The Edison estate includes a laboratory, botanical garden, swimming pool, tea house, and irrigation system.
Mina Edison created a "moonlight garden" in 1929 on the property. She hired a renowned female landscape architect, Ellen Biddle-Shipman, to design the space. The pool and bright flowers were meant to reflect the moonlight. The garden was financed by Henry Ford.
Edison bought and brought from Cuba enough royal palms to line 1.5 miles of McGregor Boulevard. Fort Myers is now known as the City of Palms.
Harvey Firestone gave a four foot tall, 2 inches in diameter banyan tree to Thomas Edison in 1925. He, Edison, and Henry Ford were working on research in the pursuit of a domestic source of natural rubber. The banyan tree produces a white milky sap (latex) that can be used to create rubber. This amazing tree is now about an acre in diameter, and is understood to be the largest in the continental United States.
Other facts of interest: Edison designed and manufactured "Electrolier" lighting fixtures in the early 1880's to accommodate his newest invention. He invented a waterproof light switch for submarines. Edison received 1,093 patents in his lifetime for various inventions and processes. To control the volume of his phonograph, one would place a balled up sock in the bell, leading to the phrase "put a sock in it." Henry Ford paid $20,000 for his adjoining property in 1916, which amounted to over $200 an acre, when the average price per acre at that time was $25. The properties sit on the Caloosahatchee River, which provided the region with most of its transportation. The swimming pool was built with Edison's new creation - Portland cement. A museum on the property began in 1965 with artifacts relating to Edison's many inventions and businesses. (Most of Edison's money came from the sale of batteries.) The museum has grown through the years and now includes gallery areas for exhibits, displays, and additional educational and information about Edison and Ford, their friends and families, and Florida history.
