Paxton Gate
Paxton Gate is a San Francisco-based company founded in 1992 by Sean Quigley that is named after famed British gardener and architect Sir Joseph Paxton. It is a retail operation that features a large selection of natural science curiosities, taxidermy, numerous varieties of carnivorous plants, succulents, bonsai as well as gardening tools, and vintage architectural elements, which Quigley has described as "a natural history museum merged with a home products store and quirky gardening shop." The store’s inventory emphasizes ephemera associated with the natural sciences, both of the animal and plant variety, taxidermy, mounted insects, assorted neo-Victoriana, oddities, and products associated with the steampunk movement. In 1999 the operation relocated from its original San Francisco Stevenson Street location to Valencia Street to the city's Mission District in order to accommodate its growing collections of vintage trophy mount taxidermy as well as fossils and minerals. The store freights a Victorian gentleman/inventor/botanist/biologist aesthetic that Time Out London once described as “Martha Stewart Meets David Lynch.”
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Quigley opened Paxton Gate’s Curiosities for Kids in 2008 and licensed a second operation, Paxton Gate Portland, to owners Andy and Susan Brown of Portland, Oregon. The Portland store achieved a certain amount of television fame when it was featured as "The Knot Store" in an episode of the second season of the popular IFC television series Portlandia, created by Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein, guest starring Jeff Goldblum. Later, Armisen included Paxton Gate Portland in a travel piece he authored for the UK-based Guardian Newspaper in May 2013. Arimsen would later bring actor Jerry Seinfeld to the store for an episode of Comedians in Cars with Coffee
In June 2014, Paxton Gate unveiled a re-designed e-commerce website for its stores and Paxton Gate Design/Build at www.paxtongate.com
Paxton Gate is located at 824 Valencia Street, SF, CA 94110.
RareField
RareField is Paxton Gate's Design/Build arm. Formerly known as Paxton Gate Design/Build, its original focus was on landscape for residential projects unrelated to the aesthetic of the store itself. This eventually led to designing and building the interiors of several noted San Francisco eating destinations including the restaurants Flour + Water and Central Kitchen and the French bakery Le Marais. Originally known as Paxton Gate Design/Build, the name was changed to RareField in 2015.
RareField is located in the Paxton Gate Offices on the third floor of 766 Valencia Street, SF, CA 94110
Paxton Gate’s Curiosities for Kids
In December 2008, Paxton Gate's Curiosities for Kids, opened. The 1,500 square foot space featured a life size tree built from wood and vines, vintage Structo fire trucks and books including Roald Dahl's Revolting Recipes and Freaky Flora, Curiosities for Kids was designed for children and their parents with games, toys, puzzles, classic books including Curious George, The Little Red Hen, Where the Side Walks Ends, as well as science kits and other inventory such as Silly Putty, Whoopee Cushions and Sock Monkeys that would be familiar to parents from their own childhoods, but uncommon in today's toy marketplace, with its emphasis on electronics. In a nod to the original store’s reputation for taxidermy, Curiosities also features taxidermy made from paper maché, a line of mounted plush animal heads and workshops and other events including insect pinning, mask-making, demonstrations and birthday parties.
Curiosities for Kids at 766 Valencia Street, SF CA 94110.
Paxton Gate Portland
In 2010 Paxton Gate Portland was opened by Andy and Susan Brown. While Paxton Gate Portland shares much of the same inventory with the San Francisco store, as well as its emphasis on taxidermy, the natural sciences, gardening tools, carnivorous plants, succulents and Tillandsia, the stores also pursues Pacific Northwest-based artists and designers, including the dremel-carved skulls and bones of Jason Borders, as well work from Savanah Crow and Jennifer Ament, and stage their own events. During Halloween 2013, Paxton Gate Portland hosted an evening with David George Gordon, author of The Eat A Bug Cookbook that demonstrated the art of preparing and eating insects as a solution to the planet’s growing population stressing food resources.
Paxton Gate Portland is located 4204 N Mississippi Ave, Portland, OR 97217