The Edison

Located in Tallahassee’s newly created Cascades Park, this once dilapidated building has now become one of the city’s most premier restaurants and social scenes. With its contemporary finishes, it’s hard to imagine the building is rooted in such rich Tallahassee history.

In 1921, the City of Tallahassee built The City Electric Building to serve the growing population and its demand for electricity. The plant converted coal into gas, providing lighting and heat for the city’s residents. Serving as the power plant for both electricity and gas, you could often find a line of people waiting outside the building to pay their monthly utility bills up until the mid-1950s.

In 2012, the City Commission added the building to the Tallahassee-Leon County Register of Historic Places. After years of neglect, the area surrounding the building was renovated into a 24-acre park. The overhaul created storm water and flood control, green space acquisition, and parks and recreation improvement to preserve to site’s cultural and natural heritage. Now known as the Cascades Park District, the newly renovated area surrounding the City Electric Building features 2.3 miles of biking and walking trails, breathtaking greenspaces, an interactive fountain and splash pad, cascading waterfall, and an outdoor amphitheater with seating capacity for up to 4,000. The exquisitely designed park became the perfect backdrop for a restaurant.

The building, renamed in honor of light bulb inventor, Thomas Edison, has been transformed into a beautiful piece of art, marrying historic charm and clean finishes.

Once a place where people gathered to pay monthly bills, The Edison now plays host to residents and visitors enjoying the park’s rich history and inventive dining.