Edison Crescent

Thomas Alva Edison

According to legend, Thomas Edison boarded at William Winter’s home at 19 Grange St. In March of 1940, Winter’s sons, James and Blake, both old men, recalled stories their mother and father had told them of "the strange American." James and Blake were born in the little red-brick cottage at 19 Grange. According to their parents, young Edison wandered into the office of William Winter, who was the city agent for the Montreal Telegraph Co. an the American Express Co. 

Edison wanted a job and, while Mr. Winter didn’t have an opening, he was impressed with the lad and made a place for him in the office as assistant telegrapher and messenger boy. And because young Thomas didn’t have a home, Mr. Winter gave him shelter at his place on Grange Street. “I can recall my mother speaking about him frequently,” Blake Winter recounted: “She said he was a very quiet chap and, when he wasn’t working, spent most of his time in his room, experimenting with old batteries and wires. Mother said she often told him she was afraid he would blow the house up.”

 See Flashback article: Thomas Edison's Original Application to the Old Time Telegraphers  Stratford-Perth Archives

Teresa Flaherty and her brother Frank lived in the house after the Winters, and were convinced Edison had lived in there, in the city's southeast corner. She said, “There were burn marks left on the under-flooring from Edison’s experiments and the name of one of Edison’s friends was scratched on a window. Edison’s sister used to come here to visit every summer, and Edison himself was later to come for a visit but he died just as he was preparing for the trip.” Recent research shows that the Grange Street cottage was not built until 1866, three years after Edison worked in Stratford, so the mystery remains: Where did Edison live while in Stratford. Story by Blain McCutchen in Antique Photographic News