Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site ⓘ

The 245-acre farm in Flat Rock not only offered the Sandburg's an abundance of nature, but also a dramatic history dating back before the Civil War. Along with the Home, the site has more than 30 buildings scattered throughout. The arrival of the Sandburgs changed what used to be a lavish estate into a working farm to raise Mrs. Sandburg's prize winning goat herd. In fact, the amount of buildings on the property led Sandburg to say, "We didn't buy a farm, we bought a small village."

The park has reports for several of the larger buildings throughout the site. Please contact the park for a copy of the report you are interested in.

Historic Structure Report for Main House Explore the historic Sandburg Home beginning with its construction in the 1830s. This report covers the history and use of the home, as well as modifications made throughout the years.

Historic Structure Report for Swedish House Explore the Historic Swedish House and learn about its evolving history beginning in the Memminger era up to the Sandburgs.

When NPS acquired the property in 1968, Lilian Sandburg graciously donated most of the family’s belongings as a gift to help preserve her husband’s legacy.

Cultural Landscape Report Explore the landscape of Connemara from it's earliest landscape in the 1830's through today. Includes a list of trees and plants currently being cared for and preserved.

Landscapes reveal stories! Stories that reveal the processes and complexities of nature as well as that of humankind. People have both shaped and been shaped by the landscapes they encounter. Here on this 245 acre estate, today known as Connemara Farms, there are many stories and layers of human history. Though we have no physical evidence here of the early native people, we know from historical studies that this land was occupied and used by native people for thousands of years before european expansion into the New World. The large flat rock outcrops in the area were used as trading grounds between native tribes, and early pioneers. This also supported the trade route that went up into Asheville market, a road known as the "drovers road" in which livestock and goods were channeled from the low county up to the mountains. Through these early traveling routes, this community came to be called Flat Rock, and drew wealthy folks from the developing coastal cities like Charleston, and Savannah into the hills. By the early 1830's many "summer homes" were being built in the foothills and south of Asheville, which was established in 1797. The place known as Connemara Farms was built in 1838 for Chistopher Memminger, a lawyer and enslaver from Charleston, SC, The next resident was Ellyson Smythe, a textile baron who employeed children in his fiber mills. Then in 1945, over a century after the estate was built, Sandburg and his family bought the 245 acre estate in 1945, to support his wife Paula's goat dairy operation, and because it offered solitude for his writing. Sandburg died on July 22, 1967 at his home in Flat Rock, NC, at age 89. The nation mourned him as writer, biographer, folksinger, lecturer, and Poet of the People who spoke for those who did not have words or power to speak for themselves. He was eulogized on September 17,1967 at the Lincoln Memorial. His ashes were buried at his birthplace in Galesburg, Illinois on October 1st. In 1968 Congress authorized Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site, the first unit of the National Park Service to honor a poet.

Lilian was born in Hancock, Michigan on May 1, 1883. She was the daughter of John Pierre and Mary Kemp Steichen of Luxembourg, and sister to Edward Steichen.

The first-generation American graduated Phi-Beta Kappa from the University of Chicago in 1903. Lilian then taught high school in North Dakota and Illinois for the next four years. Lilian's own mother had set an example of a strong woman for her children. Mary opened a millinery shop to support the family after Lilian's father transitioned from working in the mines to farming. Such determination in Mary transferred to her children. Lilian was politically active before women were allowed to exercise their right to vote. An argument often made in the women's suffrage movement was that women were political already, regardless of their ability to vote. Lilian Steichen is an excellent example of this point.

Like Carl, she was a member of the Wisconsin Social-Democratic Party. She worked for the party translating German literature into English. She often attended meetings at party headquarters in Milwaukee. There, in December 1907, she met a fellow activist named Charles Sandburg. Charles, almost 30, and Lilian, age 24, were introduced by a member of her family. He showed interest in her immediately, she was not so quickly taken in. But she gave him her address and allowed him to walk her to the streetcar to say goodbye.

They would exchange letters over the course of the next few months until they met again in March 1908. They wrote to each other, sharing their thoughts on socialism, philosophy, democratic art, and sharing their poetry. Much like the success writing brought Sandburg in other parts of life, he won Lilian's affection first in his letters. As Lilian's love for Carl grew in their exchanges, so did her faith in his work. Their letters became romantic, and they planned a visit to her parents' farm in Wisconsin. Their next meeting took place during her spring vacation. Over the course of this week, Lilian and Carl decided to get married to following June. The June wedding took place at a friend's house without rings and without vows of "obedience." The forward-minded couple even stated that should either ever wish for a divorce, the other would not fight it and grant the divorce. When they married in 1908, she encouraged him to start using his given name, Carl, and he began calling her Paula. Sandburg's name for his wife, Paula, appears in his poetry many times.

