Local shop in Fairborn offers dead mice in a jar and other horrifying oddities

Credit: Photo by Amelia Robinson

Credit: Photo by Amelia Robinson

Say you are in the market for a dead mouse in a jar, a dollhouse detailed with scenes from the “Nightmare on Elm Street” saga or a painting of Jeffrey Dahmer, the infamous serial killer and cannibal.

Boy, do Shane Brooks and Cherish Harrell Brooks have a shop for you.

The horror fanatics opened The Secret Chamber House of Oddities and Art at 17 W. Main St in downtown Fairborn on last October.

>> PHOTOS: Take a look inside of The Secret Chamber House of Oddities and Art

The opening came just in time for last year’s Fairborn Halloween Festival, but the shop is not a seasonal thing. If things go as planned, it will be open year-round.

“Death and skulls just don't have to be about Halloween,” Cherish said. “It is Halloween all the time. it doesn't have to end.”

Credit: Photo: Amelia Robinson

Credit: Photo: Amelia Robinson

The Secret Chamber has good bones... literally. There are bones, gore and whimsy nearly everywhere you turn.

Cherish, a bartender at a local Olive Garden restaurant and a member of the band Troub13 Maker, said her plan is to add even more.

“I like it weird. I like it odd,” she said. “I plan to get weirder. Odd is not just horror.”

One day, they hope to mimic the museum-like quality found in their New Carlisle home.

>> MORE:  Dayton’s best 2017 Halloween parties and events for adults

“I want people to walk in here and it take them an hour to get through,” she said. “I want everywhere you look to pull your eyes.”

Fairborn has long been dubbed “Halloween Town” due to the collection of Foy Halloween and costume stores owned by Mike Foy.

Raised in New Carlisle, Cherish said she was drawn to Foy’s and the wonder that it inspires.

>> RELATED: IT costumes selling out at Foy’s as Halloween approaches

Credit: Photo: Amelia Robinson

Credit: Photo: Amelia Robinson

She and her husband say they want to add to Fairborn’s spook factor. They say they have been embraced by both Foy and may others in the Greene County city.

In fact, Foy bought the first item the shop sold.

“I want (people) to be excited about local art in Fairborn,” Cherish said. “I want them to be excited about the odd and the weird.”

Shane and Cherish said they've traveled to horror conventions around the country. They have been vendors at the HorrorHound convention in Columbus for eight years.

They started selling coffins, and now also turn trash into treasure. Cherish also sells jewelry so of which is made with animal bones.

>> Your guide to Halloween in Dayton 2017

A couple years ago, Shane, a Mechanicsburg native, was crowned HorrorHound King for his self-described cheesy Jesus costume. They say they’ve made tons of connections at the convention and in the local art scene.

Credit: Photo: Amelia Robinson

Credit: Photo: Amelia Robinson

“There are lots of people who are tattooed up, but they are totally the nicest people,” Cherish said.

The Brooks own Fat Cat Party Bus and plan to start renting out their heist next year.

Works from numerous artists are featured in the store, which ironically is in the former site of Unction Casket Company.

>> 7 of Dayton’s most haunted spots

Shane said that one of the few things in the store that is not for sale is his cherished, two-headed buffalo calf, Harry and Billy.

“He is 100 years old, (a) creature purchased from a local man,” he said.

Like Billy, the animal remains sold in the store were either roadkill, died naturally or were feeder animals for pets, Shane said.

Credit: Photo: Amelia Robinson

Credit: Photo: Amelia Robinson

The oddity genre is becoming more popular, the couple said. That’s a good thing for the artists who produce weird, odd wares and art.

“There a lot of people out there that people use to snub their nose at for being degenerates, but in reality are the best people,” she said.

>> PHOTOS: Look inside of The Secret Chamber House of Oddities and Art 

Credit: Photo by Amelia Robinson

Credit: Photo by Amelia Robinson

Credit: Photo: Amelia Robinson

Credit: Photo: Amelia Robinson

Credit: Photo: Amelia Robinson

Credit: Photo: Amelia Robinson

Credit: Photo by Amelia Robinson

Credit: Photo by Amelia Robinson

Credit: Photo: Amelia Robinson

Credit: Photo: Amelia Robinson

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