Edison and Ford Winter Estates
Posted by: 
lazyCachers
N 26° 38.046 W 081° 52.731
17R E 412522 N 2946210
Located just south of downtown Ft. Myers, Florida on McGregor Blvd. Coordinates take you to the visitors center.
Waymark Code: WM3ZCG
Location: Florida, United States
Date Posted: 06/10/2008
Views: 34
The Edison and Ford Winter Estates contain a historical museum and 17 acre botanical garden on the adjacent sites of the winter homes of Thomas Alva Edison and Henry Ford beside the Caloosahatchee River in southwestern Florida. It is located at 2350 McGregor Boulevard, Fort Myers, Florida, USA. It is open daily from 9:00 am to 5:30 pm, including Sundays.
The present site dates from 1885, when Edison first visited Florida and purchased the property to build a vacation home. His home, completed in 1887 and dubbed "Seminole Lodge", served as a winter retreat and place of relaxation until Edison's death in 1931. Edison’s good friend Henry Ford purchased the adjoining property in 1916 where he purchased "The Mangoes" from Robert Smith of New York. Ford's craftsman style bungalow was but in 1911 by Smith. In 1947, Mrs. Thomas Edison deeded the property to the City of Fort Myers in memory of her husband for the enjoyment of the public. It was opened for public tours in 1950. 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 $10 million restoration project in 2006. A separate fundraising arm, Edison-Ford Winter Estates Foundation, Inc., was created to assist the restoration project with no function in governance, programming or development but rather to assist the governing board with the initial restoration.
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