Published on NCpedia (http://ncpedia.org)

Connemara [1]

Connemara

by Jo Ann Williford, 2006 Connemara, late 1930s. Photograph by Bayard Wootten. North Carolina Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Library.

Connemara [2], located in Flat Rock, [3] was the last home of famed poet and historian Carl Sandburg [4]. Christopher Gustavus Memminger [5] of Charleston, S.C., former Confederate [6] secretary of the treasury, built the property as a summer house in 1838. Memminger called the property Rock Hill, but a later owner, Capt. Ellison Smythe [7], renamed it Connemara. Sandburg bought the property in 1945, seeking peace and solitude for his writing as well as a place for his wife Lilian to raise champion dairy goats. He wrote almost one-third of his works during his 22 years at Connemara. On 17 Oct. 1968, Congress established Connemara as the Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site [2] to be administered by the National Park Service [8]. The historic site consists of the antebellum house, a dairy goat barn complex and a representative goat herd, sheds, rolling pastures, mountainside woods, walking/hiking trails, two small lakes, ponds, flower and vegetable gardens, and an orchard.

Additional Resources:

Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site: http://www.nps.gov/carl/index.htm [2]

Carl Sandburg Tributes, UNC Libraries: http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/inv/s/Sandburg,Carl.html [9]

Our State, UNC-TV Carl Sandburg: http://www.unctv.org/ourstate/episode208/index.html#sandburg [10]

Learn NC: http://www.learnnc.org/lp/multimedia/8636 [11]

Subjects:

World War II (1941-1945) [12]

Post War 20th Century (1946-2000) [13]

Authors:

Williford, Jo Ann [17]

Origin - location:

Henderson County [18]

From:

Encyclopedia of North Carolina, University of North Carolina Press. [19]

1 January 2006 | Williford, Jo Ann

Source URL: http://ncpedia.org/connemara

Links:
[1] http://ncpedia.org/connemara
[2] http://www.nps.gov/carl/index.htm
[3] http://www.flatrockonline.com/
[4] http://www.biography.com/people/carl-sandburg-9470854
[5] http://ncpedia.org/biography/memminger-christopher
[6] http://ncpedia.org/confederate-party
[7] http://www.nps.gov/carl/faqs.htm
[8] http://ncpedia.org/www.nps.gov
[9] http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/inv/s/Sandburg,Carl.html
[10] http://www.unctv.org/ourstate/episode208/index.html#sandburg
[11] http://www.learnnc.org/lp/multimedia/8636
[12] http://ncpedia.org/category/subjects/world-war-ii
[13] http://ncpedia.org/category/subjects/post-war-20th-cen
[14] http://ncpedia.org/category/subjects/places
[15] http://ncpedia.org/category/subjects/writer
[16] http://ncpedia.org/category/subjects/unc-press
[17] http://ncpedia.org/category/authors/williford-jo-ann
[18] http://ncpedia.org/category/origin-location/mountain-7
[19] http://ncpedia.org/category/entry-source/encyclopedia-