The Edison and Ford Winter Estates

1. Replica of Thomas Edison's first light bulb

2. Mrs. Edison's trellis porch

3. A breezeway at the Edison home

4. The largest rubber tree on the grounds

5. Linda sitting by the Banyon Tree


6. From the right: the Edison Home then a guest house. Past the guest house was the Ford home which was being renovated and not open.

7.a Three uncommon but good friends


7.b From the left: Henry Ford, Harry Firestone, Thomas Edison

8. The Botanical Research Lab





Front row from left: Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, Harry Firestone.
In the background are associates

Today is Monday, January 5 and Freedom’s Turn just landed in Key West this afternoon, coming from an anchorage called Little Shark River in the Everglades National Park in deep southwestern Florida the night before! We have now traveled nearly 3,000 miles and find ourselves at the southern most part of the United States. Getting to the Florida Keys safely is definitely a milestone for those of us on the Great Loop!

We took one day to go from St. Pete Beach to Venice and stayed a the city's free dock, then one day to Fort Myers Yacht Basin City Marina for a two night stay, still on the Intracoastal Waterway, and then one night to Fort Myers Beach mooring field. Then we went to Marco Island for a night at the Marco River Marina, next to to Little Shark River anchorage and today to Key West all on the outside of the Gulf in open waters. We would have like to visit Naples and Everglade City but kept moving to take advantage of the good weather days. We had a beautiful, calm day with following seas crossing over to Key West today. Now we will spend four days of sightseeing and relaxation at the Key west Bight City Marina in the historic ‘Old Town’ of Key West.

Before we write about this past week, we’d like to go back once more to Fort Myers.

Edison and Ford Winter Estates

New Years Day at Fort Myers offered to be a good day for Charlie and me to get up and take a morning walk one mile south from our downtown marina onto McGregor Blvd. to the Edison and Ford Winter Estates. The walk felt great and it was fun to see the colorful buildings and vegetation of Fort Myers while walking on land! Charlie and I had previously been in this city back in the mid 80’s when we took our girls to visit my mother and father who used to vacation here every winter. We knew a little bit of the lay of the land from that visit. We had not visited the Edison and Ford Winter Estate and heard and read that it was a ‘must see.’ The weather was perfect as we set out for the walk and we felt relaxed.

Royal Palm trees lined both sides of the street during our walk. Fort Myers is also known as the “City of the Palms.” We learned during our tour of the estate that Thomas Edison had these palm trees brought from Cuba to plant along McGregor Blvd. leading to his home. There were 1.5 miles worth of trees planted originally. Today these palms stretch out for seven miles down the street!

HISTORY
In 1885 the frontier town of Fort Myers became incorporated. The city was named for a fort established during the Seminole Indian War of 1841. It became the winter home of Thomas Alva Edison in 1885 and remained so for almost 50 years until his death. His plan was to enjoy the subtropical climate in the winter here as well as keep up with his research. The bamboo growing in Fort Myers enticed Edison to purchase property because bamboo fiber was a material that he researched as a filament for the light bulb.

Thomas Edison arrived in Fort Myers by boat from St Augustine, Florida and purchased 20 acres of land on the edge of town, overlooking the Caloosahatchee River. He still kept his home and main laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey.

Edison designed the layout for the grounds and buildings and hired an architect in 1886-87. In the beginning, two buildings and a laboratory were built on his land. One building was to be his residence with a guest wing and would be named Seminole Lodge; the other a house was for his caretaker. He had just invented the electric light bulb at his research lab at Menlo Park, thus both the buildings and the lab were electrified. 1* (In 1928, this laboratory was moved to Dearborn, Michigan where it is remains open to the public.)

When Edison returned in the winter of 1886 he had a new bride, Mina Miler Edison. They traveled by rail from New Jersey as far as Punta Gorda, Florida then by boat to Fort Myers. The Edison’s raised a family and through the years, the family enjoyed leisurely stays there until 1947 when Mina deeded the Seminole Lodge to the city of Ft. Myer for $1. Edison died in 1931.

