Thursday, February 10, 2022
Although the house is still closed due to the pandemic, we visited the
Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site in Flat Rock, NC. Carl Sandburg is a Pulitzer Prize winning poet and writer. Besides his free-verse style of poetry, Sandburg also wrote biographies, children's stories, and other prose. He was a journalist and social activist.
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| We had to cross a stream in the woods |
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| The bridge was atop a dam |
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| The bridge |
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| Then we had to climb a hill overlooking a lake |
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Carl Sandburg and his family moved into this house in 1945,
seeking peace and solitude required for writing and the land
for his wife, Lilian, to raise her champion dairy goats (KSS) |
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The house was built in 1838-1839, with an addition
in 1846-1849, and renovations by the Sandburgs |
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| Another view of the house (KSS) |
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| Gazebo next to Margaret's (the oldest daughter) Garden |
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A natural wooden chair like one
Sandburg may have used to sit outdoors (KSS) |
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| The bird feeding area |
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| The garage (1838, as the kitchen) |
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In the 1840s, this building was built as housing for the enslaved
persons, then in 1924 it was converted to a wash house;
Lilian Sandburg used it for chickens and young goats |
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The pump house sent water from a reservoir to the
main house, the fountain in front of the house, and the barn;
back on the left is the spring house |
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Inside the spring house, through which flowed water from the
reservoir, the Sandburgs kept cheeses made from goat's milk |
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| Farm equipment was stored in the woodshed |
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The greenhouse (1873, as a root cellar) was used to start
plants for the garden and store bulbs |
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| A lone gate |
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The barn garage stored farm equipment that was occasionally
removed to make room for square dancing; the building on
the right was used to isolate goats when needed |
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1962 Willys Jeep was the only vehicle on the farm
in Carl Sandburg's name (KSS) |
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| Farm equipment in the barn garage (KSS) |
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| Lilian's enterprise was the Connemara Farms Goat Dairy |
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| One of two barn cats (KSS) |
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| Kid quarters for the young bucks/male goats |
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| Corn crib |
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| On the left is the horse barn, and on the right are the cow sheds |
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| The goat barn houses the does/female goats |
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| Lilian Sandburg breeded three types of goats - this one is a Nubian |
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| A Saanen goat, a Swiss breed |
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| A Toggenburg goat, also a Swiss breed |
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| A rare spotted Nubian goat |
Alll the goats currently on the farm are descendants of Lilian Sandburg's goats.
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| The bucks/male goats are kept separated and use these goat sheds |
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Cream separator; goat milk is naturally
homogenized, so this machine was used
to separate the cream from the milk,
to be used for butter and ice cream |
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Bottling machine where the milk was cooled
before filling the cardboard cartons |
In the 1950s, when pasteurization of milk sold to the public was required, the Sandburgs then collected the milk in large cans to send to commercial dairies for processing.
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| The milk cooler kept the large cans of goat's milk cold |
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Buck house was initially built to house farm employees,
but Lilian Sandburg used it to house the older male goats |
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| Remains of the ice house (1848) |
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| Farm manager's house (1915) |
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Swedish house was built to house servants,
but the Sandburgs used it as the library and
gave it its name due to the scalloped fascia |
Carl Sandburg was born in Galesburg, IL to Swedish parents in humble circumstances.
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| Tenant house (1910) |
Next: Hendersonville, NC.
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