A Village Rooted in the 1800s
Afton’s earliest name wasn’t Afton at all. Before it took its current name, the settlement was known as Catfish Bar, after a large sandbar in the St. Croix River still visible when water levels are low, where travelers once forded the river by cattle and horse before bridges or ferries existed. According to local historical accounts, Mrs. C. S. Getchel later renamed the settlement Afton, inspired by Robert Burns’s poem “Afton Water.”
The village was platted in 1855, and its Historic Village still reflects that era today, home to buildings and businesses tracing back to the mid 1800s. Afton’s first Swedish settler, missionary and former fur trader Jacob Fahlstrom, arrived in 1841, part of a wave of German and Swedish immigrants who settled the area through the 1860s and 1870s, Germans drawn to the flat, fertile farmland, and Swedes to the hillier terrain near the rivers, in an area still known locally as Swede Hill.
Minnesota’s Oldest Hotel
At the center of Afton’s historic village sits the Afton House Inn, built in 1867 on the foundation of an earlier hotel destroyed by fire, making it the oldest continuously operating hotel in Minnesota and a listing on the National Register of Historic Places. The inn has been owned by the Jarvis family since 1976, and today offers lodging, fine dining, a wine bar, and event space along the river, much the same role it has played in the community for well over a century.
One of the Metro’s Smallest, Most Affluent Cities
Afton is genuinely unusual in the Twin Cities metro. With a population under three thousand, it’s one of the smallest incorporated cities in the region, and consistently ranks among the most affluent, with a median household income well above state and national averages. The city’s character is built around large-lot, custom-built homes and rural estates, and Afton has deliberately prioritized land-use planning that protects its rural, natural, and historic character over denser development.
Home to an Olympic Champion
Afton is the hometown of Jessie Diggins, an Afton native and Stillwater High School graduate who won the first ever U.S. Olympic gold medal in cross country skiing at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games, part of a career that has since made her the most decorated cross country skier in American history. Diggins still trains on Afton’s quiet roads and trails, and the town has honored her with her own street sign, Jessie Diggins Trail, near the heart of downtown. Jason skied at nearby Afton Alps growing up, the area’s well known downhill ski hill, giving him a genuine, longstanding familiarity with this part of the St. Croix Valley.
Afton State Park
Afton State Park spans sixteen hundred acres along the St. Croix River, with hiking trails through rolling glacial moraine and bluffland above the water. It’s a place Jason and his wife walk regularly, the trails along the river are genuinely some of the most beautiful in the East Metro. Because the park’s camping area and beach are reachable only by trail, it has kept a quieter, more untouched feel than many state parks closer to the metro core, and it’s become something of a local training ground, Jessie Diggins herself has credited running and roller skiing through Afton’s quiet roads and the park’s rolling hills as central to her development as a skier.
Where to Eat and Explore in Historic Downtown Afton
Afton’s small historic village punches well above its size. Selma’s Ice Cream Parlor anchors downtown as Minnesota’s oldest ice cream shop, open since 1913 in a building dating to the 1880s that once served as an ammunition storage site during the Civil War, serving ice cream, coffee, and espresso from a genuinely charming, old fashioned storefront. The Afton House Inn brings fine dining right into the village too, with the CURRENT Restaurant and Swirl Wine Bar offering more casual options alongside the inn’s formal dining room.
Afton’s connection to the river also shows up in real marina infrastructure, separate from the Afton House Inn. Windmill Marina and Afton Marina & Yacht Club both offer boat slips, storage, and river access on the St. Croix, making Afton a genuine boating destination in its own right.
Nearby River Towns
Afton sits close to several smaller river communities that share its quiet, small town character, Lake St. Croix Beach, Lakeland, and St. Mary’s Point all border Afton to the east along the St. Croix. None are large, each has only a few hundred to a couple thousand residents, but together they form a stretch of genuinely quiet river living just minutes from Afton’s historic village, worth knowing about for buyers drawn to Afton’s pace but open to a slightly different setting nearby.
What Types of Homes Will You Find in Afton?
Afton is one of the least dense communities in the Twin Cities metro, and its housing reflects that in a way that surprises a lot of buyers coming from more typical suburbs. Unlike areas where lots are measured in square feet, homes in Afton are generally measured in acres, and the size varies meaningfully depending on where in the city you’re looking.
- Homes within the historic village itself typically sit on a quarter acre to one acre, the closest thing Afton has to a traditional in town lot
- Established neighborhoods outside the village generally run one to three acres
- Custom built luxury homes commonly sit on two and a half to ten or more acres
- Estate and hobby farm properties often span ten to forty or more acres
- Afton Creek Preserve, a 218 acre luxury community, is built specifically around five-plus acre homesites, with roughly half its land permanently reserved for conservation, walking trails, and a trout stream
- Craven Woods and Trading Post Trail Preserve offer similar acreage focused living in the same rural, estate style tradition
- Riverfront and river bluff homes along the St. Croix, among the rarest and most sought after in the area, regardless of lot size
Because Afton has intentionally avoided the kind of dense, named subdivision development common in neighboring Woodbury or Cottage Grove, most buyers here are looking for space, privacy, and a rural setting rather than a typical suburban neighborhood.
Why Homeowners Are Drawn to Afton
Afton offers something genuinely rare this close to the Twin Cities, real privacy and space on large, custom home lots along the St. Croix.
- Large-lot, custom-built homes and a low density approach to growth
- A historic village with the state's oldest operating hotel and real 19th century character
- Direct access to Afton State Park and the St. Croix River
- One of the most affluent, established communities in the East Metro
- Proximity to Woodbury and Stillwater without the density of either
How Afton Compares to Nearby Communities
Afton borders Woodbury to the west and sits within the same general East Metro and St. Croix Valley corridor as Stillwater, Lake Elmo, and Cottage Grove, all communities buyers considering Afton often compare it against. Afton differentiates itself primarily through scale and density, it is smaller, more rural, and more exclusively built around large custom homes than any of its neighbors, trading the amenities and pace of a larger suburb for privacy, acreage, and a genuinely historic village center.
Local Knowledge That Comes From Working This Market
Afton is part of the broader East Metro and Washington County market Jason has worked in for more than two decades, giving him practical, firsthand familiarity with how Afton’s custom home market and rural character compare to the surrounding communities.