In their married life, Carl and Paula shared great respect for each other as well as their ideals. First, the Sandburg couple maintained that the simple things in life were often the most important. Second, they believed that work was valuable for personal fulfillment and in order to leave your mark on the world. These values undoubtedly supported the couple in the early years of marriage. The years before Carl's great success as a writer saw him change jobs, lose jobs, and struggle to find time for his writing. Often, he resorted to writing at night after work, while Paula typed out the words to send out.

Paula and Carl faced challenges and tragedies in their family as well. Their eldest daughter Margaret, born in 1911, suffered from epilepsy. At a time when treatments ranged from ineffective to, experimental, to brutal, the small family persevered. Their second child, a girl, died a birth. Their daughter Janet, born in 1916, was struck by a car at age 16. Janet was comatose for days and suffered brain damage and never became capable of independence as an adult. The Sandburg's fourth daughter, Helga, was born in 1918. Despite challenges and tragedies, the family was close and active together.

Paula had a penchant for gardening and raising animals. During the family's life in Michigan, Paula kept a number of animals on their five acres. She had horses, for the girls to ride, chicken and rabbits for meat, and goats for milk. The dairy goats would become a primary hobby for Paula throughout her life. She purchased her first goat in 1935 and began to research the benefits of goat's milk.

The goats became more than a source of milk and cheese when Paula began breeding them for sale and for show. Soon, "Paula Sandburg" would be a household name in the world of dairy goats. The 1945 move to Connemara was partially motivated by the need for more open pastures for the goats.

At Connemara Paula and Helga worked to improve the dairy production of the herd. The herd itself grew to 200 at the highest, with kids sold around the country and internationally. After Helga moved out of the family home, Paula shrank the herd and focused on developing a line of excellence in the Toggenburg goats. Paula's doe Puritan Jon's Jennifer II became the all-breed American champion for milk production and world champion for Toggenburgs. The doe, 170 pounds, produced 5,750 pounds of milk in 305 days.

Connemara was Carl's last home and after his passing in 1967, Paula helped with the planned transition of the family home to the National Park Service. Paula would live on for another decade in Ashville, North Carolina with her daughters Margaret and Janet. Lilian Paula Sandburg would pass away in her home at age 93 in 1977. She left behind her own legacy as well as Carl's in their home at Connemara. Carl and Lilian's descendants still live on and actively participate in the preservation of the memory of their lives.

Carl Sandburg and his wife, Lilian "Paula" Sandburg, had three daughters whom he affectionately called his "Homeyglomeys."

Margaret Many birds and the beating of wings Make a flinging reckless hum In the early morning at the rocks Above the blue pool Where the gray shadows swim lazy. In your blue eyes, O reckless child, I saw today many little wild wishes, Eager as the great morning. --Carl Sandburg, Chicago Poems, 1916 Margaret Mary Steichen Sandburg arrived June 3, 1911 and was something of a child prodigy. She learned her letters and numbers by age four and was featured in the Montessori system's national brochure. A talented pianist, Margaret also liked to garden, read Shakespeare, and research French and Russian literature, Asian culture, and mythology. Margaret was her father's librarian for the mass amount of books at Connemara. She helped edit many of his works and was instrumental in helping the National Park Service capture the story and spirit of her father once the Park had been established. Margaret died April 12, 1997, at 85. "Margaret has become widely read, a scholar who often surprises me with her erudition, knows the Bible and Shakespeare better than I do." Carl Sandburg, letter to Alfred Harcourt, September 24, 1953

Sixteen Months On the lips of the child Janet float changing dreams. It is a thin spiral of blue smoke, A morning campfire at a mountain lake. On the lips of the child Janet, Wisps of haze on ten miles of corn, Young light blue calls to the light gold of morning. --Carl Sandburg, Cornhuskers, 1918

Janet Mary Steichen Sandburg was born June 27, 1916. Carl wrote in a letter to a friend a few months later saying: " Janet, the new kid, has her mother's hair and face whereas the other daughter, has mine: so the household is at a glorious standoff." Herbert Mitgang, The Letters of Carl Sandburg Janet Sandburg was quiet and shy around people, but around animals, she thrived. This proved useful around the farm as her main job at Connemara was feeding and caring for the baby goats, accompanying her mother to goat shows, and helping with gardening and housekeeping. Janet died on February 16, 2001; she was 85.

