Thomas Alva Edison lived here during the formative period of his life, from 7 to 16 years of age, 1854 to 1863, on the playground of his youth and near the house in which he lived. The house, erected in 1840 on the Fort Gratiot Military Reservation by Chancellor Walworth of New York for his daughter, was occupied by Samuel Edison, the father of T. A. Edison, from 1854 to 1864, and stood about 800 feet N. 25° W.