Edison was developing an iron ore milling process and discovered a market in the sale of waste sand to cement manufacturers.

The demand was not existent, and although Edison brought new technological innovations to the industry, the company could not compete with the rich ore in the Iron Range.

[4] Somewhat ahead of his time Edison believed that concrete would have a wide range of applications, but in the early 20th century its production was not sufficiently economical.

[3] Edison investigated the use of formwork molds that could repeatedly be used to create concrete houses, experimenting in 1910 by casting a garage and a gardener's cottage at his mansion in New Jersey.

[7] Phipps declared his intention to build an entire city for working-class families using the concrete casting technique but Edison was never able to provide the plans.

[4][8] When the building underwent renovations from 1973 the walls were left untouched because Edison's concrete mix was seen to be hard and durable enough to remain intact.