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Edison and Ford Winter Estates

Photo: J. Miers (Jtesla16) / CC BY-SA 3.0

🎡 Attractions

Edison and Ford Winter Estates

Fort Myers, FL · Southwest Florida

About

Thomas Edison built his winter home here on the Caloosahatchee River in the 1880s, and Henry Ford later bought the bungalow next door so the two friends could tinker side by side. The grounds hold the laboratory where Edison tested thousands of plants searching for a homegrown source of rubber, alongside a botanic garden Mina Edison filled with orchids and a moonlight garden meant to be walked at dusk. Out front spreads a banyan tree planted in 1925 from a sapling the size of a walking stick, now a grove of aerial roots covering most of an acre.

Highlights

Largest banyan tree in the continental USEdison botanic research labRiverside historic homesOrchid and moonlight gardensEdison Ford museum

Getting there

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For much of the world, Florida means the attractions. The theme parks that built Orlando, a working spaceport on the Atlantic coast, mermaids who have performed underwater since 1947, and a coral castle one man carved by hand. This is the big statewide guide to what people fly to Florida for, the giants and the roadside icons alike, from the Keys to the Panhandle.