Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site facts for kids
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Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site
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Carl Sandburg's last house
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 Location in North Carolina
Location in the United States
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| Location | Flat Rock, North Carolina, USA |
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| Nearest city | Hendersonville, North Carolina |
| Area | 246 acres (100 ha) |
| Built | 1945 |
| Visitation | 28,799 (2006) |
| Website | Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site |
| NRHP reference No. | 68000013 |
Quick facts for kids Significant dates |
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| Added to NRHP | October 17, 1968 |
| Designated NHLD | May 23, 1968 |
| Designated NHS | October 17, 1968 |
The Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site is a special place in Flat Rock, North Carolina. It protects Connemara, which was the home of Carl Sandburg. He was a famous poet and writer who won a Pulitzer Prize.
Even though Carl Sandburg was from the Midwest, he and his family moved to this home in 1945. They wanted a quiet place for him to write. His wife, Lilian, also needed over 30 acres of land for her champion dairy goats. Sandburg lived on this farm for the last 22 years of his life. He wrote more than a third of his books and poems while living here.
The site covers 264 acres. It includes the Sandburg family's house, the goat farm, and other buildings. You can also find rolling pastures, woods on the mountainside, and 5 miles (8 km) of hiking trails. There are two small lakes, several ponds, beautiful gardens, and an apple orchard.
Visitors can take a tour of the Sandburg house. You can also visit the dairy barn to see the Connemara Farms' goat herd. These goats are the same three breeds that Lilian Sandburg raised. In the summer, from mid-June to mid-August, you can watch live shows. These shows feature stories from Sandburg's Rootabaga Stories and parts of the play The World of Carl Sandburg.
Contents
The First Owners: Memminger Family
In the 1830s, a man named Christopher Memminger from Charleston, South Carolina visited Flat Rock. He was looking for a summer home. In 1838, he bought land and hired an architect. They started building a large summer house in the Greek Revival style.
The kitchen house and stable were finished first in 1838. The main house was ready in 1839. Memminger added more buildings over the years, like a cook's house and an icehouse. He called his summer home "Rock Hill." It was built on the side of Big Glassy Mountain.
In 1855, he created a small lake by damming a stream. The Memminger family spent most summers at Rock Hill. During the American Civil War, from 1864, they lived there full-time. The house was made stronger and used as a safe place for friends. It protected them from soldiers and bandits.
New Owners: Gregg and Smyth Families
After Memminger passed away, his son sold Rock Hill to Colonel William Gregg, Jr. He was a veteran of the Civil War. Colonel Gregg added new steps to the front of the house. He also put in a bay window and new fireplace mantles. The Gregg family used Rock Hill as their summer home for about ten years.
In 1900, they sold the house to Captain Ellison Adger Smyth. Captain Smyth changed the name of the house from "Rock Hill" to "Connemara." This name came from his family's home area in Ireland. The Smyths made the house ready for winter and turned the porch into a dining room. They even painted the house green for a while. They also built an eight-hole golf course in the pastures.
The captain and his family used Connemara as a summer home until 1925. Then, they decided to live there all the time. Captain Smyth died in 1942, and the house was empty until 1945.
The Sandburg Family's Home
Carl Sandburg bought Connemara on October 18, 1945, for $45,000. His wife, Lilian, had been searching for a new farm. She wanted a warmer place to raise her Chikaming dairy goats. When she showed Connemara to Carl, he said, "This is the place. We will look no further."
The Sandburgs immediately started to fix up the house. They hired people to work on the heating, plumbing, and electricity. They also added new chimneys and bathrooms. Carl Sandburg had a huge library, so they installed dozens of bookshelves. They repainted the house and put in a new kitchen inside. The old kitchen building became a three-car garage. All this work took about two and a half years. They also moved over 42,000 pounds of their belongings, mostly books, from their old house in Michigan.
The Sandburgs lived at Connemara from October 1945 to July 1969. Carl and Lilian lived there with their three daughters, Margaret, Janet, and Helga. Helga's two children, John Carl and Karlen Paula, also lived there. Carl Sandburg wrote many of his works while at Connemara. He passed away peacefully in 1967 at this house.
After his death, Lilian decided to sell Connemara to the U.S. government. She wanted to keep the house as a memorial to her husband. A family friend, Stewart Udall, who was the United States Secretary of the Interior, visited the house in 1967. Lilian Sandburg signed a gift deed in June 1968. On October 18, 1968, President Johnson approved a law. This law made the home a historic site. The house officially opened to the public in 1974. The National Park Service restored the house and put clear covers over the bookshelves. This site was the first national park to honor a poet.
Visiting the Site Today
Today, the Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site welcomes over 85,000 visitors each year. The national park is open every day. It only closes on Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's Day.
The U.S. government has named the goats at the farm a "historic herd." About fifteen goats live on the farm at any time. The inside of the Sandburg home looks much like it did when the family lived there in the 1950s.
In 2008, a law called the Consolidated Natural Resources Act of 2008 allowed the site to grow. It expanded by 115 acres. This helped protect the beautiful views, create more parking, and build a visitor center.
The park also has a special program for writers. It started in 2010. This program lets new writers live and work at the Carl Sandburg Home for three weeks in April.
Images for kids
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View of the Blue Ridge Mountains from Sandburg's front porch
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Exhibit station at the start of the trail to the Sandburg Home
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Most rooms, including the study at the Sandburg home, abound with books and periodicals.
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Sandburg parlor with piano; the Sandburgs were devotees of singing and musical instruments.
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The Sandburg kitchen
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Sandburg dining room with 1950s television set, used mainly for news and public affairs programs
See also
- Carl Sandburg State Historic Site, his birthplace and boyhood home
- List of National Historic Landmarks in North Carolina
- National Register of Historic Places listings in Henderson County, North Carolina
- List of residences of American writers
