Since the 19th century, Florida has been the winter home of prominent northerners looking to escape harsh weather. One of the most famous of these “snow birds” was inventor Thomas Edison, who first visited Ft. Myers from New Jersey in 1885.

Since he was experimenting with bamboo as a light bulb filament at the time, he was attracted by the abundance of that plant and other sub-tropical vegetation he found in southwest Florida. In 1886, Edison built Seminole Lodge in Ft. Myers, as a winter retreat and laboratory where he worked on his many inventions including the phonograph. Automaker and friend, Henry Ford, built his own winter retreat immediately next door to Edison’s.

After World War I, he searched for a domestic source of artificial rubber and experimented with goldenrod. Although supported in this effort by Ford and another Ft. Myers friend and neighbor, tire manufacturer Harvey Firestone, the plant-based process Edison developed couldn’t compete with chemically produced artificial rubber.

Edison died in New Jersey in 1931, at the age of 83. In 1947, his wife donated Seminole Lodge to the City of Fort Myers. Today, Edison’s legacy lives on at the Edison & Ford Winter Estates.

Courtesy of the Florida Department of State, Division of Historical Resources