edison_lab

Thomas Edison’s Laboratory
Christie Street (between Tower Road and Middlesex Avenue)
Edison, N.J.

Then: In 1876, Thomas Edison moved from Newark to Menlo Park, N.J., where he would invent the phonograph in 1877 and the incandescent light bulb in 1879. His laboratory, filled with a variety of materials, instruments, and a staff of researchers, was the first center for technological innovation of its kind. By 1884, Edison had left Menlo Park to promote his electrical lighting and power equipment.

Now: In the 1920s, Henry Ford visited Menlo Park to find Edison’s lab dilapidated and abandoned. Ford and his staff reconstructed the lab in his Greenfield Village, Mich., museum, where it continues to be a popular attraction. The Edison Memorial Tower, dedicated in 1938, was built on the exact spot the Menlo Park lab once stood.