Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site

Connemara Main House

Historic Structure Report

September 2005

Historical Architecture, Cultural Resources Division

Southeast Regional Office

National Park Service
Cultural Resources

Southeast Region

National Park Service

100 Alabama St. SW

Atlanta, GA 30303

(404) 562-3117

The historic structure report presented here exists in two 

formats. A printed version is available for study at the park, 

the Southeast Regional Office of the National Park Service, 

and at a variety of other repositories. For more widespread 

access, this historic structure report also exists in a webbased format through ParkNet, the website of the National 

Park Service. Please visit www.nps.gov for more 

information.

2005

Historic Structure Report

Connemara Main House

Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site

Flat Rock, NC

LCS#: 05146

Cover image: Carl Sandburg looking away from 

Main House. (CARL 109103, photo by June 

Glenn, Jr.)


National Park Service v

Table of Contents

Project Team xix

Foreword xxi

Management Summary

Historical Data 1

Architectural Data 1

Summary of Recommendations 2

Environmental Improvements 2

Fire Safety 3

Repairs and Maintenance 3

Further Historical Research 3

Further Building Investigation 3

Administrative Data 3

Location Data 3

Related Studies 3

Cultural Resource Data 4

Historical Background and Context

Flat Rock 5

The Memmingers 8

Rock Hill 10

Civil War 20

Reconstruction 22

The Greggs 26

The Smyths 28

Ellison Smyth 30

The Mills 33

Connemara 34

Caretakers 35

Servants 35

Retirement 37

The Sandburgs 39

Connemara 41

Chronology of Development and Use

The Memmingers’ Rock Hill 50

Design 50

Contractor and Craftsmen 55

Materials 56

Construction 56

Addition, 1848 58

Postwar Alterations 61
vi Connemara Main House HSR

The Greggs’ Rock Hill 63

Exterior Alterations 63

Interior Alterations 64

The Smyths’ Connemara 66

Early Alterations 66

Rehabilitation 68

The Sandburgs’ Connemara 72

Remodeling, 1945-1948 73

Later Changes 86

National Park Service 88

Exterior 88

Interior 89

Systems 89

Connemara Time Line 90

Floor Plans and Molding Details, 1850-1950 93

Reconstructed Floor Plans and Details, c. 1850. 95

Reconstructed Floor Plans and Details of Added Features, 1900 97

Reconstructed Floor Plans and Details of Added Features, 1925 99

Reconstructed Floor Plans and Details of Added Features, 1950 101

Physical Description

Building Site 104

Foundation 104

Footings 104

Stone Foundation 104

Brick Foundation 105

Wooden Posts 105

Chimneys 106

Structural System 106

Sills, Beams, and Plates 107

Joists 107

Posts and Studs 108

Rafters 108

Exterior Finishes 108

Roof 109

Lightning Rods 110

Windows and Doors 110

Screening 113

Storm Windows 114

Exterior Woodwork 114

Portico 115

East Porch 117

Conservatory 118

West Porch 119

Carport 119

Interior 119

Ground Floor 120

First Floor 136

Second Floor 158

Floor Plans and Molding Details, 2004 169

Plan of ground floor 171

Plan of First Floor 173

Plan of Second Floor 175

Molding Profiles 177

Treatment and Use

Requirements for Treatment and Use 179

National Historic Preservation Act 179

Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990 180
National Park Service vii

International Building Code 180

DOI and NPS Policies and Regulations 180

Alternatives for Treatment and Use 181

Basement 181

Room 108 182

Room 207 182

Watson & Henry Recommendations 182

Ultimate Treatment and Use 184

Environmental Improvements 184

Fire Safety 185

Repairs and Maintenance 185

Further Historical Research 187

Further Building Investigation 188

Summary of Recommendations for Treatment and Use

Environmental Improvements 189

Fire Safety 189

Repairs and Maintenance 189

Further Historical Research 190

Further Building Investigation 190

Sources of Information

Manuscript Collections 191

Public Records 191

Primary Published Sources 191

Secondary Published Sources 191

NPS Studies 192

Oral Interviews 192
viii Connemara Main House HSR
National Park Service ix

List of Figures

1 United States Geological Survey (1946), with arrow marking location of the

Main House 4

2 Detail from Robert Mills’ Atlas of South Carolina (1825) , showing route of 

State Road through Saluda Gap to Flat Rock. (From seventh printing, Southern

Historical Press, 1980) 6

3 One of the last traces of the Buncombe Turnpike in Flat Rock, not far from 

Mountain Lodge and Mud Creek Church. (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 7

4 St. John-in-the-Wilderness Episcopal Church in Flat Rock, organized in 1836, 

with the present building constructed to a design by Charleston architect 

Edward Jones in the early 1850s. (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 7

5 Main house at Saluda Cottages, across Little River Road from Connemara, 

built by Count de Choiseul in 1836 and remodeled in the Second Empire style 

in the 1870s. (T. jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 8

6 Thomas Bennett, Jr., House (1802) at 69 Barre Street, Charleston, Memminger’s 

home as a boy and teenager. (from Mills Lane Architecture of the Old South:

South Carolina) 8

7 Bird’s-eye view of Charleston, lithograph by Smith Brothers, 1851, as reprinted

in Mills Lane, Architecture of the Old South: South Carolina. The tall spire at 

upper left is Grace Episcopal Church, built in 1847-1848 on Wentworth Street 

a block or two east of the Memmingers’ residence on the same street and 

where the Memmingers had a pew in the 1850s. 10

8 The so-called Buck House, probably built in the second quarter of the nineteenth 

century as an overseer’s house. (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 11

9 Milford, Columbia, SC, 1838-1841, built by Gov. John Manning with design 

attributed to Charles Reichardt.(Photograph from Kennedy’s Greek Revival America) 12

10 The Charleston Hotel, one of the nation’s great Greek Revival buildings. (Image 

from Mills Lane, Architecture of the Old South: Greek Revival and Romantic) 12

11 Mills’ Circular Church with steeple added by Reichardt in 1838. The building 

burned in 1861. Drawing from Mills Lane, Architecture of the Old South: 

Greek Revival and Romantic. 13

12 Sketch of Rock Hill in Memminger’s account book, c. 1852, annotated for 

legibility. (taken from Pence, Archeological Overview and Assessment, 1998) 14

13 View of privy at west end of Swedish House, with Tenant House in background.

(CARL3000/17/4P) 15

14 View of Ice House about 1950, constructed by Memminger in 1847. The circular,

subterranean portion of the building is still evident on the landscape just 

southeast of the Farm Manager’s House. (CARL3000/29/1P) 15

15 View of the Memminger-era spring house, c. 1910. (CARL3001/03/01p) 16
x Connemara Main House HSR

16 View, c. 1960, of the Swedish House, constructed by Memminger as a servants’ 

house in the early 1850s. (CARL3000/17/1P) 16

17 Christopher Memminger, c. 1860. (CARL 28430) 17

18 A plat of Rock Hill, 1876. (CARL 3005) 18

19 Stereographic view of Rock HIll, probably 1870s, the earliest image of the house 

yet located. (CARL 28466) 20

20 VIew of Rock Hill, prior to the late Victorian additions and alterations that were 

made about 1890. (CARL3001/01/48P) 22

21 Christopher Memminger, c. 1865. (CARL 28429) 23

22 Tranquility, built by Edward Read Memminger on his father’s Valley Farm in 1890.

(Historic Flat Rock Collection) 24

23 A 20th-century photograph of Christopher Memminger’s youngest son, Edward. 

(From A Sketch of Flat Rock CARL 7170) 24

24 Christopher and Mary Memminger’s graves at St. John-in-the-Wilderness. (T. Jones,

NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 25

25 View of Connemara in late winter or early spring 1901. Image shows East Porch,

the bay window on the west side of the house, and the new front steps, all 

apparently added by the Greggs around 1890. (CARL3001/01/04P) 26

26 View of Connemara after it was repainted by the Smyths in 1901 (CARL3001/01/18P)) 27

27 Boating at Connemara, c. 1910. (CARL3001/01/41P) 28

28 The Smyths on the steps at Connemara, c. 1900. Left to right: Lewis D. Black, Annie 

Pierce Smyth Blake (holding unidentified child), James A. Smyth, Mary H. Smyth,

Mary Smyth McKay (child), A. F. McKissick (holding unidentified child), Julia

Gambrill Smyth, Jane Adger Smyth (holding unidentified child), Ellison Adger

Smyth. (Collection of Juliane Heggoy, great-granddaughter of the Smyths) 29

29 The Smyths’ servants in front of the kitchen, c. 1910. The building may have been

rebuilt by Smyth in the 1920s and was drastically altered when the Sandburgs 

turned it into a garage in 1945. (Collection of William McKay, Smyths’ great-grandson.) 30

30 Smyth grandchildren eating watermelon near the southwest corner of the house. 

(CARL3001/01/01P) 31

31 Some of the Smyths’ grandchildren and, possibly, their chauffeur James Robinson,

in the backyard at Connemara, c. 1910. (CARL3001/01/17P) 31

32 Some of the Smyth grandchildren at play near their grandfather’s barns, c. 1915. 

(CARL3001/04/01P) 32

33 One of the Smyths’ grandchildren behind the Main House with front entrance to 

Kitchen visible in background. (CARL3001/02/07P) 32

34 Mr. and Mrs. Smyth in Front Room at Connemara, 1926. (Collection of Juliane Heggoy, 

great-granddaughter of the Smyths). 33

35 Smyth feeding his fowl, 1931. (CARL3001/16/23P) 34

36 James Fisher, c. 1920, Ellison Smyth’s valet and, after James Robinson’s death, his 

chauffeur. (CARL3002/10/5P) 35

37 Plat of the Smyths’ Connemara in 1944. (CARL 23294) 36

38 Smyth and his dogs on the front porch at Connemara. (Collection of Juliane Heggoy, 

great-granddaughter of the Smyths) 37

39 Sylvene, one of Smyth’s maids, 1937. (Collection of Juliane Heggoy, great-granddaughter of the Smyths) 37

40 Connemara, c. 1940. (CARL3001/01/03P) 38

41 Mr. and Mrs. Sandburg in Dining Room at Connemara, February 1956. (CARL 12132, 

photographed by John Vachon) 39
National Park Service xi

42 The Sandburgs’ grandchildren, Paula and John Carl, with their pony Patches, 

c. 1946. (CARL3000/37/02P) 39

43 Relaxing in the Front Room at Connemara, 1950, left to right, Janet, Margaret, 

Dana Steichen, Mrs. Sandburg, and Ed Steichen, watching Sandburg and the 

grandchildren put on a puppet show. (CARL3000.05.15P) 40

44 Mr. and Mrs. Sandburg and Helga in Farm Office, 1946. (CARL 9575, photo by 

June Glenn, Jr.) 40

45 Mrs. Sandburg in the Kid Room (012) in the ground floor. (CARL 12730, photo 

by June Glenn, Jr.) 41

46 Mrs. Sandburg and one of her prize-winning goats, c. 1950. (CARL 955) 41

47 Margaret Sandburg behind the Main House with one of her paintings. 

(CARL3000/06/11P) 42

48 Sandburg and his grandchildren, with “Connemara Farm Goat Dairy, Flat Rock, 

N. C.” stencilled on the door of the truck, c. 1951. (CARL 9556, photo by Faircloth) 42

49 The Sandburgs and one of their dogs at east end of house, September 1966. 

(CARL3000/03/11P) 43

50 Mr. and Mrs. Sandburg with kids at rear of Connemara, c. 1952. (CARL3000/03/05P) 43

52 Sandburg in 1952, entertaining Paula and John Carl in Room 121. (CARL 9579, 

photo by June Glen, Jr.) 43

51 Carl Sandburg on front steps at Connemara, 1956. (CARL 109107, photo by June 

Glenn, Jr.) 44

53 The Sandburgs in the Kitchen in the 1960s. (CARL 5000/2-139) 44

54 Sandburg and Leslie Dunlop in his Book Room (Room 018), 1956. (CARL 9548, 

photo by Depew)) 45

55 Ella, the Sandburg’s housekeeper and cook, July 20, 1967. (CARL3000/14/12P)) 45

56 Mr. and Mrs. Sandburg on Front Porch, February 1957. (CARL 13015, photo by Barber) 46

57 Helga Sandburg and children at Connemara, 1946. (CARL300/08/23P) 46

58 Carl Sandburg on the Front Porch at Connemara, 1952. (CARL 2675, photo by June 

Glenn, Jr.) 46

59 Mrs. Sandburg, her brother Ed Steichen, and Helga Sandburg, relaxing in the Dining 

Room (112) after Sandburg’s funeral, 24 July 1967. (CARL3000/05/50P) 47

60 Opening page of Memminger’s Account Book for Rock Hill, photocopy from microfilm. 

(University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Southern Historical Collection.) 52

61 The floor plan that Reichardt originally designed for Memminger might have been 

similar to these, although without the curving stair. Top, Lowther Hall (1822), 

Clinton, Georgia; center, Brown-Sandford House (1822), Milledgeville, Georgia;

bottom, Jackson House, Gaines, Alabama (1830) 53

62 View of Rock Hill, from stereo graph, perhaps as early as the 1870s, part of the park’s 

Memminger collection and the earliest image of the house. (CARL 28466) 54

63 Detail from view of Rock Hill, taken prior to the late Victorian additions and 

alterations that were made around 1890, with Memminger’s antebellum addition 

partially visible at left. Note the absence of stairs to the front porch. 

(CARL3001/01/48P, photo by Baker Barber) 57

64 The Smyth grandchildren on a home-made merry-go-round, perhaps around 1915,

showing one of the most detailed views of Memminger’s antebellum addition.

(CARL3003/01/05P) 58

65 Sketch plan of house prior to 1924, as remembered by Mrs. Rogers, one of the Smyths’ 

grandchildren, in the 1970s. (CARL 3001) 59

66 View at west end of Main House, showing window at west end of Memminger’s 
xii Connemara Main House HSR

addition, c. 1910. (CARL3001/01/30P) 60

67 Smyth grandchild sitting on foundation wall of Memminger’s rear addition to the 

first floor of the original building. (CARL3001/01/27P) 60

68 Connemara in the spring of 1901, with late nineteenth century alterations in place. 

(CARL3001/01/04P) 62

69 Mary H. Smyth and her son Joe, with a view of the room that was added to 

Memminger’s addition, probably by the Greggs about 1890. (CARL3000/01/25P) 64

70 Olive Hill and Sarah Smyth, 6 April 1901, sitting in bay window added at the eastern 

end of Memminger’s antebellum addition about 1890. (Collection of Julianne Heggoy, 

great-granddaughter of the Smyths) 64

71 View of mantel now in storage, installed in the 1890s, probably in what is now 

Sandburg’s Office (101). (T. Jones, NPS, 2004) 65

72 View of late-nineteenth century mantle, with overmantel detached, installed in the 

1890s, probably in the Farm Office (113) or the Utility Room (118). (T. Jones, NPS, 2004) 65

73 View of Connemara, perhaps around 1915, showing bay window added at west end 

of Main House in the 1890s. (Photograph by Baker Barber, CARL3001/01/06P) 66

74 View of carriage turn-around at near northeast corner of house. (Collection of 

William McKay, great-grandson of Smyths.) 66

75 View of Connemara after it was painted green in the summer of 1901, showing East 

Porch and front steps added in 1890s. (CARL 30328, photo by Baker-Barber) 67

76 Smyth grandchild at west end of Main House, showing west bay and exposed waste 

lines and vent stacks for the lavatories in the Rooms 118 and 121. (CARL3001/01/32P) 67

77 Captain and Mrs. Smyth in the Front Room in 1926. Note the electrical extension cord 

at upper left, trailing down from the overhead light, which is out of view, a common 

sight as lamps (one is on the table behind Mrs. Smyth) and other electrical devices 

proliferated in the 1920s. (Collection of Julianne Heggoy, great grand-daughter of the 

Smyths) 68

78 View of Connemara, undated but probably 1930s. (CARL3001/01/49P) 69

79 Captain and Mrs. Smyth, daughter Margaret, and unknown visitor on concrete front 

steps at Connemara, August 1921. (Collection of Julianne Heggoy, great grand-daughter 

of the Smyths.) 69

80 Detail of view of Connemara in 1938, showing Conservatory constructed by Smyth on 

east side of Front Room. (CARL3001/01/45P) 70

81 Ellison Smyth seated in the Front Room, perhaps around 1930. (CARL3001/16/26P) 70

82 View of Connemara in 1938. (CARL3001/23/03P, photo by Bayard Wooten, Carolina 

Coll., University of North Carolina.) 71

83 View of west end of house, c. 1938, with bathroom addition just visible beyond the bay 

window and a glimpse of the carport beyond that. (CARL3001/23/03P, photo by Bayard 

Wooten, Carolina Collection, University of North Carolina) 72

84 Detail of 1938 photograph by Bayard Wooten showing Smyth’s glass-walled vestibule. 

(CARL3001/23/03P, Carolina Collection, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill) 72

85 View of rear and west end of house in 1946 or early 1947. Aga stove chimney had not

yet been built and the foundation remains unpainted. (CARL3000/15/26P) 73

86 John Carl and Paula, with view of old kitchen house after its conversion to a garage 

in 1945. (CARL3000/010/01P) 74

87 View of East Porch and Conservatory, showing window added in east gable for new 

bathroom on second floor. (CARL3000/15/28P) 74

88 Carl Sandburg’s Connemara, c. 1952. (CARL 109718, photo by June Glenn, Jr.) 75

89 Sandburg and his secretary in the Front Room. (CARL 12344, photograph by June 
National Park Service xiii

Glenn, Jr.) 76

90 View of Front Room, 1956. (CARL 109707, photograph by Douglas Depew) 77

91 Sandburg and Leslie Dunlop from the University of Illinois in Sandburg’s Office (101), 

as they select Sandburg’s library for books to be donated to the University of Illinois, 

summer 1956. (CARL 9546, photograph by Douglas Depew) 78

92 View of Dining Room, 1967. (CARL4011/01-03, photograph by Cecil Stoughton) 79

93 View of the Front Room in 1967. (CARL4011/01-07P, photograph by Cecil Stoughton) 80

94 View west in Mrs. Sandburg’s Room (121), 1967. (CARL4011/01-09, photo by Cecil 

Stougnton) 81

95 Sandburg’s study, 1967. (CARL4011/01-06, photograph by Cecil Stoughton) 82

96 View of stair hall in 1967. (CARL4011/01-09, photograph by Cecil Stoughton) 83

97 Sandburg on the telephone. Note absence of shelving on the west wall of his Office 

and of the cupboard on the south wall. (CARL3000/02/04P) 83

98 Sandburg, c. 1946 (CARL 104103, photo by June Glenn, Jr.) 84

99 View of Connemara, c. 1960. (CARL3000/15/12P) 85

100 Connemara, c. 1960. (CARL3000/15/38P) 86

101 The Sandburgs in the Kitchen, c. 1960. (CARL5000/2-139P) 87

102 View into Sandburg’s Office (101) in 1967. (CARL 4011/01-04, photograph by Cecil 

Stoughton) 87

103 Removal of Front Porch columns in the spring of 1974. The only original column that 

remains intact is the one at left in this image.(CALO4008/01/048P) 88

104 View at front porch, 1974. (CARL4008/01/45P).) 88

105 View of north side of Main House. (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 103

106 A view of the house from the southwest (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 104

107 View of center chimney, as reconstructed in 1983. (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR,2004) 105

108 VIew of foundation at east end of 1920s rear addition. (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 105

109 View of foundation at northwest corner of original house.(T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 

2004) 105

110 View of reconstructed conservatory and east end of house. (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 

2004) 106

111 View of typical original first floor joists, as seen from Room 018. (T. Jones, 

NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 107

112 View of hand-hewn beam in Room 018. (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 107

113 View of typical, cross-braced, floor joists and diagonally laid sub-floor in rear addition. 

(T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 107

114 View east in attic of rear addition with framing of rear wall of original house visible 

at left. (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 108

115 View of typical connection of rafters in main roof. Note inscribed Roman numeral 

XVII on face of right-hand rafter. (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004 108

