Thomas A. Edison Laboratories, Main Street & Lakeside Avenue, West Orange, Essex County, NJ

See also HABS NJ-808 (A-B) for additional documentation.
Significance: The Thomas A. Edison West Orange Laboratory site represents a significant era in the history of American manufacturing. Edison originally envisioned a facility devoted to pure invention, making this one of the first modern industrial research labs. The site also contained several of the manufacturing plants where Edison utilized new technology in commercial production. Edison worked here along with a staff of about sixty assistant researchers. Among the inventions and improvements to come out of the West Orange labs after its construction in 1887 were the practical phonograph, the movie camera, the improved storage battery, the fluroscope, and synthetic rubber derived from plants. In 1914 fire gutted the surrounding factories, but left the lab complex untouched. The West Orange labs remained in operation until Edison's death in 1931.
Unprocessed Field note material exists for this structure: N1376
Survey number: HAER NJ-70
Building/structure dates: 1887 Initial Construction
Building/structure dates: 1922 Subsequent Work
Building/structure dates: 1954 Subsequent Work