Oddities & curiosities in New York City
Oddity shops, curiosity cabinets and taxidermy counters: 6 of the strangest small storefronts in New York City, Flower Power Herbs & Roots, Merchant's House Museum and Creel and Gow among them. The kind of quirky, offbeat retail you leave with a story and a jar of something. They spread across East Village, Manhattan, Upper East Side, Manhattan, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, Brooklyn and 1 more area, so two or three can make a whole afternoon. Every entry is hand-vetted against real sources — not scraped off a top-ten list or averaged out of crowd ratings.
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Flower Power Herbs & Roots
This tiny apothecary has been run since 1993 by resident green witch Lata Chettri-Kennedy, an herbalist and astrologer with three decades of practice who trained under figures like Susan Weed and Robin Rose Bennett. The shelves are packed wall-to-wall with loose herbs, custom tea blends, magical oils, elixirs and crystals meant for spellwork, incense and candle magic, not just tea. It is a working green-witchery store where staff will walk you through which root or oil suits your intention.
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Merchant's House Museum
A Federal-style 1832 row house preserved with the Tredwell family's original furniture, clothing, and even Gertrude Tredwell's death-bed possessions intact. At least eight family members died inside, and Gertrude, born here in 1840, lived as a recluse until dying in the house in 1933. Staff, volunteers, and visitors have logged footsteps on empty stairs, the smell of old perfume, and sightings of a figure in a brown dress for nearly a century.
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Creel and Gow
Set in the former stables of a historic Grosvenor Atterbury townhouse near Lexington and 70th, this luxe cabinet of curiosities was founded in 2012 by collectors Jamie Creel and Christopher Gow. Cases overflow with taxidermy birds, prehistoric fossils, rare minerals, coral, silver-coated shells and exotic decorative objects. It feels like stepping inside a wealthy 19th-century naturalist's private collection that happens to be for sale.
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The City Reliquary
A nonprofit community museum crammed with the small civic relics of New York City: terracotta shards of landmark buildings, vintage subway tokens, geological core samples of the bedrock under the city, and a shrine-like display of Statue of Liberty souvenirs that formed the museum's original collection. It celebrates the overlooked, everyday artifacts of the city rather than its blockbuster history, and hosts rotating community exhibits and quirky annual events like the Havemeyer Sugar Sweets Festival and Bike Fetish Day.
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Requiem Oddities
Established in 2012, Requiem is a morbid curiosity dealer specializing in the macabre and the unusual, from taxidermy and natural-history specimens to medical curiosities and handmade jewelry incorporating bone and anatomical pieces. Rather than a single fixed tourist storefront, it operates through pop-ups and online, which makes catching it open in person feel like finding a secret. It's a longtime presence in NYC's oddities scene.
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The Oddities Flea Market (NYC)
A once-a-year market that gathers dozens of vendors selling osteological specimens, taxidermy, wet specimens, medical-history ephemera, anatomical curiosities, natural-history pieces and macabre art and jewelry under one roof. Founded by Ryan Matthew Cohn and Regina M. Rossi, it draws the same dealers and collectors behind NYC's permanent oddity shops, making it the best single place to browse the whole subculture at once. The NYC edition lands each December at the Metropolitan Pavilion in Chelsea, Manhattan.
Oddities & curiosities in New York City — FAQ
Which oddity shops & curiosities in New York City are the strangest?
Ranked by how strange they actually are: Merchant's House Museum, Flower Power Herbs & Roots and Creel and Gow. Merchant's House Museum — A Federal-style 1832 row house preserved with the Tredwell family's original furniture, clothing, and even Gertrude Tredwell's death-bed possessions intact.
Where in New York City are they?
Across East Village, Manhattan, Upper East Side, Manhattan, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, Brooklyn and Brooklyn / Manhattan (rotating venues). Each listing gives the neighborhood and address so you can cluster a couple into one outing.
Is this a good weird date in New York City?
That's what the list is built for. Every entry has a specific move rather than a vague recommendation — at Merchant's House Museum, for instance: Book the 50-minute candlelight ghost tour offered around Halloween and creep through the darkened parlors hunting for Gertrude together.
How were these oddity shops & curiosities chosen?
An agentic research system digs for the genuinely obscure — the spots even locals miss — and every one is verified against real sources before it makes the list. We deliberately skip the landmarks already on every New York City guide.