The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
FURTHER EDISON ILLUMINATION
The Edison and Ford Winter Estates, 2350 McGregor Blvd., are about a half hour from the Southwest Florida International Airport in Fort Myers. It’s open from 9 a.m. to 5:30p.m. every day of the year, with the last tickets sold at 4:30 p.m.
Tickets for self-guided tours are $25 for adults, $20 for teens and $15 for children 6 through 12. Parking and entry for children under 6 are free. Garden Talks, led by horticulturists, are at 10a.m. the second Saturday of each month so visitors can learn about the significance of different plant varieties Thomas and Mina Edison brought to their winter home. Garden classes take place at 1:30 p.m. each Tuesday.
A free Garden Festival takes place twice a year in the grassy area around the lab and banyan tree. The next ones are Nov. 19 and 20 and Feb. 11 and 12. Amid food trucks and live music, garden vendors from throughout the state will offer unusual plants and trees for sale.
Get further information at edisonford.org or call 239334-7419.
The Thomas Edison Birthplace Museum in Milan, south of Sandusky, is a great place to gather further insight into this remarkable inventor of the phonograph, telephone transmitter, incandescent lights and hundreds of other things.
His Edison Electric Company became General Electric in 1892, and the work he did on storage batteries has led to the development of today’s electric cars and modern alkaline batteries. By the time of his death on Oct. 18, 1931, he had amassed a record 1,093 patents.
The museum is at 9 N. Edison Drive. Call 419-499-2135 and go to tomedison.org. Thomas Edison’s Menlo Park Complex from New Jersey, as well as his Botanical Laboratory from his winter home in Fort Myers, Florida, have been transported piece by piece to Greenfield Village, the 80-acre outdoor museum in Dearborn, Michigan, that’s part of the Henry Ford Museum.
Greenfield Village’s seven historic districts allow visitors to immerse themselves into 300 years of American history. Find out more at thehenryford.org/visit/greenfieldvillage.