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Thomas Edison Winter Estate and Henry Ford Estate | |
Location | Fort Myers, Florida |
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Coordinates | 26°38′05″N81°52′48″W / 26.63472°N 81.88000°W |
Built | 1886 (Edison Estate) 1911 (Ford Estate) |
Website | http://www.edisonfordwinterestates.org |
NRHP reference No. | 91001044 [1] |
Added to NRHP | September 8, 1988 (Ford Estate) August 12, 1991 (Edison Estate) |
The Edison and Ford Winter Estates contain a historical museum and 21 acre (8.5 ha) botanical garden on the adjacent sites of the winter homes of Thomas Edison and Henry Ford beside the Caloosahatchee River in Southwestern Florida. It is located at 2350 McGregor Boulevard, Fort Myers, Florida.
On April 18, 2012, the American Institute of Architects' Florida Chapter placed the Edison and Ford Winter Estates on its list of Florida Architecture: 100 Years. 100 Places. [2] The American Chemical Society recognized the Edison Botanical Research Laboratory at the Edison & Ford Winter Estates as a National Historic Chemical Landmark on May 25, 2014.
The present site dates from 1885, when Edison first visited Southwest Florida and purchased the property to build a vacation home. He had traveled down to St. Augustine, Florida during the winter of 1885 at the behest of his doctor, who thought that the warmer climate would help cure an illness that Edison was suffering from. [3] After recuperating in St. Augustine, he ended up traveling first across the state to Cedar Key, and from Cedar Key to Fort Myers. His home, completed in 1886 and later dubbed "Seminole Lodge", served as a winter retreat and place of relaxation until Edison's death in 1931. [4] Edison's good friend, Henry Ford, purchased the adjoining property, "The Mangoes" from Robert Smith of New York in 1916. Ford's craftsman style bungalow was built in 1911 by Smith. In 1947, Mrs. Mina Edison deeded the Edison property to the City of Fort Myers in memory of her husband for the enjoyment of the public. It was opened for public tours soon after.
In 1988, the adjacent Henry Ford winter estate was purchased and opened for public tours in 1990. In 2003, the governance of the site was transferred from the City to a new non-profit corporation, Thomas Edison & Henry Ford Winter Estates, Inc. (dba Edison & Ford Winter Estates, Inc.) whose mission is to protect, preserve and interpret the site. The new corporation completed a $14 million restoration project in the following years. A separate fundraising arm, Edison-Ford Winter Estates Foundation, Inc. was created to assist the restoration project with no function in governance.
Edison's botanical garden contains more than a thousand varieties of plants from around the world, including African Sausage Trees and a 400-foot (120 m) banyan tree planted in the mid-1920s. [5] The gardens feature plants grown for industrial purposes (such as bamboo, used in light bulb filaments) and those which Mina Edison planted for their beauty, including roses, orchids and bromeliads. The Moonlight Garden was designed by Ellen Biddle Shipman. [6]
Before Hurricane Irma the collection included: Acalypha hispida , Arenga pinnata , Artocarpus heterophyllus , Billbergia spp., Blighia sapida , Bougainvillea glabra , Bougainvillea spectabilis , Calliandra haematocephala , Cananga odorata , Cattleya hybrid, Cattleya spp., Chorisia speciosa , Citrus spp., Clerodendrum speciosissimum , Cordyline terminalis , Cycad spp., Dendrobium , Dombeya spp., Epidendrum ciliare , Ficus auriculata , Ficus benghalensis , Ficus saussureana , Hibiscus schizopetalus , Holmskioldia sanguinea , Ibosa riparia, Ixora chinensis , Kigelia africana , Leea coccinea , Malvaviscus arboreus , Musa spp., Parmentiera cereifera , Plumbago auriculata , Solandra nitida , Spathoglottis plicata , Tabernaemontana corymbosa , Tecoma stans , Thunbergia erecta , Pleroma semidecandrum (syn. Tibouchina semidecandra), and hundreds more.
|thumb|alt=Thomas Edison's historic laboratory features wooden floors and exposed wooden beams and posts. Work tables, test tubes and beakers can be seen on worktables.|]
During the period of 1914–1918 (World War I), Edison became concerned with America's reliance on foreign supplies of rubber. He partnered with Harvey Firestone and Henry Ford to try to find a rubber tree or plant that could grow quickly in the United States and provide a domestic supply of rubber. In 1927, the three men contributed $25,000 each and created the Edison Botanic Research Corporation in an attempt to find a solution to this problem. In 1928, the Edison Botanic Research Corporation laboratory was constructed. It was in Fort Myers, Florida that Edison would do the majority of his research and planting of his exotic plants and trees.
