Thomas Edison’s Beautiful Failure
by Christine Adams Beckett
At 303 North Mountain Avenue here in Montclair, there stands a very solid relic to Thomas Edison’s past: a poured concrete house that was a prototype for what Edison hoped to be the future of urban and suburban development. One of only a handful of Edison’s original concrete houses in existence today, 303 North Mountain stands gloriously modern in its concrete design, but is in fact one of Montclair’s antique homes. Thomas Brennan, an actor and director, boasts it as his own and describes it like a piece of art, rather than a structure.

The 1912 poured concrete home of Thomas Brennan. Photo credit: John Lee: http://blacktieandflipflops.blogspot.com/
More than your typical suburban home, it stands as tangible evidence of Edison’s big idea: a single pour, easily constructed concrete house that could withstand a bomb or fire, be insect proof and easy to keep clean. Most importantly, Edison saw his concrete house to be an answer to the inhumane housing shortage in New York City’s slums, which were bursting at the seams trying to accommodate all the newcomers from every corner of the globe. His homes could be easily and cheaply mass produced. His idea even included inexpensive furnishings, too, such as pianos, phonographs and even beds. But he first had to try it out.
303 North Mountain Avenue was built in 1912 with reinforced concrete. A giant mold was erected, steel rods set in place, and floor by floor, the concrete was poured, dried, and stripped of its mold to reveal a complete house. The process would only take a few weeks and everything could be included in the molds: even shingles, bathtubs, and picture frames. Brennan’s home features a molded concrete fireplace and a basement resembling a grotto with its arched, swooping ceiling. A strip of wood into a molded concave groove at the edge of every room was in the original mold, to allow for carpeting installation, or in his case, hard wood floors.
Revolutionary for its time in design and practicality, it was ahead of its time in price, as well. The first molds, complex in the number of parts required, set the builder back $175,000, making it more than undesirable at the time. The average price of constructing a new home at the turn of the century was in the neighborhood of $4,000, and Edison advertised his houses of the future to be a mere fraction of that: $1200 to be exact. The overhead cost to the builder was simly too high; they weren’t sure the demand for such homes would exist. The prototypes that are still standing 100 years later are proof that the structure was sound, yet the dream of mass production never materialized, although certainly not for lack of effort.
The Edison Portland Cement Company opened in 1899 in New Village, New Jersey in the Delaware Valley, but concrete or cement (that which binds concrete) is hardly an Edison invention. Evidence of the Assyrians and the Babylonians using clay as cement in their structures, and the dome of the Pantheon in Rome is made of concrete; but the British were the first to come up with portland cement, coined so because he claimed the finished product would be as attractive as Portland stone. A mysterious concoction of limestone and clay and processed by baking at a certain temperature in a specially-designed kiln, the finished product is a beautiful, strong concrete with which to build. (Source: Bryson, Bill. At Home:A Short History of Private Life. New York, NY: Anchor Books, 2010.)
Edison scored a big contract with those building Yankee Stadium, which stood from 1923 until 2008 as an example of the finest Edison portland concrete; but his big idea of concrete homes was clearly premature. Brennan says that Henry Ford, who struck it rich providing the average American with an affordable automobile, was a contemporary and friend of Edison. He believes that Edison thought he could create the architectural equivalent to the Model T: a well built, affordable home, as well as concrete home furnishings, accessible to most. Thomas Alva Edison was certainly a brilliant mind, bringing the light bulb, the phonograph and the movie camera to fruition. But his dreams of being a mass producer of affordable, well built, beautifully sculpted homes he was not. It was a decent idea, with too much overhead cost to take off.
Brennan doesn’t seem to mind. Until last August’s record-breaking rainfall, when ground water from an absolutely drenched Montclair water table seeped into his basement, he has never had a leak. His concrete sculpture of a house is cool in the summertime and warm in the winter. He’s got bragging rites of having one of the more artfully conceived, historically relevant houses in town, to boot.
For more information about Mr Brennan, please see: Tom Brennan: A Gem Amongst Us
To see an example of a poured concrete structure made from Edison portland cement, you can visit his West Orange, New Jersey laboratories and Glenmont estate (which includes a poured concrete garage and garden house), without embarrassing yourself by knocking on the amiable Mr Brennan’s door. See Thomas Edison National Park Web Site for details.
Hi Chris!
I love this story about Edison’s concrete house in Montclair and his
innovative business venture. It just shows how restless and ever-roaming the creative mind is. Edison’s curiosity drove him to explore so many
different paths — lots of them blind alleys. But I guess that’s the price
of risk-taking. Thanks so much for letting me know this bit of Edison
lore — I’ll have to check that house out!
Thanks Karin! You might be interested to know that other Frank Lambie designed Edison Concrete homes exit in Union NJ, and are still in use today, too. Edison clearly loved concrete; his company, regardless of going bankrupt twice, somehow stayed open until two years after his death. He certainly believed that it would and should work. Another article you might find of interest, but much less cheerful (with facts cited that I could not verify): http://flyingmoose.org/truthfic/edison.htm
Now onto that creepy Edison talking doll… perhaps a story for another day!
