2025 southeast swing – part 13: Henry Ford’s early cars and Florida home

Thomas Edison and Henry Ford were great friends after spending time traveling together (post 13). Ford often visited Edison in Florida and finally bought a home next door so they could visit during the winter. Next to Ford’s home is his caretaker’s home and a garage housing some of his early cars that we’ll see first.

The statue of Ford on the lawn by his house was made at 1-1/2 scale by a local sculptor and was donated to the Estates in 2007. Henry Ford lived from 1863-1947. Interesting that he was just 20 years old when Edison (around age 40) and his wife (around age 20) built their home in Fort Myers.

Ford’s cars

The standard 3-door 1919 Ford Model T sold for $525 ($10,042 in 2025) and was powered by a 20-horsepower, 4-cylinder cast iron engine. Its maximum speed was around 45 mph with a 10-gallon gas tank that averaged 14-21 miles per gallon. Electric starters became an optional feature for the first time this year and cost an extra $75 ($1405 in 2025) to install. Eventually Ford began producing instrument panels equipped with an ammeter and an ignition switch.

See the items in the right corner of the following picture? Since few repair shops were available in the countryside, drivers had to carry a number of spare parts and tools in case of breakdowns.

The 1929 Ford Model A in the next picture was introduced in December 1927 as the successor to the Ford Model T. While it was the “new” Model A, it was named after the original 1903 Model A. Mechanical upgrades and a sleek body design made the newer model much different in appearance and performance.

This new model was built with four cylinders and was the first Ford with four-wheel mechanical brakes, shock absorbers, and a vacuum-operated windshield wiper.

Ford’s home – outside

Henry Ford with his family first came to Fort Myers in 1914 to visit his friend, Thomas Edison. Two years later he bought the winter home next to the Edisons’. Both men shared a passion for innovation and spent days fishing, boating, and socializing together.

This modest, Craftsman-style bungalow reflects a simpler lifestyle than the bustling world of Ford’s automotive business and more formal estate, Fairlane, in Dearborn, Michigan.

This 1911 house is an example of the “American Bungalow” style of architecture. It features cedar-shingle siding, wide covered porches with sturdy columns, a gabled metal roof, and dormers with decorative beams. Interior finishes include cypress ceiling beams and yellow pine moldings, built-in benches, and window seating, as well as ample cabinet and shelf storage.

In 1928, Ford added two bedroom and bath suites to the first floor as wings to the original building to be used for guests and staff. The second floor had bedrooms for the Fords, their son Edsel, a den, indoor bathroom, and a semi-enclosed sleeping porch.

For car lovers: Ford and his engineers secretly developed the V-8 engine inside Edison’s Ford Myers Laboratory that was moved to Greenfield Village and is now on display. You can see pictures of this laboratory when we visited Greenfield Village in 2018.

Ford’s home – inside

While most of the furnishings on display are not original, they are in the style of the Ford residences.

Here’s what AI says about this refrigerator: “The first commercially successful electric refrigerator, the General Electric Monitor-Top debuted in 1927. Before this, other electric models existed, like the Domelre in 1913 [a luxury model], but the GE model made them widely available as it was a more reliable and eventually cheaper product. The Monitor-Top’s design featured a compressor on top, which helped it become a trendsetter in home refrigeration.”

Which home do you like best: Edison’s home, the Guest House, or Ford’s home? Also on the grounds are the research areas Edison, and sometimes Ford, used. Let’s move on.