ELECTRIC BIRTHPLACE
By Tom and Joanne O’Toole 

We saw the lights were on at Tom Edison’s small birthplace home, but back when he was a toddler it would have been candles flickering, because he hadn’t yet invented the light bulb.  In fact, the word “electricity” wasn’t found anywhere at that time. 

The brick birthplace home, fronted by a white picket fence, was built by Edison’s father in 1841.  It is tucked away on a quiet side street in the historic district, just two blocks from the Milan Town Square in this small rural Ohio community. 

In the 1840s Milan was a busy grain port, and the year Tom Edison was born it had become the second largest wheat shipping port in the world.  It was also a shipbuilding center, producing 75 lake schooners that same year.  So this was a flourishing little metropolis then. 

A bungalow at first glance, the Edison home is actually three floors, having been built into the side of a sloping hill.  Born here on a rope bed in a tiny bedroom off the sitting room on February 11, 1847, Tom was the youngest of seven children.  The home has been restored and furnished as it was originally, but with the addition of indoor plumbing, electricity, and air conditioning.   

Here visitors find a collection of (said to be) rare Edisonia, including examples of many of self-taught genius Thomas Alva Edison’s early inventions, documents, and family mementos.  The brilliant inventor (although slightly eccentric some say) went on to garner 1,093 patents to his credit. 

The family moved in 1854, to Port Huron, Michigan.  Family situations saw young Edison making a series of moves and jobs that took him to many cities and states --- all the time being fascinated with inventions that would shape his future, as well as that of the country, and eventually the world.  

He was back in Port Huron at the age of 20, but found the family circumstances disheartening.  It was on to Boston with the Western Union and then to New York City.  He earned a tidy nest egg from one of his inventions, and in 1870 he built a complex in a New Jersey community where be became known as the Wizard of Menlo Park.  He remained there for more than 40 years, creating and developing many of his ingenious inventions. 

In 1906 Edison bought back his birthplace home.  Although he was a good friend of  Henry Ford, Edison would not give his birthplace home to Ford’s Greenfield Village, nor to the State of Ohio.  It has since been designated a National Historic Landmark. 

In a small building next to the home is the ticket office, a display of photographs, several early model phonographs, and the starting place for the daily tours.   

The guide explained the phonograph was his favorite invention developed when he was 30-years-old (1877).  It was pretty basic compared to what we have today --- tinfoil wrapped around a cylinder, and the volume controlled by moving a small door over the speaker.

So popular was this invention, that the perfected “Diamond Disc Phonograph” retailed for a whopping $250 in 1916. 

Visitors are taken from the ticket office to the Edison place, and enter through the side door.   Here is the sitting room, and to the rear is the Edison birthplace bedroom. 

The narrow, steep stairs opposite the front door go to two bedrooms on either side of the upper landing --- one for the parents, and the other for two of Edison’s sisters.

Back stairs on the main floor lead down to the large basement kitchen, which opens to the garden on the lower slope of the hill.  The kitchen is furnished with articles and utensils of the period.  Edison himself identified the wall clock as the one that used to hang in the family kitchen.  It’s said his mother kept a disciplinary switch behind the clock.

The guide points out original furnishings and items, and what are not.  There are articles on loan, other purchased representing the period, and others outright gifts by family descendents and friends. 

While the home was out of family ownership for 40 years when the parents moved the family in 1854, it was acquired again in 1894 by one of Edison’s sisters.  She “modernized” it with the addition of a bathroom and other conveniences.   

Although Edison bought his birthplace home in 1906, he was an absentee owner.  When he made his last visit in 1923 he was “shocked to find his old home still lit by candles and oil lamps.”  He saw to it that changes were made, and the house was wired for electricity.  

After the inventor’s death (in 1931) the opening of his birthplace to the public as a memorial and house museum was originally the private project of his wife and their daughter --- who were by then the owners of the property.  The house was restored to its original appearance as closely as possible, and opened on the centennial anniversary of Edison’s birth in 1947.

However, in order to insure its permanent preservation, the Edison Birthplace Association was formed some years later.  This private non-profit organization continues to own and maintain the museum. 

On and around the property are bronze Ohio Historical Markers, offering added details of the birthplace home, Edison’s recollections of Milan, and details of the Milan Canal Basin which helped the town become a leading Great Lakes port.  

While there were no accomplishments by young Edison in his seven years at the Milan home, it is nonetheless a significant historic site.  The town is properly proud to be known as the birthplace of one of America’s most famous and prodigious inventors.    

Genius  at  work.   Thomas Alva Edison invented many devices that made our lives simpler and brought us great convenience:

• 1868 --- the electrical vote recorder

• 1869 --- the universal stock ticker

• 1872 --- the automatic telegraph system and paraffin paper

• 1875 --- discovered “etheric force,” an electric phenomenon

• 1876 --- the electric pen

• 1877 --- the carbon telephone transmitter (which included the microphone used in radio), and his all-time favorite invention the phonograph

• 1879 --- the incandescent light

• 1891 --- the motion picture camera

• 1900 --- the nickel-iron-alkaline storage battery

• 1914 --- the electric safety miner’s lamp 

The Edison Birthplace Museum has varying hours throughout the year, and but is closed the month of January, every Monday, and major holidays during the year.  It’s best to check ahead. Generally the hours are 1-5/p, with the last tour departing at 4:30/p.  Summer hours are extended.  Admission is $7 adults, $6 seniors, and youngsters (6-12) $4.  Visitors are

welcomed to walk the grounds behind and around the home. The small museum was added to the National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 1966, and declared a National

Historic Landmark. For literature and information contact the museum at 9 North Edison Drive (Post Office Box 451), Milan, Ohio 44846. The local telephone is (419) 499-2135.  You can also e-mail them at: wizard@tomedison.org. The website is: www.tomedison.org.  

By Tom and Joanne O’Toole - fulltime husband/wife writing team and travel journalists