After testing over 17,000 plant samples, Edison eventually discovered a source in one of the species of flowering goldenrod, Solidago leavenworthii . Thomas Edison died in 1931 and the rubber project was transferred to the United States Department of Agriculture five years later.
Visitors to the Edison and Ford Winter Estates in Fort Myers can view more than 20 acres (8.1 ha) of historical buildings and gardens including the 1928 Botanical Laboratory and the Edison Ford Museum. There are also a variety of programs, tours and activities.
Edison Ford also offers school and education tours for all ages, an extensive summer camp program, science and engineering class for homeschool students, [7] emerging inventors programs for children ages 18 months – 5 years [8] as well as travel and offsite tour opportunities. Other specialty programs include holiday nights, antique car shows, garden talks and a variety of special events throughout the year. The site can be reserved for events, weddings, corporate functions, meetings and group tours.
Edison Ford Winter Estates is a National Register Historic Site and received the Award of Excellence for restoration from both the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the National Garden Clubs, Inc. The site is a Florida Historic Landmark and has been designated as a National Historical Chemical Landmark by the American Chemical Society, the first site in the state of Florida to receive this honor.
The Edison and Ford Winter Estates research library and archival materials are also available for viewing by appointment. The research library contains over a thousand books on Fort Myers history and botany, as well as biographies on Thomas Edison and Henry Ford and their families. [9]
Open to the public since 1947, Edison Ford Winter Estates receives more than 200,000 visitors annually. [10] Designated as an educational and charitable not-for-profit organization, Edison Ford is governed by a board of trustees, professional staff and a large volunteer group.
Thomas Alva Edison was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These inventions, which include the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and early versions of the electric light bulb, have had a widespread impact on the modern industrialized world. He was one of the first inventors to apply the principles of organized science and teamwork to the process of invention, working with many researchers and employees. He established the first industrial research laboratory.
Fort Myers is a city in and the county seat of Lee County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 86,395; it was estimated to have grown to 95,949 in 2022, making it the 25th-most populous city in Florida. Together with the larger and more residential city of Cape Coral, it anchors the Cape Coral–Fort Myers metropolitan statistical area, which encompasses Lee County and has a population of 834,573 as of 2023.
Ficus benghalensis, or Ficus indica commonly known as the banyan, banyan fig and Indian banyan, is a tree native to the Indian Subcontinent. Specimens in India are among the largest trees in the world by canopy coverage. It is also known as a "strangler fig" because like many other trees in the genus Ficus it starts out as epiphyte, that is, leaning on another tree that it ends up suffocating.
The Henry Ford is a history museum complex in Dearborn, Michigan, United States, within Metro Detroit. The museum collection contains the presidential limousine of John F. Kennedy, Abraham Lincoln's chair from Ford's Theatre, Thomas Edison's laboratory, the Wright Brothers' bicycle shop, the Rosa Parks bus, and many other historical exhibits. It is the largest indoor–outdoor museum complex in the United States and is visited by over 1.7 million people each year. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1969 as Greenfield Village and Henry Ford Museum and designated a National Historic Landmark in 1981 as "Edison Institute".
Ficus citrifolia, also known as the shortleaf fig, giant bearded fig, Jagüey, wild banyantree and Wimba tree, is a species of banyan native to southern Florida, the Caribbean, Mexico, Central America, and northern South America south to Paraguay. It is distinguished from the closely related Florida strangler fig mainly by the finer veining in the leaves.
