Thomas Edison Center at Menlo Park
National Historic Landmark · Edison, New Jersey
A 131-foot concrete tower topped by a nine-foot light bulb, standing on the ground where THE INCANDESCENT LAMP AND THE PHONOGRAPH WERE BOTH DEVELOPED. Edison built the world's first industrial research laboratory here in 1876 — the place where invention stopped being individual genius and became an organised process with a payroll — and in the winter of 1879 the surrounding streets became the first in the world lit by electric light. THE LABORATORY IS LONG GONE. What stands is the 1937 memorial tower, a small museum and a great deal of suburban Edison Township, and the row is honest about that.
37 Christie Street, Edison, New Jersey, 08820, United States
FREE or a nominal donation, with free parking. THE HOURS ARE VERY LIMITED — a few days a week in a short window, historically weekend-weighted, with seasonal and staffing closures, because it is run by a small volunteer non-profit. RING THE DAY YOU TRAVEL. THE GROUNDS AND THE FLOODLIT TOWER ARE VISIBLE AT ANY HOUR even when the museum is shut. Without a volunteer present there is very little interpretation. NOTE THAT THIS IS NOT THOMAS EDISON NATIONAL HISTORICAL PARK, which is a National Park Service site at West Orange twenty miles north with the laboratory buildings still standing — the two are confused constantly, and this is the earlier and historically more important site of which nothing survives.
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