Offbeat Pittsburgh: Welcome to Trundle Manor, a real-life Addams Family-influenced museum – TribLIVE.com

Rachel Miriello, aka Velda Von Minx, shows off the entrance to Trundle Manor on Juniata Street in Swissvale. The private home has been transformed into a museum of oddities and taxidermy. (Ben Schmitt | TribLive)
After Rachel Rech met Anton Raphael Miriello, she accepted an invitation to his Swissvale home — and soon found herself swept off her feet by his first-date proposition.
“I have a freezer full of dead squirrels,” Anton told her. “Would you want to learn taxidermy in my basement?”
For many, this might have justified a reason to run.
Rachel saw it differently.

That basement would become the setting for their first date — and the beginning of a love affair that led to marriage and a museum in a house full of oddities.
At the time, Rachel was studying costume design. So when Anton taught her how to perform taxidermy on the squirrels, she did what came naturally: She dressed them.
Years later, when Anton proposed, one of those dead squirrels presented her with an engagement ring.
“It was love at first slice,” Rachel said.
Welcome to Trundle Manor.
The Swissvale hillside house, known for its taxidermy, curiosities and weird creations, also is the longtime residence of Rachel and Anton Miriello — aka Velda Von Minx and Mr. Arm.
In 2010, the couple opened Trundle Manor’s first floor to the public for tours, inspired by their love of roadside attractions. They live upstairs.
“All of our taxidermy is real,” Rachel told me and my wife during our first visit last weekend. “Personally, we never hunt or kill anything ourselves. We like to put them in little outfits finding doll clothing and wigs that fit them.”
They generally acquire their taxidermy from vintage collections, roadkill, pets that belonged to friends and donations from visitors.
Trundle Manor on Juniata Street isn’t meant to be scary. It’s meant to be fun, curious and a little alluring — a place where the strangeness is welcoming. They are big fans of acquiring items at flea markets.
Display cases are full of robots, old medical equipment, cleavers and all kinds of taxidermy — moose heads, bears, deer and more — that pack the walls. Rachel cites “The Addams Family” as one of their biggest influences.
Admission is free, but donations are accepted. Tours are by appointment only (trundlemanor.com or text to 412-916-5544).
The Miriellos also accept gifts, but they sometimes turn them down.
“People have asked us if we wanted a cursed doll,” Rachel said. “No thank you. No thank you.”
Anton and Rachel have day jobs — he fixes safety equipment for a company called Municipal Emergency Services in the South Hills, and she works as a seamstress sewing patio awnings for a business called Awnings by Paul. Tours at Trundle Manor are generally offered during evenings and weekends.
When I texted Anton to set up an appointment, he offered 2 p.m. Sunday. I pointed out that the Steelers would be playing.
“I don’t follow sports,” he responded. “We’ll see you then.”
Fair enough.
Rachel greeted us with a smile and a black cat named PJ at her side.
Inside a sitting room, Little Devil — the couple’s first cat together — still commands plenty of attention. His preserved remains sit in their own glass case, topped with a hat from a London hatmaker that Anton and Rachel picked out on their honeymoon.
A 6-foot-tall painting of Little Devil hangs above the couch, keeping a watchful eye over the room.
Then there’s Olivia’s Singing Tumor, tucked inside Trundle Manor’s vestibule.
After doctors removed a uterine tumor from a belly dancer named Olivia, she somehow convinced them to let her take it home — and eventually offered it to Anton and Rachel. Today, it’s one of Trundle Manor’s prized possessions, hidden beneath a curtain until it’s time for a big reveal.
Flip a switch and the preserved tumor becomes musical, with a lighted music box singing, “I want my mummy.”
Sure, it’s macabre, but we found it comforting. Olivia is still with us.
“From the belly of a belly dancer, I like to say,” Rachel said.
A secret passageway through a trap door behind a glass showcase constructed with a wireless hydraulic system opens into a kitchen area and gift shop.
“We were obsessed with all those Vincent Price movies. Anything that took place in a mansion or a castle had trap doors,” Rachel said.
One important rule when visiting: Look all you want, but no touching.
This month, WQED digs into its archives for “Dead Air: The WQED Archives Resurrected,” a creepy-season lineup of programs. The Miriellos will serve as on-air hosts throughout the network’s “Dead Air” programming.
The Miriellos also welcome trick-or-treaters on Halloween. They hand out full candy bars.
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