubber.

Notice this fiscus tree below.

Edison's statue - larger than life.

Before our tour was called we had a chance to wander through an exhibit of Edison's inventions and Ford's vehicles.

This 90+ volunteer was the expert on Edison's phonographs,

We got to hear two early recordings. The first on a wax cylinder and the second on a record.

When we first entered the property from the parking lot we passed by an assortment of trees.  These were planted by Edison as very small saplings when he started experimenting with finding natural rubber plants.

Now they are huge.

Looks like an elephant trying to hide in this one.

This oak tree is surrounded by the fiscus.

Below is a Kapok tree.

 

An extraordinary museum.  

When we arrived home from Florida Dan decided to find a biography of Edison to learn more about this marvelous inventor.