Edison’s history is
mostly unwritten
The public archives hold only 4 old photos of Edison. The rest are in attics, shoeboxes and the historical society. Help start the collection.
The story so far
from Wikipedia & the U.S. CensusEdison (formerly, Wade) is an unincorporated community and census designated place (CDP) in the Tehachapi mountains of Kern County, California. It is located 7.5 miles (12 km) east-southeast of downtown Bakersfield, at an elevation of 571 feet (174 m). As of the 2020 census, Edison had a population of 255. In 1902, the Edison Electric Company built a substation on the site. The Southern Pacific Railroad arrived at Wade in 1903, and changed the name to Edison. In 1928 oil was found nearby, and the Edison Oil Field gradually developed, peaking in the 1950s. The community is within the administrative boundaries of the oilfield, and active wells surround the town. The Edison post office opened …
Half of its homes were built before 1968.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Edison yet — the old photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Intro from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Population and housing: U.S. Census Bureau.
Timeline
built from the dates on the items belowStart Edison’s collection
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Edison’s history is told.
2 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 🔁Retake an old viewOne faucet by the packing sheds i…, 1938: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Famous people close to Edison
See all 7 →
Edison, decade by decade
![Edison, Kern County, California. 17-year-old boy agri. [sic] worker sacking early potatoes after mec](https://images.towntapestry.org/story/36751/23828bf790e275ef976a-s.jpg)
1990s
Nothing in Edison is on the National Register yet
That’s true of most small towns. It doesn’t mean Edison has no history, only that no one has written up a nomination. The closest listed place is Kern Branch, Beale Memorial Library in Bakersfield, 7.3 miles away.
Edison and the nearest listed places
How a place gets listed
Then & now
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as One faucet by the packing sheds is the only source of water for 150-200 families camped in the brush waiting for the po… (1938) and it appears here side by side.
🔁 Retake this view · +15Stories next door
nearby towns’ historyFrom Wikimedia Commons (4) and the Library of Congress (1). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.