The Edison Memorial Tower - Edison, NJ
N 40° 33.790 W 074° 20.341
18T E 555955 N 4490476
This could be perhaps one of the tallest, octagonal buildings in the world, a memorial, to New Jersey's arguably most famous citizen, Thomas Alva Edison.
Waymark Code: WM9KYW
Location: New Jersey, United States
Date Posted: 08/31/2010
Views: 23
Next to the Franklin Institute, which as far as I know is the largest citizen memorial in the world, this might be the tallest and definitely the tallest octagonal memorial. I read about this memorial on several sites. I learned the basic facts. The tower extends 131 feet, 4 inches above Menlo Park. The Edison Memorial Tower marks the spot where Thomas Alva Edison conceived the first practical incandescent light bulb. For 10 years, Edison worked here on some 400 patented ideas before eventually moving his “Invention Factory” to West Orange. The tower and museum were dedicated on February 11, 1938, on what would have been the inventor's 91st birthday.
As early as a few years ago, plans were unveiled to renovate the tower. NJ coughed up a few million for the project. Apparently, a few million from the state and donations from other sources only gets you a cheap wire metal fence, which is what surrounded the memorial.
The tower has a lot of weather damage to its base and other area where concrete has been chipped away or gone missing. A bas relief of Edison on a marker has been stolen. The 7 markers are all still there but I could not get close as the perimeter is fenced. Each of the large 7 markers can be found on one of the eight sides (the eighth side is for the door) and tell about his inventions and other exploits. There is also an interpretive at the site. I was alone when I visited and no one seemed to come down this old, lonely road. There is a small museum to the right but it was closed, of course. It seems, time as forgotten this strange memorial.
I also found this great old narrative from the American Guide Series. Note the mention of the octagonal nature of this structure:
Menlo Park, 9.1 m (100 alt., 355 pop.), is known for the site of Edison's laboratory, marked by a rough-hewn granite boulder (R). In a hillside park behind the boulder stands the 129-foot memorial tower, topped by a huge electric bulb about 14 feet high and 9 feet in diameter. The eight-sided tower is built of reinforced colored concrete. The great bulb is made of prismatic pyrex glass and illuminated by 12 lights inside. Bronze tablets to be placed on seven of the eight sides will tell of Edison's inventions. A bronze and glass door will give a view of the perpetual light at the base, burning since 1929. The tower stands on the spot where the first incandescent bulb was made. Edison's home is gone; his workshop and many relics have been removed by Henry Ford to his museum in Dearborn, Mich. Residents day that Edison also worked in the little wooden shack directly behind the highway memorial. --- New Jersey, a Guide to Its Present and Past: Page 485-486, 1939