Thomas Alva Edison Memorial Tower and Museum

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The Edison Memorial Tower

The Thomas Alva Edison Memorial Tower and Museum is a memorial to inventor and businessman Thomas Edison, located in the Menlo Park area of Edison, New Jersey.

It was built in 1938 and dedicated on February 11, 1938, on the inventor's 91st birthday. The 131-foot tall tower is at the exact spot where the Menlo Park laboratory was located. After Edison and his staff left in 1884, the original buildings deteriorated until by 1925 all the buildings had either collapsed or burned. The tower's pinnacle is meant to represent an incandescent light bulb.^[1]

Originally, the tower was not only a tribute to the incandescent light, but also recorded sound. It had speakers loud enough to be heard two miles away, but was discontinued to avoid noise pollution, according to a 2004 Weird NJ magazine.

The museum showcases many of Thomas Edison's creations including the phonograph and some of his light bulbs, as well as memorabilia relating to Edison and his inventions. The museum also showcases several images taken of Edison's property and inventions.

Nearby the tower are some modern walking trails, upon which visitors are free to enjoy the nature that Thomas Edison enjoyed. The trail is a short path the leads through a small patch of woods near the museum.

The Edison Museum is the subject of a song ("The Edison Museum") on the They Might Be Giants 1999 album Long Tall Weekend (and was later re-released on their 2002 album No!) which was at one point performed at the Edison National Historic Site in West Orange, New Jersey and recorded there to wax cylinder. Another song by They Might Be Giants, "I Can Hear You" was similarly recorded to Wax cylinder at the Edison National Historic Site in 1996. The recording appears on their album of the same year, Factory Showroom and re-released on the compilation album Dial-A-Song: 20 Years Of They Might Be Giants.

In 2006, volunteers with the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers began raising money to restore the tower and build a new museum. The restoration effort received a large boost when the state recently appropriated $1.8 million to the project. Renovations began in 2007 but the Edison Memorial Tower Corporation, which oversees the project, is still soliciting donations.

On April 3, 2008, plans for major improvements for the museum were unveiled.^[2]