Thomas Edison/Henry Ford winter estates

We are very close to one of the main tourist attractions for Fort Myers, the winter homes of Thomas Edison and Henry Ford.  Edison was the much larger and longer presence here, first buying acreage in 1885.  The grounds are massive with his lab for experimenting and greenhouses and gardens for his hoticulture pursuits.  It was an amazing tour that took us several hours.  Ford bought a house next to Edison after a visit one year.  The museum was also well put together and informative.  There was quite a bit about the two men that we never knew.  If you are ever in the area, like within a hundred miles, we can highly recommend a visit.

Stands of bamboo are all over the grounds just as they were when Edison first visited the area.  He bought the acreage because of the bamboo.  It was used in making the filaments in his first light bulbs.

This banyan tree was a gift and very small when it first arrived.  It is now a showpiece of the estate and the second largest one in the world.  This was just one side of it. It now covers almost and entire acre.

There used to be a long pier out into the river that was used to bring in supplies to the estate.  This archway and bridge were the landside end of the pier.  All that is left of the pier now are the concrete pilings.  One of Edison's inventions was a better type of concrete.  The pilings and his swimming pool from over 100 years ago are still intact.  He even had a business of building concrete houses.  Too bad they didn't make a better inroad in Florida with its hurricanes.

The tree is called a fig tree but in reality it is a type of rubber tree.  Edison, Ford and Harvey Firestone were trying to find an alternative source of rubber and many acres of the estates were devoted to experiments to find the best plant to produce latex.  Surprisingly, the goldenrod plant would produce more than any other plant but never enough to be economically viable.

There were so many beautiful areas.  This is a moonlight garden behind his office.  His wife had the place built and landscaped for the aging Edison when making the trip across the road to the larger lab became difficult.  The area was used as a quiet place for evening relaxing or entertaining under the electric lights.

This pond is adjacent to the pool and it was used as a way to let the excess water run off and still be beautiful.

 

This is the Ford winter home called the Mangoes since there were so many of those trees on grounds.  The house was used by Ford only about 2 weeks out of the year but his family did enjoy it on more occasions.

 

This was the main house of the Edison estate. There was an almost identical one next to it that was used as a guest house. The main lab and greenhouses are on several acres across the street. Due to reasons not fully explained, Fort Myers did not have an electrical system of its own so Edison had a generating plant installed to provide for his buildings and lights in the gardens and out on the pier.