SAVING THE ESTATE

After Mina's gift, sole maintenance responsibility for the estates remained in the hands of the city, which "had no overall prioritized plan for repair work, and no clear preservation philosophy," according to the Historic Structures Report. The report heavily criticized the city's watch over the estate, even citing an inaccurate reproduction of Edison's office (which burned in 1968).

The report echoed what local preservationists had been complaining about for years. Color schemes were changed. Historic building fabric was discarded. Original shuttered louvers were tossed away. Wood roof shingles were replaced with asbestos. Landscape, walkways and river vistas altered, grown over or ignored. The furniture inexplicably rearranged in the laboratory. Inappropriate green bottles (not the high-purity chemical containers Edison used) placed about the lab. The list goes on.

In 1993, a decade before the city took action, preservationist Dr. Diana Jarvis Godwin warned that "the greatest problem at the Edison-Ford complex is the complete lack of any coherent renovation and maintenance plan."

A famous Edison proverb, listed in a display at the estate museum, advises that "There's always a way to do it better. Find it." Fort Myers has been forced to find a better way. Public uproar after exposé articles by News-Press investigative reporter Lee Melsek brought the Charles Edison Foundation to town. A sleeping giant had awakened. Suddenly the Edison-Ford Estate was granted priority ranking at city hall. City leaders, at first stubborn about relinquishing control, were eventually convinced by the mayor and public opinion to remove the estates from the political.

"The future of this precious treasure is now in your hands," said Humphrey at the initial trustees meeting of the new nonprofit Thomas Edison and Henry Ford Winter Estates. With an impartial overseer and definite restoration plans, the public funding gates are opening again. So far, $9 million (city, county, state and foundation funds) has been promised. A transition period will end in 2005 when the city will be totally out of the management picture.

"You can feel it. You can see it. Change is occurring daily. A year ago there was no restoration work going on. Now there is," says Pendleton. "It is exciting. When completed, this will be the most fabulous restored historic estate in this country."

It's only fair. When Thomas Edison first came to town, he electrified small-town boosters with a quip: "There's only one Fort Myers, and 90 million people are going to hear about it."

Edison kept his part of the bargain.