Edison's Winter Home [Florida]

The Edison and Ford Winter Estates contain a historical museum and 21 acre (8.5 hectares) botanical garden on the adjacent sites of the winter homes of Thomas Edison and Henry Ford beside the Caloosahatchee River in Fort Myers southwestern Florida.

The present site dates from 1885, when Edison first visited southwest Florida and purchased the property to build a vacation home. His home, completed in 1886 and later 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, "The Mangoes" from Robert Smith of New York in 1916. Ford's craftsman style bungalow was built in 1911 by Smith.