The Seminole Gulf Railway is a short line freight and passenger excursion railroad headquartered in Fort Myers, Florida, that operates two former CSX Transportation railroad lines in Southwest Florida. The company's Fort Myers Division, which was previously the southernmost segment of CSX's Fort Myers Subdivision, runs from Arcadia south to North Naples via Punta Gorda, Fort Myers, Estero, and Bonita Springs. The company's other line, the Sarasota Division, runs from Oneco south through Sarasota. Seminole Gulf acquired the lines in November 1987 and operates its own equipment. The company's first train departed Fort Myers on November 14, 1987.
Fair Lane was the estate of Ford Motor Company founder Henry Ford and his wife, Clara Ford, in Dearborn, Michigan, in the United States. It was named after an area in Cork in Ireland where Ford's adoptive grandfather, Patrick Ahern, was born. The 1,300-acre (530 ha) estate along the River Rouge included a large limestone house, an electrical power plant on the dammed river, a greenhouse, a boathouse, riding stables, a children's playhouse, a treehouse, and extensive landmark gardens designed by Chicago landscape architect Jens Jensen.
Florida SouthWestern State College (FSW) is a public college in Fort Myers, Florida. It is a member of the Florida College System.
Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden is an 83-acre (34 ha) botanic garden with extensive collections of rare tropical plants including palms, cycads, flowering trees, and vines. It is located in the city of Coral Gables, Miami-Dade County, just south of Miami, surrounded at the north and west by Matheson Hammock Park.
The Kampong is open by advance reservation to visitors Tuesday through Friday and is a 9-acre botanical garden in the Coconut Grove neighborhood of Miami, Florida, United States. It is one of the five gardens of the non-profit National Tropical Botanical Garden (NTBG). An admission fee is charged.
The Edison Museum, a science and history museum about the life and inventions of Thomas Edison, is located in Beaumont, Texas, United States at 350 Pine St. on the grounds of Edison Plaza.
Southwest Florida is the region along the southwest Gulf coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The area is known for its beaches, subtropical landscape, and winter resort economy.
The Plant Collections Network (PCN) is a group of North American botanical gardens and arboreta that coordinates a continent-wide approach to plant germplasm preservation, and promotes excellence in plant collections management. The program is administered by the American Public Gardens Association from its headquarters in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, in collaboration with the USDA Agricultural Research Service.
The Fort Myers Downtown Commercial District is a U.S. historic district located in Fort Myers, Florida. The district is bounded by Bay and Lee Streets, Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd and Monroe Street. It contains 69 historic buildings. The area is notable for being made up primarily of local shops.
The Palm Cottage Gardens, also known as the Henry Nehrling Estate, is a historic site in Gotha, Florida. On November 7, 2000, it was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.
The Caloosahatchee Bridge is a bridge located in Fort Myers, Florida. It carries U.S. Highway 41 over the Caloosahatchee River, which is where its name comes from. The bridge has four lanes and is 55 feet (17 m) tall.
Manuel A. Gonzalez, also known as "The Father of Fort Myers, Florida" was a 19th-century pioneer and steamship captain who founded Fort Myers, Florida on February 21, 1866.
Henry Ford House may refer to:
Ficus drupacea var. pubescens, also known as the Mysore fig or brown woolly fig, is a variety of F. drupacea distinguished by its fruits and leaves having a dense yellow-brown pubescence. It is naturally distributed throughout Southeast Asia, and has been introduced elsewhere. It forms a distinct shape with large, buttressing roots. Its leaves are characterized by a distinctly pointed tip, and it is pollinated by small wasps.
Eleanor Napier Forde Newton was a traveler, poet and philanthropist. Throughout her life, she developed friendships with many key figures of the twentieth century, including Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Harvey Firestone, Charles Lindbergh, and Dr. Alexis Carrel. These friendships are described in the book Uncommon Friends: Life with Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Harvey Firestone, Alexis Carrel, and Charles Lindbergh, authored by her husband, James ("Jim") Newton. Eleanor Newton was the first woman to join the Oxford Group and Moral Re-Armament, formed by American minister Frank Buchman. She received a Bible signed by Edison's wife, Mina Edison, which is now on display at Fort Myers Beach School.
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