Kelly and Eric Norcross gave up on the Toaster Museum, but opened a B&B.
FILE PHOTO BY JEN FARIELLO

Eric and Kelly Norcross might have left Charlottesville feeling a little burned after failing in their multi-year effort to open a toaster museum in their Belmont home, but at last there’s some good news for lovers of the bread-browning devices: the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan has acquired the entire collection of more than 500 toasters and is working on creating a toaster display.

“We are gratified that the public will now have the opportunity to see this unique collection in person,” writes Norcross in an email, adding that the Museum will also maintain the Toaster Museum Foundation’s website.

The Norcrosses first arrived in Charlottesville from Seattle in 1998 with their collection in tow, and set about trying to open the museum in the basement of their Carlton Avenue home, across from what would become Mas tapas bar. They’d spent years scouring flea markets and estate sales and had turned up nearly every toaster ever made— from a 1909 General Electric— “the first successful toaster marketed for the home”— to the 1930s art deco Hot Toast Gazelle Toaster to the Michael Graves-designed modern model sold at Target.

Finding funding wasn’t easy, however.

While they hoped to raise $30,000 toward renovating their home for toaster display, by 2005 they’d only collected $1,500. In addition to struggles finding private donors, they also discovered the city of Charlottesville wasn’t eager to pony up— even as it offered developer and Dave Matthews Band manager Coran Capshaw a deal including an interest-free loan component to build the Charlottesville Pavilion.

“They could have helped out a lot of little guys,” said Norcross in 2005, “rather than one big guy.”

Aubrey Watts, director of development for the city, defended the Capshaw loan at the time, claiming that small business affairs are handled by the state’s Small Business Development Center, which has a regional office in Charlottesville.

Money for toasters may not have been flowing, but the Norcrosses did find another way to butter their bread. When the couple decided it was time to pursue other dreams in 2005, they put their 2,100-square-foot Belmont home on the market. Having purchased the 1920s house for the then bargain price of $85,000 in 1998, they listed it at the height of the real estate craze in 2005 for $795,000— what would have been a nearly 900 percent profit. It eventually sold in 2007 for $475,000— still a more-than-tidy 550 percent return.

While their toaster museum dreams went up in smoke, the Norcrosses say their next project is off to a good start. They’ve moved to Stratford, Ontario and spent this past year renovating a house into a bed and breakfast, finishing it up in time to catch some business from the recent Stratford Shakespeare Theater Festival.

And even though the vast majority of their toasters went to the Ford museum— most of it donated, with the Norcrosses private collection purchased for an undisclosed sum— Norcross says the couple did keep a few, including a Dualit, an English model they’re using in the B&B. They also kept the 1940s Toast-o-lator, the model that got Norcross started on his toaster collection.

“When I found that,” says Norcross, “it made me realize there was an industrial design history that I knew nothing about.”

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