116 View of end rafter at west side of main roof, showing lookouts mortised and pegged 

in place. (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 108

117 View of rear (south) shed of main roof, showing skylight, lightning rods, and typical 

dormer. (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 109

118 View of Window W-36, showing typical original casing and sill. Nine-over-nine 

muntins have been removed from original sash. A four-light, exterior storm sash is 

installed at the opening in this image.(T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 110

119 Window W-2, with original sash, in north wall of Room 001. Note wooden sash stop 

near upper left corner of lower sash. (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 110

120 View of window (W-36), with original narrow beaded casing and thick sills used at 
xiv Connemara Main House HSR

openings on the sides of the original house. (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 111

121 View of Window W-21, typical of rear addition (c. 1924), with two-over-two sash intact.

A two-light, exterior storm sash is installed at the opening in this image. (T. Jones,

NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 111

122 View of Window W-8, typical of ground floor windows in rear addition. (T. Jones, 

NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 112

123 View of window W-13, which was originally a door opening, and the adjacent 

embrasure. (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 112

124 View of Door D-1, one of the house’s original doors (c. 1838), altered by the Sandburgs

in 1945.(T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 113

125 View of Door D-11, with original casing, mid-19th century transom, and c. 1924 French 

door and screened door. (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 113

126 View of original (1838) exterior window casings. (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 114

127 View of typical eaves on original house, top, and on rear addition, bottom. (T. Jones, 

NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 114

128 View of west bay window.(T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 115

129 View of part of bay window on west side of house.(T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 115

130 View of Portico.(T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 115

131 View of typical Portico details. .(T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 116

132 View of pilaster plinth on Portico. (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 116

133 View of northeast corner of Portico showing typical balustrade (c. 1890) and brick pier 

(c. 1924). (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 116

134 View of original posts and balustrades (c. 1890) on East Porch..(T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 

2004) 117

135 View of lift to East Porch..(T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 117

136 View of East Porch and Conservatory..(T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 117

137 View northeast in Conservatory..(T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 118

138 View of lattice under East Porch..(T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 118

139 View of West Porch. (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 119

140 View to northeast of porte cochere. (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 119

141 Light fixture, c. 1920, on west wall of conservatory. (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 119

142 View east in Room 001. (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 120

143 View west-southwest in Room 001. (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 121

144 View northwest in Room 001. (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 122

145 View of west jamb of Door D-1. Left of center is part of the wooden nailer inset into 

the masonry. (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 123

146 View of typical ceiling-hung radiator. (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 123

147 View of door from Room 001 into 005, typical of varnished fir doors installed by the 

Sandburgs around 1947. (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 123

148 View southwest in Room 002. (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 124

149 View northeast in Room 002. (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 125

150 View southeast in Room 004. (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 126

151 View northeast in Room 005. (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 127

152 View west in Room 005, with view into Room 006. (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 128

153 View of re-used antebellum door between Rooms 010 and 011. (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 

2004) 129

154 View southeast in Room 010. (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 129

155 View northwest in furnace room. (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 130

156 View to east in Room 011. (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 131
National Park Service xv

157 View southwest into Room 012. Window sash was probably salvaged by the 

Sandburgs when they demolished Smyth’s master bathroom where the west Porch 

is now located (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 132

158 View east in Laundry Room. (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 133

159 View southwest in laundry room. (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 134

160 Left, view west in Room 018; right, view north in Room 018. (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 

2004) 135

161 Both faces of D-36, presumed to be typical of original first-floor doors, but with

hardware installed in 1924. (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 136

162 Both faces of D-48, antebellum but with slightly different panel molding (T. Jones, 

NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 136

163 View of late nineteenth-century, four-panel doors D-43 (left) and D-26 (right) (T. Jones, 

NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 136

164 Left, view of typical door dating to 1924 and, right, typical door dating to 1945. 

(T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 137

165 View of baseboard and casing at southwest corner of Hall (115). Casing at right is 

assumed to be original (1838) while casing at left dates to Memminger’s remodeling 

in 1848. (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 137

166 View of baseboard and casing typical of 1924 additions.(T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 137

167 View of mantel in Front Room (102). (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 138

168 View of mantel in Room 104. (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 138

169 View of mantel in Mrs. Sandburg’s Bedroom (121). A similar mantel was removed 

from the house, probably from Room 113 or 118, and is now stored in the wood shed. 

(T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 138

170 View of original window panels, right, and panels added c. 1890, left.(T. Jones, 

NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 139

171 View southwest in Room 101.(T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 139

172 View northeast in Sandburg’s office (101).(T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 140

173 View northwest in Front Room (102).(T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 141

174 View east in Front Room (102).(T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 142

175 View northeast in Margaret’s/Helga’s Room.(T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 143

176 View west in Margaret’s/Helga’s room (104). Similar banks of closets were added in 

most of the other bedrooms.(T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 144

177 View southeast in Children’s Room (108).(T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 145

178 View of Hall (Room 107) from Margaret’s Room (108). (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 145

179 View of Bathroom (111). (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 146

180 View of Bathroom (111). (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004 146

181 View east in Dining Room (112). 147

182 View northwest in dining room (112). (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 148

183 View south in Farm Office. (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 149

184 View north in Farm Office (113). (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 150

185 View south in Front Hall (115). (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CRD, 2004) 151

186 View north in Front Hall. (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CRD, 2004) 151

187 View south in Back hall (116). (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CRD, 2004) 152

188 View southwest in Kitchen (117). (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CRD, 2004) 152

189 View northwest in Kitchen. (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 153

190 View northeast in Utility Room (118). (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 154

191 View of Bathroom (120) off of Utility Room. (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 155

192 View of northwest Mrs. Sandburg’s Room (121). The free-standing cabinet left of 
xvi Connemara Main House HSR

center is a dehumidifier installed by the NPS on a temporary basis. (T. Jones, 

NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 156

193 View southeast in Mrs. Sandburg’s bedroom. (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 157

194 View southeast in Master Bathroom (123). (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 158

195 View of door at Crow’s Nest (207), typical of original bedroom doors on the second 

floor. (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 158

196 View east in Upstairs Hall (200). (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 159

197 View southwest in Upstairs Hall (200). (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 160

198 View of Carpenter & Co. rim lock, typical of original locks on second floor. (T. Jones, 

NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 160

199 View of typical late-nineteenth century rim lock in Sandburg’s Study (201). (T. Jones, 

NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 160

200 View northeast in Upstairs Hall. (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 161

201 View east in Sandburg’s Bedroom (202). (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 162

202 View of late Victorian hinge, door, and casing at door between Rooms 201 and 202. 

(T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 163

203 View southwest in Crow’s Nest (207). (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 164

204 View north in Crow’s Nest (207). (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 164

205 View west in Janet’s Room (211). (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CRD, 2004) 165

206 View east in Janet’s Room (211). (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CRD, 2004) 165

207 View southwest in Janet’s Room (211). (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CRD, 2004) 165

208 View southwest in Guest Room (214). (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 166

209 View northwest in Room 214. (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 166

210 View southeast in Guest Room (214). (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 166

211 View southeast in Room 217. (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 167

212 View northeast in Room 217. (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 167

213 Windows suggested for repair to operable condition. 185
National Park Service xvii

Primary Research, Building Investigation, and 

Author

Tommy H. Jones, Architectural Historian

National Park Service

Southeast Regional Office

Atlanta, GA

Project Manager, Carl Sandburg Home National 

Historic Site

Sue Bennett, Acting Chief of Cultural Resources

Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site

Flat Rock, NC

Park Collections Research Lynn White Savage, Museum Curator

Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site

Flat Rock, NC

Document Publication/

Intranet Access

Jay Womack, Historian

National Park Service

Southeast Regional Office

Atlanta, GA

Program Reviews Bob Blythe, History

Allen Bohnert, Curatorial & Museum

Services

Danny Scheidt, Historical Architecture

National Park Service

Tracy Stakely, Historical Landscape Architecture

Southeast Regional Office

Atlanta, GA

Project Team
xviii Connemara Main House HSR
National Park Service xix

We are pleased to make available this historic structure report on the Main House at Connemara, part of 

our ongoing effort to provide comprehensive documentation for the historic structures and landscapes of 

National Park Service units in the Southeast Region. Many individuals contributed to this work, but we 

would particularly like to thank the staff at Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site for their assistance 

throughout the process, especially Connie Hudson Backlund, superintendent; Sue Bennett, acting chief of 

cultural resources; and Johnny Wright, chief of maintenance. Especially helpful, too, was Lynn White Savage, the park’s museum curator, whose knowledge of the park’s archives and willingness to locate relevant 

materials have greatly expedited this project. Special thanks also go to William McKay and Julianne Heggoy, great- grandchildren of Ellison Smyth, for sharing their personal photographs, which made a significant contribution to this study. We hope that this study of the Main House at Connemara will prove 

valuable to park management in ongoing efforts to preserve the building and to everyone in understanding 

and interpreting this unique resource.

Dan Scheidt, Chief

Cultural Resources Division

Southeast Regional Office

Foreword
xx Connemara Main House HSR
National Park Service 1

“What a hell of a baronial estate for an old Socialist,” 

Carl Sandburg (1878- 1967) remarked after purchasing Connemara in 1945.1

 Originally called Rock Hill, 

Connemara is located in Flat Rock, one of the earliest and most- famous of the summer resort communities that have been a feature of western North 

Carolina since before the Civil War. Because so 

many of the community’s residents, who were 

mostly part- time in the nineteenth century, were 

from or had connections to Charleston, South 

Carolina, Flat Rock has often been referred to as 

“Little Charleston of the Mountains.”

Historical Data

The Main House at Connemara was built in the late 

1830s by Christopher G. Memminger (1803- 1889), a 

wealthy lawyer and politician from Charleston who 

later became secretary of the treasury for the Confederate States of America. After his death, his heirs 

sold the estate to trustees for Mary Fleming Gregg 

(1839- died after 1900). Her husband, William H. 

Gregg, Jr. (1834- 1895), was the son of the famed 

William H. Gregg, Sr., builder of one of the South’s 

earliest textile mills, at Graniteville, South Carolina, 

in the 1840s. In 1900, Mary Fleming Gregg sold 

Rock Hill to Ellison Adger Smyth (1847- 1942), 

“dean of the Southern textile industry,” according to 

his obituary in the New York Times. The Smyths 

renamed the estate Connemara and, like the Greggs 

and the Memmingers, occupied the house only 

about four months out of the year in the early 1900s. 

Until the late nineteenth century, when epidemics 

of malaria, yellow fever, and cholera finally began to 

be controlled, the Memmingers generally left 

Charleston around the end of June and did not 

return until the threat of disease began to fade in 

late October or early November. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, “the season” at 

Flat Rock generally ran from late May through September. The Smyths continued to use Connemara as 

a part- time residence until 1924 when the house 

was rehabilitated and became their primary residence.

Weary of the harsh winters at their old home in 

Harbert, Michigan, Carl Sandburg (1878- 1967) and 

his wife bought the estate in the fall of 1945 and, with 

their daughters, occupied the house in January 1946. 

Winner of a Pulitzer Prize in 1940 for his biography 

of Abraham Lincoln and another in 1951 for his 

poetry, Sandburg, “the poet of the American people,” enjoyed some of his most productive years at 

Connemara, including completion of Remembrance 

Rock, his sweeping novel of the American experience. After his death in October 1967, his widow 

deeded the estate to the Federal government, and it 

became Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site 

in 1968.

Architectural Data

Built in 1838- 1839, the house is a significant, if modest, example of the early Greek Revival and was 

apparently designed by Charles F. Reichardt, a 

Prussian- born architect who was one of the 

founders of the forerunner of the American Institute of Architecture. As with most old buildings, 

there have been a variety of alterations and additions to the original house, including a large addition and significant interior alterations that 

Memminger himself made around 1848 and a series 

of late Victorian additions and alterations that were 

most likely made by the Greggs shortly after they 

1. Paula Steichen, My Connemara (New York, NY: 

paperback edition, 2002, originally published by 

Harcourt Brace & World, Inc., 1969), p. 111. Steichen is 

Carl Sandburg’s granddaughter.

Management 

Summary
2 Connemara Main House HSR

bought the property in 1889. Although the kitchen 

remained in a seperate building, Smyth built two 

bathrooms in the house prior to World War I and 

also wired the house for electric lights around 1920. 

In 1924, Smyth tore down the Memminger additions 

and constructed the present range of rooms across 

the rear of the house. New oak flooring was laid on 

the first floor, French doors replaced older solid 

panel doors on to the porches, and part of the Victorian porch on the east side of the house was 

replaced with a Conservatory. Smyth also added 

central heating and two additional bathrooms as he 

adapted the house for year- round occupancy.

The last major changes to the house occurred in the 

two or three years immediately following World 

War II when the Sandburgs adapted the house for 

their own use and undertook a thorough renovation 

of the building. The house was largely rewired, the 

master bathroom was replaced, and a bathroom was 

added on the second floor. A new kitchen was built 

inside the house and the old outside kitchen was 

converted into a garage. The basement was gutted 

and totally reconfigured while bookshelves and 

nearly two dozen closets were added throughout 

the house. While most of the house’s surviving 

nineteenth- and early twentieth- century interior 

features, excepting the basement, were maintained 

by the Sandburgs, the exterior appearance of the 

house was significantly altered by the removal of the 

window blinds and of the muntins from most of the 

window sash, transforming the original nine- overnine, six- over- six, and two- over- two window sash 

into one- over- one sash.

In addition to physical evidence in the existing 

building, there are several significant sources of 

documentation for historic alterations to the house. 

The Sandburgs’ alterations are well- documented 

through a large series of invoices and letters relating 

to the renovations in 1945- 1946 found in Mrs. Sandburg’s Anders File, by Dr. David Wallace’s Historic 

Furnishings Report (NPS, 1984), and by extensive 

oral interviews with Mrs. Sandburg and her daughters. Documentation for Smyth- era alterations has 

been drawn mostly from historic photographs and 

from interviews with some of the Smyths’ grandchildren. The Southern Historical Collection at the 

University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill has a 

collection of Memminger’s papers2

 that includes an 

account book that Memminger kept of his expenses 

related to the construction and operation of Rock 

Hill between 1838 and 1862. Entitled “Account of 

Expenditures for a/c of Buncombe Establishment,” it 

provides significant amounts of information, especially for the early part of that period. Finally, the 

park has collected a large number of historic photographs that document most of the early changes to 

the exterior. While the earliest of these is probably 

no earlier than the 1880s, there are a large number of 

images from the Smyth era, beginning in 1901, and 

the park’s collection has been indispensable in 

establishing the building’s chronology.

There is sufficient historical documentation to 

establish a general chronology for the house, but 

assigning dates to particular architectural changes 

has not always been possible. However, an inventory and analysis of the building’s historic material 

fabric, including an analysis of historic painted finishes, reveal a typical pattern of material design and 

use (and re- use) for each generation of changes to 

the building. Where alterations are not mentioned 

in the historical documentation, which is the case 

more often than not, even in the Sandburg era, 

identification and dating of alterations have 

depended on differences in materials, design, and 

technology.

Summary of 

Recommendations

The current use of the house primarily as an exhibit 

for interpreting the life and work of Carl Sandburg 

will be continued. Any treatment, whether routine 

maintenance, repairs, rehabilitation, or restoration, 

must always respect the building’s architectural 

integrity and be planned in such a way as to minimize the loss of historic material. In addition, planning for any treatment must address proper care of 

the collection, and the cost of that care must be factored into the project budget.

Environmental Improvements

■ Relocate staff break area from inside the house

■ If additional ventilation equipment is needed as 

recommended by Watson & Henry, install in 

Room 004

2. Catalogued as C. G. Memminger Papers (#502) 1803-

1915, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, 

University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC.
National Park Service 3

Management Summary

■ Restore Conservatory windows to working 

order; install screening at selected openings

■ Rescreen south end of East Porch

■ Repair to working order the one or two 

windows in each room that would be needed 

for ventilation under the Watson & Henry 

approach to improving the house’s internal 

environment (see plan on p. 183)

■ Replace UV- filtering film on storm windows 

with new UV- filtering film on window sash

■ Inspect underground drainage system and make 

repairs as necessary

■ Install new 6” ogee- style gutter across the rear 

of the house and, if necessary, a third 

downspout

■ Inspect all gutters for proper drainage

Fire Safety

■ Rehabilitate a portion of the garage for a boiler 

room and an electrical room and relocate boiler 

and electrical panels from inside the house

■ Inspect and repair as necessary every fixture, 

junction box, or receptacle in the house

■ Inspect the lightning rod system and insure 

proper grounding

■ Install appropriate smoke and fire detectors in 

all rooms and in the attics

Repairs and Maintenance

■ Always repair historic materials, replacing the 

material only where it is irretrievably lost

■ Avoid high- pressure washing of house

■ Continue to use oil- based paints on wood trim 

and in the bathrooms and kitchen and acrylic or 

water- based paints elsewhere on the interior

■ Repair, but do not replace, Front Porch columns

■ Repair Front Porch deck, piecing as necessary

■ Ensure routine inspections and cyclical 

maintenance as outlined in the preservation 

guide manual that has been developed for the 

house

■ Always include the cost of collection care in the 

budget for every project

Further Historical Research

■ Transcribe and continue research of 

Memminger’s account book and other papers

■ Emphasize building history in the oral history 

project

■ Conduct additional research of Gregg family

Further Building Investigation

■ Incorporate building investigation and 

documentation into any project that includes 

opening or removal of finishes from walls, 

ceiling, or floors

■ Record historic Sandburg finishes using 

Munsell notation

■ Investigate changes in paint type (e.g., oil- based 

to latex or semi- gloss to flat) during and after 

the Sandburg era

■ Conduct full study of paint and wallpaper that 

remains above first- floor ceilings

Administrative 

Data

Location Data

Building Name: Main House, Connemara, known as 

Rock Hill prior to 1900.

Location: Carl Sandburg Home National Historic 

Site, Little River Road, Flat Rock, North Carolina.

LCS#: 05146

Related Studies

Bailey, Louise Howe. From “Rock Hill” to “Connemara”: 

The Story Before Carl Sandburg. National Park 

Service, 1980.
4 Connemara Main House HSR

Hart, Susan. Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site 

Cultural Landscape Report. Atlanta, GA: NPS- SERO, 

Division of Cultural Resources, 1993.

Jones, Russell. “Historic Structure Report: Architectural 

Data, Home * Garage * Swedish House.” NPS: Denver 

Service Center, September 1976.

Pence, Heather Russo. Carl Sandburg Home National 

Historic Site: Archeological Overview and Assessment. 

Tallahassee, FL: Southeast Archeological Center/ 

National Park Service, 1998.

Steichen, Paula. “Hyacinths and Biscuits; The Life and 

Works of Carl Sandburg,” Handbook 117: Carl 

Sandburg Home. Washington, DC: NPS, Division of 

Publications, 1982.

