Originally opened in 1992 by two landscape designers as a gardening shop with a nod to the natural sciences, Paxton Gate has now become a Bay Area institution and destination. In its seventeen years, the scope of the one-of-a-kind store has expanded beyond plants and taxidermy to include architectural elements, vintage furniture, unique home accessories, fossils, lighting and beyond.
Some of the items available online.Paxton Gate's owner Sean Quigley should issue a warning at the door: "Hours may be lost inside this store." Often described as weird, educational and beautiful all in one, this San Francisco gem is unlike anything we have ever scene. The staff is happy to let you spend your time navigated the thoughtfully curated store, but are at your service should you have a question about those fish fossils or the carnivorous plants.
Although the front half of the store is chock full of curiosities, don't neglect the back of the store where you can find all the tillandsias, succulents and ferns that your heart desires. Should you need some planters or top soil, you can find those here as well. In addition to its retail products, Paxton Gate also provides unique landscape design and construction for both residential gardens and commercial landscapes.
While you are in the neighborhood, be sure to check out their recently opened children's store, Paxton Gate's Curiosities for Kids, at 766 Valencia Street.
(Image credits: Jessica Watson)
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Comments (15)
i appreciate the irony of the "no photos" sign in the bottom corner of the unicorn pix. paxton gate is a neighborhood favorite for us as well -- and i can't resist taking photos at times, either... make sure to get your stash of peg-leg oil next door at 826 valencia while you're in the vicinity. this stretch of valencia (from 19th to 17th) has some great stops... some have been lost (den), but there's still plenty to cherish.
Often I see beautiful things on AT the make me happy for hours. This taxidermy horse, however, is like a punch in the stomach. I can't imagine anything more personally painful.
Love, love, love this store. One of my favorite stores in SF. They have an amazing collection of beautiful plants, books, prints, taxidermied creatures, and all sorts of other strange/wonderful delights for the science nerd. I can easily spend many hours and lots of $$ in this store.
Kate(NC) could not agree with you more, that is just sickening.
I love Paxton Gate, especially the plants and the loose-leaf tea selection (and they usually have a pot of something delicious brewing for you to sip while browsing). Granted, the taxidermy can be a bit creepy; I could never imagine displaying a stuffed horse in my home. But I'm not sure why it has to necessarily be painful...unless the animal was killed for the explicit purpose of being stuffed, which is not always the case (for instance, people sometimes have their deceased pets stuffed - creepy, yes, but not cruel).
Why is it sickening? Unless the animal was killed specifically to be taxidermied, I don't understand why it's so wrong.
It certainly doesn't seem any weirder than our common practice of embalming the heck out of dead people before sticking them in a box and then sticking them in the ground.
Thanks so much for this post, Jessica!
I'm moving to the Bay Area (soon!), and I'm mapping out all of my new hotspots. This is definitely going to the top of the list :)
I love Paxton's Gate! I think taxidermy is an incredible science and art form and I love everything in there... yes it's a little creepy, but what else are you gonna do with the dead animal once it's dead? I don't think Paxton Gate's people go out and slaughter animals to stuff and put in their shop. Most likely they commission works from taxidermy artists who purchase or trade hides with hunters or ranchers who've eaten/sold the meat or had the animal put down for health reasons and such.
How different is a taxidermy animal from a leather couch? Just cause you can see the animal's likeness still doesn't make it's deadness any more real.
If that animal's likeness is like your own most beloved pet and has an expression of pain and fear and the image ambushes you and for deeply personal reasons causes a very deep emotional response it is as different from a leather couch as two things can possibly be. I would be happy to give old Trigger ( Roy Roger's famous horse, now a taxidermy display in a museum somewhere) a pat and thank him for all the pleasure he provided me in my childhood, but that unicorn is a hideous thing and the shock of seeing it was truly sickening to me. I have put down horses and seen to their disposal. I know the pragmatic duties of farm life and I know the pain of loss that never diminishes.
i love naturalist accents and the sort of museum curios, so happy this place is also online.
i think a personal punch in the stomach is a bit overboard. dead things are dead things; coral and butterflys and fossils and well... uhm... unicorns. if it's not your thing, or your have a personal connection to say, scarab beatles or oversized scorpions as well, there's other places in the neighborhood to shop.
the store is a gorgeous compendium of things that you never see. and to me the taxidermied items aren't morbid, but rather, reminders of mortality.
there is not a thing in that store that seems to take pleasure in the suffering of the animal. it's not a way station for cruelty by any means.
also, it's not a real unicorn by the way - perhaps you're just shocked because it's not embroidered on a pillow, illustrated as a book cover in shades of pastel, or depicted as being held in a pen and yearning for freedom?
It is too a real unicorn!
in bad taste or not aren't you curious about ther person who just has to have a taxidermy horse head/grossly impractical coat rack?
seriously if someone buys that i'd want to see how they pull it off in a room.
I have always found this store to be creepy and their taxidermy selection seems to always change, so people must by that stuff. Sad and disgusting in my opinion. They certainly have some interesting window displays though...
This store is one of the things I miss most about SF. *Sigh.