Seniors Spend Time In Historic Edison

Senior travelers stop in Edison, a township in Middlesex County, New Jersey with a population of 100,000, and one of the fastest-growing municipalities in New Jersey.

Originally Raritan Township, the name was officially changed to Edison Township on November 10, 1954, in honor of inventor Thomas Edison, whose main laboratory was in the Menlo Park section of the township.

Folks have lived in and around Edison since prehistoric times. Skull and bone fragments from the Stone Age have been discovered in the Piscatawaytown area, and arrowheads and cooking implements, ascribed to Native Americans living in the area, were found in an archeological dig in the Dismal Swamp.

It is said that George Washington passed through Edison on the way to his inauguration in New York City in April 1789. I always wonder who recorded that kind of fact.

Seniors Enjoy The Thomas Edison Center

The Thomas Edison Center at Menlo Park, located within the 36-acre Edison State Park, consists of a museum with interpretative and interactive exhibits and the Edison Memorial Tower. The site is devoted to Thomas Alva Edison’s time of immense creativity at Menlo Park, 1876-1882.

Menlo Park was one of the six neighborhoods that formed Raritan Township. It was a very sparsely populated rural area and the site of a failed residential development in the early 1870s. Thomas Edison set up his home and research laboratory on the site of this unsuccessful real estate development in Raritan Township.

While there he earned the nickname “The Wizard of Menlo Park.” Indeed, he was a Wizard. Before his death at age 83 in 1931, the prolific inventor amassed a record 1,093 patents for creations including the incandescent light bulb, photograph, alkaline battery and many more. The motto in Edison is “Let There Be Light.”  and senior visitors will see the world’s largest light bulb monument.

 Seniors Also Enjoy Asian American Culture

Edison hosts one of the region’s main centers of Asian American cultural diversity and is home to Little India, featuring food, clothing and music. The township is also in the process of developing a sprawling suburban Chinatown.

TripAdvisor suggests that you not miss the Thomas Edison Museum. After that maybe a picnic in Roosevelt Park. Senior golfers, bring your golf clubs and play a round at the Raritan Landing Golf Course.

Old Post Road winds around in Edison and is the earliest public road in eastern New Jersey. There are lots of businesses all along the route. The Bonhamtown area of Edison is said to have been the site of an old Native American village and later a Continental Army camp and battleground during the Revolutionary War.

Senior visitors can enjoy the Farmer’s Market, the Edison Arts Society and Middlesex County’s Plays-in-the-Park, during the summer months. Spend some time in Edison and enjoy. -jeb