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Virtual Tour of Sandburg Home

This is a photo tour with some 360 images of the inside of the Sandburg Home. Visitors can only explore the home in person while on a guided tour. Find information about guided tours here.

Carl Sandburg and his family lived here for 22 years from 1945-1967. Learn about the home, how the Sandburg family lived here and the story of love and success they all shared.

Front Porch

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Audio Transcript

Carl Sandburg stood on the porch of his new home in Flat Rock, NC, and declared, "We didn’t just buy two-hundred and forty-five acres when we bought Connemara, we bought a million acres of sky! They also found at Connemara a writer’s sanctuary and the perfect farm for dairy goats.
As you tour the house you will note that the Sandburg family lived casually. Simplicity was the rule as indicated by the functional furnishings.
Sandburg followed this philosophy throughout his life, having written to his soon-to-be wife Lilian in 1908, “All the big people are simple, as simple as the unexplored wilderness. They love the universal things that are free to everybody. Light and air and food and love and some work are enough. In the varying phases of these cheap and common things, the great lives have found their joy.”
Connemara provided them all these things; mountain air, gardens and orchards full of vegetables and fruit, plenty of work, and the love of a family.

Living Room

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Friends and family were entertained in this room, with Carl playing folk music on his guitar and singing, or sharing stories. His daughter Margaret often joined in on the piano. The walls are adorned with photographs by Edward Steichen, Mrs. Sandburg’s brother, and of course Sandburg’s books. An entire boxcar was filled with the 14,000 books Sandburg brought with him from Michigan.
Not one to point out his own accomplishments, he stored his Presidential Medal of Freedom, his medal from the King of Sweden and his honorary doctorate degrees in a glass cabinet in the corner.

Carl Sandburg's Correspondence Office

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This study served as an office where Sandburg worked on correspondence and manuscripts, either with the assistance of a secretary or his daughters Margaret and Helga. The room was usually piled high with filing boxes and books. The books lining the shelves were loosely organized according to subjects and projects.
Sandburg read the many letters sent to him daily; mail from his publisher, fellow poets, school children reading and studying his poetry, U.S. Senators, Supreme Court Justices, and even mail from various Presidents of the United States that he had befriended over the years.
A prominent feature of this room is the table constructed from timbers that supported the roof of the White House during Lincoln’s presidency. The lumber was salvaged from a renovation project at the White House by carpenter George Severin, He used the wood to construct the table as a gift for Carl Sandburg in honor of his Pulitzer prize-winning biography of Abraham Lincoln.
Click below for an audio clip from Sandburg's address to Congress on the occasion of Abraham Lincoln's 150th birthday in 1959.

Carl Sandburg Address to Congress excerpt

Short clip of the introduction of Carl Sandburg's address to a joint session of Congress on the occasion of Abraham Lincoln's 150th birthday in February 1959.

Date created:

02/12/1959

Audio Transcript

Not often in the story of mankind does a man arrive on earth who is both steel and velvet. Who is as hard as rock and soft as drifting fog. Who holds in his heart and mind the paradox of a terrible storm and a peace unspeakable and perfect. The incomparable Abraham Lincoln is an approach if not a perfect realization of this character.

Farm Office

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From her office in the middle of the house, Mrs. Sandburg paid the bills, answered correspondence and kept both the house and farm running smoothly. She took care of the day to day business so that her husband could focus on his writing.
In order to manage the large goat herd, Mrs. Sandburg was often in her office studying goat lineages, calculating bloodlines and making breeding decisions based on science. She was a Phi Beta Kappa graduate from the University of Chicago, and had a keen interest in genetics. She sold milk to local dairies, sold goats to North and South America, and kept an active schedule of showing goats at regional contests.
Click the audio below to learn how Mrs. Sandburg and her daughter Helga first started raising dairy goats.

Why Goats? Interview with Mrs. Paula Sandburg

Mrs. Paula Sandburg answers why she and her daughters started raising dairy goats.

Credit / Author:

NPS Recording

Audio Transcript

While we were in Michigan, one of the children, our youngest Helga, wanted a cow and then Carl was the one who said, you can’t possibly handle a cow, but a goat would be the right one for your size to handle. Goats you can just put in the family car and drive off, she went with me anyway to see about the goats since her father really said no, that a cow was impossible. We had some goats near the house, and I not only went home with one goat, but I said two goats, we’ll certainly need two goats if we’re going to have our family milk supply. Those goats turned out to be way out of the ordinary goats, that’s how we got into having goats.

