Run Wilde

Demolition of Houston's cult favorite oddities shop ends hopes of reopening

A look at Wilde Collection before the arson.

Photo by Jef Rouner

The site of Houston’s first and only full-service oddities and curiosity store, the Wilde Collection, was razed to the ground this week.

The lot at 1444 Yale in the Heights had heavy equipment on-site earlier this week, and the building was torn down completely by Wednesday, October 23. This is the final nail in the coffin for the Wilde Collection, and little is known about what will take its place.

The Wilde Collection opened in 2015 and was immediately the talk of Houston. Founded by Lawyer Douglas and Tyler Zottarelle, it housed medical oddities, large fauna taxidermy, Victorian mourning jewelry, and original art by Douglas. Spooky and elegant, it hosted events like art shows based on children’s nightmares and pictures with Krampus rather than Santa Clause.

That ended on November 1, 2019 when local musician Jonathan Jindra set fire to the building during business hours. Luckily, no people were harmed, though several pets and animal specimens in the building perished, including Douglas’s cat. Jindra, the ex-boyfriend of an employee, claimed the building housed evil spirits and made public anti-LGBT remarks directed at Douglas. Jindra was convicted of arson and is currently serving a 15 year prison sentence.

At first, it looked like Wilde Collection would rise from the ashes. A GoFundMe campaign raised more than $60,000. Unfortunately, the unique nature of most of the items ruined by the fire meant that replacing them was difficult and their worth hard to account for insurance purposes.

Douglas eventually abandoned dreams of rebuilding and moved to Navasota. There, he operates a haunted bed and breakfast called RavenWolf Manor that embodies the spirit of the Wilde Collection.

The ownership of the site is a bit of a mystery. Zottarelle declined to say what the current legal status was in April. County records show that the lot was bought in October 2023 from Zottarelle by the SJG Croup LLC, a company with no website or phone number whose address is a house in West University. It has no relation to the similarly named investment group associated with Morgan Stanley. Attempts to contact SJG by mail went unanswered.

Since the loss of the Wilde Collection, numerous oddities-themed stores and events have spring up, including night markets at Numbers Nightclub and the National Museum of Funeral History, as well as shops like Thorn and Moon that carry work by artists who use biological specimens. However, the Wilde Collection itself was one of a kind, and now it’s just another lot for sale in the rapidly growing Heights.

wilde collection the-heights

SAFE SPACE

2 Houston neighbors ranked among the top 10 safest cities in Texas

Steve Francis home estate Memorial Villages

Photo by Kevin Ward

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Judging by the headlines, locals might think they're going to be accosted every time they leave home, but a new report says the Houston area is home to two of the safest cities in Texas. Home security review site SafeWise has ranked the communities of the Memorial Villages (No. 3) and Fulshear (No. 8) on its recent list of towns unburdened by crime worries.

For its 2026 report, SafeWise factored in FBI-reported property and violent crime data for 343 cities, then adjusted it for population in order to fairly compare metros to rural and suburban towns. Although the rankings do provide a snapshot, the site says “a number of factors, including local agency reporting practices, community resources, prevention efforts, and lived experience all influence how safe a place is (or is perceived to be).”

The rankings were released with SafeWise’s State of Safety survey, which found that perception didn’t always gel with reality. Although the statewide property crime rate of 23.4 incidents per 1,000 people is slightly higher than the national rate, Texas’ violent crime rate of 4.44 incidents per 1,000 people is consistent with the national average.

Still, Texans feel less safe than the average American. Only 49 percent of the survey’s respondents say they feel safe in the state compared to the national norm of 52 percent. 55 percent said they worry about their safety on a daily basis, a year-over-year increase from 52 percent. The data contrasts with first-hand reporting. For the second year in a row, Lone Star State participants said they have had few personal experiences with property crime and package theft.

Elsewhere in Texas, Fair Oaks Ranch was the only San Antonio area city to make it to the list, which favored towns of 30,000 residents or fewer. The Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington metropolitan statistical area had the most ranked cities. The full top 10 includes:

No. 1 — Trophy Club (Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington)
No. 2 — Parker (Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington)
No. 3 — Memorial Villages (Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land)
No. 4 — Melissa (Dallas-Fort Worth)
No. 5 — Fair Oaks Ranch (San Antonio-New Braunfels)
No. 6 — Whitehouse (Tyler)
No. 7 — Murphy (Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington)
No. 8 — Fulshear (Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land)
No. 9 — Colleyville (Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington)
No. 10 — Lumberton (Beaumont-Port Arthur)

safety suburbs crime rankings

Run Wilde

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SAFE SPACE

2 Houston neighbors ranked among the top 10 safest cities in Texas