Side A: One of America’s most prolific and important inventors, Thomas Alva Edison was born in this house in 1847. Designed by his father, Samuel Edison, a shingle maker by trade, this small gabled brick cottage was built in 1841. Though the Edisons moved to Port Huron, Michigan, in 1854, when he was seven, Edison cherished the memories of his early boyhood here and acquired the home from his sister’s family in 1906. Edison’s daughter Madeleine Edison Sloane opened the home to the public as a memorial to the great inventor in 1947, the centennial of his birth. It became a registered National Historic Landmark in 1965.
Side B: My recollections of Milan are somewhat scanty as I left the town when I was not quite seven years old. I remember the wheat elevators on the canal, and Gay shipyard; also the launching of new boats, on which occasion the piece of land called the “Hogbac” would be filled with what seemed to me to be the entire population of the Town who came to witness the launching. I also recall a public square filled at times with farmers’ teams, and also what seemed to me to be an immense number of teams that came to town bringing oak staves for barrels. I can just remember seeing a number of Prairie Schooners encamped in front of our house. This was about 1849 or 1850, when I was but a mere infant, and I learned afterwards that these Prairie Schooners were carrying adventurers going to California to hunt for gold. Yours very truly,
Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.
Places within about 300 feet of this marker that are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. A nearby listing is not always the marker's own subject.