Wolf's Museum of Mystery

Located in a squat two-story Victorian home in St. Augustine, Florida, Wolf’s Museum of Mystery is a “full retail museum” of bizarre oddities ranging from a vast range of taxidermy to an alien corpse, just waiting behind a suburban facade.

Established and operated by Wolfgang Von Metz, along with his wife, the collection is the culmination of a lifelong obsession with the rare and curious. Von Metz began collecting strange items when he was just a child, some of which still reside in the museum,  like Marilyn Monroe trading cards and an Alaskan war mask he acquired from his brother. As he grew up, his interests and collection grew increasingly ghoulish and esoteric as he went through phases of collecting taxidermy, serial-killer-themed objects, or alien-related curios. 

Today, the dense collection has taken over his entire house, split into seven themed galleries with names like, “Butch Agony’s Slaughter House Kitchen” or “Lizzie Borden’s Bloody Boudoir.” There is also the “Alien Mortuary,” “the Exorcist’s Bathroom,” and the “Dark Art Room.” Some of the items are more akin to the campy decorations one might find in a haunted house like body part props, while others are more seriously sinister like a KKK Grand Wizard’s ashtray.

While one can come and browse Von Metz’ collection, it is important to note that almost everything in his collection is for sale, save for those personal items he doesn’t want to part with. So there is no need to simply take home a memory of this weird emporium, you can actually take home a piece of it.  

Update 2/2019: Much of the Wolf Mystery collection was lost in a tragic fire, and this place is now permanently closed.