**Seller is offering a $3,000 Closing Cost Credit (or Rate Buydown) and free appraisals through a preferred lender. The promotion is available for eligible loans locked by October 23, 2026.**
Built in 1858, the same year Minnesota became a state, this historic farmhouse occupies one of the most storied addresses in Afton’s Old Village — a rare opportunity to own a pre-statehood Minnesota house in a walkable, riverside historic district. The 1,281-square-foot residence offers 2 bedrooms and 1 bathroom across two levels, with tall original proportions, a layout that has flexed gracefully through nearly two centuries, plus a lower-level room with its own utility space for added flex use. A historically informed exterior color palette — warm beige siding, crisp alabaster trim, and a deep green door — restores the home’s presence on the street while preserving its 19th-century character. The main-level family room is generously sized enough to offer single-level living potential: a buyer could convert this space into a main-floor primary suite, reducing the need for stairs while preserving the upstairs bedrooms for guests, family, or a home office. It’s a layout option that pairs the home’s historic charm with the practicality that today’s buyers increasingly lo
ok for. What sets this property apart from a typical antique farmhouse is what sits beside it: a 1,000-square-foot heated studio with its own half bath, a Conditional Use Permit (CUP) already on file with the City of Afton, and 5 dedicated parking stalls. This is a genuine live/work opportunity — the kind of home business setup most owners spend years and thousands of dollars pursuing through city approval before they can even begin. Here, it is already in place, well suited to an appointment-based or studio-scale use such as a wellness or massage studio, art studio or maker space, salon or private therapy practice, specialty retail with a workshop, photography or design studio, or professional office. Buyers should confirm directly with the City of Afton exactly what the CUP authorizes before committing it to a specific use. The setting is what makes the opportunity real. Step off the large front porch and you are a tenth of a mile from Afton’s village center — coffee, dining, the marina, and the St. Croix River are all within an easy stroll along streets recently rebuilt as part of a multi-million-dollar infrastructure and flood-protection program that included a FEMA-certified levee. This is the same historic district where the 150-year-old Afton House Inn, Selma’s Ice Cream Parlor, and a wave of new boutique businesses have chosen to invest in recent years, citing the same walkability and small-town character this property sits in the middle of. The property is served by Afton-Lakeland Elementary, Oak-Land Middle School, and Stillwater Area High School, part of a district whose assigned high school carries a 9-of-10 rating. For a buyer drawn to historic architecture, river towns, or