Svejda, Dr. George J. “Historic Structure Report, Carl 

Sandburg Home National Historic Site.” NPS, Office 

of History and Historic Architecture, Eastern Service 

Center, 1972.

Wallace, David H. Historic Furnishings Report, Main House 

and Swedish House at Carl Sandburg Home National 

Historic Site, Flat Rock, North Carolina. Frederick, 

MD: NP, 1984.

Cultural Resource Data

National Register of Historic Places

Period of Significance: 1838- 1968

Proposed Treatment: Preservation.

FIGURE 1. United States Geological Survey (1946), with arrow marking 

location of the Main House
National Park Service 5

“What a hell of a baronial estate for an old Socialist,” 

Carl Sandburg (1878- 1967) remarked after purchasing Connemara in 1945.3

 Originally called Rock Hill, 

the Main House that is the centerpiece of the estate 

is located in Flat Rock, one of the earliest and mostfamous of the summer resort communities that have 

been a feature of western North Carolina since 

before the Civil War. Because so many of its residents, who were mostly seasonal in the nineteenth 

century, were from or had connections to Charleston, South Carolina, it was often referred to as “Little Charleston of the Mountains.”

The house was built in the 1838- 1839 by Christopher 

G. Memminger (1803- 1889), a wealthy lawyer and 

politician from Charleston who later became secretary of the treasury for the Confederate States of 

America. After his death, his heirs sold the estate to 

William H. Gregg, Jr., whose father was one of the 

pioneers in the Southern textile industry before the 

Civil War. In December 1900, Rock Hill was 

acquired by Ellison Adger Smyth (1847- 1942), who 

was considered “the dean of the Southern textile 

industry” in the early twentieth century. He 

renamed the estate Connemara and, in the early 

1920s, adapted the main house as a year- round residence. His heirs sold the estate to the Sandburgs in 

the fall of 1945, and it remained the Sandburgs’ residence until shortly after Carl Sandburg’s death in 

May 1967.

Flat Rock

North Carolina west of the Blue Ridge was not open 

to white settlement until 1785, when the Cherokees 

ceded the territory under the terms of the Treaty of 

Hopewell. Land grants began two years later, with 

the earliest in the vicinity of Flat Rock coming in 

1790 with a grant to Col. John Earle, who shortly 

built a grist mill along the creek that would bear his 

name, a mile or two east of what became Connemera. In 1792, Buncombe County, which encompassed most of the ceded Cherokee lands in western 

North Carolina (including what became Henderson 

County in 1838), was organized. Among the first 

orders of the county court was that a road “be laid 

out and constructed the nearest and best way from 

the ford of Cane Creek to the flat rock near the blue 

ridge.”4 The following year, the first wagon was 

driven across a new road through Saluda Gap, and 

by 1795, there was a rudimentary road following old 

trading paths from Augusta, Georgia, through 

Saluda Gap into Buncombe County and continuing 

to Greenville, Tennessee. This State Road, or High 

Road as it was sometime called, passed through Flat 

Rock on a track approximating that of present U. S. 

25.

In 1800, the second Federal census enumerated 

nearly 11,000 people in Buncombe County, many of 

them small farmers of Scotch- Irish descent, and 

there were enough in the vicinity of Flat Rock to 

support founding of Mud Creek Baptist Church, 

located on the State Road a mile and a half north of 

what became Connemara. There was also a tavern 

near the church, and by 1815 a saw- and grist- mill 

were in operation on Mill Creek a little more than a 

mile to the southeast of Connemara.5

In 1819, South Carolina created a Board of Public 

Works with the purpose of building an improved 

3. Paula Steichen, My Connemara (New York, NY: 

paperback edition, 2002, originally published by 

Harcourt Brace & World, Inc., 1969), p. 111. Steichen 

was Carl Sandburg’s grand-daughter.

4. Sadie Smathers Patton, Flat Rock: Little Charleston of 

the Mountains (Hickory, NC: Sadie Smathers Patton, 

1961), p. 5.

5. Patton, Flat Rock, p. 15.

Historical Background 

and Context
6 Connemara Main House HSR

Historical Background & Context

road from Charleston to Saluda Gap at the North 

Carolina line, and in 1824 North Carolina chartered 

the Buncombe Turnpike Company to construct a 

road from the gap to Asheville. With completion of 

the turnpike in 1827, it was finally possible to establish stagecoach service from Charleston and 

Augusta through Saluda Gap to Asheville and on 

across the mountains to Greenville, Tennessee. The 

road improvements greatly increased access to the 

mountains west of the Blue Ridge and made possible development of a number of resort communities, including Flat Rock, in the second quarter of 

the nineteenth century.

While today we think of the mountains as a way to 

escape the heat and humidity of summer, throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, escape 

from disease was equally important. Tropical and 

subtropical diseases such as dengue fever, malaria, 

and yellow fever regularly became epidemic and 

were especially feared by the Low Country rice 

planters, who routinely abandoned their plantations 

during the “fever months,” which generally ran from 

late June until the frosts of autumn. By the War of 

1812, some of the wealthy planters and other coastal 

residents had discovered the relative safety of 

upstate South Carolina, and were building resort 

homes in the foothills of the Blue Ridge. The new 

State Road opened up the mountains themselves to 

resort development, a trend that was spurred on by 

the advent of the first cholera pandemic in North 

America in 1832.

Four families (all foreign born) are traditionally 

credited with beginning the elite summer community around Flat Rock in the late 1820s and early 

1830s. 6 In 1827 Charles Baring (1774- 1865) purchased several hundred acres along the State Road 

near Mud Creek Baptist Church, and within a short 

time, he built Mountain Lodge, the earliest of the 

summer homes at Flat Rock. Born in Exeter, 

England, Baring was the nephew of Francis Baring, 

founder in 1763 of what became the famous Baring 

Brothers & Company Bank.7

 In 1798, Charles Baring 

married the wealthy widow Susan Heyward, who 

had inherited rice plantations around Walterboro, 

South Carolina, from her late husband. It is thought 

that her money financed Mountain Lodge, which 

was modeled after an English manor, complete with 

its own private chapel. The chapel later became the 

first Episcopal church in western North Carolina, 

known as St. John in the Wilderness, and out of 

Baring’s vast acreage much of the Flat Rock community was developed.

Another Charlestonian, Daniel Blake began buying 

land around Flat Rock about the same time as 

FIGURE 2. Detail from Robert Mills’ Atlas of South Carolina (1825) , showing route of State Road 

through Saluda Gap to Flat Rock. (From seventh printing, Southern Historical Press, 1980)

6. Sadie Smathers Patton, Flat Rock, The Little 

Charleston of the Mountains (Historic Flat Rock, Inc., 

3rd edition, n.d.), p. 13; Sadie Smathers Patton, The 

Story of Henderson County (Asheville, NC: The Miller 

Printing Company, 1947), p. 202; Mrs. Alicia 

Middleton Trenholm, Flat Rock, North Carolina: A 

Sketch of the Past (no publication data, 1908), p. 11.

7. Francis Baring’s father John was, like C. G. 

Memminger, a native of Wurtemburg, Germany.
National Park Service 7

Part I: Developmental History

Charles Baring. Blake, who owned a large rice plantation near Walterboro on the Combahee River, 

bought extensive acreage north of Flat Rock in the 

area that became known as Fletcher, but he, too, is 

traditionally counted among the “founders” of the 

Flat Rock.8 In 1860, typical of the elite nature of the 

Flat Rock community, Blake, who was born in 

England about 1804, claimed $100,000 in real estate 

and $650,000 in personal property, most of it 

enslaved human beings.

In 1829, the third of Flat Rock’s founders, Judge 

Mitchell King (1783- 1862), bought some 900 acres 

to the southeast of Baring, land known as the “Sawmill Tract” after the saw mill that Abraham Kuykendall established on the property before 1815.9 A 

native of Scotland, King was a noted lawyer and 

probate judge of the Charleston City Court and also 

owned plantations near Savannah. He enlarged and 

remodeled an older house on the property to create 

Argyle, the second great house at Flat Rock. When 

Henderson County was created out of the western 

part of old Buncombe County in 1838, it was King 

who donated the land on which Hendersonville was 

laid out as county seat in 1841.

Some credit Henry McAlpin (1777- 1851) with being 

the fourth of the founders of Flat Rock.10 Born in 

Scotland, he emigrated to America in 1804 and 

became one of the richest men in the South. His 

great plantation on the Savannah River in Georgia, 

the Hermitage, was in the heart of the rice- growing 

region, but McAlpin was far more than just a 

planter. In addition to a foundry and a lumber mill, 

McAlpin ran a thriving brick business, using slave 

labor to produce the legendary “Savannah gray” 

brick that was used to construct Fort Pulaski and 

many of Savannah’s early nineteenth- century 

buildings. So successful were McAlpin’ enterprises, 

the Hermitage was one of the few plantations in the 

South to produce the majority of its income from 

non- agricultural sources. McAlpin built a small 

house at Flat Rock, but within a few years sold it to 

Thomas Lowndes, who built Dulce Far Nienti on 

the site. All of the historic structures on the site have 

now been lost.

Following the lead of Baring and the other 

founders, Rutledges, Middletons, Pinckneys and 

others of the Low County elite bought property 

around Flat Rock in the 1830s and built what were, 

for the day, luxurious summer homes. None of 

these families attracted quite as much attention as 

that of Marie Joseph St. Xavier, Count de Choiseul, 

long- time French consul in Charleston. How he 

might have been related to Louis XVI’s foreign minister Choiseul has not been documented, but he is 

thought to have been a Royalist who fled the French 

8. Patton, Flat Rock, pp. 8, 13.

9. Edward Read Memminger, An Historical Sketch of Flat 

Rock (Flat Rock, NC: privately published, 1954; 

originally written in 1922), p. 11.

10. Patton, Flat Rock, pp. 13, 54.Edward Read 

Memminger believed Frederick Rutledge, Jr., (1800-

1884), grandson of South Carolina Governor John 

Rutledge, bought property at Flat Rock before 

McAlpin. See Memminger, An Historical Sketch of Flat 

Rock, p. 10.

FIGURE 3. One of the last traces of the 

Buncombe Turnpike in Flat Rock, not far 

from Mountain Lodge and Mud Creek 

Church. (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004)

FIGURE 4. St. John-in-the-Wilderness 

Episcopal Church in Flat Rock, organized in 

1836, with the present building constructed 

to a design by Charleston architect Edward 

Jones in the early 1850s. (T. Jones, NPSSERO-CR, 2004)
8 Connemara Main House HSR

Historical Background & Context

Revolution, returning only after restoration of the 

Bourbon monarchy in 1816. In 1836, the Count 

bought a hundred acres from Charles Baring just 

south of Baring’s Mountain Lodge at Flat Rock, and 

soon built three modest residences that he called 

the Saluda Cottages. In 1841, he sold Saluda Cottages 

to Aaron Smith Willington (1781- 1862), longtime 

publisher of the Charleston News and Courier, and 

built Chanteloupe. He remained a part of the community until the outbreak of the Civil War, when he 

returned to France. By 1836, there were enough 

summer residents to support organization of an 

Episcopal church, called St. John in the Wilderness, 

and by the end of the 1830s, some twenty wealthy 

Charleston families had built summer homes 

around Flat Rock.

The Civil War destroyed fortunes, especially those 

built on slavery. Nevertheless, most in the Flat Rock 

community managed to hang on to their property, 

although some were forced to sell, unable to pay the 

taxes. A few were bought by Northerners, while 

others, like Connemara, were acquired by a new 

generation of Charlestonians whose wealth did not 

depend directly on agriculture but often included 

major investments in new industries such as phosphate production and textile manufacture.11

A few of the Flat Rock estates had always been more 

or less permanent family residences and not simply 

second homes, but in the twentieth century, as 

automobiles further reduced the community’s isolation, there were more year- round residents. Ties 

with Charleston loosened as well, and at least in 

terms of geographic origin, residents became more 

diverse, especially after World War II. In the late 

twentieth century, demand for residential real estate 

in Flat Rock led to the subdivision of several of the 

historic estates, sometimes including razing of the 

historic house at its core. Historic Flat Rock, Inc., 

one of North Carolina’s oldest historic preservation 

organizations, was organized in 1968, but the village 

of Flat Rock was not incorporated until 1995. Local 

zoning restrictions have begun to curb some of the 

development and support preservation of the area’s 

historic character.

The Memmingers

Christopher Gustavus Memminger was born in 

Vaihingen, a small town in southwestern Germany 

between Stuttgart and Heidelberg, on 9 January 

1803. His father, Gotfried Memminger, was an 

officer in the Duke of Wurtemburg’s Battalion of 

Foot Jaegers, but he was killed in the line of duty less 

than a month after the boy was born.12 A short time 

later, Christopher’s mother, Eberhardina Kohler 

Memminger, and her parents emigrated to Charleston, South Carolina, where she, too, unfortunately 

died in late 1806 or early 1807. For unknown reaFIGURE 5. Main house at Saluda Cottages, 

across Little River Road from Connemara, 

built by Count de Choiseul in 1836 and 

remodeled in the Second Empire style in 

the 1870s. (T. jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004)

FIGURE 6. Thomas Bennett, Jr., House 

(1802) at 69 Barre Street, Charleston, 

Memminger’s home as a boy and 

teenager. (from Mills Lane Architecture 

of the Old South: South Carolina)

11. Edward Memminger’s memoir recounts the fate of 

many of the Flat Rock estates after the Civil War.

12. A letter from Gotfried Memminger to his wife is 

preserved along with other documentation 

surrounding the birth of their son Christopher. The 

letter and other documents can be found in the C. G. 

Memminger Papers (#502), Southern Historical 

Collection, University of North Carolina, at Chapel 

Hill.
National Park Service 9

Part I: Developmental History

sons, after Eberhardina’s death, her father moved to 

Philadelphia, followed shortly by his wife 

Magdalena, who succeeded in placing their grandchild, Christopher, in the Charleston Orphan House 

on 29 January 1807.13

In 1814, at the age of eleven, Memminger was 

adopted by Thomas Bennett, Jr. (1781- 1865), a 

banker and politician who would be elected governor of South Carolina in 1820. Bennett’s father had 

made a fortune from lumber and rice mills, powered 

by the tides, that he established along the marshes 

on the west side of the Charleston peninsula. Thomas, Jr., continued and expanded his father’s lumber and rice milling operations and, in 1822, built a 

magnificent mansion in Harleston near the mills, 

just as he finished a term as the state’s governor.14

Also serving several terms in the General Assembly, 

Bennett was a widely respected proponent of 

industrial and social progress in his native state, 

traits that he passed on to the young Christopher 

Memminger.15

Bennett was clearly able to give the young Memminger many advantages and, in the fall of 1815, sent 

him to the state capital at Columbia where the boy 

was enrolled at South Carolina College, the predecessor of the modern University of South Carolina. 

Years later, a classmate, John S. Groves, remembered Memminger as “the smallest in stature, as he 

was the youngest in years, of the boys who entered 

with me the South Carolina College in 1815.” Groves 

continued:

His appearance, when I first saw him, was that of a 

mere child. . . . His manner was all earnestness, while 

his facial expression was that of a person far his senior 

in age. His most attractive feature were his eyes- - a 

bluish gray- - and always at perfect rest when he was 

speaking to you. . . . His face was lean, complexion very 

fair, nose very prominent, chin with a mouth rather 

large, and thin, compressed lips- - so much compressed at times that his mouth appeared but as a line. 

His hair was a dark brown, almost black. . . . He was 

the student of our class.16

Graduating second in his class in 1819, Memminger 

returned to Charleston where he studied law under 

the tutelage of Thomas Bennett’s brother Joseph. 

He became a naturalized United States citizen on 22 

June 1824 and was admitted to the bar the following 

year.

Memminger was active politically and, as a Unionist, was a noted opponent of those who believed 

that states have the right to nullify any act of Congress, publishing a satirical pamphlet “The Book of 

Nullification” in 1830. In 1834 he was elected alderman in the City of Charleston, and in 1836 he was 

elected to the South Carolina General Assembly 

where he served continuously until 1860, except for 

one term in 1853 and 1854. He quickly drew attention to himself for his financial abilities and for his 

long- term efforts to improve the state’s educational 

system, serving as chairman of the house committee 

on education and, after 1838, as chairman of the 

ways and means committee. In 1855 he led the effort 

to revamp South Carolina’s old free schools and 

establish a graded school system. That same year, he 

became a commissioner for schools in Charleston, 

and he was a trustee of the South Carolina College 

for more than thirty years.

On 25 October 1832, Memminger married Mary 

Withers Wilkinson, born in New Jersey around 1813, 

the daughter of Dr. Willis Wilkinson of Georgetown, South Carolina. Their first child, Ellen Memminger, was born in 1835, followed by Thomas 

Bennett Memminger in 1836. A daughter Anna was 

born in 1838, but she died that same year. Another 

child, Allard Belin, also died as a child, but in addition to Ellen and Thomas, the Memmingers had 

seven other children who lived to adulthood: Robert Withers, born in June 1839; Christopher, Jr., born 

in 1840; Lucinda Wilkinson, born in February 1842; 

Willis Wilkinson, born in 1843; Sarah Virginia, born 

in 1848; Allard Belin II, born in September 1854; and 

Edward Reed Memminger, born in 1856 and named 

for a rector at St. John in the Wilderness.

The Memmingers’ primary residence during the 

antebellum period has not been documented, but it 

was almost certainly in what is known as Harleston 

Village near the Bennetts’ mills along the Ashley 

River. A neighborhood noted for its diversity, 

Harleston was home not only to many of the Bennett clan, who built large houses throughout the 

13. Dr. George J. Svejda, “Historic Structure Report, Carl 

Sandburg Home National Historic Site,” (NPS, Office 

of History and Historic Architecture, Eastern Service 

Center, 1972), p. 2.

14. Jonathan Poston, The Buildings of Charleston: A 

Guide to the City’s Architecture (Columbia, SC: 

University of South Carolina Press, 1997), pp. 489-490.

15. Poston, The Buildings of Charleston, pp. 489-490.

16. Svejda, p. 3.
10 Connemara Main House HSR

Historical Background & Context

neighborhood, but also to many of the city’s intelligentsia and other progressives.17

At least by the 1840s, the Memmingers were members at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, which was 

established in 1836 to serve the rapidly growing 

neighborhood, but by 1851 they had purchased a 

pew at the new Grace Episcopal, which was completed in 1848. By then, they were probably living in 

a house, now demolished, at the corner of Wentworth and Smith Streets, three blocks west of Grace 

Church, where they continued to live until after the 

Civil War.

Rock Hill

According to his son, Edward Reed Memminger, 

Christopher Memminger’s health as a young man 

was “delicate, and to keep his health [he] took long 

journeys on horseback to the Virginia Springs,”18 a 

series of eleven hot or warm mineral springs that 

were scattered along the border of present- day Virginia and West Virginia. As early as the 1760s, these 

springs began to attract wealthy Southerners anxious to escape the disease- ridden summers along 

the coast, and Memminger apparently followed that 

tradition as a young man.

With a growing family, however, Memminger soon 

found these jaunts impractical, while at the same 

time, the opening of the Charleston- Hamburg 

Railroad in 1833 and of South Carolina’s State Road 

around the same time made possible a relatively 

short two- week journey from Charleston to the 

mountains of western North Carolina. A thriving 

social scene had also developed at Flat Rock by the 

mid- 1830s, and Memminger apparently began to 

seriously consider alternatives to the Virginia 

resorts.

