Edison and Ford were neighbors in Fort Myers — and almost no one knows it

Edison’s and Ford’s winter lives along the river

Fort Myers doesn’t always make the short list when people talk about Florida.

But tucked along the Caloosahatchee River, more than 20 acres hold something you won’t find anywhere else: the side-by-side winter homes of Thomas Edison and Henry Ford.

Over 200,000 people walk these grounds every year, and most of them say the same thing afterward. They had no idea any of this was here.

Edison followed his doctor’s orders straight to Florida

In 1885, Thomas Edison’s doctor told him to find a warmer climate.

Edison came to Southwest Florida, bought 13 acres along the river, and built a winter retreat he called Seminole Lodge.

He came back the following year with his new bride, Mina Miller Edison, and the family kept returning for the next six decades.

Henry Ford first visited Edison here in 1914, liked what he saw, and bought the property right next door two years later. Two of America’s most recognized inventors, neighbors on a Florida riverbank.

Seminole Lodge still looks like the Edisons just stepped out

Nearly every piece of furniture inside Seminole Lodge is original to the Edison family.

The home reflects how it looked around 1929, with wide verandas wrapping around the buildings and shading the interiors from the Florida sun.

The main house, guest house, and caretaker’s house all sit together on the grounds. Before Ford bought his own place next door, he stayed in Edison’s guest house when he came to visit.

Walking through the rooms, it’s hard not to feel like you’re interrupting something.

Ford’s dark wood bungalow has a quiet, lived-in feel

Ford’s home, called The Mangoes, sits directly adjacent to Edison’s estate and couldn’t look more different.

The two-story Craftsman-style bungalow runs on warm dark woods and a cottage-style layout that feels close and personal rather than grand.

Ford’s garage on the property once held his vintage automobiles, including a Model T. He and his wife Clara used the home until 1945, when a private owner bought it. The Ford estate didn’t open to the public until 1990.

One tree. One acre. You’ll think it’s a forest.

Near the museum entrance, a banyan tree spreads across more than a full acre of ground.

Harvey Firestone, Edison’s close friend and the pioneer of the tire industry, gave it to Edison as a sapling in the mid-1920s.

At four feet tall when it arrived from India, the tree now stands 74 feet high with a trunk circumference of 393 inches. Aerial roots drop from the branches, hit the soil, and grow into new trunks.

What looks like a grove of separate trees is actually one.

Palms, jackfruit, bamboo and the story behind it all

The botanical gardens hold over 1,700 plants from six continents, spread across the same 20-plus acres you’re already walking.

More than 60 species of palm trees line the paths, and tropical fruit trees, including mango, jackfruit, lychee and starfruit, grow throughout the grounds.

Edison planted so many palms around Fort Myers that the city earned the nickname the City of Palms. Some of the bamboo on the property dates back to Edison’s early light bulb work.

He used it in his experiments.

Mina Edison’s moonlit garden is unlike anything nearby

In 1928, Mina Edison hired Ellen Biddle Shipman, one of the first female landscape architects in the country, to design a private garden on the grounds.

The result was the Moonlight Garden, built around night-blooming fragrant flowers, an ornamental pool that catches moonlight, and geometric planting beds.

Mina shaped the design herself and treated it as a personal project.

After a full restoration in 2003, the garden now grows podocarpus trees, azaleas, roses, water lilies and begonias. Only a handful of Shipman’s gardens still exist anywhere.

The rubber lab where Edison tested 17,000 plants

In 1927, Edison, Ford and Firestone each put $25,000 into a shared venture called the Edison Botanic Research Corporation.

Their goal was practical: find a plant that could grow fast in the United States and supply domestic rubber. Edison built a laboratory on the estate the following year and got to work.

He tested over 17,000 plant samples before landing on a species of goldenrod.

The lab is now the first site in Florida designated a National Historic Chemical Landmark, and you can see the original equipment inside.

A pool built with cement Edison made himself

Around 1910, Edison had a 50-by-20-foot swimming pool built on the property, making it one of the first residential pools in Fort Myers.

The pool is believed to have been poured using Edison Portland Cement, a product from Edison’s own manufacturing operation.

A pool house with changing rooms and a shower went in alongside it, and a 1928 remodel added a tea house to the setup. On a hot Florida afternoon, it’s easy to see why the whole thing made sense.

15,000 square feet of inventions, cars and timelines

The air-conditioned museum covers 15,000 square feet and holds hundreds of Edison’s inventions, from the phonograph to early motion-picture equipment to multiple generations of the light bulb.

A gallery of Ford’s antique automobiles includes a 1914 Model T, a 1916 Model T that Ford gave Edison as a birthday gift, and a 1937 Ford Coupe.

A Timeline of Innovation traces both men’s achievements across dozens of fields. The American Alliance of Museums has recognized the museum for its quality.

Plan to spend time in here.

Pick the tour that matches how you like to explore

You can move at your own pace with a free audio app in English, Spanish, German and French. If you want more depth, historian-led guided tours run several times a day and run about 60 minutes.

The Inside the Homes Tour opens rooms that are normally closed, led by curatorial staff in small groups. A separate lab tour takes you behind the gates of the botanic research laboratory.

There’s also an automotive tour led by a car expert, and families can join a scavenger hunt tracking Jerry the Pelican across eight spots on the property.

Open almost every day, with more to find each season

The estates open 363 days a year, from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., closing only on Thanksgiving and Christmas.

A research library on site holds over a thousand books on Fort Myers history, botany and the Edison and Ford families.

Edison held more than 1,000 patents by the time he died, and the estates preserve the place where many of those ideas developed. Seasonal events, garden talks and holiday celebrations run throughout the year.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation gave the site its Award of Excellence.

Visit the Edison and Ford Winter Estates in Fort Myers

The estates sit at 2350 McGregor Blvd. in Fort Myers, about a mile south of downtown along the Caloosahatchee River. Parking is free.

Paved walkways run throughout the grounds, and wheelchairs are available on a first-come, first-served basis. Admission runs $25 for adults, $5 for children ages 6 to 12, and free for children five and under.

Plan on at least 90 minutes to two hours. Check the official website for current tour times and seasonal event schedules before you go.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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