Paxton Gate‘s Valencia Street storefront is like taking a trip to the natural history museum. Cabinets stuffed with curiosities line the walls, pinned butterflies sparkle in jewel cases, and a solarium-like space brims with carnivorous plants, tillandsia, and succulents of all shapes and sizes.
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."