Property Watch: A McMinnville Commune Where Steve Jobs Picked Apples

We’ve all heard the story that Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak started Apple in a Los Altos, California, garage (a.k.a. Jobs’s parents’ house). But did you know that a McMinnville hippie commune with an apple orchard also played a part in the origins of the three-trillion-dollar company? More concretely, the two are linked via the company name. Now, that former commune is a veritable agricultural estate, with 388 acres spread across five parcels, two remodeled houses, a barn and various outbuildings—as well as a good backstory—all on the market for $5 million.

It all starts with Jobs’s time at Reed College, where he enrolled as an English major in the fall of 1972. Jobs became the school’s “most famous dropout” after one semester, but stuck around for another 18 months, auditing classes that interested him more than the required courses. (This is when he took the calligraphy class that inspired his love for typeface and font, and informed future Apple designs.)

At Reed, Jobs met Robert Friedland, a charismatic guy and student body president who was buying an electric typewriter from him. Friedland, a future billionaire in the mining industry, taught Jobs about the “reality distortion field,” and introduced the tech geek to the commune on his uncle’s McMinnville property, called the All One Farm.

At the farm, according to listing materials, the countercultural community blended Eastern spirituality, psychedelic exploration, and communal living and labor—thus Jobs spent time picking apples in the orchard on one of his many stints there. He later told biographer Walter Isaacson that the work inspired the naming of Apple: “I was on one of my fruitarian diets. I had just come back from the apple farm. It sounded fun, spirited, and not intimidating. Apple took the edge off the word ‘computer.’ Plus, it would get us ahead of Atari in the phone book.”

In 1978, Jobs’s first daughter was born at the commune. It’s unclear when exactly the collective LSD trips stopped, though, and the listing agent notes that the farm has “changed hands a few times since the countercultural community was in place.”

A six-plus-acre apple orchard remains on the property, while both residences and the barn have been extensively remodeled. The largest parcel hosts the 5,260-square-foot primary residence, a little red cabin, pond, greenhouse, and remodeled barn. The latter was once the site of many consciousness meetings and meditation retreats, and now has a ballroom floor, full bathroom, and outdoor kitchen. (Apparently, a preserved om symbol in pink chalk scrawl can still be seen on one of the beams there.)

The main house was built in the early 1900s with just one room, and beginning in the ’80s, was extensively enlarged to its current size. Now, the house has four bedrooms and four bathrooms, with some lovely custom woodwork throughout, two fireplaces, and a kitchen with quartz counters and Shaker cabinets. The kitchen and dining areas are the original portions of the house, where commune members would gather for meals after a long day.

A smaller parcel contains a 1,898-square-foot guesthouse, also fully remodeled, while a third has the apple orchard, a fourth has a shop and hay field, and a fifth is timberland. The listing notes that the soil is good for vineyard, farming, or timber operations.

Perhaps the most outstanding relic of the property’s past is the little red cabin near the barn. It was purportedly where Jobs would sleep on visits, and, with its rustic built-ins, bright red carpet, and log ladder up to a loft, seemingly looks much the same as when it was converted into living quarters in 1974 after being a chicken coop (although it does have a new roof). It’s currently staged with an old Atari on the desk—Jobs was working at Atari while frequenting the farm. It’s a cheeky nod to the intertwined narratives to be found here, something Jobs, who knew the value of a good story, could appreciate.

• Address: 11890 SW Dupee Valley Rd, McMinnville, OR 97128
• Size: 5,260 square feet, 4 bed/4 bath for main house (additional guesthouse, barn, and assorted buildings with 387.77 acres)
• List Date: 6/12/2025 
• Price: $5,000,000 
• Listing Agent: Drew Staudt, Windermere Realty Group

Melissa Dalton is a freelance writer who has focused on Pacific Northwest design and lifestyle since 2008. Contact Dalton here. 

Editor’s Note: Portland Monthly’s “Property Watch” column takes a weekly look at an interesting home in Portland’s real estate market (with periodic ventures to the burbs and points beyond, for good measure). Got a home you think would work for this column? Get in touch at [email protected].