AT THE INTERSECTION of busy State Highway 60 and 8th Avenue Northwest just blocks from downtown Faribault, motorists zoom past a corner kiosk marking the location of a once historic landmark business in this southern Minnesota city.
On this spot along the highway, Farmer Seed & Nursery stood next to the railroad tracks, an icon of agriculture rooted initially in selling seeds to farmers. But, through the decades, the company grew into much more, supplying nursery stock, plants, seeds and such to the public, the everyday gardener via seed catalogs and a retail store.
During the holiday season, the business flocked trees, making them a local signature Christmas offering.
Today the history of this long-standing Faribault entity is summarized on two informational panels recently installed in a corner kiosk next to Midwest Flats, a new 55-unit apartment building, and Midwest Indoor Storage, both occupying the former Farmer Seed site.
The informational panels are displayed inside an airy wood-frame structure partially-constructed with beams salvaged from the Farmer Seed building. After the business closed in 2018 and before it was demolished in 2023, volunteers and staff from the Rice County Historical Society saved artifacts from the building, listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Today those items, like signs, seed packets, catalogs and advertisements, are showcased in a small exhibit inside Heritage Hall at the historical society. Information and select artifacts from that collection were incorporated into the kiosk signage, RCHS Executive Director Dave Nichols said. He welcomes visitors to tour the museum display with 24 hours advance notice given. Local artist and historian Jeff Jarvis provided the initial sketches for the overall kiosk design.
Back along the highway, anyone can stop anytime to read a summary of Farmer Seed’s history, which began with its founding in 1888 in Chicago. By 1893, the thriving business had moved west to Faribault. Farmer Seed quickly became nationally-known. Six years after its relocation here, Farmer Seed moved across the street into a large stone warehouse once occupied by Faribault Threshing Company.
For Faribault residents, Farmer Seed represents more than an iconic business with a 125-year history here. It represents memories. Buying seeds, bulbs and other gardening merchandise. For some, packing seeds inside the sprawling multi-floor complex. For others, wandering among beautifully-decorated Christmas trees in the retail shop and choosing an ornament to buy each year. For some families, purchasing a flocked tree.
Local historian Jarvis is collecting those stories for a Farmer Seed memory book. Community members can submit their stories via a submissions form found on Jarvis’ West Cedar Studio website, https://westcedarstudio.com/farmer-seed-nursery-memory-book/. The book will include photos and additional information along with those personal stories.
The memory book will complete a three-phase endeavor to preserve Farmer Seed’s history. The Faribault Heritage Preservation Commission early on recognized the need to document Farmer Seed’s history by requiring the new property owner to complete several historical remembrance projects. The first came in a 20×24-foot mural designed by Jarvis and painted by Melodee Strong of Minneapolis. Installed in 2025, it hangs on the west exterior side of the indoor storage unit building.
The kiosk completion marks the second phase of the HPC directive.
While the massive Farmer Seed building could not be saved from demolition, its legacy in the Faribault community endures. The mural, the informational kiosk and the memory book are fitting historic tributes to a company that once stood strong, next to the train tracks along Minnesota State Highway 60, as a cherished local landmark business.
© Copyright 2026 Audrey Kletscher Helbling
Reflections on diversity & growing community in Faribault December 30, 2025
Tags: art, commentary, community, Congregational Church of Faribault United Church of Christ, diversity, Faribault, Jason Rainey, Minnesota, multi-cultural community, mural, painting, reflections, Shirley Rainey
WHAT ARE WE without community? The answer: alone.
We, at our very core, need each other. In times of celebration. In times of challenges. Even in times of great division. Without friends, family, neighbors and others, we are but individuals without community.
And in Faribault, among the many murals adorning public spaces in the downtown area, one piece of art stands out as representing community. That is a free-standing mural placed on the west side of the Congregational Church of Faribault United Church of Christ this past summer. It seems an appropriate focal point to end 2025 and begin the new year.
The artwork, created by Shirley Rainey and her son Jason, features outstretched arms rising from the earth against a backdrop red heart and blue sky. “The mural represents the importance of coming together to share burdens and triumphs, while reaching for our highest selves,” Rainey said in an artist’s statement.
I see that in the mural. But I also see a community of diversity. The Raineys show that in assorted skin tones, clothing, hand sizes and even henna painted on a hand. I love that about this art, this intentional, varied depiction of Faribault as it is—gloriously diverse.
That said, I am well aware of the racial tension (and that’s a tamped down word) in my community. I wish it didn’t exist, that we all got along, welcomed and embraced one another. We are, after all, just people who live, love, work, play, laugh, cry… The list of commonalities we share as humans goes on and on. Yes, we are different, too. But differences seen as negative, those we create.
We can learn from that church painting. We can choose to love one another, as portrayed in the over-sized backdrop red heart. We can stand side-by-side and raise our hands to help one another. We can see, in those arms stretched skyward, the possibilities in building community. In that blue sky, we can envision not only our personal dreams, but the dreams of all who call Faribault home.
Faribault is a multi-cultural community, always has been. From early settlement days to today, people have come here from around the world to start anew. Whether French, Irish, German, Scandinavian, Latino, Asian, Sudanese, Somalian or any of many other ethnicities, this place has become home. We can choose to create community or not.
I hope in 2026 that Faribault can build a better, stronger, more unified community which celebrates our commonalities, and our differences.
© Copyright 2025 Audrey Kletscher Helbling