A Sense of Landscape History at Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site

Documenting a Landscape over Time

When the Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978, there was limited documentation of the landscape features and the overall site design prior to the Sandburgs' ownership. The National Register listing was updated in 1995, incorporating descriptions from the 1993 Cultural Landscape Report. This fuller understanding of the landscape over time helps the NPS to maintain the site as the Sandburgs knew it.

Features of the agricultural landscape at Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site.

NPS

Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site is significant under National Register Criterion B for its association with the poet and writer Carl Sandburg and Criterion C as a designed landscape reflective of distinct historical trends in landscape design.

The Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site in was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1968 and entered into the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. While the nomination form at that time did not include a specific period of significance or National Register criteria, the areas of significance for the site were listed as social/humanitarian, literature, and agriculture (which was noted with a question mark on the form).

Prior to the Sandburgs’ ownership, Christopher Memminger of Charleston, South Carolina developed the property as a summer residence. Between 1838 and 1855, he established a country estate on the rolling terrain of Flat Rock, North Carolina, incorporating landscape design ideals that were popular during the time. A serpentine drive navigated part of the property, and a cleared slope near the house was used as a pasture. Gardens, trails, gates, and wooded areas characterized the landscape, which was punctuated by a lake.

Subsequent owners made further changes to the landscape. When industrialist and businessman Ellison Smyth and family lived on the property from 1900 to 1945, they expanded the agricultural, recreational, and ornamental uses that were part of Memminger’s design and converted the summer home to a full-time residence. Pastures and animal barns, apple orchard, and water features were added during this period.

Paula Sandburg wrote articles in scientific journals that described her method of breeding goats for increased milk production, and regularly attended the annual American Dairy Goat Association national conference.

June Glenn, Jr. (NPS / Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site, CARL 12732)

The design and construction history of the estate landscape is important to understanding the appeal of the property to the Sandburgs, who were in search of a temperate climate, a quiet place for the poet to work, and a place to walk outdoors. They also needed a location that would facilitate Paula Sandburg’s goat herding operations. The residence at Connemara was the home of poet Carl Sandburg for the last 22 years of his life, from 1945 to 1967.

When the site was documented for the National Register listing in 1978, all thirty-three resources that were identified as contributing were buildings and structures. It did not address the overall site design established prior to the Sandburgs' ownership and lacked documentation of landscape features.

The National Register nomination was updated in 1995 with additional documentation, which addressed cultural landscape features that were omitted from the earlier nomination. The document references the 1993 Cultural Landscape Report, prepared for the park by Susan Hart, and it provides adequate descriptions, site plans, and photographs of historic cultural landscape features.

A site plan in the 1993 Cultural Landscape Report shows features of the Farm Area during the time that the Sandburgs lived here.

NPS / Susan Hart, in Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site Cultural Landscape Report, 1993 (pg. 45)

The 1995 nomination identifies twenty-four additional contributing landscape features and provides a thorough discussion of landscape characteristics and their historic significance related to the Memminger, Smyth, and Sandburg periods of significance. Additionally, the integrity assessment includes an evaluation of landscape features.

While the site is primarily recognized for its association with Carl Sandburg, the fuller documentation of ownership, use, development, and care of the landscape through its history helps the NPS to maintain the designed landscape and physical features as the Sandburgs knew it.

Related Documentation

National Register of Historic Places

• Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site (1978, updated 1995)

• Connemara, The Carl Sandburg Farm: National Historic Landmark (1968)

Cultural Landscape Reports

• Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site Cultural Landscape Report (1993)

Period of Significance

• 1838-1967