Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 22, 1990 TAG: 9004220265
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: F-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: George & Rosalie Leposky
DATELINE: FORT MYERS, FLA. LENGTH: Long
Thomas A. Edison came to Fort Myers first. In 1886 he designed and built his home and guest house in Maine, and shipped the prefabricated sections to Florida by schooner. Soon after the house was finished, he begn spending winters here with his second wife, Mina Miller Edison.
In 1914 Henry Ford and naturalist John Burroughs came to Fort Myers to visit Edison and deliver to him a Model T Ford.
Ford liked Fort Myers. He and his wife, Clara, decided to copy the Edisons' habit of wintering here. For $20,000, the Fords bought "Mangoes," a six-bedroom winter house built in 1911 on a 3 1/2-acre plot next to the Edisons' home. A simple garden gate, appropriately called the Friendship Gate, connected the two houses. From 1916 to 1931 they lived in the home each February, March and April.
The two dwellings are as different as the families that occupied them. Edison designed his house to admit the breezes and shade the occupants from the bright sunlight of subtropical Fort Myers. The Ford home was ample but undistinguished in design; it could have been built anywhere.
Edison was almost totally deaf and capable of intense concentration but he could also charm visitors - or plague them with practical jokes. Ford was more reserved and taciturn.
In 1947 Mina Edison gave her home and its contents to the city of Fort Myers as a memorial to her husband. The Ford family sold their house in 1947, and Clara Ford stipulated in her will that everything she owned be auctioned after her death in the 1950s. City officials had to wait until 1988 to acquire "Mangoes," for which they paid $1.5 million.
Some similarities between the two families exist. Mina Edison and Clara Ford both liked to shop. Once they returned from a trip to Atlantic City, N.J., with identical wicker porch swings. An original hangs at the Edison home; a duplicate now graces the Ford home's front porch.
"Furnishing the Ford home has been a challenge," says Buffy Donlon, a Palm Beach interior designer responsible for restoring the Ford home to reflect how the Fords lived from 1916 to 1931. "While the other Ford homes were well-photographed, this one was under-photographed. Walls and cabinets that were moved by later owners of the house had to be restored. Ford Motor Co. contributed $50,000 to this restoration project. Although we've furnished the house with period furniture and linens, we're actively looking for furnishings the Fords owned.
"Although the Fords were the world's first billionaires, they lived a very simple life in Fort Myers," Donlon says. "They were very private people. I've tried to duplicate how they might have decorated with period pieces that would have been new at the time, or old and comfortable, including wicker resembling what they shipped from Michigan.
"Mrs. Ford had no taste for antiques or fine artwork. The walls were hung with pictures of bird or fish prints and maps. Mr. Ford was known to hang Ford Motor Co. calendars in the living room. The kitchen was equipped with a 1921 General Electric stove and refrigerator, which is significant because Edison founded General Electric.
"The living room has a cranked phonograph because the Fords liked to square-dance on the cypress floor. Their carpets were arranged to be rolled up easily when the children, grandchildren and friends visited. Although the Fords were well-known teetotalers, Clara Ford liked a sip of Cherry Herring liqueur and Henry liked Rolling Rock Beer."
A farm girl, Clara Ford discovered Wedgwood china in the 1930s on her first visit to England. To commemorate the opening of the Ford home as a museum, the Wedgwood family and the British House of Lords, represented by Lord Piers Wedgwood, presented for display a large black basalt hand-turned bowl made in a 200-year-old mold created by Josiah Wedgwood.
One of Florida's most popular attractions, the Edison home expects over 460,000 visitors this year. "With the Ford home having opened in February," says Gary Thomas, assistant director of the Edison home, "we can now plan for a museum and theater to show 52 of Edison's original movies. The museum will be built in front of the garage on the grounds of the Ford home and will include additional public restrooms and a new ticket-sales and restaurant area."
With the addition of the Ford home to the Edison-Ford complex, you should plan to spend three to four hours visiting the 14-acre botanical garden, both dwellings, Edison's laboratory and a museum that in 1986 received new displays and a 5,000-square-foot addition. These renovations allow you more easily to see Edison's dictaphones, light-bulb collection, movie projectors, stock tickers and other inventions; and cars associated with the Edison family, including a prototype 1907 Model T Ford.
Tickets are sold each day for a tour at a specific time. One guide may lead as many as 35 to 40 people, so the best time to tour is early morning, before the crowds gather. Tour hours are 9 a.m.-4 p.m. daily, except 12:30 p.m.-4 p.m. Sunday. The fee is $5 for the Edison home, $3 for the Ford home, and $7 for a complete tour of both houses, the garden, laboratory and museum. No food service is available on the grounds. For more information, contact the Edison Winter Home, 2350 McGregor Blvd., Fort Myers Fla. 33901, phone 813-334-3614.
While you're in Fort Myers, explore other aspects of the city's history. Across town from the Edison and Ford homes, the Fort Myers Historical Museum occupies the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad station built in 1924. Through Sept. 14, the museum is presenting a locally mounted show, Clash of Arms, which traces local military history, from the early Spanish and Indian battles in the 1500s to the World War II Army Air Corps bases at Buckingham and Page fields.
On the museum grounds stands Esperanza, the last privately owned observation car manufactured by Pullman-Standard Car and Manufacturing Co. Built in 1929-30, the 202,900-pound car measures a half-inch under 84 feet long. It went through a series of owners before Charles Thrift Jr., president of Florida Southern College in Lakeland, bought it in 1976. The city of Fort Myers acquired it in 1985 and began restoring it. Esperanza is open for tours on request during museum hours - 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m. daily, except 1-5 p.m. Sunday. Admission is $2 for adults, 50 cents for children under 12. For information, contact the Fort Myers Historical Museum, 2300 Peck St., Fort Myers Fla. 33901, phone 813-332-5955.
The local transit system, LeeTran, operates a free trackless-trolley service through downtown Fort Myers every 20 minutes from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. daily except Sunday. Ask your hotel for the closest LeeTran trolley stop. The Edison and Ford homes and the Fort Myers Historical Museum are on the LeeTran route. For more information call 275-Tran.
The Edison and Ford homes are 25 miles (a half-hour drive) from the fine shelling beaches on Sanibel and Capitva islands. The toll bridge to the islands costs $3.
For hotel information and a free travel guide to the Lee Island Coast, contact the Lee County Visitor and Convention Bureau, P.O. Box 2445, Fort Myers Fla. 33902-2445, phone 1-800-Lee-Isle (533-4753) or 813-335-2631.
by CNB