The Crypt opened in April 2023 to fill a niche in Springfield. Dakota Jennen, 26, and Kieran Hawke, 28, started the shop out of “a love for the alternative scene,” which Hawke notes has grown significantly in the past few years.
The Crypt is a gothic, alternative, punk shop that sells taxidermy, thrifted items and other vintage goth bits. There are oddities but also jewelry, pins, patches and candles.
The shop began as a storage unit on 7th Street, but Hawke, who works construction on the Oregon coast, collaborated with the landlord — whom he described as a “good guy” — to gently remodel the place into a storefront.
Hawke grew up around Springfield and Eugene and lamented the downfall of Hot Topic, a store that used to sell band T-shirts, fishnets and emo attire, which he feels has now strayed from its early 2000s alternative roots and become a caricature of itself. For Hawke and Jennen, The Crypt is meant to fill the niche Hot Topic no longer serves.
The pair aimed to create a dark and gloomy atmosphere inside their store. This is achieved with dim lighting and the occasional rusty scythe hanging on the wall. However, there is an elephant in the room.
A kitten in a jar. On a shelf. Floating around. It’s hard not to notice, especially since the “wet taxidermy” display is front and center at the shop’s entrance. Jars filled with deceased specimens ranging from kittens to lizards and even an octopus line the shelves of a mid-century wooden cabinet.
“We have a freezer full of various dead animals that she [Jennen] collects,” Hawke said. Jennen finds time to collect roadkill on the highways of Eugene and Springfield, which she carefully preserves in jars using taxidermy fluid. Taxidermy fluid, which can be formaldehyde or ethanol, halts the decomposition process and preserves the animal as it was at the time of death, known as a wet specimen or wet taxidermy.
“We have our chicken dumplings sitting on top of a possum and two fetal goats in my freezer,” Hawke says.
Aside from the taxidermy, Hawke and Jennen regularly peruse local thrift stores like Goodwill and St. Vincent de Paul for hidden goth and punk gems. They buy them and bring them back to the store after cleaning them. The Crypt also offers other options for the non-taxidermy-oriented squeamish, with gothic attire displayed on racks, punk patches arranged on the wall and spooky paraphernalia neatly placed throughout.
For the gothic pair, it’s not just about supporting the existing community but also ushering in kids and curious people into the lifestyle. “We want to be a homing beacon for weirdos,” Hawke said.
Often this means helping high school students who wander in after school find a new CD to listen to or posting flyers of upcoming local punk venues and shows. Hawke wants to support all-ages venues and show people to places where they can listen to music without standing outside a bar.
Jennen added, “The community support has been amazing. We have a few regulars, but we also get new people, too. And when someone new comes in asking if we sell Halloween costumes, I get to say, ‘No, but do you want a dead lizard?’”
The Crypt is located at 226 7th Street in Springfield and is open Friday through Monday, noon to 6 pm.
A Note From the Publisher
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