There’s a new unique store gracing Main Street in Harmony. Seed & Stone opened for business in August 2025 in the history-filled limestone building located at Thirty9Main. While the store is new, the actual building was built in 1907.
The building first was home to the First National Bank. At that time, Harmony had a total of three banks. The Great Depression hit the banks hard in 1929; eventually the three banks either closed or consolidated.
The next owner of the building was Dr. Newell, a dentist. Dr. Newell’s practice was housed in the building for 30 years from the 1940s to the 1970s.
In 2019, Amy and Aaron Bishop sent a letter to the owner who had bought the building at auction in 2006 to ask about the possibility of purchasing the old building. The Bishops and the owner at that time had matching ideals; soon the Bishops were the new owners of the building.
Having sat empty for 50 years, the building needed extensive work. Much of the plaster had fallen to the floor after cold winters and hot humid summers. The radiator pipes had been cut so all copper piping needed to be replaced. The radiators themselves were hauled to Chatfield to have a multitude of layers of paint sandblasted off. They were then painted with a gorgeous metallic paint that glows both gold and silver depending on the lighting.
The Bishops removed old layers of paint from the woodwork, sanded the floors and finished them with tung oil. New plumbing, electrical service and a new boiler were installed.The exterior was tuckpointed, doors and windows were restored and the roof and gutters were redone.
The original tin ceiling on the first floor was dry ice blasted. Sandblasting the old ceiling would have been too hard on the material. By blasting the ceiling with dry ice, the air was less volatile than if it would have been with sand particles in the air. A company traveled from Indiana to do the work. The patina of the tin ceiling adds a warm glow to the room.
Original floor tile work greets the customer at the door; the maple floor still shows signs of where the tellers stood at their windows when the building was a bank. The bank has an unusual vault with two doors; one door could be accessed by the tellers out front while the other led into the vault from the banker’s office.
Amy purchased a 1920s era decorative lighting fixture four or five years ago. Although not original to the building, the light looks as if it belongs there. In an interesting mix of old and new, the fixture has been retrofitted with remote-controlled, battery-operated LED lights. Work will continue this winter on the upstairs apartments which will be available for short term rentals.
After all their sweat equity, the Bishops decided they wanted to use the space for their own store. They knew they wanted to sell things they themselves valued, and they knew they only wanted to be open a few days a week. After considering a plethora of options, Amy and Aaron decided to have a store and chose the name Seed & Stone.
This seemed to suit them. Amy was employed for several years at Seed Savers; Aaron is a geologist who also works at Niagara Cave. Seed & Stone was the perfect name for the new store.
A slight problem arose when the Bishops wanted to create a website and FaceBook page. The name Seed & Stone had already been claimed. The duo decided to use Thirty9Main, the address of the building for their website and FaceBook. According to Aaron, this will be perfect when they finish the upstairs apartments; the name of the page is the address at which guests will be staying!
When setting up their store, the Bishops tried to stay true to the style and age of the building; there are no cases newer than the 1920 in the store. A 12-foot glass display case was discovered in Wabasha and carefully transported to Harmony in Aaron’s parents’ van.
Seed & Stone is part of the Seed Rack program; the store will be offering a wide variety of Seed Savers’ seeds. The store also carries a selection of very competitively priced bird seed.
Feeders made of recycled plastic and bird houses round out the birding supplies.
A multitude of stones are displayed in the store. Some of the stones are from the inventory at Niagara Cave; some were purchased at the Tucson Rock and Mineral Show. The Yooperlite, which is often found along Lake Michigan, glows golden under a black light. The store carries local fossil stones, geodes and other rocks from around the world.
Karst Stone Paper journals with pages made of 100% recycled stone are available in various sizes, 100% linens from Ukraine and Lithuania, willow baskets and beeswax candles made by local artisans as well as whisk brooms made by Amy are just some of the offerings at Seed & Stone. In all their selections for merchandise at the store, the Bishops carefully choose items that fit their style.
In keeping with the time period of the building, the Bishops found an antique wax cylinder phonograph to provide music in the store.
Seed & Stone is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. Hours will be extended in December; the store will be open some Thursday nights from 5-7 p.m. before Christmas to give more people a chance to check it out and to shop for those special gifts at Seed & Stone.
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