Good Earth makes a big move

By Roni Coates, Journal correspondent | Sunday, April 08, 2007

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SPEARFISH — After 27 years, Ed and Kathy Dykstra have moved their health food store to its fourth location in Spearfish, this time to Main Street downtown.

Having outgrown their last building and wanting to expand their product line to include organic produce and grass-feed beef, they believe the newly renovated 5,000 square-foot retail space should meet the community’s needs for some time. And Ed Dykstra’s restoration of the Main Street building was recognized recently with a Historic Preservation Award from the Spearfish Historical Commission.

Like many buildings in downtown Spearfish, the one that now houses Good Earth Natural Foods dates almost to the turn of the 20th century. Few in town are sure of the building’s exact age, but Ed Dykstra believes it was built around 1910.

It began as a furniture store. The owner, a Mr. Plank, spared no expense on the maple floors or the tin ceiling. In the 1940s, the building was purchased by the Ashley family and for a time, the building served as both a mortuary and a Ben Franklin 5 & 10 store.

Eventually the Ben Franklin store expanded to fill the entire space. In the following years, the building had other tenants until Shirley Ashley remodeled the store in the 1980s and it once again became a Ben Franklin Store.

With the arrival of Wal-Mart in the 1990s, Ashley’s business eventually closed. Langer’s Black Hills Silver Factor was the next tenant and remained there for many years until recently.

During the last 100 years, numerous tenants made changes to the building’s interior and exterior. At one point, the ceiling was lowered and there is still evidence where a floor furnace once stood.

Although the Dykstras realized it would take considerable effort to remodel the building, nine months was longer than they anticipated.

Removing the lowered ceiling and heating duct work was planned, but tuck-pointing old brick on the store’s front was not.

The community response has been enthusiastic, said store manager, Donna Stark. New customers are coming in daily, and those who have lived in Spearfish for decades are delighted to see the old building take on a new role in the community.

Bonnie Carr, whose parents’ had a business just down the street for years, stopped in for a look recently. “I can still see those bright red doors,” she said on inspecting the changes. “My sisters and I were in and out of the dime store often. What they’ve done is just beautiful.”

Good Earth Natural Foods sells vitamins and supplements, organic produce, and wheat-free and gluten-free products.

Robin Havard, a nutritionist practicing in Spearfish, is a regular customer and often sends patients to the store for the specialty items unavailable in regular grocery stores including nut butters, buckwheat flour and whole grains. “We all need to eat healthier,” she said, “and this store gives people more choices.”

The store moved to its new location on March 5 and is open Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Future plans call for adding locally made bakery goods as well as cooperative arrangements with the farmers’ markets in the area for more organic produce.