Helga The wishes on this child's mouth Came like snow on marsh cranberries; The tamarack kept something for her; The wind is ready to help her shoes. The north has loved her; she will be A grandmother feeding geese on frosty Mornings; she will understand Early snow on the cranberries Better and better then. -- Carl Sandburg, Smoke and Steel, 1920 Helga Mary Steichen Sandburg was born November 24, 1918, while Carl was in Sweden. Initially named Mary Ellen, after a friend, Helga was given her new, Swedish name soon after her father's return home. Like her literary father, Helga enjoyed writing. In 1958, she won the Emily Clark Balch prize for "Witch Chicken," published in the Virginia Quarterly Review. In addition to her published books, her work appeared in Saturday Review, Harper's, The New Yorker, McCall 's, Seventeen, and Georgia Review.

Helga shared her mother's affinity for animals and raised not only goats, but registered Siamese cats and Doberman Pinschers, and cared for Black Angus cattle, chickens, ducks, geese, and honey bees.

As the only Sandburg daughter to marry, she raised two children, John Carl and Paula. Helga died at her home in Cleveland Heights, Ohio surrounded by family in 2014 at the age of 95.

Edward Steichen was the older brother of Lilian and became brother-in-law to Carl. These three people remained inextricably tied throughout their lives. They were bound together by personal and professional relationships and believed that art should be a civilizing force and a humanizing power in the modern world.

Steichen assisted Sandburg in selecting images for Sandburg's Lincoln biographies. Their most important collaboration was the 1955 Museum of Modern Art exhibition The Family of Man . Steichen, who was then director of photography at the Museum, curated this unprecedented exhibit that featured 503 images from 273 photographers in 68 countries. The exhibit featured a prologue by Sandburg that expressed their shared belief in the universal oneness of humanity.

Steichen was instrumental in helping to establish photography as art, introducing modern art to America, defining American culture with his celebrity portraits of the 1920s and 1930s, and documenting the human drama of World War II.

For a park of its size, Carl Sandburg Home has an amazing diversity of ecological communities. The park contains forests and woodlands, rock outcrops and cove forests, fields and ponds. Though only 108 ha (267 acres), Carl Sandburg Home is home to at least 519 species of vascular plants and fourteen different ecological communities. In addition to preserving a great cultural resource, this park also preserves a significant ecological resource in a rapidly developing area that, if managed properly, will allow the region to maintain its ecological heritage.

In addition to the resources listed above, feel free to browse through our inventories. These are large files due to the amount of diversity located on our grounds.

Vascular Plant Inventory During the inventory work, 170 specimens of over 135 species were collected and identified. Over 55 of these species and varieties of species were county records, having not been previously documented for Henderson County, North Carolina. Species were prepared for storage in the herbarium and photographed for the report. Contact the park for a copy of the study.

Mushroom Inventory The Carl Sandburg Home NHS is home to a variety of mushrooms. Explore the inventory to learn about the types of fungi located on our grounds. Contact the park for a copy of the study.

Carl Sandburg Home NHS is richly diverse in native flora. A plant inventory performed in 2001 and 2002 uncovered over 520 vascular plant species! Fourteen different vegetation associations (as defined by the United States National Vegetation Classification) lie within the park boundary. From Eastern Emergent Marshes, Cultivated Meadow, Pitch Pine - Table Mountain Pine Woodlands, White Pine - Xeric Oak Forest, Appalachian Shortleaf Pine - Mesic Oak Forest, to Montane Oak - Hickory Forest and the globally rare Appalachian Low-elevation Granitic Dome association, the park is home to numerous species of grasses, ferns, herbs, shrubs, vines, sedges, trees, aquatic plants, mosses and liverworts.

The park is uniquely located between the mountains on the west, and the piedmont on the east, resulting in an interesting variety of terrain, geology and plant communities. Elevations range from 2160 ft near the park entrance to 2783 ft at the summit of Glassy Mountain. On the lower end of the park (north), forest cover is dominated by yellow poplar, white pine, eastern and Carolina hemlock, white and chestnut oak, red maple and sourwood. Mid-elevations are dominated by chestnut oak, northern and southern red oak, white and shortleaf pine, pignut and mockernut hickory, sourwood, black gum and Fraser magnolia. Higher elevations support scarlet and red oaks; shortleaf, white and pitch pine; pignut and sand hickory; red maple, black gum and sourwood. Forest understory throughout the park is dominated by heath species including rhododendron, mountain laurel, azalea, and several species of blueberry and huckleberry. There are at least 56 tree species occurring within the small, 264-acre park.