Adam Williams spent most of his childhood outside looking for animal skulls and fossils in the riverbanks. It is that curiosity in the morbid and mysterious that led him, at age 33, to open Birmingham Oddities.
Birmingham Oddities on 23rd Street North features items Williams has collected through the years. Everything in the store is for sale – resurrected from flea markets, yard sales, antique stores or collectors.
More than just a store, Williams wants Birmingham Oddities to be an education center. Human skulls, X-rays of cancerous organs, deformed animals and the like can apprise as well as appall.
“I do this because I like this,” Williams said.
The store, open only on Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., is both a business and an outlet for his hobby.
Birmingham Oddities is a store devoted to Adam Williams’ lifelong obsession with the morbid and mysterious. (Molly Vines/Alabama NewsCenter)
Birmingham Oddities is a store devoted to Adam Williams’ lifelong obsession with the morbid and mysterious. (Molly Vines/Alabama NewsCenter)
Birmingham Oddities is a store devoted to Adam Williams’ lifelong obsession with the morbid and mysterious. (Molly Vines/Alabama NewsCenter)
Birmingham Oddities is a store devoted to Adam Williams’ lifelong obsession with the morbid and mysterious. (Molly Vines/Alabama NewsCenter)
Birmingham Oddities is a store devoted to Adam Williams’ lifelong obsession with the morbid and mysterious. (Molly Vines/Alabama NewsCenter)
Birmingham Oddities is a store devoted to Adam Williams’ lifelong obsession with the morbid and mysterious. (Molly Vines/Alabama NewsCenter)
One of the strange displays in Birmingham Oddities references the movie “Edward Scissorhands,” and director Tim Burton probably would like the store. (Molly Vines/Alabama NewsCenter)
Birmingham Oddities is a store devoted to Adam Williams’ lifelong obsession with the morbid and mysterious. (Molly Vines/Alabama NewsCenter)
A collection of mounted spiders at Birmingham Oddities. (Molly Vines/Alabama NewsCenter)
Birmingham Oddities is a store devoted to Adam Williams’ lifelong obsession with the morbid and mysterious. (Molly Vines/Alabama NewsCenter)
Birmingham Oddities is a store devoted to Adam Williams’ lifelong obsession with the morbid and mysterious. (Molly Vines/Alabama NewsCenter)
Birmingham Oddities is a store devoted to Adam Williams’ lifelong obsession with the morbid and mysterious. (Molly Vines/Alabama NewsCenter)
Owner Adam Williams shows some of the merchandise at Birmingham Oddities to a customer. (Molly Vines/Alabama NewsCenter)
Owner Adam Williams says education is among the functions of his store, Birmingham Oddities. (Molly Vines/Alabama NewsCenter)
Birmingham Oddities is a store devoted to Adam Williams’ lifelong obsession with the morbid and mysterious. (Molly Vines/Alabama NewsCenter)
Williams said his favorite part about the store is getting to know the community and meeting people who find joy in oddities like he does.
All of the items are for sale online as well. Williams said the majority of people who buy from him are women 18 to 25 years old.
Young women visit the store each week to see if he has added to his collection – at times seeking to purchase, other times to learn.
When you get past the strangeness, you can often find a good story, and that is at the heart of Williams’ passion for the peculiar.
“It’s truly a joy,” he said.
