CultureNOW - Edison Ford Estates Collection: City of Fort Myers Public Art Collection, Edison & Ford Winter Estates, Inc. and D.J. Wilkins

Edison Ford Estates Collection

www.edisonfordwinterestates.org

The Edison & Ford Winter Estates consists of more than 20 acres of botanical gardens and nine historic buildings including Edison’s Botanic Research Laboratory, the Estates Museum (which contains an impressive collection of inventions, artifacts and special exhibit galleries), Edison's winter home, Seminole Lodge, and Henry and Clara Ford's adjoining residence, The Mangoes. Mina Edison deeded Edison's Estate to the City of Fort Myers in 1947, which opened it to the public later that year. Thomas MacFarlane Biggar purchased Henry Ford's winter estate in 1945 and decided to preserve it in tribute to the "great industrialist and greater humanitarian." The City of Fort Myers purchased it from him in 1988 and opened to the public in 1990.

In 2003, the City of Fort Myers delegated the Estates' governance and management to Edison & Ford Winter Estates, Inc., a 501(c) (3) non-profit charitable and educational organization. Since assuming its operation, Edison & Ford Winter Estates, Inc. has completed $13 million in capital restorations through grants from the City of Fort Myers, Lee County, State of Florida, HUD, and private sources, such as the Edison-Ford Winter Estates Foundation and other private and corporate grants and donations. It also listed the Estates on the National Historic Register, an Historic Florida Landmark and an original Save America’s Treasures of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

The Edison & Ford Winter Estates' mission is to provide unique educational experiences based on the artifacts, legacy and lives of Thomas Edison and Henry Ford, with emphasis on their Florida history. With a goal of inspiring the public to learn from these experiences, the Estates conducts daily tours of the historic site that include the homes, museum, laboratory and gardens. Tours may be guided by the Estates' historians or self guided through the aid of an audio wand and map.

With more than 200,000 visitors annually, the Edison & Ford Winter Estates is today one of the nation's most visited historic homes, with offsite educational program reaching an additional 25,000 each year.

Tom Hall, Art Southwest Florida.

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www.djwilkins.com

Proclaimed the “Sculptor of Fort Myers” by former mayor Art Hammel and the City Council that served during his administration, D.J. Wilkins is responsible for 23 public sculptures in the city of Fort Myers. Among his works are Uncommon Friends, Clayton and The Great Turtle Chase in Centennial Park, The Florida Panther in the median on Monroe Street outside the Harborside Event Center, The Harborside Collection (eight works including Chief Billy Bowlegs, Connie Mack, Thomas Edison and James D. Newton) inside the Event Center, statues of Thomas Edison and Henry Ford at the Edison & Ford Estates, and a tribute to legendary Fort Myers High School swim coach Wes Nott.

Wilkins also led a team that restored in 2011 a replica of the famed Iwo Jima Memorial that is located in Cape Coral, Florida. Like the original, the replica was created by Felix de Weldon, who was inspired to sculpt the memorial after seeing AP photographer Joe Rosenthal’s Pulitizer Prize picture of the actual flag raising that took place on February 19, 1945. De Weldon made the Cape Coral replica 10 years after he cast the original and two studies for Gulf American Corporation, which commissioned the piece in 1964 for inclusion in The Rose Garden, Cape Coral’s first tourist attraction. The six-month restoration project that began March 19, 2011 was necessary to repair more than 200 feet of cracks and a crumbling base that developed in the statue due to expansion and contraction of the concrete as a result of the temperature extremes prevalent in southwest Florida.

Wilkins worked in heating, ventilation and air conditioning when he first arrived in Southwest Florida in 1975 from Breckinridge, Kentucky, where he was teaching students skills like welding as part of a stint in the Job Corps. He credits his mother with his choice of Fort Myers. “’Fort Myers is the prettiest place I’d ever seen,’ she told me once,” DJ recalls. The seeds of his sculpting career were planted after he “escaped here” when a “hippie friend” on Fort Myers Beach showed him art he’d created out of cypress wood. They rode in a 1960 GMC pickup truck to a Naples art gallery where Wilkins saw sculptures that inspired his career in monumental art.

Tom Hall, Art Southwest Florida (www.artswfl.com)

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Artist
D.J. Wilkins

Owner
City of Fort Myers Public Art Collection

Preservation Organization
Edison & Ford Winter Estates, Inc.

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Description

Tom Hall, Art Southwest Florida.

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The Edison & Ford Winter Estates is a National Register Historic Site that honors the innovation and creativity of two of Fort Myers most famous winter residents, Thomas Alva Edison and Henry Ford. In addition to the inventors' winter homes, the Edison Botanical Laboratory and a museum containing numerous antiques and artifacts, the Estates includes the display of permanent artworks that interpret the site and reflect its 1920s historic landscape.

Five sculptures are displayed throughout the grounds of the Estates, specifically a standing Thomas Edison located in front of an acre-wide banyan tree that demarcates the entrance to the Estates; a seated Mina Edison in the Edison Heritage Gardens; a standing Henry Ford posted outside his winter home called The Mangoes; a bronze bust of Mina Edison located adjacent to a lily pond on the eastern edge of the Edison Heritage Gardens; and a copper water sculpture known as "Bouquet to Mina Edison" located in the lily pond in the Edison Botanical Gardens. All but the bust of Mina Edison were cast by North Fort Myers sculptor D.J. Wilkins; the bust was sculpted by New York artist Eleanor Platt.

Located in the hallway leading to the Orientation Gallery in the Estates Museum are busts of Thomas Edison and Henry Ford. The latter was made by D.J. Wilkins in 1985 for Thomas MacFarlane Biggers, who purchased Henry Ford's winter estate in 1945. It resides outside in the entrance to Ford's home until 2007, when it was replaced by the standing sculpture of the car manufacturer.

The bust of Thomas Edison appears to have been dedicated sometime in the mid-1960s. It was unveiled by Tom and Mina's son, Charles, in the Estate Museum. Charles won distinction in his own right first as Secretary of the Navy and later as the Governor of the State of New Jersey.

The outdoor sculptures are accessible to the public without charge. Admission to the Estates Museum costs $12 for adults and $5 for children 6-12.

Tom Hall, Art Southwest Florida.

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Location

Edison & Ford Winter Estates
2350 McGregor Boulevard
Fort Myers, FL 33901
United States

Nearby Items

Edison & Ford Winter Estates		748 feet
The Spirit of Fort Myers		0.2 miles
Manuel's Branch Bridge		0.8 miles
Wes Nott Memorial		0.9 miles
Parallel Park		1.1 miles
Fire Dance		1.1 miles
Sun Gate		1.2 miles