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Originally published in 1939
Some of this information may no longer be current and in that case is presented for historical interest only.
Edited by GET NJ, COPYRIGHT 2003
WEST ORANGE (190 alt., 24,327 pop.), immediately to the west of Orange, presents the sharpest contrasts within any one of the five communities. A small shopping district concentrated along Main Street se pcrates age-worn workers' homes and several small factories from the elaborate mansions and magnificent landscape of Llewellyn Park.
The catalyzer between these extremes is the spirit of Thomas A. Edison. Rows of two-story frame houses, bordered by neatly kept lawns, are overshadowed by the steel-concrete buildings of the EDISON PLANT (open on application), 51 Lakeside Ave. To this site the inventor moved in 1887 from Menlo Park and here he experimented with and perfected the moving picture machine, the phonograph and the alkaline storage battery. Today the plant occupies 29 acres and employs 2,100 workers in the manufacture of storage and primary batteries, portland cement, electrical controls, and the Ediphone for business dictation. Plans are under way to make a permanent museum of EDISON's LABORATORY (open 9-5 weekdays). In front of the building stand two four-wheeled car trucks, parts of the first and second commercial electric locomotives built by Edison in 1880 and 1882. Inside are a replica of the first phonograph, the actual kinetophone of 1912 (a talking machine), and numerous Edison writings and awards. It was to this West Orange laboratory that reporters came on February 11, 1927, when Edison celebrated his 80th birthday. At that time the old scientist was asked, "Is there a God?" The answer, written on a slip of paper, was: "I do not know -- do you?"
Before the arrival of Edison, West Orange was but a small town which had separated from Orange in 1862. Since the establishment of the plant, it has developed into a well-run, modernized community, distinguished for its own suburb of LLEWELLYN PARK (gates open only to visitors of residents). Home of the Colgates, the Edisons, and of Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan, Governor of New Jersey after the Civil War, the area retains the unspoiled beauty of the mountains supplemented by skillful landscaping. It was here that the first large-scale naturalization of such flowers as the crocus, narcissus and jonquil was undertaken in this country.
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