Thanks for reading!
I walk past that house all the time and was curious about the “Thomas Edison 1912” over the doorway. In fact, I came across this article after googling to find out what it meant.
Thank your for satisfying my curiosity by this putting up this fascinating story. Some day perhaps I’ll knock on Mr. Brennan’s door.
Even if you TRIPLED Edison’s $1200 price and took a $2500 profit, you’d have to make 70 houses just to cover the $175k mold cost. There’s no way the molds would last that long.
Even though they were cast iron? I don’t know much about concrete or their molds, to be honest.
[…] – Phillipsburg is a short 5 mile journey from Stewartsville. Edison also was involved in this prototype concrete house in Montclair, NJ – a house that I should note that I passed on my way to and from high […]
[…] Thomas Edison’s Beautiful Failure: his patented single-pour concrete homes. Here’s one of the few prototypes still standing. […]
Western Forms, located in Kansas City has been manufacturing aluminum forms since 1962. The forms are sent to over 40 countries to build concrete homes by the hundreds of thousands annually. Most countries outside the USA build their homes with concrete. Mr. Edison’s idea of setting up an industrialized process is exactly what Western Forms clients are doing for single family low rise to high rise apartments, pouring walls and ceilings at one time, producing 1 concrete shell per day, and finishing the homes in less than 21 days. Insulation is placed inside the forms and concrete is poured on both sides, for what has become commonly known as sandwich wall insulation installation. See videos of these forms in use on YouTube: http://tinyurl.com/k3glvwt
[…] In another article about Edison’s concrete houses, I found this quote: […]
Reblogged this on Braving the Wilds and commented:
A piece of history is for sale. Mr Brennan’s Edison poured concrete home has been listed for $599,000, and here’s hoping the right person — one who appreciates its historical significance — will move in!
http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/303-N-Mountain-Ave-Montclair-NJ-07043/38682518_zpid/
We absolutely love your blog and find most of your post’s to be just what I’m looking for.
can you offer guest writers to write content for
you personally? I wouldn’t mind creating a post or elaborating on a lot of the subjects you write regarding here.
Again, awesome site!
[…] It turns out that there were a bunch of them in the town where I grew up. Here's one article Thomas Edison?s Beautiful Failure | Braving the Wilds Reply With […]
Henry Mercer around the same time tried to convince people of concrete housing as well as concrete public and other buildings. Both men knew Henry Ford, who i believe was a big fan of the idea. I went to Edison’s house and invention factory in West Orange, NJ today, and i cant help but think this may be an idea that was simply too ahead of its time, and that its time may have come at last. Thank you for sharing your story.
[…] D. PS: Henry Ford made cast iron concrete forms to bolt together and make cast concrete houses. Thomas Edison?s Beautiful Failure | Braving the Wilds Reply With […]
How is it a failure if it still looks as good as new a hundred plus years on.
Failure was because of the lack of informed individuals.
Its not something which has not been tried before, all over the eastern countries and also the Roam empire is built in concrete and those building standing the test of time (1000+ years in some cases without reinforcement) is the proof that it is the best material to build. He was right, irony is that America did not see the light at the end of the tunnel just the same as in the case of Tesla.
The failure is merely in the mass production of the Edison’s poured concrete house. Because the forms for the houses were prohibitively expensive, contractors refused to pay for the molds which were exorbitantly priced. Therefore Edison’s dream of the “model T’ home, mass produced and affordable, never came to fruition. Therein lies the failure; but the idea was a good one, and the prototypes that still stand today are testaments to what might have been, if the molds could have been attainable for the average builder.
I certainly agree that Edison’s concrete structures that still stand today are examples of fine and lasting structural engineering.
Thanks for reading…
[…] houses out of poured concrete; that google street view above is one in Montclair, New Jersey, described here. Rebecca Onion writes in […]
So if this was such a successful idea ,and it does appear so,why hasn’t anyone.else in the past 100yrs. Tried to replicate/ improve upon same, when we could use it more than ever?
So in the past 100 yrs, if this was such a good idea, and it would appear so, why has no one tried to replicate/improve upon his epiphany?
Good question Rich. Although I suppose the more modern pre fabricated homes might be seen as an extension of this idea, and offers a more comfortable alternative to concrete. High rise buildings are still often constructed out of poured concrete, whose strength is imperative for the structure…
I have heard that the concrete houses on Ivy Court in Orange are by Edison. Can anyone confirm that?
[…] https://christineadamsbeckett.com/2012/04/03/thomas-edisons-beautiful-failure/ […]
Poured concrete homes still exist in the town of Bath, Pennsylvania and scattered throughout NE PA today. Originally constructed by PennDixie Cement as company homes, workers were given the option of purchasing them in the 1940’s. My mother was born (1936) and raised in one such home on East Penn St. They used to be a common site around the limestone quarries of eastern Pennsylvania, not far from Edison’s Stewartsville concrete manufacturing plant.