Thomas Edison Birthplace Museum

No first time visit to the Milan, Ohio area would be complete without a visit to the Thomas Edison birthplace shown in our photos below. Located at the end of Edison Drive and surround by a white picket fence, this meticulously maintained home, which was built in 1842, is Milan's most featured attraction. From this modest beginning came America's greatest inventor. Edison's parents sold the house in 1854 although Edison's sisters, Marian Edison Page, repurchased the home in 1894. Edison so cherished his childhood home that he purchased it from his sister's family  in 1906. The Thomas Edison Birthplace was first opened to the public in 1947 and by 1965 had become a registered National Historic Landmark.

Thomas Alva Edison was born in Milan, Ohio on February 11, 1847 and spent his early childhood years exploring the town, the woods surrounding the area and watching the boats on the Milan Canal. Edison did not attend school in Milan because his mother was a former teacher and she home schooled him in his early years. A statue showing "Young Edison" being taught by his mother  (photo above) is on display on the village square in Milan. His family moved away in 1854 when Thomas was seven. Edison returned to Milan on three occasions before his death. On March 4, 1896, while attending his father's funeral, he visited his childhood home in Milan and then spent the afternoon with his sister (Mrs. Homer Page) on the Page farm on Mason Road. He returned to Milan on February 3, 1900 for his sister's funeral which was held at the Edison home and finally returned one last time to Milan on August 10, 1923 (at 66 years of age)  when he again visited the Edison home and reminisced about his childhood years in Milan. Later he was greeted by the Mayor and several thousand local people at the town square, He was accompanied on this trip by famous American industrialists Henry Ford and Harvey Firestone shown in photo above..    

Click Here To Visit Official Website of Thomas Edison's Birthplace