Thomas Edison and Union’s Concrete Houses
Union’s Ingersoll Terrace has been featured in magazines, TV shows, and local legend as the site of one of Thomas Edison’s more unusual ventures: the concrete house. But how did the inventor end up mixing cement, getting into the homebuilding business, and choosing Union?
On Tuesday, April 25, at 7 p.m. the Union Township Historical Society will host “Thomas Edison and Union’s Concrete Houses” at Connecticut Farms Presbyterian Church, 888 Stuyvesant Avenue, Union. The talk will be presented by Sue Kaufmann, who is researching concrete houses as part of a book on places where Edison experimented and did business in New Jersey. She will share the story of how Edison got into concrete and how his vision for durable, affordable houses inspired the homes that still stand here today.
Kaufmann is a communications consultant and the author of hiddennj.com, which features more than 400 stories of notable–but lesser-known–people, places and historic events around the state.
