Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site, in Flat Rock, North Carolina, is the final home of Carl Sandburg, an American biographer, historian, and poet. Sandburg received the 1940 Pulitzer Prize for history for his biography Abraham Lincoln: The War Years (four volumes, 1939). Sandburg also received the 1951 Pulitzer Prize for poetry for Complete Poems (1950).
Sandburg lived at this farm, called Connemara, with his family from 1945 until his death in 1967. Works written by Sandburg while living at Connemara include his only novel, Remembrance Rock (1948), and his autobiography Always the Young Strangers (1953).
The historic site includes the Sandburgs’ main residence, a 22-room house built in 1838. The building is open to the public through guided tours. It contains the Sandburg family’s original furnishings, and it houses Sandburg’s collection of books, notes, and papers. Also on the site are walking trails, lakes, a pond, gardens, and an orchard. The barn where Sandburg’s wife, Lilian, raised her prizewinning Chikaming dairy goats is also on the grounds.
During the summer months, the State Theater of North Carolina performs plays at Connemara farm based on Sandburg’s life and works. The site offers a number of annual events, including the Christmas at Connemara celebration and the Sandburg Folk Music Festival.
Congress established the Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site in 1968. The site opened to the public in 1974. The National Park Service maintains and operates the site.
