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New York Times

By GREGORY DICUM
Published: July 13, 2008

Calvin Souther of Paxton Gate, which sells items ranging from Japanese gardening tools to animal skulls.

SOME 15 years ago, Valencia Street was a forbidding mix of auto body shops, papered-over storefronts and hole-in-the-wall restaurants. Despite a smattering of Victorian houses and lesbian bars, few outsiders were drawn to this grungy edge of San Francisco’s Mission District.

Then came the dot-com money. Trendy coffeehouses arrived. Hip boutiques opened next to cool bars. And now the wide, low-slung street has become a gathering spot for the city’s latest breed of cool-hunting hipsters.

Across the street is Paxton Gate (No. 824; 415-824-1872; www.paxtongate.com), a goth wunderkammer that carries an assortment of Japanese garden tools, mounted insects and animal skulls.