Norman Elder - The Norman Elder Museum

The Norman Elder Museum

The museum was a private home containing thousands of artifacts collected from his travels. The upper floors of the Museum served as a rooming house for up to 10 tenants.

One of the interior scenes in David Cronenberg's film Naked Lunch was shot in the Museum's main living room.

The Norman Elder Museum was home a number of exotic animals. 'Tony', a Galapagos Islands tortoise, lived for many years, roaming the first floor. He ate lettuce and would often walk to those in the room. He enjoyed his neck being scratched, and would extend it during the process. He eventually fell ill and was transported to Guelph University hospital, where he died. There, he was frozen until he could be delivered to a taxidermist. He was eventually returned to the museum stuffed.

Also living in the museum were two very large pythons and a boa constrictor which lived in the basement and often escaped to other parts of the house. Also residing in the house from time to time were a fruit bat, three lemurs, several chinchillas and numerous ferrets.

Of the myriad artifacts displayed within the museum, the most peculiar were a reconstructed panther skeleton, a collection of grapefruit-sized turquoise malachite eggs, fossilized elephant bird eggs, unexploded military mortar shells, an elephant skull with jaw-bone, dried elephant dung balls, a stuffed dingo, and various human skulls from the Ganges river.

The front garden of the museum was enclosed by an 8 foot high iron polar bear fence purchased from the Toronto Zoo during renovations.

The back garden held an underground, granite-walled tunnel which led to a room known as the tomb. The entrance to the tunnel was a secret doorway under Elder's bed in the first-floor master bedroom.

140 Bedford Rd. was gutted and renovated after Elder's death, leaving little trace of the house's former occupant. Norman's beloved dog Charley (who was stuffed and mounted on a movable wheeled platform) was retrieved and is owned by a private collector.