Memminger’s first recorded visit to Flat Rock came 

in the fall of 1836, although he may have visited earlier. It was during that visit that he apparently determined to build his own summer home at Flat Rock. 

He is reported to have kept a journal and, although 

the journal has not been located, his youngest son 

Edward and local historian Sadie Patton published 

excerpts from it that document his stay at Flat Rock 

in October 1836.19

17. Poston, p. 481.

18. Memminger, Flat Rock, p. 13.

FIGURE 7. Bird’s-eye view of Charleston, lithograph by Smith Brothers, 1851, as 

reprinted in Mills Lane, Architecture of the Old South: South Carolina. The tall 

spire at upper left is Grace Episcopal Church, built in 1847-1848 on Wentworth 

Street a block or two east of the Memmingers’ residence on the same street and 

where the Memmingers had a pew in the 1850s.

19. The published dates for Memminger’s visit conflict, 

with Edward Memminger’s publication giving a date 

of 1838 and Patton’s giving 1836. However, there are 

Internal references to “Friday, October 14,” which a 

perpetual calendar shows occurred in 1836 and not in 

1838. See Patton, Flat Rock, p. 39; Memminger, Flat 

Rock, p. 13. 
National Park Service 11

Part I: Developmental History

Memminger arrived in Flat Rock from Asheville on 

October 8, in the company of Jefferson Bennett, a 

son of Memminger’s patron Thomas Bennett. At 

Flat Rock, he wrote, “we found our friends, Mr. and 

Mrs. Willington” (i.e., Aaron Smith Willington, 

1781- 1862, longtime publisher of the Charleston 

News and Courier), and “a good comfortable tavern,” which was probably George Summey’s tavern 

on the High Road about a half mile south of the 

present post office. Continuing, Memminger wrote:

With the Count de Choiseul and his family I was particularly pleased. The Countess is a lady of very agreeable manners and so frank and plain as to possess me 

very much in her favor. The daughters, too, seem to be 

girls with whom my wife and her sister might be intimate, and formed another inducement to locate near 

them. Besides the Count himself so earnestly tendered 

his services that I was relieved from a considerable difficulty.

Of course, the first comers had the best for residences. 

But as I also wanted a farm I could not be so easily furnished as the land near Flat Rock is miserably barren. 

Nevertheless after much cruising I at last found a place 

that would suit very well and authorized the Count to 

purchase it if it could be had, on Mr. Baring tendering 

to let me have some of his contiguous land and the use 

of a spring from an elevation of his land.

We also sketched the plan of a kitchen to be built for 

our occupation next summer on the spot,- - - a project 

by the way which I am rather doubtful because my 

kitchen is rather too fine an affair. I ought to hire Mr. 

King’s house if possible and build at once.

Events intervened, however, and Memminger’s 

plans appear to have been laid aside, due perhaps to 

the great financial panic that unfolded in the winter 

and spring of 1837, sending the country’s economy 

into a depression that did not begin to ease until the 

early 1840s. Memminger apparently came to some 

agreement with Baring for the land that he wanted, 

although he did not actually take title until November 1838 and was still noting payments to Baring “for 

land” in October 1839.20 By the end of 1837, he had 

begun preliminary work, including construction of 

a bridge across the creek that later formed Front 

Lake and perhaps leveling a building site in the hillside above. Perhaps as early as late 1837, but certainly by the spring of 1838, Memminger had 

engaged the services of an architect to design his 

house and, in the first week in July, paid Charles 

Reichardt fifty dollars “for plans.”21

There have been persistent suggestions that the 

wood- framed building that the Sandburgs called 

the Buck House predates any other building on the 

property and that Memminger used it as a temporary residence while the main house was under 

construction. The Flat Rock area had been settled 

for nearly forty years by the time Memminger 

acquired Rock Hill, forests had been cleared for 

pasture and for agriculture, and it would not be surprising that there might already have been a house 

on the property. The park’s collection of historic 

photographs contains Smyth- era images of log 

buildings that may have once stood on the property 

or nearby and that would have been typical of the 

houses built by the first wave of pioneers.22 While 

the Buck House could have been built prior to 1837, 

Memminger did not acquire the land on which it sits 

until 1842. The building could have been moved 

from another location, but Memminger’s son 

Edward recalled that “when the house was built, my 

father did not own the vegetable garden, nor stable 

lot, and water was taken from the spring in the hol20. Buncombe County Deed Book 21, pp. 445-447.

21. C. G. Memminger Papers (#502) 1803-1915 in 

Southern Historical Collection, University of North 

Carolina, Chapel Hill, includes an account book 

entitled “Account of Expenditures for a/c of 

Buncombe Establishment” which documents this and 

many other of Memminger’s expenses related to Rock 

Hill. A detailed description of the development of 

Rock Hill may be found in the following section of 

this report, “Chronology of Development and Use.”

22. The Buck House is wood-framed, indicating a slightly 

later date of construction perhaps, but the building 

remains documented. Architecturally, it has suffered 

serious damage from neglect and alterations, but it 

may still contain useful information.

FIGURE 8. The so-called Buck House, 

probably built in the second quarter of 

the nineteenth century as an overseer’s 

house. (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004)
12 Connemara Main House HSR

Historical Background & Context

low.”23 Neither he nor his father ever mention the 

family using another house while the main house 

was under construction, and Memminger’s account 

book appears to prove that the family did not visit 

until the main house was completed in 1839.

In April 1838, Memminger noted a payment to 

George Summey “for board for Kenney & Dugan 

and myself,” and there are later entries for similar 

payments. The other men were his masons working 

at Rock Hill, and although the entries prove only 

that Memminger took a lot of meals at Summey’s 

tavern, they also suggest that he may have stayed in 

Summey’s inn as well when he was in Flat Rock 

checking on the progress of his building.

Charles F. Reichardt. The architect to whom Memminger turned was Prussian- born Charles F. (probably Karl Friedrich) Reichardt, who was all the rage 

in Charleston in the late 1830s. Reportedly trained 

under the famed Karl Friedrich Schinkel, who 

designed for the royal court of Prussia, Reichardt 

was in New York by the early 1830s. A young man 

probably still in his twenties, he promoted his connections to Prussia and to Schinkel and soon made a 

name for himself among architects such as Ithiel 

Town, Alexander Jackson Davis, and William 

Strickland, for whom Schinkel’s recently completed 

Altes Museum (1830) in Berlin was a spectacular 

revelation of the Greek Revival style. In March 1835, 

Reichardt was one of the finalists in the competition 

for design of the New York City prison now known 

as The Tombs, although it was John Haviland’s 

Egyptian Revival design that was actually constructed.

In December 1836, Reichardt was also among the 

eleven architects, including Strickland, Town and 

Davis, who met at New York’s Astor Hotel to organize the American Institution of Architecture. The 

organization did not survive the decade, but it was 

the forerunner of the American Institute of Architects, which was organized twenty years later.

By Christmas 1836, newspaper reports were 

announcing Reichardt’s presence in Charleston, 

where it is thought he may already have had two 

great commissions from Wade Hampton II- - a colonnaded grandstand for Hampton’s horse- racing 

track and a great hotel for the city. Subsidized by the 

railroad, the hotel would be “the architectural symbol the city needed,” editorialized the Charleston 

Mercury.

24 In January 1837, the Mercury announced 

“that the plan for the New Hotel by Mr. Reichardt 

having been chosen, a contract was made for its 

23. Quoted in Bailey, From Rock Hill to Connemara, p. 18.

FIGURE 9. Milford, Columbia, SC, 1838-1841, 

built by Gov. John Manning with design 

attributed to Charles Reichardt.(Photograph 

from Kennedy’s Greek Revival America)

FIGURE 10. The Charleston Hotel, one of the 

nation’s great Greek Revival buildings. 

(Image from Mills Lane, Architecture of the 

Old South: Greek Revival and Romantic)

24. Roger G. Kennedy, Greek Revival America (New York: 

Stewart Tabori & Chang, 1989), pp. 140-141.
National Park Service 13

Part I: Developmental History

immediate execution.” It would have, the paper 

reported, “fourteen colossal Corinthian columns 

and be unsurpassed in taste and elegance with any 

similar building in the United States.”25 By the end 

of March 1838, the hotel was nearing completion 

and “a celebratory dinner” was held in anticipation 

of its opening. Within days, however, the hotel was 

gutted by fire and hundreds of other buildings were 

destroyed in one of the city’s worst conflagrations. 

Undaunted, the investors regrouped and by June 

1838 reconstruction was underway on the surviving 

foundations, with Reichardt working in partnership 

with the Potter brothers and Russell Warren, with 

whom he had collaborated on a number of other 

projects in the past. Opened with great fanfare in 

November 1839, the Charleston Hotel more than 

fulfilled its promise and remained one of the city’s 

great architectural landmarks until it was demolished in 1960.26

With those projects to his credit and the cachet of 

his European training, Reichardt went on to 

remodel the interior of Gabriel Manigault’s Bank of 

the United States (originally constructed in 1800-

1801) and designed a theater modeled after the 

Hohenzollerns’ Royal Theater in Berlin, both 

projects occurring in 1837. The following year, he 

added a new steeple to Robert Mills’ Circular Congregational Church (1804- 1806) and designed the 

city’s Guard House with its fifteen Doric columns. 

In between, he produced plans for Memminger’s 

rather more modest residence at Flat Rock.27

There were other commissions as well, but Reichardt’s life and career remain poorly documented. 

Roger Kennedy, the noted historian of the Greek 

Revival, also claims Hampton’s remodeling of Millwood and his brother- in- law Gov. John Manning’s 

construction of Milford, both near Columbia, South 

Carolina, as Reichardt’s “greatest commissions.” 

Construction on both began in the late 1830s but 

neither was completed until shortly after Reichardt 

disappeared late in 1839 or early in 1840. He may 

have gone to Central America, or he may have 

returned to Europe. In either case, he disappeared 

from the historical record, and his life remains a 

mystery.28

Construction. Memminger contracted with a carpenter, James B. Rosamond, to construct his house, 

25. Mills Lane, Architecture of the Old South: South 

Carolina (Savannah, GA: Beehive Press, 1997), p. 187; 

Kennedy, Greek Revival America, p. 141.

26. Lane, Architecture of the Old South: South Carolina, 

p. 98; Kennedy, Greek Revival America), p. 140.

27. Lane, Architecture of the Old South: Greek Revival 

and Romantic , p. 95; Kennedy, Greek Revival 

America, p. 141.

28. Talbot Hamlin, in his Greek Revival Architecture in 

America (Oxford University Press, 1944), is less sure 

than Kennedy and Lane of the works that could be 

attributed to Reichardt, but Hamlin apparently did 

not have access to Kennedy and Lane’s sources.

FIGURE 11. Mills’ Circular Church with steeple added 

by Reichardt in 1838. The building burned in 1861. 

Drawing from Mills Lane, Architecture of the Old 

South: Greek Revival and Romantic.
14 Connemara Main House HSR

Historical Background & Context

kitchen, and a stable at Flat Rock, and to, in effect, 

function as a general contractor.29 Little is known of 

Rosamond beyond what can be gleaned from the 

Federal censuses. He was born about 1810 in South 

Carolina, probably in Abbeville County where a 

large number of Palatinate Germans began settling 

after 1760. He probably moved to Greenville 

County, South Carolina, in the 1830s and remained 

there for most of his life, appearing consistently in 

the census from 1840 through 1880.

Memminger also brought a stone mason, Patrick 

Dugan, and a brick mason, John Kenney, from 

Charleston to Flat Rock to do the masonry work, 

but he hired a number of the locals, including Kinson Middleton, whose position would soon evolve 

into Memminger’s overseer. Noah Corn, Joseph 

Kirkendall, Enoch and Sarah Capps, and Jefferson 

and Martin Hammond were all living nearby, and 

payments for their work appear frequently in Memminger’s account book.

Memminger was in Flat Rock in April 1838 when 

major construction on the house began and 

returned in July and October, leaving the project in 

Rosamond’s capable hands in the interim. As noted 

earlier, Memminger, Kenney, and Dugan appear to 

have boarded at George Summey’s inn nearby, and 

Rosamond may have done the same.

Memminger bought oxen and mules during the 

course of the building, and these were used to haul 

stone from the nearby quarry. Most of the materials 

used appear to have been purchased by Rosamond 

and do not appear in Memminger’s account book. 

29. No formal contract between Memminger and 

Rosamond has been located, but a contract is implied 

in Memminger’s account of construction.

FIGURE 12. Sketch of Rock Hill in Memminger’s account book, c. 1852, annotated for legibility. 

(taken from Pence, Archeological Overview and Assessment, 1998)
National Park Service 15

Part I: Developmental History

Lumber and brick were almost certainly acquired 

locally, and there are a number of payments to local 

merchants Ripley and Patton for nails and other dry 

goods. Mantels, the more elaborate moldings, and 

much of the hardware had to be shipped up from 

Charleston.

Major construction appears to have begun in April 

1838 and been substantially complete by the time the 

Memminger family arrived at Flat Rock in July 1839. 

Memminger initially referred to the place as “the 

Buncombe Establishment,” but in account book 

entries in July 1839, he makes his first reference to 

“Rock Hill,” appropriate enough for a site where 

stone out- croppings abound.

In the meantime, in September 1838, the Memminger’s infant daughter Anna Keith Memminger 

died, barely six months old. Now buried at St. John 

in the Wilderness Church, her initial interment may 

have been in Charleston, although apparently not at 

St. Peter’s where Memminger purchased a lot in 

1843. In recent years, the story has circulated that 

one of Memminger’s children drowned in the Front 

Lake at Connemara, but that is certainly not true, 

since both of Memminger’s children who died 

young, Anna and the first Allard, died prior to construction of the Front Lake in 1855. Memminger 

provides a detailed account of the family’s first 

summer in the new house, 1839, but makes no mention of any family member being at Flat Rock in 

1838. Mary McKay, granddaughter of a later owner, 

remembered there having been a drowning in the 

Front Lake “not long before we bought the place,” 

but does not identify the victim. It would appear 

that a conflation of facts produced the modern tale 

of one of Memminger’s children drowning in the 

lake.

Although work was substantially complete by summer 1839, the final details of Rosamond’s contracted 

work were not completed until the fall, and Memminger did not make his final payment to 

Rosamond until 4 January 1840. The house, kitchen, 

and stable had cost Memminger just over $4,000, 

but his total expenses for development of Rock Hill 

amounted to more than twice that amount by the 

end of 1842.30

Edward Memminger, who was not born until 1857, 

recalled that, because of the primitive, isolated 

nature of the settlement, “the furniture was made on 

the spot by carpenters, the same being true of all 

pioneer settlers,”31 but that is not entirely correct. 

Memminger paid a Mr. Buckley some $600 for furniture in 1838 and 1839, and although he has not 

been documented otherwise, Buckley must have 

been a local craftsman of the sort remembered by 

Memminger’s son. The bulk of Buckley’s furniture 

appears to have been delivered in June 1839 and 

probably included a number of beds and dressers as

30. Memminger records his final reckoning with 

Rosamond in two places in his account book. 31. Quoted in Bailey, From Rock Hill to Connemara, p. 18.

FIGURE 13. View of privy at west end of Swedish 

House, with Tenant House in background. 

(CARL3000/17/4P)

FIGURE 14. View of Ice House about 1950, constructed 

by Memminger in 1847. The circular, subterranean 

portion of the building is still evident on the 

landscape just southeast of the Farm Manager’s 

House. (CARL3000/29/1P)
16 Connemara Main House HSR

Historical Background & Context

well as the large table that would seat twenty- four in 

the ground- floor dining room. However, Memminger also bought furniture elsewhere, including 

from Harley & Son, a name that suggests a professional furniture company. There were also payments 

in July to Brown & Oliphant for crockery and to B. 

Dunham for sash weights, pots, tin ware, and andirons.

Most surprising, perhaps, in April 1839, Memminger 

paid for a shipment of five boxes of furniture that 

were imported from Germany. The year before, 

Memminger had helped organize and been the 

“principal moneyed member” of a firm that was the 

first to import dry goods directly from Europe to 

Charleston, and this shipment was no doubt a result 

of that partnership.32 The shipment included 

twenty- four chairs, a dressing bureau, “a glass” or 

mirror, one armchair, and a tea table. Music was 

important to the Memmingers (son Thomas played 

the accordion and daughter Ellen the guitar) and the 

shipment also included a piano, for which Memminger paid the rather startling amount of $20 for its 

tuning in September 1839. By early summer 1839, the 

house was nearly complete, although there would 

not be hearths at the fireplaces or plaster on the 

ground floor walls until 1842. Nevertheless, on 19 

July 1839, the family set out for their first summer at 

Flat Rock, where they arrived on the 27th.33

They got a late start that year, probably due to the 

birth of Robert Withers Memminger in early June, 

but most years they began their journey near the 

end of June, sending the horses, wagon and carriage 

ahead by railroad freight to the end of the line at 

Aiken, South Carolina, a few days before the family 

and servants also took the train from Charleston. 

After a rendezvous at Aiken, it was a slow, weeklong climb by carriage and wagon up the Piedmont 

to Greenville and across the Blue Ridge at Saluda 

Gap, before descending into Flat Rock. Around the 

end of October, with cooler weather bringing relief 

from the fever season of summer and fall, the journey was reversed, with the family generally back in 

Charleston by the end of the first or second week in 

November. The trip was made a little easier in 1853, 

when they were able to take a train as far as ColumFIGURE 15. View of the Memminger-era 

spring house, c. 1910. (CARL3001/03/01p)

FIGURE 16. View, c. 1960, of the Swedish 

House, constructed by Memminger as a 

servants’ house in the early 1850s. 

(CARL3000/17/1P)

32. New York Times, “An Old Southern Merchant,” 2 May 

1888; obituary for William A. Banister, 2 Nov. 1890.

33. Memminger first recorded expenses for their journeys 

to and from Flat Rock in his Rock Hill account book in 

1839 and continued each year until the late 1850s.
National Park Service 17

Part I: Developmental History

bia, shaving two or three days off the rigorous portion of the journey that had to be made by carriage 

and leaving only a two- day, horse- drawn journey 

over the mountains. Not until 1880 was it possible to 

travel from Charleston to Flat Rock entirely by rail.

Memminger continued to make improvements at 

Rock Hill throughout the 1840s and 1850s. A small 

house for the cook, which the Sandburgs called the 

“chicken house,” and a wagon house were built in 

1842 or 1843, an ice house in 1847, and a servant’s 

house, the so- called Swedish House, between 1850 

and 1853. The ice house was torn down by the Sandburgs in the 1960s, and it is not clear if the “wagon 

house” still exists. In addition, in 1847- 1848, Memminger constructed a large addition to the rear of 

the Main House and apparently made some alterations to the original interior at the same time.

The Estate. In addition to the land he bought from 

Baring in 1838, Memminger bought additional 

property that enlarged Rock Hill considerably during the antebellum period. The earliest was his 

acquisition of ten acres through a land swap with 

George Summey, local postmaster and tavern owner 

who had boarded Memminger and some of his 

workmen while the house was being constructed 

and whose son Albert was treasurer of the Buncombe Turnpike Co.34

In 1841, Memminger’s friend A. S. Willington bought 

Saluda Cottages from Count de Choisel, and in 

March 1842, Memminger paid Willington $77.00 for 

15- 1/2 acres, including “use of any surplus water 

from the spring at the head of the run from which 

the water is conducted to the residence of said Willington.” The deed also mentions Willington’s retention of his right to “repairing, replacing, or refitting 

the pipes or logs laid for conducting spring” to Willington’s residence.35 Two years later, in 1844, Memminger bought a large tract of land a mile or so to 

the west of Rock Hill. Over the next two or three 

years, he began developing “Valley Farm,” which 

would later become his son Edward’s estate, Tranquility.

