Thomas Edison National Historical Park

01Sep19

A few years ago it just about killed me to drive by the turnoff to the Thomas Edison National Historical Park without taking the exit.

But Katie and I were running a little late to meet a Disney friend of hers in Newark, N.J. After all, I thought, I travel to New York frequently. I can always visit later.

Later, it turned out was about seven years, but I finally took that exit and visited the Thomas Edison National Historical Park in West Orange, New Jersey, this summer.

This park is unique for historical sites in that there are actually two units. The visitor center is located at the Edison Laboratory Complex, a late 1800s industrial complex with many of the original buildings.

Just down the road from the laboratory sits Glenmont Estate, Edison’s home in a fashionable neighborhood that advertised “Country Homes for City People.”

While the city has grown out to Glenmont Estate, the area is still in a fashionable neighborhood. In order to tour the 29-room red brick and wood mansion, you have to get a parking pass at the visitor center and go through the gated community. A park ranger gives tours and the group size is limited not only by size (a dozen or so) but time (just one tour every hour).

Glenmont Estate is beautiful on the inside and the outside. Unfortunately I can only show you images of the building’s exterior. Park rules forbid the taking of any photos (including selfies) inside the structure. That’s a shame, because there were several rooms and furnishings I would have liked to have captured on film.

Some of the interior features are stained-glass windows, chandeliers and hand-painted ceilings. Inside also lies Edison’s belongings, inventions and photographs from his 44 years of living at Glenmont. There’s even autographs of some of the famous people who would visit Edison and his wife Mina.

It shouldn’t be a surprise that shortly after buying the house, Edison added electrical lighting. Despite that the house was still extremely dark throughout with wood paneling dominating the interior decorating. There are also dead animal skins throughout the house.

There are other buildings throughout the

As fascinating as Glenmont Estate was, the Edison Laboratory Complex was even more interesting in my viewpoint. The West Orange complex not only held separate labs for chemistry, physics and metallurgy, but it housed Edison’s office.

There are some 400,000 artifacts in the historical park everything from prototypes and commercial Edison products to laboratory furnishings and equipment. There are tens of thousands of sound recordings. Edison had a library of 10,000 rare books and there are 60,000 photographic images and an estimated five million documents.

Quite frankly, it’s overwhelming. To really look and appreciate all of the artifacts on display would take days. I obviously didn’t stay that long. Still it was long enough to get a good appreciation for what Edison and his team of scientists and workers accomplished in this laboratory complex.

Besides the main laboratory there are other smaller buildings in the complex. But that’s OK, the main laboratory and Glenmont Estate has more than enough to see on your visit to the Thomas Edison National Historical Park.

 

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