Edison Park, Chicago Edison Park, Chicago Edison Park (formerly Canfield) is one of the 77 community areas of Chicago, in North Side, Chicago, Illinois. It consists entirely of the Edison Park neighborhood, and is named after Thomas Alva Edison, who gave his blessing to this community namesake in 1890. According to the 2000 Census, its population is 11,259. Edison Park has one of the highest concentrations of Irish ancestry in Chicago, where they make up over three-fourths of the neighborhood's population. Located between the Des Plaines River and the Chicago River this area served as a local watershed divide. The Chicago River flowed
Thomas Edison often credited with establishing the first industrial research laboratory. Edison was raised in the American midwest and early in his career he worked as a telegraph operator, which inspired some of his earliest inventions. In 1876, he established his first laboratory facility in Menlo Park, New Jersey, where many of his early inventions would be developed. He would later establish a botanic laboratory in Fort Myers, Florida in collaboration with businessmen Henry Ford and Harvey Firestone, and a laboratory in West Orange, New Jersey that featured the world's first film studio, the Black Maria. He was a prolific inventor, holding