Chris & I had a couple more days in FL together, so we headed south to the Edison Ford Museum in Fort Myers. Pretty cool that these two connected and spent so much time together. They wintered in FL to escape the cold north. The museum included a building where they detailed their inventions, their laboratory, a caretaker's cottage, and the two winter homesteads: Henry Ford's and Thomas Edison's First stop for us was the main museum:
Firestone was also a frequent companion, as well as 3 Presidents! Pretty serious group of friends.
This museum focused mostly on their inventions - like Ford making a car completely out of soybeans in the 1940's
And Edison's -light bulb, batteries, phonographs..... There are so many inventions from him!
The group met in FL and would go camping together (and yes a President did go with them once) Of course they had a huge entourage, so it wasn't really camping.... Ford had trucks made to house all their 'camping' gear. Edison would bring his electricity to light up their campground (while the rest of the world was still in the dark...) Pretty interesting group.
Edison's last days were spent trying to grow rubber trees in the US. They tried over 17,000 kinds of trees - many of them on their FL homesteads
Then a short walk to their laboratory.
a banyan tree on their grounds - as they were trying to see if it would be the next best rubber tree
The caretakers' cottage was next (it had a 3 car garage :))
The grounds also had a beautiful swimming pool! With 2 springboard diving boards.
There was a nice walking path along the bay (of course their homes were on the ocean)
This was Henry Ford's winter home. He bought this home in the 19 teens.
His garage
Hanging with Henry!
Henry Ford's wife had a beautiful huge rose garden in Michigan, so she started one in FL too although much smaller
Rose garden
The Edison's home was right next door. Thomas built his in 1886! All the furniture is the Edison's. His wife sold their property to Fort Myers for $1 after he passed away. (The Ford's home was sold, renovated, and then sold to Fort Myers around 1988 for over a million dollars - sad it wasn't donated too)
Edison's house & guesthouse
They started a friendship path in the 1930's - all their friends that would visit would engrave a stone for them
Hanging with Thomas :)
The grounds were rife with plants trees and bushes. There is also a stand on the property where you can buy shrubs, and flowering plants
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