The Main Gate
Edison National Historic Site, NJ
From 1887 to 1931 Thomas A. Edison, his laboratory employees, and invited guests entered the laboratory complex through this gate and arch. Guards and a tall picket fence (replaced by this chain-link fence in 1917) prevented sightseers and competitors from wandering the grounds.
The wooden gatehouse to your left was added in 1890, three years after Edison built his red-brick laboratory buildings. Behind the gatehouse, building 1 served as the physics laboratory until 1892 when vibrations from streetcars on Main Street upset the delicate instruments. Ahead, Building 5 housed a stockroom, machine shops, and Edison’s personal library-office.
Marker is on Main Street, on the right when traveling north.
Courtesy hmdb.org