Finally, on New Year’s Day 1850, Memminger paid 

Willington $4500 and took title to the entire 250-

acre Saluda Cottages estate. He and Andrew 

Johnstone then laid out Little River Road, and 

Memminger cut off the part of the Willington estate 

that was south of the new road and added it to Rock 

Hill. Saluda Cottages and the remainder of the 

property north of the road he sold to the Rev. 

Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, whose son would 

later marry Memminger’s daughter Lucy.36 In 1855, 

Memminger made his last major addition to the 

estate when he paid $300 to Henry Farmer to build 

the dam for the lake at the foot of the hill from the 

Main House, “which dam I [Farmer] guaranty [sic] 

to stand without injury from freshets or otherwise 

for three years from this date.”37

Caretakers, Employees, and Tenants. As was typical for Flat Rock’s part- time residents, the Memmingers generally occupied Rock Hill from early 

July through the end of October, although Memminger himself was sometimes absent on business

34. Henderson County Deed Book 21, pp. 444-445.

35. Henderson County Deed Book 2, p. 342.

36. Patton, Flat Rock, p. 21.

37. Louise Howe Bailey, From “Rock Hill” to 

“Connemara”: The Story Before Carl Sandburg. 

(National Park Service, 1980), p. 18.

FIGURE 17. Christopher Memminger, c. 1860. 

(CARL 28430)
18 Connemara Main House HSR

Historical Background & Context

FIGURE 18. A plat of Rock Hill, 1876. (CARL 3005)
National Park Service 19

Part I: Developmental History

in Columbia or Charleston. In addition, Rock Hill 

was not just a summer home, it was also a working 

farm with a number of locally hired hands, and to 

supervise them and to take care of the place in his 

absence, Memminger always employed an overseer 

from among the local people.

On 28 October 1839, Memminger apparently hired 

his first overseer, Kinson Middleton, who for $250 

per year agreed “to give my whole time and attention to working and managing [Memminger’s] farm 

at Flat Rock.”38 Probably from the beginning, 

Memminger had a caretaker’s residence at Rock 

Hill, but it is rarely mentioned in his account book. 

In 1844, he noted that he paid for “plastering and 

work on Middleton’s house,” which was presumably 

the caretaker’s residence at Rock Hill. What is now 

known as the Buck House may have been a caretaker’s residence, as was the building now known as 

the Tenant House, although neither structure has 

been well documented and the latter building 

appears to be of a much later date. Repairs were 

made to Middleton’s house in 1844, probably after 

he left Memminger’s employment, and in 1845, 

Memminger replaced him with John W. McCarson 

(born about 1816), who with his wife and five children moved into the overseer’s house. In 1850, the 

Federal census showed that four more children had 

been added to the McCarson family.

In 1844, Memminger began accounting for development of “Valley Farm,” which marks his purchase of 

what became Edward Memminger’s Tranquility, 

located a mile or so northwest of Connemara.39 By 

the 1850s, brothers Andrew (born about 1825) and 

Alfred (born about 1831) Hart were among the hired 

hands, and at least by 1855, Memminger was apparently employing both men, who were sons of 

Ephraim Hart, as dual overseers. Memminger’s 

agreement with the Harts stipulated that Alfred 

Hart would reside “at the farm,” which presumably 

meant Valley Farm, while Andrew Hart would 

reside “at the residence,” which presumably meant 

the caretaker’s house at Rock Hill.40

In July 1852, one of the Memminger’s younger sons, 

Allard Belin Memminger, died of unspecified 

causes, perhaps in Flat Rock, where he is buried. In 

the summer and fall of 1854, Memminger and his 

two oldest children, Ellen and Tom, made a grand 

tour of Europe, including Scotland, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and France and were gone from 

August until November. His wife was pregnant and 

stayed behind in Charleston, where she gave birth to 

Allard Belin Memminger II in September. The couple corresponded frequently, with Christopher 

Memminger commenting while in Switzerland that 

it was “very like Buncombe [Rock Hill] in October-

- - frost in the morning. But the hotels are made for 

summer, and chimneys are not in each room, and 

fuel is not as at Buncombe.”41 The Harts managed 

Rock Hill that year, which was perhaps the only year 

that the Memmingers did not open Rock Hill for the 

summer.42

Local residents were also employed on the estate on 

a seasonal basis to work the farm and for other 

tasks, including painting and small construction 

projects. Paying fifty cents per hundred, Memminger bought thousands of split rails for fencing 

from local men, and continued to patronize Abraham Kuykendall, whose sawmill had furnished 

much of the lumber to build Rock Hill. Like the 

other summer residents, Memminger took advantage of the fresh poultry and produce local farmers 

could offer as well.

Memminger also had other relationships with the 

local residents around Flat Rock. Patton records 

that in 1860 Memminger built a house at Valley 

Farm in addition to the two houses already on the 

property. Memminger apparently let this new, larger 

house to a family named Hollingsworth, with at 

least one of their daughters employed at Rock Hill, 

probably as a maid or laundress. This house was the 

scene of some events recorded in J. V. Hadley’s 

Seven Months a Prisoner, a first- person account of 

his escape from a Confederate prison and his long 

journey home. Originally published in 1898, Hadley’s book is reported to have provided source 

material for Charles Frazier’s Cold Mountain (1997), 

which was made into a motion picture in 2003.

43

38. See Memminger Papers, Account Book.

39. Patton, Flat Rock, p. 44.

40. Memminger’s account book includes caretaker 

agreements with Middleton and the Harts, but only 

the Harts can be located in the Henderson County 

census. Also see Memminger, Flat Rock, p. 24.

41. Memminger Papers, Account Book.

42. The Memminger papers include a few letters from 

Memminger to his wife while he was in Europe.

43. Patton, Flat Rock, pp. 44-45.
20 Connemara Main House HSR

Historical Background & Context

Slaves and Servants. C. G. Memminger was a slave 

owner, with twelve slaves listed in his possession in 

the 1850 census. Most of these slaves were probably 

family servants, gardeners, or drivers, but Memminger could have rented out some of them, especially if they were skilled craftsmen. The carpenters 

Ben and Peter mentioned in Memminger’s account 

book were probably slaves as well and apparently 

built the servants’ house that the Sandburgs called 

the Chicken House, but which was most likely originally built as quarters for the Memminger’s cook. 

Aside from these three names, no other names have 

been identified out of the dozen or so slaves that 

Memminger is shown as owning in the 1850 Federal 

Census.

Except for Robert, the butler whom Memminger 

sent ahead to Flat Rock each year to open the house, 

virtually nothing is known of Memminger’s servants, nearly all of whom would certainly have been 

enslaved African Americans. Besides a butler and a 

cook, the Memmingers’ servants most likely 

included one or more maids, as well as gardeners 

and perhaps a carriage driver. There were probably 

at least four servants who made the trip each summer, and it is possible that one or two of them initially lived in the main house, perhaps in one or 

more of the upstairs bedrooms. As the Memminger 

family grew, however, more room was needed and 

in the late 1840s, the main house was enlarged, and 

in the early 1850s, a new servants’ house was constructed. Now known as the Swedish House, this 

servants’ house had four bedrooms and would have 

provided ample room for the Memmingers’ servants.

Civil War

Memminger was an avowed supporter of the Union, 

beginning with his opposition to the nullification 

movement in the 1830s and continuing amid the 

increasing political turmoil of the 1850s. He was one 

of the principal speakers at a great rally against 

secession that was held in Columbia in September 

1851, and he was one of South Carolina’s electors 

who helped elect Democrat Franklin Pierce of New 

Hampshire to the Presidency in 1852.44 He continued to urge moderation, an especially difficult task 

in South Carolina as the battle over “bleeding Kansas” erupted in 1855. He was roundly criticized in 

the Columbia newspapers for sending his son Robert to Harvard in 1857, thereby exposing him to the 

“dangers of sending our Southern youth to be educated in Northern institutions.” Nevertheless, Robert graduated from Harvard two years later.45

Gradually, however, Memminger realized that 

secession was inevitable and, like Robert E. Lee and 

many other Southerners, came to support the ConFIGURE 19. Stereographic view of Rock HIll, probably 1870s, the earliest image of the 

house yet located. (CARL 28466)

44. “Great Rally against secession,” New York Times, 29 

September 1851.

45. New York Times, 2 October 1857, 23 July 1859.
National Park Service 21

Part I: Developmental History

federate cause rather than set himself against home, 

family, and friends. After John Brown’s raid on the 

arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia, in October 1859, 

Memminger was appointed by South Carolina’s 

governor as a special commissioner to address the 

Virginia legislature concerning a unified defense 

against rising antislavery violence. According to his 

biographer, his “conservative views, dignified and 

conciliatory spirit, [and] thorough knowledge of the 

questions to be considered, gave him an approach to 

the people of Virginia, through their General 

Assembly, that but few men from the extreme South 

could have secured.”46 However, “the upshot of that 

meeting,” the New York Times reported, was that 

“Virginia was afraid” to act and “South Carolina 

dare not move.”47

The election of Abraham Lincoln on 6 November 

1860 sent South Carolina over the edge, and four 

days later it became the first of the Southern states 

to call for a convention to consider secession. 

Memminger was a major player in that convention, 

too, drafting a statement of the causes that justified 

secession. Ratification of the state’s Ordinance of 

Secession on 20 December 1860 began the 

attempted breakup of the Union. Six other Deep 

South states seceded in rapid succession, and there 

were fireworks and celebration all across the South.

Memminger was one of thirty- seven delegates 

when the Provisional Confederate Congress convened in Montgomery, Alabama, in February 1861 

and was chairman of the convention that drafted the 

new government’s first constitution. Most important, he was appointed secretary of the Confederate 

Treasury on 21 February 1861, not so much for his 

financial abilities, according to some, but simply to 

give South Carolina a position in the Cabinet. He 

was, the historian E. Merton Coulter wrote, “a man 

of sound instincts but weak will power, though 

antagonistic enough to make his dealing with others 

difficult and largely futile.” This last cannot have 

been entirely true, given Memminger’s tremendous 

accomplishments before the Civil War.48

Whatever Memminger’s personal failings, his was 

an impossible task, and well before the end of the 

war, the Confederate Treasury was little more than a 

pile of paper. A bitter editor at the Richmond Whig

excoriated him as “a second rate lawyer in Charleston, famous for the energy and persistence with 

which he collected small bills and dunned petty 

debtors. . . . He has done his best, but he has been 

overtaken- - that is all.”49

By the spring of 1864, it became clear that Memminger could not rescue the Treasury from insolvency, and under pressure he resigned on 15 June 

1864, blamed- - unfairly most would now agree- -

for the collapse of Confederate finances.50 He was 

replaced by George Trenholm, a well- known 

Charleston banker and perhaps the richest man in 

the Confederacy. Trenholm had a summer home at 

Flat Rock, as did his brother Edward, who bought 

Baring’s Mountain Lodge in the 1850s.

Well after the war was over, recriminations over the 

Confederate debacle continued to fly, and even 

General Joseph Johnston weighed in with criticism 

of the way Confederate finances were handled. In 

his response to Johnston’s second guessing, Memminger refrained from criticizing the general’s oftcriticized military tactics, but pointed out that the 

Confederacy’s refusal to raise a tax for the war 

insured its defeat.51 Memminger always defended 

himself by saying that he was forced “to administer 

plans which I neither originated nor approved.”52

With Charleston under near- constant bombardment (it was abandoned by the Confederates in 

February 1865), the Memmingers retreated to Rock 

Hill where they spent much of the next two years.53

In his memoir of Flat Rock, written in 1922, the 

Memmingers’ youngest son, Edward, wrote that 

Rock Hill “possibly [had] more reminders of the 

dark days of the Confederacy than any other 

[house] in Flat Rock.”54 Patton recounts “an old 

tradition among the people at Flat Rock that,” as she 

wrote:

46. Bailey, Rock Hill to Connemara, p. 23.

47. “The Southern Conference,” New York Times, 7 

March 1860.

48. E. Merton Coulter, The Confederate States of 

America, 1861-1865 (Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State 

University Press, 1950), p. 149.

49. Coulter, Confederate States, p. 150.

50. New York Times, 24 June,12 August 1864.

51. “The South’s Failure,” New York Times, 1 April 1874.

52. Coulter, Confederate States, p. 164.

53. Sadie Smathers Patton, The Story of Henderson 

County (Asheville, NC: 1954), p. 207.

54. Memminger, Flat Rock, p. 14.
22 Connemara Main House HSR

Historical Background & Context

Secretary Memminger at one time urged President 

Davis to remove headquarters of the Confederate 

Government to Flat Rock, because he felt that the 

place here in its mountain fastness could be fortified 

and protected much better than could Richmond.”55

While that may well have been considered as the 

Confederate government retreated southward after 

the fall of Richmond, it may be significant that his 

son’s memoir does not mention the tradition.

Reconstruction

Edward Memminger’s account of the breakdown of 

law and order as the Confederacy collapsed in 1865 

paints a vivid picture of the scene at Rock Hill.

After the surrender at Appomattox, the Union troops 

came through Flat Rock and, though they were guilty 

of no German atrocities, they pillaged some of the 

houses and took whatever they wanted. In the day the 

men of the family “took to the woods” to escape the 

soldiers and had to come back at night to defend the 

house from a gang of deserters from the Confederate 

Army, who had turned bandits and terrorized the 

community with their burglaries and other offences. 

As the defenders of the house were but two men and a 

boy, resort had to be had to other means of defence, so 

the steps in front of the house, from the portico to the 

ground, were pulled down, port- holes were cut in the 

doors holding strategic positions, the windows on the 

ground floor were barricaded with sand- bags and 

chevaux de frises and communication cut through 

doors and floors from story to story. The house never 

was attacked though threatened.56

Sometime during this period, the Memmingers’ 

longtime overseer Andrew Hart lost a leg as the 

result of an accidental gunshot wound. Forced to 

retire as overseer, he bought an old store on the 

High Road which, Edward Memminger recalled, “in 

time became a great nuisance to the community 

from the sale of whiskey. After [Hart’s] death, his 

sons operated the store but without the sale of 

whiskey.”57

In the summer of 1865, with the Memmingers still at 

Flat Rock, their house at the corner of Wentworth 

and Smith in Charleston was declared abandoned 

and turned over to the Freedmen’s Bureau for use as 

an orphanage for African- American children. With 

roads and railroads in shambles, travel was next to 

impossible, and any sort of communication difficult 

at best. “We have neither mails or correspondence,” 

Memminger wrote to a friend, “so that any glimpse 

55. Patton, Henderson County, p. 207.

FIGURE 20. VIew of Rock Hill, prior to the late Victorian additions and alterations that 

were made about 1890. (CARL3001/01/48P)

56. Memminger, Flat Rock, p. 14.

57. Memminger, Flat Rock, p. 24.
National Park Service 23

Part I: Developmental History

of the doings of the great world is highly acceptable.” Weeks- old newspapers dropped off by traveling acquaintances only occasionally pierced Rock 

Hill’s isolation.58

In November 1865, Memminger applied for pardon 

under the terms set forth by Congress, but through a 

long winter at Flat Rock there was no reply. Other 

letters were exchanged but it was December 1866 

before the pardon was finally granted and early January 1867 before the Freedmen’s Bureau returned 

the house in Charleston. The family may have visited Charleston during that period, since daughter 

Lucy married Captain Charles Cotesworth Pinckney (1839- 1909), the son of the rector at St. John in 

the Wilderness, there on 1 November 1866. There is 

no record of how long the family remained in Flat 

Rock after that, but the house on Wentworth Street 

was probably somewhat worse for wear and tear, 

and it may have been some time before it was occupied again.59 They were probably back in the house, 

however, when their daughter Sarah Virginia married Ralph Izard Middleton (1840- 1914) in Charleston on 17 December 1867.

Many of Memminger’s peers were ruined by the 

war or at least in severely reduced circumstances. 

Yet even with the loss of his slaves, Memminger 

must have had few real financial difficulties and 

appears even to have prospered. In the 1870 Federal 

census, he is shown with $20,000 in real estate, a 

drop of 20% since 1860, but with $100,000 in personal property, which was double the declared 

amount in 1860 and a remarkable recovery after the 

loss of his slaves.

In addition to resuming his law practice, Memminger was also actively involved in an array of 

enterprises after the Civil War. According to Patton, 

he was “a pioneer in the development of the phosphate industry in South Carolina,” In 1868, he organized the Sulfuric Acid and Super- Phosphate 

Company (later known as the Etiwan Phosphate 

Company), not only one of the earliest of the South 

Carolina phosphate companies but also the first 

company in the South to engage in the commercial 

manufacture of sulphuric acid.60

The boom in phosphate mining began in 1867 when 

Northern investors started mining the shallow strata 

of phosphate rock along the Ashley River near 

Charleston, a feature first identified before the Civil 

War by the noted agricultural reformer Edmund 

Ruffin. These mines were the nation’s first phosphate mines and, with phosphate selling at twice the 

price of Peruvian guano, which had been the traditional source of fertilizer, crude strip- mining rapidly denuded large portions of the moribund rice 

plantations along the Ashley River, most famously at 

Thomas Drayton’s Magnolia Plantation. Phosphate 

mining made fortunes for wealthy investors and 

provided much- needed employment to thousands 

of freed slaves. It was also a boon to cash- strapped 

planters whose lands were suddenly selling at tremendous prices, and throughout the 1870s and 

1880s, phosphate production was one of the state’s 

most lucrative industries. With twenty- one companies in production by 1880, wealth from phosphates 

transformed Charleston especially, and as historian 

E. Merton Coulter pointed out, “for the first time 

58. Bailey, Rock Hill to Connemara, p 27.

59. The 1880 Federal Census gives the address as 122 

Wentworth Street, between Coming and Pitt, but 

that number may have been later changed. The house 

apparently no longer exists.

60. Bailey, From Rock Hill to Connemara, p. 28; Svejda, p. 

10.

FIGURE 21. Christopher Memminger, c. 1865. 

(CARL 28429)
24 Connemara Main House HSR

Historical Background & Context

since 1861 this war- ridden city learned again the 

taste of prosperity.”61 It was also an industry that was 

heavily taxed by an increasingly corrupt state government, and after high- grade deposits were discovered in Florida in 1889, South Carolina’s 

phosphate industry quickly declined in the face of 

stiff competition from the more than two hundred 

phosphate mines that were operating in Florida by 

1894. Ironically, one of the significant figures in the 

development of Florida’s phosphate industry was 

Memminger’s grandson, C. G. Memminger III.62

In the 1870s, Memminger bought shares in the Silver 

Mountain Mining Company in Carbon County, 

Wyoming, and he continued to be one of the leaders 

in the effort to establish rail service from Charleston 

across the Blue Ridge into Tennessee and on to Cincinnati. A route was surveyed in 1838, but by the 

time the Civil War intervened, track had been laid 

only as far as Spartanburg. After the war, the Spartanburg and Asheville Railroad was organized to 

continue the work, with Memminger as its president. His son Edward remembered driving his 

father to Spartanburg in 1874 for the ground- breaking ceremony, which included “a great celebration 

with speech making and a barbecue.”63 The line was 

completed across the Blue Ridge in 1876, but the 

work proved extraordinarily expensive and the line 

was not completed through Flat Rock to Hendersonville until 1880. The following year the company 

was reorganized as the Asheville and Spartanburg 

Railroad and the line to Asheville was completed in 

1886

In September 1874, the Memmingers’ daughter 

Lucinda, wife of Captain Charles Cotesworth 

Pinckney, died at the age of 32. In November of the 

following year, Memminger’s wife of forty- three 

years died and was buried at St. John in the Wilderness cemetery. In spite of these losses, Memminger 

was re- elected to the Legislature in 1876 and, as 

chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, 

worked to restore the state’s finances. He also introduced a bill to revive his alma mater, South Carolina 

College in Columbia, but retired from public life 

when his legislative term ended in 1877. On 27 

March 1878, Christopher Memminger married his 

late wife’s younger sister Sarah Ann Wilkinson, who 

had long been close to the family.

