Menlo Park is an unincorporated community within Edison Township in Middlesex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.Locality Search , State of New Jersey. Accessed February 10, 2015.
In 1876, Thomas Edison set up his home and research laboratory in Menlo Park, at the time an unsuccessful real estate development named after the town of Menlo Park, California."The Origin of New Jersey Place Names", New Jersey Public Library Commission, May 1945, p. 20. In this lab, which was one of the first to pursue practical, commercial applications of research, Edison invented the phonograph and developed a commercially viable incandescent light bulb filament. Christie Street in Menlo Park was one of the first streets in the world to use electric lights for illumination.Township History , Township of Edison. Accessed June 22, 2016. In 1887, Edison moved his home and laboratory to West Orange.Thomas Edison and Menlo Park , The Thomas Edison Center at Menlo Park. Accessed June 21, 2016. "In 1886, Edison started building a new facility in West Orange, New Jersey. In 1887, his laboratory moved out of Menlo Park and into the new, much larger laboratory in West Orange." After his death, the Thomas Alva Edison Memorial Tower and Museum was constructed near his old Menlo Park lab and dedicated in 1938. Edison's old lab site and memorial now make up Edison State Park.About Us , Thomas Alva Edison Memorial Tower and Museum. Accessed March 22, 2012.
The municipality in which Menlo Park is located, which was called "Raritan Township" while Edison was alive, was renamed to Edison Township on November 10, 1954.Snyder, John P. The Story of New Jersey's Civil Boundaries: 1606–1968 , Bureau of Geology and Topography, Trenton, New Jersey, 1969. p. 170 re Edison Township, p. 173 re Raritan Township. Accessed November 20, 2016.
See also List of neighborhoods in Edison, New Jersey
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