Lewis Latimer's life was a top African-American inventor, and the Lewis Latimer House Museum in Queens stands as a tribute to his legacy. NY1's Ruschell Boone filed the following report.

A replica of his greatest invention still shines bright in the Lewis Latimer House Museum. No, not the lightbulb, but the carbon filament, which revolutionized the production of the incandescent light bulb.

"Latimer, with his team, worked on a filament that would last longer and became cheaper," said Alfred Rankins, president of the Lewis H. Latimer Fund.

The filaments that Thomas Edison was experimenting with had a short lifespan. Under Latimer's patented process, the bulbs were able to shine for thousands of hours. It was an impressive achievement for a son of runaway slaves.

Their journey was documented in the Latimer Journal and North Star, a newspaper created after his father George was captured in Massachusetts.  

"The abolitionist movement was protecting him and his family from going back," Rankins said.

They eventually secured his freedon, and in 1848, his youngest son, Lewis, was born.  

Latimer joined the Navy when he was 15, and after an honorable discharge, he became an office worker at a patent law firm. The job changed his life.

"He saw that they were doing mechanical drawings, and he asked if he could do some of the drawings," Rankins said. "They didn't think he was going to do anything with it, so they allowed him to do it."

He quickly became a draftsman, eventually working with Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Edison on their inventions and patents. 

Latimer became part of the elite group of Edison pioneers and held several patents of his own. He also oversaw the installation of street lighting in parts of the U.S. and Canada and London before retiring to Flushing, where he lived an active life until his death at age 80.

"His family was one of the very few African-American home owners at that time," said Ran Yan, deputy director of the LatimerNow Project.

The house, though, fell into disrepair and was nearly destroyed by new development.  

"The house was saved because it was moved one-and-a-half miles to the current location," Yan said.

In 1988, the house was moved from Holly Avenue to 137th Street, where it stands as a tribute to his life, work and legacy.