The Edison and Ford Winter Estates where originally owned by Thomas Edison and his wife Mina, and Henry Ford and his wife Clara. Thomas Edison purchased the property in 1855 as his vacation home. In 1886 it was completed and Thomas and his family visited every winter from 1886 until his death in 1931. His house was dubbed the Seminole Lodge. Henry Ford was a good friend of Thomas Edison, and he wanted to be able to visit every year for Edison's birthday. In 1916 Henry bought the adjoining property dubbed "The Mangoes" from Robert Smith who built the bungalow style house in 1911. Ford would visit every year for two weeks around the time of Edison's birthday in February. Mina Edison (Thomas Edison's second wife) furnished their entire house, whereas Ford bought his house already furnished.
Fun Fact: Thomas Edison had a three car garage, and only one car. Henry Ford gave him the car as a birthday present one year and he tried to drive it. He drove for the first time when he was 60 and ended up crashing the car into a ditch. At the spot where he crashed he swore off driving all together and had a chauffeur. Henry Ford however had a one car garage and stored some of his cars in Edison's garage. After the death of Edison, Ford never returned to his home. He sold it to the Bigger family in the 1940's and they only made one change to the property which was to build a big garage and use it to store their farm tools. It is believed that the original furniture of the house was sold at auctions before the house was sold. In 1947 Mina Edison deeded the property to the City of Fort Myers in memory of her husband for the enjoyment of the public for a whopping $1! Public tours were offered soon after. The city put the furniture into storage and people were able to walk through the house on all levels, however there was nothing in the rooms and no windows. By 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 and future growth and development. The new corporation successfully completed a more than $10 million restoration project in about 2009. The furniture in the Edison house is the original furniture that Mina had used to furnish, however the Ford furniture is all picked up from antique stores and not original. The estates now include Thomas Edison's lab, a garden, Edison's house, Ford's house, Edison's caretaker cottage, a swimming pool, and the house that Ford's caretakers would have lived at is turned into a shop and is called the Ford cottage shop.
The estates have more than 200 different types of trees and plants from all over the world, because Thomas Edison was trying to find a plant that would produce rubber. It was what he spent the majority of the money from his patents on. Thomas Edison had 1,093 patents! He even had an estimated 500-600 unsuccessful patents.
Mina Edison and I having a conversation
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