Unveiling the mysteries of Covet Oddities in Chicago

CHICAGO — Imagine a storefront packed with curiosities of all kinds, some odd, frightening, even dark, along with a wallop of wonderment.

Covet Oddities sits across the street from a laundromat and the bustling corner of Albany and Diversey. It has an unassuming storefront, but step a little closer to those tinted windows and you’ll find you’re not in Kansas anymore. 

Among the displays of boa specimens, antique doll heads, and tarot cards is co-owner Erica Santine, who has been fascinated with the darker side since adolescence.

“Walking through cemeteries on the way to school, going through the woods, picking up old bones, trying to figure out what is this?” she said.

But it was Edgar Allen Poe who sealed it.

“‘The Raven.’ And we had to read it in class, and I was like, ‘This speaks to my soul,'” she said.

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Erica’s husband and co-owner, Benjamin Santine, shares his wealth of knowledge on each and every curated item in the shop.

‘We’ve got a letter from Richard Ramirez there, a piece of art he did, a letter from Butch Defeo of Amityville. Here is a piece of wallpaper from the house,” he said. “I think everybody is curious about death because it’s a thread that ties us all together. And we’re told by those around us to never talk about it or acknowledge it, and this is a place you can talk about it and look at it and confront it.”

For Erica and Benjamin, it’s as much a collection as a crypt.

“For a very long time, it was a requirement when one went to medical school that they purchase an entire human skeleton,” Benjamin said. “As a result of that, there are a lot of bones everywhere.”

“Just a really wonderful feeling watching people explore their emotions, holding a skull for the first time or a beautiful taxidermy piece of a bird you’d never get to see up close,” Erica said. “So that was really rewarding for us.”

From the macabre gallery of wet specimens, ritual skulls and items of those long gone to preserved moths and magic spell incense, Covet Oddities is a place of curiosities and wonderment. 

They hope that as customers explore the remains of those no longer here, they will step out differently.

“Establishing a relationship with death and having the courage to confront it, in a real way, makes us more comfortable in living,” Erica said.