The majority of Thomas Edison National Historical Park is comprised of the West Orange Laboratory Complex, Edison’s research and development facility. Many of the buildings have been preserved or reconstructed. Those open to the public are the Main Laboratory Building Museum, a reproduction of the Black Maria movie studio, and the Chemistry Laboratory. Other buildings include a chemical storage and pattern shop, metallurgical laboratory, blacksmith shop, storage vaults, and a few other miscellaneous buildings. The Main Laboratory is open to visitors for self-guided tours, while the Black Maria and the Chemistry Laboratory are only open during a Ranger-guided tour. Guests can view the interiors of the Chemical Storage and Pattern Shop and the blacksmith shop from the open doorway. The Metallurgical Laboratory building is closed. A second area of the park, Edison’s Glenmont Mansion, is located a mile from the laboratory.
When in business, Edison’s West Orange facility included much more than the research laboratory. A manufacturing plant stood on the surrounding 23 acres of land. Because Edison had all elements of production on one property, an idea could progress from an approved design to an actual product in just a few days, whereas this might take months at other manufacturing plants.
None of the manufacturing facilities are part of Thomas Edison National Historical Park. In fact, the only manufacturing building still standing is the battery factory, the large 400,000-square-foot building on the other side of Lakeside Avenue. All other buildings were torn down in the early 1970s. The battery factory was home to various businesses up until 2003, but since then it sat empty until just recently. Developers purchased the property and have converted it into apartments and retail space.
Visitors to the park can rent an audio tour device for a few bucks at the Laboratory Complex Visitor Center. If you really want to learn about Thomas Edison and his facility at West Orange, I highly recommend this tour, otherwise there is just minimal information available. Throughout the complex, and especially in the exhibit areas of the Main Laboratory Building Museum, you will find information panels with a number and headphone graphic on them. Punch these numbers into your device to hear a short lecture about what you are looking at. Be sure to ask for headphones if you don’t have any of your own. You can still hear the information without them, but you must hold the device to your ear. In addition to English, the tour is in German, Spanish, and Japanese. There is also a family version that appeals to kids. Touring the complex and listening to all of the audio commentaries takes about 3 hours. Add another hour to attend the Ranger talks and tours.
Exhibit the with an audio commentary (see front rail) inside the Main Laboratory Building at Thomas Edison National Historical Park
CHEMICAL STORAGE AND PATTERN SHOP
There are three identical buildings in the Edison Laboratory Complex, all of which were built in 1887-88. The middle building is the Chemical Storage and Pattern Shop. No Ranger talks or tours are given, and visitors are not allowed to enter the building, though the interior can be viewed from the doorway.
As originally conceived, the front of the building was used to store chemicals and the back end was where the pattern shop was located. This was a woodworking shop where Edison’s carpenters produced wooden models for parts of specialized machines used in the production of Edison products. The models were used to cast the actual metal parts.
BLACKSMITH SHOP
Located between the middle and third building is a small blacksmith shop where non-precision parts for new inventions and working machines were crafted. As with the Chemical Storage and Pattern Shop, visitors cannot enter the building but can view the interior from the open doorway.
METALLURGICAL LABORATORY
The Metallurgical Laboratory is the third building (farthest from the entrance). This was was originally used for experiments dealing with different types of metals. It was later used for sound recording and phonograph duplication experiments. Today it is closed to the public and serves as storage space for the National Park Service.
BUILDING 11
Building 11 and the adjacent Building 10—a garage that no longer exists—were constructed around 1910. Building 11 was used for a variety of purposes, including additional storage for automobiles and a training facility for fire drills. In 1940, both buildings were removed to make way for Vault 12, a bomb-proof storage facility deemed necessary at the start of World War II. Building 10 was demolished, and Building 11 was donated to the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. In 2002, the building was returned and reinstalled on its original location.
Building 11 is now used as a classroom for school groups.
STORAGE VAULTS
There are four storage vaults located at the Edison Laboratory Complex. Three are actual buildings: Vault 8 next to the Visitor Center building, Vault 32 near the water tower, and Vault 33 near the Black Maria.
After a fire in 1914 destroyed the Phonograph Works and nearly all of the manufacturing facilities, Vault 32 was built to store the surviving metal masters for phonograph records. The masters were later donated to the Henry Ford Museum, which returned them to the park in 2001. In total, the National Park Service owns 28,000 disc records, 11,000 cylinder records, and 9,800 original metal masters used to press the disc records.
Vault 33, also built in 1915, held Edison’s Blue Amberol cylinder phonograph record molds. In fact, the building was known as the Blue Amberol Vault. Amberol is the name Edison gave the product that replaced his early wax cylinder records. The Amberols are made of celluloid, a much more durable material, and tinted blue for trademark purposes.
Vault 8 was built in 1912 and used to store the movies produced by Edison Educational Films.
Vault 8 located next to the former Physics Lab, now the Visitor Center at Thomas Edison National Historical Park
A fourth vault, Vault 12, is a little more inconspicuous. It is located behind Building 11 and looks like an event stage. This is a bomb-proof vault built at the start of World War II to store valuable documents in case the Germans bombed the factory. It is still used today.
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Last updated on December 11, 2022