Oddity shop: Preserved Peculiarities sets up in McHenry to sell mounted insects, skulls, taxidermy, much more

Lori Fisher wants everyone and anyone to feel comfortable in her new downtown McHenry store, but she’s perfectly aware her wares are not for everyone.

The customers in her oddity shop are looking for bugs mounted under glass, dioramas of dried flowers and butterflies, animal skulls, rabbits feet from real rabbits, tattooed pigs ears and exotic animal mounts.

Her store, Preserved Peculiarities, also caters to those who practice alternative religions, including Wiccan and pagan rites.

“It is a place for them to pick up supplies,” Fisher said.

Among the at-times-macabre wares are also stickers, candles, scented wax melts, dried flowers and other gift-related items.

“This is a kind and loving place to visit and everyone is welcome here,” Fisher said.

Fisher was one of the 10 McHenry Riverwalk Shoppes operators in 2024 and is a prime example of how the retail incubator is designed to work. She had eight months in the incubator shop to determine what she should stock and what customers were looking for before committing to a storefront, Fisher said. It also gave customers time to get to know her.

“The Riverwalk did what it was supposed to do, letting me try before I buy,” she said. “Opening a store is a huge venture with the merchandise I have.”

On Friday, June 13, she opened her new standalone storefront at at 1312 N. Riverside Dr. A former small-engine repair shop, the store was gutted and renovated, giving her eight times the space she had in the tiny shops.

It’s exciting to locate on Riverside Drive because of the company she’s keeping there, Fisher said. Her store is next door to another metaphysical shop, Crystal Lume, and up the street from plant sellers Verdant Sol and clothing and skate shop The Trend Cellar. All are businesses owned by women who support each other, Fisher said.

The Trend Cellar, owned by Carol Chrisman, also started in the Riverwalk Shoppes in 2023. Several other retailers who debuted there have also opened stores in downtown McHenry too.

“We will pave the way” for more retail, Fisher added.

She and others are working on the fourth annual Full Moon Market, coming up on Sept. 19-20. But this year, instead of having the market at McHenry’s Miller Point Park as it has been in the past, plans are to hold the market as a street bazaar in front of their shops.

“Our side of the street is the new crop of McHenry businesses,” Fisher said.

For more information including hours, go to the Preserved Peculiarities Facebook page.