In November 1885, Memminger resigned as chairman of Charleston’s Public School Board, a position 

he had held since the early 1850s. The Charleston 

New and Courier editorialized:

61. E. Merton Coulter, The South During Reconstruction

(Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 

1947), p. 215.

FIGURE 22. Tranquility, built by Edward Read 

Memminger on his father’s Valley Farm in 

1890. (Historic Flat Rock Collection)

FIGURE 23. A 20th-century photograph of 

Christopher Memminger’s youngest son, 

Edward. (From A Sketch of Flat Rock CARL 7170)

62. New York Times, 14 August 1930.

63. Memminger, Flat Rock, p. 24.
National Park Service 25

Part I: Developmental History

The retirement of Hon. C. G. Memminger from the 

Chairmanship of the Board of City School Commissioners closes a most important chapter in the educational history of Charleston and South Carolina. Mr. 

Memminger is justly regarded as the father of the city 

public schools and of the present State public school 

system. Of his long life, which fills no mean page in 

history, the best years and most earnest efforts have 

been spent in the cause of public education.64

Recognizing his enormous service to the city and 

state, the legislature authorized a memorial, and on 

29 February 1888, a marble bust of Memminger was 

unveiled in the chambers of the Charleston City 

Council.65

Christopher Memminger died in Charleston on 7 

March 1888. In its eulogy for Memminger, the News 

and Courier wrote that he was

one of those who have given lustre to the name of 

South Carolina; the towering and never- to- be- forgotten few. Earnest, able, equable. Publicist; man of 

affairs, apostle of popular education in South Carolina; 

loyal always to Church and State.66

Memminger’s remains were placed on the train to 

Flat Rock, where he was interred next to his first 

wife in the cemetery at St. John in the Wilderness. 

At his death, he had eight children still living. His 

eldest son, Dr. Thomas Bennett Memminger, was a 

physician in St. Louis, Missouri. Rev. Robert Withers Memminger was a minister and author in 

Charleston, but remained active in politics, leading a 

movement in 1892 “to secure affiliation [with the 

Reform Republican Party in South Carolina] of a 

number of white men who believed in national 

Republican doctrines but who were ashamed to join 

the ranks of carpet- bagger Republicanism.”67

Christopher G. Memminger, Jr., and Edward Reed 

Memminger both had orange groves near Tampa, 

Florida, but both would retire to the mountains of 

western North Carolina. Their brother Allard, 

named for the first Allard who died in 1852, was also 

a doctor, practicing in Charleston where he was 

dean of the Medical College in 1908. His interests 

were not limited to medicine, however. In 1890 he 

was granted German Patent DE 55,926, “Verfahren 

zur Darstellung von schnell trocknendem Superphosphat," a process of adding a fluoride to ground 

phosphate before it is treated with acid in order to 

create a super phosphate.68

Memminger’s oldest daughter, Ellen, never married 

and lived with her brother Thomas at Flat Rock 

after the death of his wife in the early 1900s. Mary 

Memminger Cotte’s husband was a civil engineer in 

Brussels, Belgium, and was unable to get home in 

time for her father’s funeral. Finally, Virginia Memminger Middleton lived with her husband Ralph 

Izard Middleton, Jr., in Charleston, but they, too, 

maintained a summer home at Flat Rock.

Years later, Memminger’s cousin Caroline Pinckney 

Rutledge wrote Carl Sandburg with her memories 

of “a dear cousin” and his Rock Hill:

Mr. Memminger! I wish I had the words and the 

strength to write them- - a righteous man, grave but 

gracious; hospitable, generous, bringing out the best in 

everyone- - high, high thoughts- - fine books- - organ 

and piano in both homes summer and winter- -

Lawns! Bursts of color in trees in October. Lovely lake. 

Herds of Cattle- - flocks of sheep on lawn- - Have I left 

out anything? Oh, yes, conversation most delightful.69

The house at Rock Hill may have sat empty in the 

summer of 1889. Memminger’s son Dr. Allard 

Memminger had built his own house, Richmond 

Hill (drastically remodeled and now known as 

Enchantment), nearby in 187070, and Edward Read 

64. Quoted in Svejda, p. 11.

65. Svejda, p. 11.

66. Quoted in Svejda, p. 12.

67. “Convention of the Reform Republican Party, New 

York Times, 13 April 1892.

68. See undated obituary in CARL research files. 

“Phosphate Fertilizers and Supplements,” at <http://

pmeiers.bei.t-online.de/p-phos.htm>, accessed 1 

March 2005.

69. Caroline Pinckney Rutledge to Carl Sandburg, 29 June 

1946, letter in CARL Collection.

FIGURE 24. Christopher and Mary Memminger’s 

graves at St. John-in-the-Wilderness. (T. Jones, 

NPS-SERO-CR, 2004)
26 Connemara Main House HSR

Historical Background & Context

Memminger was constructing a new house for himself at his father’s old Valley Farm. Called Tranquility, the house was slated for completion and occupancy by the summer of 1890. And so the 

Memmingers put Rock Hill up for sale. On 12 September 1889, Edward Memminger, acting as executor of his father’s estate, sold Rock Hill, its contents, 

and 292 acres for $10,000 to Caspar A. Chisholm, in 

trust for Chisholm’s sister- in- law Mary A. F. 

Gregg.71

The Greggs

Born in South Carolina about 1839, Mary A. Fleming 

Gregg was the daughter of Daniel Fleming, a 

wealthy Charleston merchant. She married William 

Gregg, Jr., on 10 December 1856. Gregg was born at 

Graniteville, Aiken County, South Carolina, on 11 

October 1834, the eldest son of William and Mariana 

Jones Gregg. William Gregg, Sr. (1800- 1867), was 

one of the early proponents of Southern industrialization and, according to one historian, “the most 

significant figure in the development of cotton mills 

in the South.” Although it was not the first textile 

factory in the South72, the model textile factory that 

Gregg built at Graniteville between 1845 and 1849 

was one of the best in the nation when it began 

operation in 1847. The mill, which remains in operation as a component of Avondale Mills, is now a 

National Historic Landmark.73

Little is known about William Gregg, Jr., who listed 

his occupation as “planter” in the 1880 census, but 

who apparently remained active in the textile 

industry throughout his life. Presumably, Gregg 

inherited at least a portion of his father’s Graniteville Manufacturing Company when the elder 

Gregg died in 1867, although the nature of any continuing role that he might have had in the company 70. Richmond Hill was built as “a miniature of Rock Hill” 

according to Patton, Henderson County, p. 210. It was 

later bought by Mrs. Robert E. Lee III, a 

granddaughter of Christopher Memminger, who 

restored it and renamed it Enchantment.

71. Henderson County Deed Book 25, pp. 469-470. 

Chisholm was married to Mary Gregg’s sister. The 

deed also mentions earlier trustees of Mary Gregg, 

including her father Daniel Fleming and her brotherin-law James Jones Gregg.

FIGURE 25. View of Connemara in late winter or early spring 1901. Image shows East 

Porch, the bay window on the west side of the house, and the new front steps, all 

apparently added by the Greggs around 1890. (CARL3001/01/04P)

72. Textile mills were operating at Roswell, Georgia, and 

elsewhere by 1840.

73. “Gregg, William,” Allen Johnson and Dumas Malone, 

editors, Dictionary of American Biography (New York, 

NY: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1946), pp. 599-600; 

National Historic Landmark nomination for 

Graniteville; 1860 Federal Census, South Carolina, 

Edgefield County, Graniteville, p. 67.
National Park Service 27

Part I: Developmental History

has not been documented. William Gregg, Jr., and 

his wife, Mary Fleming Gregg, appear to have had 

only two children, a son born in 1860 and a daughter 

born in 1863.

In the Charleston city directories for 1888- 1890, 

William and Mary Gregg are listed at 27 Rutledge 

Avenue near the Battery, just a few doors away from 

his widowed mother, Mariana Gregg, at 16 Rutledge 

and just a block and a half from Christopher Memminger’s widow on Council Street. At that time, 

Gregg’s occupation was listed in the directory as 

“phosphates,” in which he, like Memminger and 

other wealthy Charlestonians, had invested heavily 

after the Civil War.74 What relationship may have 

existed between the Memmingers and the Greggs 

prior to 1889 is not clear. However, C. G. Memminger, Sr., and William Gregg, Sr., were contemporaries and both served in the South Carolina 

assembly in the 1850s, sometimes on opposite sides 

of an issue. Both were delegates to the state’s secession convention in 1860, and as neighbors in 

Charleston, quite likely had something more than a 

passing acquaintance with one another.

In her history of Connemara prior to the Sandburgs, 

Louise Bailey states that “there is no indication that 

[Gregg] or his family occupied the house, or that 

they made any changes in the house or grounds.”75

While that may be true, the Greggs bought Rock 

Hill fully furnished and, like the Memmingers, 

employed an overseer, William Slattery (born in 

North Carolina about 1862), who of course lived on 

the property year- round.76 It seems improbable 

that William and Mary Gregg would not have spent 

some time in the house, at least prior to his death in 

February 1895. In addition, as will be discussed in 

the next section of this report, in the late nineteenth 

century, a series of changes and additions to the 

house was executed that was almost certainly a 

product of the Gregg era.

Gregg’s widow retained ownership of Rock Hill for 

nearly six years after his death, and it is not known 

74. Abstract of Charleston city directories at 

<www.ancestry.com>, accessed 14 June 2004.

FIGURE 26. View of Connemara after it was repainted by the Smyths in 1901 

(CARL3001/01/18P))

75. Bailey, From “Rock Hill” to “Connemara,” p. 32.

76. Bailey, From “Rock Hill” to “Connemara,” p. 44.
28 Connemara Main House HSR

Historical Background & Context

what finally precipitated the decision to sell. It is 

possible that too much of the family’s income 

depended on South Carolina’s phosphate industry, 

which was well on the way to collapse in the face of 

competition from the new mines in Florida. Or it is 

possible that the decision to sell related to the tragic 

drowning of a child, perhaps a grandchild, in Front 

Lake.77 Whatever the reason, on 12 December 1900, 

Mary Gregg conveyed title to Rock Hill to James 

Adger Smyth and Augustine T. Smyth as trustees for 

their younger brother Ellison Adger Smyth and his 

wife Julia Gambrill Smyth.78

The Smyths

Called the “dean of Southern textile manufacturers” 

by the New York Times when he died in 1942, Ellison 

Adger Smyth was born in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1847.79 He was the son of Thomas Smyth 

(1808- 1873) and grandson of Samuel Smith [sic]80, 

who apparently made a fortune as a grocer and 

tobacco distributor, perhaps in Belfast in the north 

of Ireland. While they made their home in northern 

Ireland for at least a generation prior to coming to 

America, they were not part of the native Irish population. Thomas Smyth was a Congregationalist in 

Ireland, and this Protestant association (the Pilgrims 

and Puritans of New England were Congregationalists) supports the suggestion that the Smyths were 

part of the great migration from Scotland and the 

northern parts of England to settle King James’ 

Ulster “plantation” after it was established in 1610.81

77. Mary McKay, the Smyths’ granddaughter, 

remembered “somebody drowned in front lake not 

long before we bought the place,” and the Smyth 

grandchildren were never allowed to swim in the lake 

as a result. Also see interview with Frank Ballard, 19 

October 1982, who recalled the drowning victim as 

being a child.

78. Henderson County Deed Book 40, pp. 567-572.

FIGURE 27. Boating at Connemara, c. 1910. (CARL3001/01/41P)

79. “Capt. Ellison Smyth, A Manufacturer, 94,” New York 

Times, August 3, 1942. He should not be confused 

with South Carolina Senator Ellison DuRant Smith 

(1864-1944).

80. Smyth’s grandfather Samuel is reported to have 

changed the spelling of his surname to “Smith,” but 

his father Thomas Smith reverted to “Smyth” in 1837 

in order to avoid confusion with another Thomas 

Smith.The name is pronounced with the sound of a 

long “i”. Most of the family, including Ellison Smyth, 

spelled the name without a final “e.” His brother 

Augustine Smythe reverted to the archaic spelling of 

the family name, again as a way to distinguish himself 

from another Augustine Smith.
National Park Service 29

Part I: Developmental History

Samuel Smyth’s trade appears to have formed the 

foundation of the family’s comfortable circumstances, but he also is reported to have operated a 

mill (probably producing linen) at Brandon near 

Belfast.82 Thomas Smyth graduated, with honors, 

from Belfast College in 1829, and the following year, 

the entire family emigrated to New Jersey, where at 

least one of Samuel’s sons, Joseph, had already emigrated prior to 1830.

After a period of study at Princeton Theological 

Seminary, Thomas settled in Charleston, South 

Carolina, where he began working at the Second 

Presbyterian Church, becoming its pastor in 1832, a 

post he would hold until his death. Shortly after 

moving to Charleston, Thomas Smyth met Margaret 

Milligan Adger, the daughter of Charleston banker 

James Adger and the sister of the Rev. John Bailey 

Adger. They were married in 1832.83 Their ancestor 

James Adger had also operated a linen mill, in 

County Antrim, Ireland, but it is not known if the 

two families had connections in the Old World.

Three of Thomas and Margaret Smyth’s first four 

children died young, including two daughters who 

died of scarlet fever in 1837, but others were born 

81. Barry Waugh, Ph.D., “Thomas Smyth,” The Southern 

Presbyterian Review Digitalization Project: Author 

Biography., <http://www.pcanet.org/history/

periodicals/spr/bios/smyth.html>, accessed 22 June 

2004. In an interview on 3 December 1976, Mrs. 

Rogers, one of Ellison Smyth’s granddaughters 

remembered that the Smyths were Scots-Irish.

82. William Plummer Jacobs, The Pioneer (Clinton, SC: 

Jacobs & Co. Press, n .d., probably 1934), p. 15.

83. Barry Waugh, “Thomas Smyth”; Jacobs, The Pioneer, 

p. 15.

FIGURE 28. The Smyths on the steps at Connemara, c. 1900. Left to right: Lewis D. Black, Annie 

Pierce Smyth Blake (holding unidentified child), James A. Smyth, Mary H. Smyth, Mary Smyth 

McKay (child), A. F. McKissick (holding unidentified child), Julia Gambrill Smyth, Jane Adger 

Smyth (holding unidentified child), Ellison Adger Smyth. (Collection of Juliane Heggoy, greatgranddaughter of the Smyths)
30 Connemara Main House HSR

Historical Background & Context

and six lived to adulthood- - James Adger, Augustine 

T., Susan, Sarah Ann, Ellison Adger, and Jane Ann.

Education, always a high priority in Presbyterian 

households, was especially so in the Smyth household, and the children grew up in a house overflowing with books. As early as 1829, Thomas began 

assembling a library and admitted in his autobiography, “My thirst for books in London became 

rapacious. I overspent my supplies in procuring 

them at the cheap repositories and left myself in the 

cold winter for two or three months without a 

cent.84

In the mid- 1840s, the Smyths added three rooms to 

their house, in part to accommodate the thousands 

of books, and Margaret cautioned her husband “not 

to involve yourself too deeply or inextricably in debt 

by the purchase of books & pictures.” Clearly exasperated by her husband’s compulsive buying, she 

continued:

[O]f the last, with the maps, we have enough now to 

cover all the walls, even in the new rooms; & the books 

are already too numerous for comfort in the Study & 

Library. . . . But I would enter a protest not only against 

books & pictures, but all other things not necessary & 

which can come under the charge of extravagance. Do 

be admonished & study to be economical.85

But the Reverend Smyth continued to buy, eventually accumulating more than 20,000 volumes before 

reluctantly selling half of his library to the Columbia 

Theological Seminary in 1856. He continued to 

make donations to the Seminary and, by the time he 

died, that collection numbered more than 15,000 

volumes. His youngest son, Ellison, would inherit at 

least some of his father’s love for books

Ellison Smyth

Ellison Smyth received his formal education in private schools until about 1863 when he enrolled at the 

South Carolina Military Academy in Charleston, the 

predecessor of today’s Citadel and an institution 

known for its high academic standards and strict 

military discipline. In January 1861, Citadel cadets 

stationed on Morris Island had fired on the U.S. 

steamer Star of the West, preventing it from supplying Fort Sumter with troops and supplies and helping to set the stage for the declarations of war in 

April. Not yet a Citadel cadet himself, Ellison Smyth 

watched the bombardment of Fort Sumter from the 

rooftops of Charleston in April 1861. The prolonged 

84. Quoted in Barry Waugh, “Thomas Smyth.” 85. Quoted in Barry Waugh, “Thomas Smyth.”

FIGURE 29. The Smyths’ servants in front of the kitchen, c. 1910. The building may have 

been rebuilt by Smyth in the 1920s and was drastically altered when the Sandburgs 

turned it into a garage in 1945. (Collection of William McKay, Smyths’ great-grandson.)
National Park Service 31

Part I: Developmental History

siege and bombardment of the city by Federal forces 

sent many families fleeing, and after shells twice 

struck their house, the Smyths themselves sought 

refuge in Clarendon County in east- central South 

Carolina in August 1863.

The Smyths’ oldest sons, Augustine and James, 

enlisted in the early days of the war, but, still in his 

early teens, Ellison was simply too young. In 1864, 

however, desperate for troops, the state organized 

its “Seed Corn” regiments of sixteen and seventeen- year- olds led by retired or disabled veterans. 

As a result, Ellison Smyth was mustered into service 

as well, reportedly as a sergeant in the 3rd Regiment 

led by Lt. Col. J. W. Harrington. His mother wrote a 

friend, “Oh, he looks so young and so alone- - he 

went, I know not where . . . [but] went off very 

cheerful and light- hearted.” There are conflicting 

reports as to the amount of action the regiment saw, 

but they did duty at different points between 

Charleston and Savannah and were at Savannah 

when Sherman entered that city in December 1864. 

They were on James Island at the time of the evacuation of Charleston in February 1865 and were 

reportedly with Hardee's army in North Carolina 

when Gen. Joseph Johnston surrendered the last 

Confederate army east of the Mississippi a few 

weeks after Appomattox.86

The Smyths, like the Memmingers and the Greggs, 

appear to have survived the war in somewhat 

reduced, but still comfortable, circumstances. 

