The Wilde Collection

One of Houston’s strangest stores is packed with an eclectic assortment of oddities. While wandering through the different rooms, you’re bound to stumble upon anything from the macabre to the bizarre to the enchantingly ethereal.

The owners concocted their plan to create their curiosity shop by combining their love of two literary greats. Fans of Oscar Wilde and Edgar Allan Poe, they pondered what it would have been like if the authors had joined forces on such a commercial venture.

The Wilde Collection is the result of such thinking. It contains rooms of taxidermy animals, both large and small. There are critters preserved in jars, and even creatures transformed into strange, almost haunting works of art inspired by one of the owner’s nightmares.

You can also find Victorian pieces, like jewelry and even hair art. Delving deeper into the trove of twisted treasures reveals creepy dolls, displays of glass eyes, and unnerving old medical devices. Don’t be alarmed if you come across a skeleton or two.

Update as of November 2019: The Wilde Collection is currently closed after suffering damages in a fire.