1003 26th Ave Middle Amana, IA
Built in 1863, the “Rüdy Küche” (Ruedy Kitchen) is the only intact communal kitchen remaining in the Amanas. During the communal era, families did not cook for themselves. Instead, elders assigned them to eat in one of the village kitchens. Each kitchen served 40-50 people. The Ruedy family preserved the kitchen as it appeared in 1932 when it served community members for the last time and opened it as a museum in the 1950s. Visitors can see the kitchen with the large brick hearth, the dry sink with its wooden tubs, and the original implements used to prepare meals. In the dining room, tables are set for a communal meal. AHS leased the kitchen from the Ruedy Family from 1983 to 2018. Then, AHS purchased the entire property with plans to open all buildings to visitors. Between 2019 and 2022 museum staff and volunteers were hard at work cleaning, cataloging artifacts, and preparing the space for exhibits. The entire property was opened to the public in June of 2022, including the Ruedy Home attached to the Communal Kitchen as well as the Wash House and Chicken House, and the Woodshed which houses our historic print shop and bookbindery artifacts and machinery. This project was supported in part by the State Historical Society of Iowa, Historical Resource Development Program, the Hall-Perrine Foundation, the Amana Community Chest, the Iowa Arts Council, and Silos & Smokestacks National Heritage Area.
The Cooper Shop was built c. 1863. On exhibit are tools and products of the cooper’s (barrelmaker’s) trade. We are currently working on a restoration project for the Cooper Shop; if you would like to support those efforts, you can donate here.
Check the event calendar for dinners served in the communal kitchen.
The Parking and Entrance for the Communal Kitchen Museum is located on the J Street side of the museum.