Although the war’s immediate aftermath was difficult for all, they avoided the outright poverty suffered by many of their less- prosperous 

contemporaries. In 1866, young Ellison Smyth 

began a three- year stint as a clerk in the Charleston 

wholesale hardware company J. E. Adger & Company, owned by his maternal uncle and namesake 

James Ellison Adger. Adger made his nephew a 

partner in the company in 1869, and in February of 

that same year Smyth married Julia Gambrill at 

Charleston’s Second Presbyterian Church.87

Julia Gambrill. Julia was born in Columbus, Georgia, on 18 November 1849, the daughter of one Laurence (or Launcelot, by some accounts) Gambrill, a 

Baltimore banker and cotton broker, and his wife 

Ann America Pierce Gambrill. Julia’s mother, who 

was the daughter of the famed Methodist parson 

Lovick Pierce (1785- 1879), apparently died before 

1860, and Julia was sent to Sparta, Georgia, where 

she was raised by her uncle George Foster Pierce, a 

bishop in the Methodist- Episcopal Church 

86. Jacobs, The Pioneer, which is part of the park’s 

collection, contains useful biographical information; 

Bailey, From “Rock Hill” to “Connemara,” p. 36. 

Bailey’s account of Smyth’s Civil War service appears 

to contain at least some apocryphal material.

87. Brent H. Holcomb, Southern Christian Advocate 

Marriage Notices, 1867-1878 (Columbia, SC: SCMAR, 

1993). The family name is spelled “Gambrill” in most 

early records, and they were apparently unrelated to 

the huge clan of Gambrells around Anderson, South 

Carolina.

FIGURE 30. Smyth grandchildren eating 

watermelon near the southwest corner of the 

house. (CARL3001/01/01P)

FIGURE 31. Some of the Smyths’ 

grandchildren and, possibly, their chauffeur 

James Robinson, in the backyard at 

Connemara, c. 1910. (CARL3001/01/17P)
32 Connemara Main House HSR

Historical Background & Context

South.88 Gambrill himself remarried and, after the 

Civil War, was living in Charleston. Perhaps while 

visiting her father, Julia met Ellison Smyth.89

The couple remained in Charleston for eleven years, 

with Ellison continuing to work with his uncle in the 

hardware business and also, for a time, in his grandfather Adger’s bank. Their first child, Margaret, was 

born in Charleston in January 1870, and another 

daughter, Julia, arrived in 1872, but lived only four 

years. Six more children died as infants, but in addition to Margaret, four children- - James Adger, 

Annie Pierce, Jane Adger, and Sarah Ann- - were 

born and lived to adulthood.

“Captain” Smyth. During Reconstruction, Smyth 

became an active leader in the organization of rifle 

and saber clubs that sprang up all over the state, 

ostensibly “for social contact and practice in the 

manly exercise of arms” but essentially paramilitary 

organizations that played a key role in ending 

Reconstruction.90 In 1867, Ellison Smyth was an 

organizer and vice- president of the Carolina Rifle 

club, and in 1875, he was elected president of the 

Washington Artillery rifle club and even bought the 

club a battery of artillery from the United States 

Army.91

In 1876, Smyth was “a leader” in the “red shirt 

rebellion” that put Gen. Wade Hampton in the governor’s chair and ended Reconstruction in the 

state.92 The following year, Gov. Hampton 

appointed Smyth captain of the Washington Artillery, which he made a part of a formal state militia. 

Smyth thus gained the moniker Captain Smyth, 

which he carried for the rest of his life.

In the 1870s, the Smyths lived on Legare Street in 

Charleston, next door to his brother Augustine, an 

attorney who would soon begin a sixteen- year stint 

in the state legislature. Their brother James A. 

Smyth was mayor of the city, but as one biographer 

noted, Ellison’s “ambition outweighed opportunity 

in Charleston,” where the devastated economy 

never fully recovered its antebellum strength.93 In 

addition to the phosphate mines along the Ashley 

River, some investors were beginning to look again 

at South Carolina’s nascent textile industry as a 

source of opportunity.

88. “Captain Ellison Adger Smyth,” Cyclopedia of 

Eminent and Representative Men of the Carolinas 

(Madison, WS: Brant & Fuller, 1892), p. 469. According 

to his biography in Dictionary of American Biography 

(NY: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1946), George Pierce kept 

a diary from 1836-1866, which could provide more 

documentation for Julia Gambrill Smyth’s youth.

89. 1850-1860 Federal Census, Muscogee County, 

Georgia; 1870 Federal Census, Charleston, SC.

FIGURE 32. Some of the Smyth grandchildren 

at play near their grandfather’s barns, c. 1915. 

(CARL3001/04/01P)

FIGURE 33. One of the Smyths’ grandchildren 

behind the Main House with front entrance 

to Kitchen visible in background. 

(CARL3001/02/07P)

90. See Jacobs’ The Pioneer for a more-detailed account 

of this phase of Smyth’s life.

91. “Captain Ellison Adger Smyth,” Cyclopedia of 

Eminent and Representative Men of the Carolinas, pp. 

469-470.

92. Bailey, From “Rock Hill” to “Connemara,” p. 36. 

93. “Captain Ellison Adger Smyth,” Cyclopedia of 

Eminent and Representative Men of the Carolinas, p. 

469; Bailey, p. 47.
National Park Service 33

Part I: Developmental History

The Mills

In 1880, in partnership with Francis Joseph Pelzer, 

Jr., and William Lebby, and “unquestionably influenced” by the pioneering work of William Gregg, 

Sr., at Graniteville before the Civil War, Smyth began 

building a model cotton mill, complete with mill 

village, on 500 acres east of Anderson, South Carolina. Christened Pelzer Mills, and with Smyth as its 

president, the operation included four mills with 

nearly 2,000 looms, and more than 3,000 employees 

by 1896. The mill town itself contained more than 

400 mill- worker houses, six stores, a church, and “a 

good hotel.”

Smyth was rarely a passive investor, and in 1881, he 

moved his family to Pelzer, where they lived until 

1887, when Smyth built “a beautiful and attractive 

residence” at 237 Broadus Avenue in Greenville, 

South Carolina. That would be the family’s home 

for nearly forty years. A director of a variety of 

financial and insurance companies, Smyth was 

elected president of the Greenville Board of Trade, 

forerunner of its present Chamber of Commerce, 

and was also president of the Greenville Musical 

Association.94

His success with Pelzer prompted Smyth to organize the Belton Cotton Mills and build two mills at 

Belton, South Carolina, in 1899. By the turn of the 

century, according to an article in the New York 

Times, Smyth represented “as much cotton consumption as any man in the United States, his plants 

consuming 65,000 bales a year.”95 His success at 

Pelzer led to fourteen years of service as president 

of the South Carolina Manufacturers’ Association, 

and in 1901, he was appointed to the United States 

Industrial Commission by President McKinley, the 

only Democrat to serve on that commission under 

that Republican administration.

FIGURE 34. Mr. and Mrs. Smyth in Front Room at Connemara, 1926. (Collection 

of Juliane Heggoy, great-granddaughter of the Smyths).

94. “Captain Ellison Adger Smyth,” Cyclopedia of 

Eminent and Representative Men of the Carolinas, p. 

470.

95. “The Nation’s Prosperity,” New York Times, 2 February 

1901.
34 Connemara Main House HSR

Historical Background & Context

With the success of his mills, Smyth diversified his 

business interests and, by World War I, was on the 

boards of directors of thirty- six corporations and a 

dozen banks.96 Around 1899, he acquired a controlling interest in the Greenville News and, by 1903, was 

its president. Established in 1874, the paper had a 

circulation of under 5,000 but was, nevertheless, a 

significant institution in upstate South Carolina. 

Smyth improved the paper’s production and, in 1914, 

built a new printing plant at the corner of Main and 

Broad streets. The next year, however, he sold his 

interest in the paper to B. H. Peace and retired from 

publishing entirely.97

Connemara

By the turn of the century, Smyth’s mills were generating income that made him one of South Carolina’s wealthiest citizens, and Smyth made the 

decision to buy a second home. He and his wife 

were well into middle age, and while South Carolinians no longer fled to the mountains to escape disease, the oppressive heat and humidity of summer 

provided more than enough reason to continue the 

trek, with Flat Rock remaining a popular retreat.

 The Flat Rock houses did not change hands often, 

and even when they did, they generally continued to 

be owned by descendants, relatives or business 

associates of the original owners. According to his 

granddaughter, Smyth had been acquainted with 

William Gregg, Jr., through the textile business and 

credited the older man, whose father had been a 

pioneer of the southern textile industry, with “so 

much help and inspiration in his [own] business 

accomplishments.” Thus, when Gregg’s widow 

finally decided to sell Rock Hill, it was Smyth who 

took title to the property in December 1900.

Besides rehabilitating the house, Smyth renamed 

Rock Hill, christening it Connemara, reportedly 

because it reminded him of his ancestral Ireland. 

However, as noted earlier, the Smyths were Ulster 

Scots, although the Adgers were apparently Irish,98

and Smyth’s use of Connemara was simply a nod to 

one of Ireland’s most picturesque regions. Located 

in County Galway on the west coast of Ireland, 

Connemara, “the real emerald of Ireland,” is also 

home to an Irish national park of the same name.

With their Charleston roots and their wealth, the 

Smyths fit seamlessly into Flat Rock society, but the 

house was mainly a place for the children and 

grandchildren to while away the summer months. 

With the house opened by the caretaker, the women 

and children arrived in May and stayed until school 

started in September. For the Smyth grandchildren, 

Connemara was a delight, with animals, a golf 

course, and the lakes, woods, and fields to occupy 

their time. Ellison Smyth and his son generally came 

up from Greenville and Pelzer on Friday afternoons, 

catching the return train home on Sunday evening 

96. “Capt. Ellison Smyth, A Manufacturer, 94,” New York 

Times, 3 August 1942.

97. <http://www.scpress.org/newshistory.htm>, accessed 8 

July 2004, provides a brief history of the Greenville 

News.

FIGURE 35. Smyth feeding his fowl, 1931. 

(CARL3001/16/23P)

98. Interview with Mrs. Rogers, one of the Smyths’ 

granddaughters, 3 December 1976, in which she 

states that the Adgers were Irish and the Smyths were 

Scots-Irish.
National Park Service 35

Part I: Developmental History

at the station at East Flat Rock.99 Ellison, or Ellie, as 

he was known to his siblings, was so pleased with 

Connemara that he even persuaded his brother 

Augustine to sell his summer house at Pendleton, 

South Carolina, and move to Flat Rock. In 1908 

“Gus” Smyth bought Many Pines, a couple of miles 

to the east, which he enjoyed until his death in 1914. 

That house is still owned by his descendants today.

Caretakers

Rock Hill had been a working farm and Connemara 

remained one as well. Smyth simply added to and 

adapted Memminger’s old farm complex where he 

raised sheep, hogs, chickens, ducks, turkeys, and a 

herd of perhaps two dozen Guernsey cows.100 Like 

the Memmingers and the Greggs, Smyth appears to 

always have employed a caretaker for the estate, a 

local man who lived on site. In addition to providing 

year- round security, the caretaker and his family 

were responsible for opening the house in the 

spring and closing it down in the fall. They also took 

care of any livestock, planted the vegetable garden 

and flowers in the spring, and did all that was necessary to keep the farm in operation. There were 

always three or four farm “hands” as well, some of 

whom lived in the Buck House.101

The Smyths’ first caretaker, William Slattery, was 

born during the Civil War, reportedly the son of one 

of the Hollingsworth sisters who sheltered the 

escaped soldiers in Seven Months A Prisoner.

102 A 

carpenter, among other occupations, Slattery 

apparently grew up nearby and, as noted above, was 

a caretaker for the Greggs in the 1890s. It is quite 

possible, too, that he worked for the Memmingers 

in the 1880s, although probably not as a caretaker.

In 1912, Smyth had a new house (now known as the 

Farm Manager’s House) constructed for the caretaker. Slattery may not have occupied it at all, however, since around that time he was either fired or 

left of his own accord and took a position managing 

one of the other nearby estates.103 His replacement 

was Ulysses Ballard, whom Smyth’s granddaughter 

remembered as a “splendid caretaker” and who had 

been Slattery’s assistant.104 Born in 1886, Ballard 

married Emily Jane Osteen in 1909, and their first 

child, Frank, was born in January 1910. Ballard 

apparently operated a grocery store in Flat Rock 

prior to working for the Smyths. A daughter was 

born to the Ballards shortly before they moved into 

the new caretaker’s house at Connemara in 1912, and 

four more daughters were born after that. Ulysses 

Ballard would remain caretaker for the estate until 

shortly after it was sold to the Sandburgs in 1945.

Servants

In addition to the caretaker, who lived on the property year- round, the Memmingers, Greggs, and 

Smyths brought at least some of their servants to 

Flat Rock for the summer. Unlike the caretakers, all 

of whom were white, the service staff was typically 

99. Bailey’s From “Rock Hill” to “Connemara” recounts 

many details of the Smyths time at Connemara, as do 

the series of NPS oral interviews with Smyth’s 

granddaughter Mary McKay in 1973.

100. Interview with Mrs. Rogers, Smyth’s granddaughter, 3 

December 1976.

101. Interview with Emily Jane Ballard.

102. Mary McKay interview.

103. The name of Slattery’s employer in 1920 is illegible in 

that year’s census. Mrs. Rogers in her December 1976 

interview thought that there might have been some 

sort of altercation that led to Slattery’s being fired.

104. Bailey, p. 44.

FIGURE 36. James Fisher, c. 1920, Ellison Smyth’s 

valet and, after James Robinson’s death, his 

chauffeur. (CARL3002/10/5P)
36 Connemara Main House HSR

Historical Background & Context

African- American or “mulatto,” and prior to the 

Civil War they were almost always slaves. Some of 

the other servants probably remained behind in 

Charleston or, in the case of the Smyths, Greenville, 

to see to the head of the house who would often 

return home for business. As a result, local people 

were hired to cook and do laundry and other 

chores. Smyth’s granddaughter Mary McKay 

FIGURE 37. Plat of the Smyths’ Connemara in 1944. (CARL 23294)
National Park Service 37

Part I: Developmental History

remembered the Smyths’ cook at Connemara as 

being one Johnny Simmons, but there were probably others as well.

In the winter of 1911- 1912, James Fisher (born about 

1890) went to work for the Smyths, serving as 

Smyth’s valet and butler. Around 1920, he married 

the Smyths’ maid, Carrie, and with their daughters, 

Mary and Benny, the Fishers occupied the socalled Swedish House, which had been built by 

Memminger as a servants’ house in the early 

1850s.105

Ellison Smyth always had a driver or chauffeur as 

well. Until his death in the mid- 1920s, James Robinson (born about 1875 and apparently never married) 

was the chauffeur and resided in the “tenant house,” 

which Smyth moved to its present location around 

1926 or 1927.106 After Robinson’s death, James Fisher 

took over as Smyth’s chauffeur.

Retirement

Ellison Smyth remained active throughout his long 

life, continuing to be involved with the operation of 

his mills and other investments. By the 1920s, however, he must have been contemplating significant 

changes in his life. He had divested himself of his 

interest in the Greenville paper and, in 1920, sold 

Belton Cotton Mills for $4,200,000, although he 

continued management for the new owners for a 

few more years. Then in 1923, he sold Pelzer Mills to 

Lockwood, Green, & Co. of Boston for $9,000,000 

cash. With the proceeds from those sales, Smyth 

established Balfour Mills on some land he bought 

about two miles north of Hendersonville on what is 

now U. S. 25, and installed his son Adger as the mill’s 

manager. He left day- to- day operations to Adger 

and, after the younger Smyth’s untimely death in 

1927 or 1928, to his grandson Adger Smyth, Jr., but 

continued to maintain an office at Balfour until his 

death.107

Exactly how the Smyths came to the decision to 

make Connemara their year- round home is not 

clear, but by the 1920s, Ellison Smyth was in his seventies, and the chore of commuting between Flat 

Rock and Greenville was beginning to wear, even 

with the added convenience of automobiles. 

According to their granddaughter, Julia Smyth was 

less than enthusiastic about moving to Flat Rock. 

105. 1930 Federal Census, Henderson County, NC.

106. 1930 Federal Census, Henderson County, NC. In her 

December 1976 interview, Smyth’s granddaughter 

Mrs. Rogers, mentions Smyth’s relocation of the 

tenant house from its original location off the 

Memminger Walk to a location behind the Main 

House and, from there, to its present location along 

the driveway.

FIGURE 38. Smyth and his dogs on the front porch 

at Connemara. (Collection of Juliane Heggoy, 

great-granddaughter of the Smyths)

FIGURE 39. Sylvene, one of Smyth’s maids, 1937. 

(Collection of Juliane Heggoy, greatgranddaughter of the Smyths)
38 Connemara Main House HSR

Historical Background & Context

While Julia Smyth loved Connemara, their old 

house at 237 Broadus Avenue in Greenville had been 

their home for many years, and her granddaughter 

recalled that Julia “never got over the move from 

Greenville.”108 Nevertheless, the house was rehabilitated and “winterized,” which included replacing 

Memminger’s antebellum addition at the rear of the 

house and installing a central heating system. 

Sometime in 1924, the Smyths relocated to Flat Rock 

for good.109

Smyth received an honorary degree from Presbyterian College in Clinton, South Carolina, the same 

year he moved to Flat Rock. He received another 

honorary degree from the South Carolina Military 

College, now the Citadel, in 1930, but Julia Smyth 

had died in 1927 at the age of 77, still missing the 

Greenville house, and Ellison was alone. He had an 

assistant, Pauline Harvey, but by 1930 she was dead 

and his granddaughter Nancy Blake moved to Connemara to care for him. Later, according to another 

granddaughter, an unmarried cousin of Julia Smyth 

became Smyth’s caregiver.110

Through the 1930s, Smyth continued his regular 

routine, going to his office at Balfour Mills every 

day, and making his rounds at Connemara, feeding 

the chickens and ducks at five o’clock each afternoon and then walking down the hill to the road 

and back with his collie, Laddie.111 In the snowy 

winter of 1941- 1942, however, his health took a turn 

for the worse, with the weather so bad that the doctor had to be driven in an ox cart from the road to 

107. “Smyth, Ellison Adger,” The National Cyclopedia of 

American Biography (NY: J. T. White, 1945), Vol. 33, p. 

398. Balfour Mills was sold to Kimberly-Clark in 1946 

after Ellison Smyth’s death and rechristened Berkley 

Mills.

108. McKay interview.

109. McKay interview.

110. McKay and Emily Jane Ballard interviews; 1930 

Federal Census, Henderson County, NC.

111. Smyth’s granddaughter Mrs. Rogers and Mrs. Emily 

Jane Ballard both recounted Smyth’s afternoon 

routine.

FIGURE 40. Connemara, c. 1940. (CARL3001/01/03P)
National Park Service 39

Part I: Developmental History

the house. Smyth lingered on through the spring 

and into summer, but died in his bed at Connemara 

on 8 August 1942. He was 94.

The New York Times eulogized him as “the dean of 

Southern textile operators,” while one of his biographers hailed him as “one of the South’s greatest 

industrial leaders.”

[H]is success as a cotton mill executive was due not 

only to his business capacity but to an unusual gift for 

managing men. There were never any strikes or other 

labor troubles in his mills. . . . [He was] governed 

throughout his career by the highest standards of personal and business honor, was unostentatious, efficient, and always ready to contribute of his time and 

money to the public welfare. He was deeply interested 

in the history of North and South Carolina and collected a large and valuable library on the subject.112

In the depths of World War II, sale of Connemara 

was not really an option, and although the Ballards 

remained as caretakers, the main house apparently 

remained unoccupied until war’s end. Not until the 

summer of 1945 was an effort made to market Connemara, and within a few days of V- J Day in August 

of that year, Carl Sandburg’s wife was shown the 

place for the first time. A few days later, a purchase 

agreement was signed, and on 18 October 1945, the 

Smyths’ Connemara belonged to the Sandburgs.