Dining Room

Dining Room

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The aromas of freshly baked breads, hearty soups or homemade pies filled the Sandburg dining room. Most meals included fresh garden salads, yogurt, goat's milk, and Mrs. Sandburg's special cheeses. Carl Sandburg's red thermos contained fresh brewed coffee with goat's milk and a spoonful of honey.
While they were a very busy and independent family with a host of varied interests, they came together whenever possible for lunch and dinner. After dinner, Sandburg would often play his guitar for a family sing-a-long, or read from his current work. Or they might turn on the radio to hear Jack Benny, Fibber McGee and Molly or the evening news. Birds entertained outside while they sat around the table.

Kitchen

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Using fresh vegetables from the garden and meat from the farm or market, all meals were prepared in this kitchen, with the family rarely having a meal out.
This room only contained a sink and small counter when the Sandburg's moved in since the original kitchen to the home was in an adjacent building. Mrs. Sandburg had new metal cabinets, a refrigerator and even a dishwasher installed here. The oven came from their home in Michigan.

Mrs. Sandburg's Bedroom

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Lilian Steichen Sandburg was married to Carl Sandburg for 59 years. Carl called her Paula throughout their marriage. While living at Connemara Sandburg would now and then go to the bay window in her room and lie on the day couch to listen to a record or take a short nap in the afternoon. Then he and Paula would often go for a walk on the trails behind the house.
He fell in love with her from the moment they met, and wrote a poem to her called Paula, a portion of which reads:
When I saw you, I knew you as you knew me. We knew we had known far back in the eons When hills were dust and the sea a mist.

Explanations of Love excerpt by Carl Sandburg

Carl Sandburg reading an excerpt of his poem, Explanations of Love.

Audio Transcript

There is a place where love begins and a place where love ends. There is a touch of two hands that foil all dictionaries. Hands, eyes, bywords... Out of these love makes battlegrounds and workshops. There are explanations of love in all languages, but not one found wiser than this. There is a place where love begins and a place where love ends. And love asks nothing.

Carl Sandburg's Study

A loft office filled with books, metal file cabinets, office desk and chair, and a wood stove.

Sandburg's Upstairs Study

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Carl Sandburg did most of his writing in his upstairs workroom, amid a clutter of papers, books, filing crates, and boxes. He pinned notes and newspaper clippings to the walls and shelves. He’d peck away with two fingers at his typewriter, which often was perched on an orange crate.
Sandburg completed several books while at Connemara; his novel Remembrance Rock, a one volume edition of the six-volume Abraham Lincoln Biography, his own autobiography titled Always the Young Strangers, and compiled his Pulitzer Prize-winning Complete Poems.

Carl Sandburg's Bedroom

A loft bedroom with bed, two dressers, a wall bookshelf. Paper ephemera is on the desk and walls.

Sandburg's Bedroom

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Carl wanted his study and bedroom located on the west side of the house because he knew that he would be working throughout the night and sleeping late in the morning and he did not want the rising sun to disturb this routine.
After waking in mid-morning, he exercised, doing calisthenics using Indian clubs seen resting against the chair, listening to classical or folk music on his phonograph player, and reading a little before coming downstairs for the day. Clippings of interesting articles and images from magazines hang pinned to the wall.

Crow's Nest

A view of the mountains from the third floor of the house.

Crow's Nest

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This room was named the "Crow's Nest" by Mrs. Sandburg's brother, Edward Steichen. He likened the room to the lookout on a naval ship because of the beautiful mountain views the family enjoyed from the large window. Carl Sandburg considered using this room for a study, but decided the view was too distracting.

Janet Sandburg's Bedroom

A loft bedroom with several dressers, twin bed and tables filled with books and papers. A typewriter sits at a table in front of a window.

Janet's Bedroom

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Sandburg's middle daughter Janet helped out with the farm work, getting up every morning at 5:30 am to feed the baby goats. Later in the day she helped with the housework. In her room, she read, drew, wrote letters, and compiled scrapbooks.

Margaret Sandburg's Bedroom

A loft bedroom with two twin beds, a tv, sewing machine, desk and bookshelves.

Margaret's Bedroom

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Sandburg's oldest daughter Margaret used this room when the family first moved to Connemara. Later she moved downstairs and the room was used as a guest bedroom. Granddaughter Paula remembers staying here on her visits, and there was a television in the room that Janet watched occasionally.

Virtual Tour of Sandburg Home

Front Porch

Living Room

Carl Sandburg's Correspondence Office

Carl Sandburg Address to Congress excerpt

Farm Office