Ford & Edison Winter Estates


Your visit to the Winter Estates of Thomas Edison and Henry Ford will be a fascinating trip. Both men spent many winters working, talking, and relaxing together.

Visit the winter get-away of Henry Ford, the man responsible for bringing the automobile to the nation. See many of the first automobiles to come off the assembly line. Visit the winter retreat and workplace of Thomas Edison, the man responsible for bringing us the electric light, the phonograph, and many other wonderful inventions.

The botanical garden supplied Edison with plant byproducts for his scientific investigations, and is incidentally one of the most complete in America, containing more than a thousand varieties of plants. The specimens include an African sausage tree and a Banyan tree, which was a gift from Harvey Firestone.
Recommended Activities
Edison’s Laboratory Botanical Gardens “Tin Lizzie”
Florida’s First Cement Swimming Pool Shell Factory Ft. Myers Imaginarium
Naples Zoo at Caribbean Gardens Edison Museum
Available tour packages include . . .

One-day package to Ft. Myers can be combined with a visit to the Shell Factory, Ft. Myers Imaginarium, or the Naples Zoo at Caribbean Gardens. Package includes round-trip transportation by deluxe motor coach, tour escort, all admission fees to sites, detailed activities and itineraries, and all meals.
Teachers are complimentary based on ratio chosen by school.

Sunshine
 State
  Standards

Sonshine Educational Tours to the Ford and Edison Estates include interdisciplinary learning activities and experiences that align with Florida’s Sunshine State Standards, including the following:

Social Studies (SS.A.5.3.2) The student understands ways that significant individuals and events influenced economic, social, and political systems in the United States after 1880.

Social Studies (SS.B.1.3.7) The student understands the spatial aspects of communication and transportation systems.

Science (SC.H.3.3.5) The student understands that contributions to the advancement of science, mathematics, and technology have been made by different kinds of people, in different cultures, at different times, and are an intrinsic part of the development of human culture.