In 1907 a fountain was built, 1910 a pool was built, and in 1928 Mina created a moonlight garden and a trellis porch. 2* Her garden is still in the original spot and we saw her lily pond with iris, water lilies, and papyrus. She also created a friendship stone walkway were she asked guests to send her a stone to commemorate their visits.

GARDENS
Charlie and I toured the grounds and buildings and greatly enjoyed our visit. We were fortunate to be there when the grounds were still decorated for the holidays. We saw beautiful tropical gardens with mangrove trees, an array of different looking palms, rubber trees, brilliantly colored flowers we had never seen before and exotic looking orchids. And there were potted plants everywhere as well. 3* The Edison home was designed to have many windows, wrap around porches and doorways to the outside; to open the rooms to nature as much as possible.

I took a photo of Charlie standing by a huge rubber tree on the grounds. 4* The most significant tree on the property is the historically documented gift from friend Harry Firestone in 1925. Mr. Firestone gave Edison a 4 foot Banyon tree from India which is now over an acre in diameter; making it the largest Banyon tree in the U.S. 5*

HENRY FORD
As a young man, Henry Ford worked in an Edison Power Company in Detroit, Michigan. He and Edison met and became friends and Henry and his wife were invited to Fort Myers for a visit.

In 1906 Edison sold the property adjacent to his home (including the guest wing which had been remodeled into a separate house) to a friend of his but in 1916, this property and building was up for sale again. Henry Ford bought it and it provided him the opportunity to vacation with Thomas Edison. 6* The good friends and their families enjoyed camping, fishing, boating, and square dancing.

BOTANICAL RESEARCH LAB
Along our walk to the estate, we took a photo of three statues in a park. There were three men, relaxing in what appeared to be a campground setting. The statues were of Thomas Edison, Henry Ford and Harry Firestone. 7a and 7b*

At the time of the Edison’s Banyon Tree gift from Harry Firestone, Edison, Firestone and Henry Ford had been working on research in the pursuit of a domestic source of natural rubber. The Banyon tree, they discovered, ‘Ficus benghalenis’, produces a white milky sap (latex) that can be used for rubber. During World War I, Edison, Firestone and Ford became aware that the supply of rubber in the U.S. was in short supply. They formed the Edison Botanic Research Corporation in 1928 so that Edison could find a source of natural rubber from a plant that could grow in the U.S. They found that a common weed, goldenrod, had a 5% yield of latex. Edison developed a strain that grew to a height of 12 feet and produced a yield of 12 %. Charlie in particular enjoyed seeing the lab and talking to our tour guide here, a retired chemist who use to work in latex research with Dupont. The lab and it’s contents have not been moved since the death of Edison. 8*
(This information about the estates in this blog is taken from the pamphlets given out on the tour)

Finally, we thoroughly enjoyed the museum next to the research lab. There were seven galleries that related to the lives and associations of Thomas Edison and Henry Ford. We saw exhibits of Edison inventions including the phonograph and light bulb as well as Ford automobiles and many photographs of the men at different times in their lives. 9*

I learned that Henry Ford and Thomas Edison shared many things in common. One thing that stands out to me is their great curiosity and inquisitive minds as to how things work, even from an early age. Another is their great desire to create things to enhance the quality of life for people. And last, for me, is the notion that in their later years, the men were still active in their professional lives, forming the Botanical Research Lab for extensive study; continuing on to help their fellow man.

They were always curious, always learning and exploring.
There is a lesson here for us!

I will write the next blog to catch up as soon as possible. We have been out of phone and internet range for the past two days so we have emails as well to catch up with. After seven days on the go, we’d like a little rest and I'd like a little retail therapy! Our marina doesn’t have a pool but we were told upon checking in to our slip that if we buy a drink at the Tiki Bar next door, we can use their pool. Sounds good to me.

Charlie says hello. He sat in his captain’s chair for eight hours today traveling 75 miles in the open waters of the Gulf dodging crab pots most of the time. Soon he will check out the open air bar he just spotted called ‘The Turtle Crawl” on the water’s edge.

They let you smoke cigars there.

Sincerely,

Linda and Charlie