Inside An Amish Shop Home – With “Character” (19 Photos)

This is one of the more interesting Amish properties I’ve come across – both for the home itself and the land it’s on. It’s a large “shop home” style residence, two stories in fact, located in Wadena County, Minnesota. The area is home to a small Amish community, a little over a decade old, and clearly a plainer Amish group.

You can see by the photo above it has a bit of a ramshackle, quirky appearance, with a variety of styles of windows used on this one side alone (I count four or five different styles). It’s not going to win beauty prizes for its aesthetics, but it has a fun look to it.

The land it is on is also noteworthy – a large 74-acre tract in a part of the state which is flat and where the view stretches for miles and miles. Here’s a drone view showing what I mean:

This is a place where you probably don’t hear too much racket from the neighbors. Here’s another aerial shot, zoomed in closer on the home and various buildings of the property:

Inside, the home has the plain and spartan appearance that you might expect after getting a look at the exterior.

The kitchen table you can see below reflects a similar aesthetic – with three or four different chair styles (though truth be told it’s not uncommon to see a hodge-podge of table seating in many Amish homes with growing families:

This place is listed as having a single bedroom and zero bathrooms: Here’s more of the description from Zillow:

74 ACRE HOBBY FARM! Located just off County Highway 75. To be surveyed off prior to closing. The home was built in 2022 and is host to a range of possibilities. Currently used as an Amish farm with a drilled 4” water well. There is no septic or electricity on site, it can be brought in.

Approximately 24.5 acres of tillable land, 15 acres of low woody wetland and about 34 acres of pastureland. This would make a great hobby farm/horse property.

Looking further into the home, we see there is a large main living space, as is also common in Amish homes and especially in shop homes.

We see a stove for cooking and heating on one side, and a light blue wood box for storing fuel. You notice the kitchen area on the wall, let’s zoom in closer…

And we have a look at a charming Amish-style kitchen space. Note the sink does not have faucets.

Here’s the stove from the opposite angle. Centrally situated, it can more effectively heat this large space.

And zooming out on this view:

Let’s have a look inside the one bedroom.

Similar simple look with a nice quilt covering the bed and a pleasant bedside rocker.

View from a second entrance to this bedroom, here we see the crib:

And though it’s listed as having just one bedroom, we can see looking back at this large main space that it’s used as a sleeping area as well, with a second bed for the children:

One more look at the dining table side of the main room:

And here’s the wash room space. Used for washing clothes, bathing, and other tasks.

Outside, here’s another view giving you a feel for the vast space:

Buggy parked by the outbuildings.

Another view of the home exterior:

This home really illustrates the differences in living standards across Amish groups. Compare this one, for example, to this shop home in Virginia, or this progressive Amish home in Lancaster County. The owners of those two places are also Amish, but of more progressive groups. They would not be too comfortable living in this Minnesota property.

For comparison (1): Living room of an Amish shop home in Virginia

For comparison (2): “Fancy” bedroom in Lancaster County Amish home

So while it’s definitely not at typical “English” living standards at present, for a non-Amish buyer this could be, as the listing suggests, a nice opportunity for a hobby farm, for instance.

With some investment in plumbing and furnishing the interior, it could make an interesting place to live or a getaway of sorts. So how much is this property listed for?