The Sandburgs

Since Carl Sandburg’s life has already been well 

documented elsewhere, only a brief summary is 

warranted in this report. He was born on 6 January 

1878 in Galesburg, Illinois, the son of poor Swedish 

immigrants, August and Clara Anderson Sandburg. 

Forced to leave school in order to work and put his 

older sister through school, Sandburg delivered 

milk, worked as a barbershop porter, and managed 

a series of other odd jobs before striking out for the 

west in 1895. Riding freight trains, he worked in 

wheat fields and washed dishes in hotels before 

returning to Galesburg, where he painted houses. 

These hardscrabble years instilled in Sandburg a 

sympathy for working people that he never lost.

When the Spanish- American War erupted in the 

spring of 1898, Sandburg quickly volunteered, serving in the Sixth Illinois Volunteers until that “splendid little war,” as the British ambassador to the 

United States described it, was over in the fall. 

When Sandburg returned to Galesburg, he entered 

Lombard College, which he attended until 1902, 

although he never graduated. Traveling around the 

country after graduation, he sold stereopticon photographs and worked a variety of other jobs before 

112. “Smyth, Ellison Adger,” The National Cyclopedia of 

American Biography (NY: J. T. White, 1945), Vol. 33, p. 

397.

FIGURE 41. Mr. and Mrs. Sandburg in Dining Room 

at Connemara, February 1956. (CARL 12132, 

photographed by John Vachon)

FIGURE 42. The Sandburgs’ grandchildren, Paula 

and John Carl, with their pony Patches, c. 1946. 

(CARL3000/37/02P)
40 Connemara Main House HSR

Historical Background & Context

settling in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he worked 

as an organizer for the state’s Socialist- Democratic 

Party. From 1910 to 1912, Sandburg was private secretary to Milwaukee’s Socialist mayor, but moved to 

Chicago in 1912, where he worked for a time as an 

editorial writer for the Chicago Daily News. While in 

Milwaukee, in 1908, Sandburg met and married Lilian “Paula” Steichen, whose brother Edward was a 

famous photographer. Their first child, Margaret, 

was born in 1911, followed by Janet in 1916 and Helga 

in 1918.

Sandburg began writing poetry, mostly blank verse, 

while in college and the first publication of his 

poems came in 1904. In 1914, Poetry magazine published a collection of his poems, which they 

awarded their Levinson prize. In 1916, his Chicago 

Poems was published, which vaulted him to prominence in the literary community, and set him on a 

career that would bring him international prominence. Sandburg was also a celebrated popular historian and, in 1926, published The Prairie Years, a 

much- acclaimed biography of the young Abraham 

Lincoln. After working eighteen to twenty hours a 

day for three years, he was exhausted. “I died when 

that book was finished,” he later remembered.113 He 

was soon resurrected, however, and in 1940 won the 

Pulitzer Prize for his four- volume work Abraham 

Lincoln: The War Years. In November of that year, 

he was elected to the American Academy of Arts 

and Letters, and in 1951, he was awarded another 

Pulitzer Prize for his Complete Poems.

In 1928, with the profits made from The Prairie 

Years, the Sandburgs were able to buy five acres of 

land at Harbert, Michigan, on the shores of Lake 

Michigan in the extreme southwestern part of the 

state. There, on a bluff above the lake, they built a 

large, comfortable house designed by Mrs. Sandburg herself. While her husband wrote, she and 

their daughter Helga worked the garden and kept 

chickens and rabbits for meat, and at his suggestion, 

goats for milk.114 Beginning with six pure- bred 

dairy goats, Paula and Helga soon went beyond 

milking and cheese making and began breeding and 

showing their herd. In the 1930s, the Sandburgs’ 

Chikaming herd, named for a local Indian tribe, was 

widely known for the high quality and large quantity 

of milk that it produced.115

FIGURE 43. Relaxing in the Front Room at 

Connemara, 1950, left to right, Janet, Margaret, 

Dana Steichen, Mrs. Sandburg, and Ed Steichen, 

watching Sandburg and the grandchildren put on 

a puppet show. (CARL3000.05.15P)

FIGURE 44. Mr. and Mrs. Sandburg and Helga in 

Farm Office, 1946. (CARL 9575, photo by June 

Glenn, Jr.)

113. Eddie Doherty, “'Ghost' of Carl Sandburg Pulls Stakes-

--by Carload,” undated newspaper article, pasted in 

front of Memminger Scrapbook (CARL Coll. 28461)

114. National Park Service, Handbook 117: Carl Sandburg 

Home (Washington, DC: NPS, Division of Publications, 

1982), p. 64.

115. NPS, Handbook 117, p. 64.
National Park Service 41

Part I: Developmental History

Carl Sandburg turned 60 in 1938, his wife turned 60 

in 1940, and by then the harsh Michigan winters 

were becoming harder and harder for them to 

endure. The winds howling off the lake were so bad 

that they had to re- putty the windows every three 

years or so to keep them from rattling, and as Mrs. 

Sandburg put it, they were “sort of frozen out of 

[their] place in Michigan.”116 The goats were an 

issue, too, as Sandburg explained to a reporter 

shortly before they moved.

The soil around here is sandy and unsuited to goats. 

There is a hillside near the Carolina property where 

they can browse and where they can properly develop 

their legs. But we’re mostly going because of Mrs. 

Sandburg. The climate is too cold here in winter. 

There are too many steps in this house and too many 

winding paths that must be walked before you get anywhere.117

For a variety of reasons then, as World War II 

ground to its end in the summer of 1945, Mrs. Sandburg set out with her sister- in- law Dana Steichen 

and Helga in search of a new home “in the general 

area” of Asheville and western North Carolina. She 

had first seen the mountains of western North 

Carolina in the late 1930s as part of a trip to Florida, 

and she remembered that the air was “somehow 

different” there.118

Connemara

They could find nothing suitable and affordable 

around Asheville, but their real estate agent, K.G. 

Morris of Brownlow Jackson Realty119, showed 

them three options around Hendersonville, one of 

which was Connemara. Mrs. Sandburg liked it 

immediately, especially the winding drive, with its 

stone wall and great tall white pines, but she recalled 

that the place was, at $45,000, “way ahead of everything else- - it was a pretty expensive place.”120 Nevertheless, she returned home to report to her 

husband.

In spite of a price he thought “near silly,”121 Sandburg was immediately impressed with the fact that 

the house had been built by Christopher Memminger. In his research for the Lincoln biography, 

116. Interview with Mrs. Sandburg (CARL-4023/2/03), 1967, 

Roll 2.

117. Eddie Doherty, “'Ghost' of Carl Sandburg Pulls Stakes-

--by Carload,” undated newspaper article, pasted in 

front of Memminger Scrapbook (CARL Coll. #28461)

118. Paula Steichen, My Connemara (New York, NY: 

paperback edition, 2002, originally published by 

Harcourt Brace & World, Inc., 1969), p.7.

119. “Noted Poet Buys Smyth Property,” undated 

newspaper clipping. (CARL Coll. 28458)

120. Interview with Mrs. Sandburg (CARL-4023/2/03), 1967, 

Roll 2.

121. Sandburg to Lloyd Lewis, probably January 1946, 

#483, in Herbert Mitgang, ed., The Letters of Carl 

Sandburg (Harcourt & Brace, 1968).

FIGURE 45. Mrs. Sandburg in the Kid Room 

(012) in the ground floor. (CARL 12730, 

photo by June Glenn, Jr.)

FIGURE 46. Mrs. Sandburg and one of her prizewinning goats, c. 1950. (CARL 955)
42 Connemara Main House HSR

Historical Background & Context

Sandburg found Memminger to be an “exceptionally fine man and . . . not one of those who wanted to 

precipitate the Civil War.” Mrs. Sandburg recalled 

that when she told him about Connemara, he 

immediately sent her to get the volume of Lincoln: 

The War Years in which he had written a page and a 

half about Memminger.122

When Carl came down to see for himself, probably 

in August or September 1945, he stood on the front 

porch, took in the magnificent view, and 

announced, “This is the place. We will look no further.” Promising a lecture trip to raise the cash (there 

would be no mortgages on Connemara), the Sandburgs signed a contract straight away.123

Many of the large estates had suffered from deferred 

maintenance during the Depression and World War 

II, and as Mrs. Sandburg remembered later, the 

house at Connemara was in “terrible shape.” Its 

renovation was a major undertaking, costing some 

$50,000 and overseen almost entirely by Mrs. 

Sandburg. She found a local builder, Joe Anders, 

who inspected the house and helped plan the renovation. By the end of September work was underway, even though working out details of the sale 

with the numerous Smyth heirs delayed actual closing of the deal until the middle of October.

Packing was in full swing in Michigan, and by the 

middle of November, twenty- one tons of books 

were on a box car en route to North Carolina. On 

the 19th, “the Missus,” Sandburg wrote a friend, 

Janet, nephew Eric Johnson, and their young 

housekeeper, 22- year- old Adeline Polega left 

Michigan for North Carolina with Adeline driving 

the family’s station wagon towing a trailer full of 

“sixteen blue ribbon Nubian does.” Helga, who had 

recently divorced, her two children, and Margaret 

stayed behind with their father, completing the 

packing and “keeping house amid the ruins,” as 

Sandburg put it. Although the movers were 

expected within a couple of weeks, it was late 

December before they were finally able to leave 

Michigan, only to be met with a severe ice storm that 

delayed their arrival in Flat Rock until the day after 

New Year’s 1946.124

FIGURE 47. Margaret Sandburg behind the 

Main House with one of her paintings. 

(CARL3000/06/11P)

FIGURE 48. Sandburg and his grandchildren, with 

“Connemara Farm Goat Dairy, Flat Rock, N. C.” 

stencilled on the door of the truck, c. 1951. 

(CARL 9556, photo by Faircloth)

122. Interview with Mrs. Sandburg.)CARL-4023/2/03), 1967, 

Roll 7.

123. Interview with Mrs. Sandburg (CARL-4023/2/03), 1967, 

Roll 2.

124. Wallace, p. 20.
National Park Service 43

Part I: Developmental History

Most Flat Rock residents, many of whom were still 

in residence only a few months out of the year, 

appreciated the star in their midst and were at least 

pleased that he did not change the estate’s name 

again. For some, however, Connemara’s ownership 

by a Yankee was always “a bit of a sore spot.” Local 

historian Louise Bailey, who typed for Sandburg for 

a few months in 1946 and greatly admired the man, 

remembered an elderly cousin who opined that 

Sandburg’s Lincoln biography “was probably a very 

great work, but it was a pity that he had wasted so 

much talent on a man like Lincoln.”125

In spite of such sentiments, Sandburg was reported 

to have “had no misgivings about moving from the 

North of his beloved Lincoln to a Southern State, 

once in Confederate territory. ‘If anything,’” he told 

the reporter, “I’ve found the colleges and universities and teaching there even more liberal than in the 

North. Tolerance is there in great measure today.” 126

Adeline Polega came down and stayed until midsummer 1946, helping with the unpacking of thousands of books, but then returned home to 

Michigan. Even the Ballards left in early spring of 

1946, apparently because Frank Ballard did not like 

dealing with the Sandburgs’ goats.127 A new farm 

manager or herdsman, Frank Mintz, was eventually 

found. Around 1954, Leroy Levi was hired as farm 

manager, serving in that position for the rest of the 

Sandburgs’ tenure at Connemara.128

Unlike the Memmingers and the Smyths, the Sandburgs did not employ servants, except for a cook 

and a housekeeper, neither of whom worked full 

time or resided at Connemara. The lack of servants 

was due to the fact, as one friend put it, that the 

Sandburgs “were accustomed to doing things themselves.,129 but rising labor costs after World War II 

prevented many Americans from hiring the domestic help that was common even in many less- thanwell- to- do households before the war. There were 

whispers that Connemara declined under the Sand125. Both quotes taken from an oral interview with Louise 

Bailey on 16 January 1973.

126. Charles E. Marentette, “Lincoln Historian to Go 

South,” undated newspaper clipping. (CARL Coll. 

#28454)

127. Interview with Frank Ballard, 19 October 1982.

128. Memorandum, Historian Dr. George J. Svejda to Chief, 

Office of History and Historic Architecture, Eastern 

Service Center, 24 May 1971.

129. Interview with Louise Bailey, 16 January 1973.

FIGURE 49. The Sandburgs and one of their 

dogs at east end of house, September 1966. 

(CARL3000/03/11P)

FIGURE 50. Mr. and Mrs. Sandburg with kids at 

rear of Connemara, c. 1952. (CARL3000/03/05P)

FIGURE 52. Sandburg in 1952, entertaining 

Paula and John Carl in Room 121. (CARL 9579, 

photo by June Glen, Jr.)
44 Connemara Main House HSR

Historical Background & Context

burgs, but Mrs. Sandburg always said that they simply did not have the money or the manpower to 

keep the place the way the Smyths had. One of 

Smyths’ granddaughters thought that “maybe they 

just had other interests,” and certainly they did.130

There were numerous well- known friends and 

admirers that paid visits to the Sandburgs at Connemara, too, but by and large, the Sandburgs did little 

mixing with the rather insular community around 

them. Sandburg himself enjoyed socializing and 

attending parties when he was traveling and lecturing, but back home at Flat Rock, he was much happier with one or two old family friends, especially 

his brother- in- law Ed Steichen, who remained his 

best friend and visited often.

Sandburg continued to write, incessantly, producing 

more than a third of his life’s work after moving to 

Connemara, including his American epic Remembrance Rock, published in 1948. His wife thought he 

would enjoy using the Crow’s Nest (Room 207) as a 

study, but Sandburg refused, knowing the spectacular view would be a distraction from his work. 

Instead the bedroom (Room 201) at the southwest 

corner of the second floor became his study, with 

the connecting room (Room 202) his bedroom.

 Give me a quiet garret alone

Where I may sit for a few casual callers

 And tell them carelessly, offhandedly,

 “This is where I dirty paper.”

 Thus each poet prays and dreams

The eternal hobo asks for a quiet room

 with a little paper he can dirty,

 with birds who sit where he tells ‘em.131

While his “garret” might be his favorite haunt when 

he did not wish to be disturbed, Sandburg’s “Office” 

(Room 101) was on the first floor, immediately off 

the Front Porch. In reality, however, he worked 

almost anywhere, whether opening mail on the 

Front Porch or in the Dining Room, reading in the 

Front Room, or pulling a chair out onto the great 

rock behind the house when he sought the inspiration of Connemara’s natural beauty. Even the house 

itself seems to have inspired him on occasion:

I was foolish about windows.

The house was an old one and the windows were small

I asked a carpenter to come and open the walls and put 

 in bigger windows.

“The bigger the window the more it costs,” he said.

“The bigger the cheaper,” I said.

So he tore off siding and plaster and lathe

And put in a big window and bigger windows.

I was hungry for windows.

130. McKay interview, 16 January 1973.

FIGURE 51. Carl Sandburg on front steps at 

Connemara, 1956. (CARL 109107, photo by June 

Glenn, Jr.)

FIGURE 53. The Sandburgs in the Kitchen in the 

1960s. (CARL 5000/2-139)

131. Carl Sandburg, “Galuppi,” Breathing Tokens.
National Park Service 45

Part I: Developmental History

Windows were not enlarged at Connemara, 

although muntins were removed, in part to improve 

the view. And while there were window shades, they 

were rarely lowered, and the Sandburgs’ love of 

light kept nearly al of the windows without curtains.

Well into his seventies, Sandburg continued to 

spend six or eight hours a day at his work, and he 

continued to write and lecture for most of his life. 

The spectacular natural beauty of Connemara gave 

tremendous inspiration, right down to the “effulgent thoughtful zinnias who bloomed,” Sandburg 

wrote, for his grandchildren in the summer of 

1953.132

I have seen zinnias give out

with little songs and begging pardon

for the songs being short.

I have seen zinnias claim their rights

to speak promises saying to beholders,

 “Whatever may be your wish, sir or madam,

 I promise you shall have it- - today, tomorrow,

 somewhere over the blue hills and bright valleys,

 it shall be yours to keep- - whatever you wish- -

 we so promise- - we zinnias God made for promising”

I have heard zinnias counseling together 

“Ever the summer is kind to us,

 summer belonging to us as we belong to summer.

 When God said, ‘Let there be summer”

 He also said, ‘And let there be zinnias

 bathed in colors called from sunsets and early stars.’

 And God having so spoken

 how can we be either proud or humble?

 how can we be aught else than quiet blooming zinnias?”

 Thus having heard the zinnias

 I shall go again and again to hear the zinnias.

And as Sandburg wrote, his wife managed a vibrant 

household that included their two oldest children, 

Margaret and Janet, neither of whom ever married. 

Both of the daughters were avid birdwatchers, and 

Margaret maintained her own garden at Connemara, while Janet was the family correspondent and 

inveterate compiler of scrapbooks. The Sandburgs’ 

youngest child, Helga, who was divorced, and her 

two children, John Paul and Paula, also were part of 

the household for the first few years, and Helga’s 

Siamese cats, painting, and bee- keeping were part 

of the scene at Connemara in the late 1940s and 

early 1950s. 

All three daughters assisted their father with typing 

and pulling books, or helping their mother with the 

prize- winning herd of Chikaming goats. The farm

132. Steichen, My Connemara, pp. 118-119.

FIGURE 54. Sandburg and Leslie Dunlop in his Book 

Room (Room 018), 1956. (CARL 9548, photo by 

Depew))

FIGURE 55. Ella, the Sandburg’s housekeeper and 

cook, July 20, 1967. (CARL3000/14/12P))
46 Connemara Main House HSR

Historical Background & Context

complex was far enough from the house that the 

noise from milking and other activities would not 

disturb Sandburg’s writing and that had been a significant selling point in the first place. Nevertheless, 

the house itself, particularly the ground floor, on 

occasion became a nursery for the newborn kids, 

which were raised with as much care and attention 

as any purebred puppy or kitten.

In February 1951, the Sandburgs saw their youngest 

daughter Helga remarried, and she and the children 

moved to a new home in Falls Church, Virginia, near 

Washington, D. C. It was quieter and probably 

somewhat lonesome with them gone, but Margaret 

moved downstairs into Helga’s old bedroom (Room 

104), using the Children’s Room (Room 107) as a 

personal study. Janet had more room, too, and 

began to use Margaret’s old bedroom (Room 214) to 

watch television.

“Paula [his nickname for Mrs. Sandburg] is a wonder in all ways as a helpmeet,” Sandburg wrote his 

publisher in the fall of 1953.

She is steadily reducing the herd but so long as she 

stays ambulant she will be breeding goats as her 

brother does delphiniums: it is a genius with her and 

the goat industry idolizes her for her knowledge and 

lighted enthusiasms. Janet says, ‘I love this place and 

hope we never move from it’: she enjoys her chores 

with goats, chickens, the garden and butter making. 

Margaret has become widely read, a scholar who often 

surprises me with her erudition, knows the Bible and 

Shakespeare better than I do.133

In 1956, Sandburg, who knew the scholarly value of 

the books and papers he had accumulated, decided 

to sell a large part of his library to the University of 

Illinois for $30,000. He made the decision almost 

“on impulse,” Margaret thought, and for her, it was a 

“traumatic experience” that summer to watch as the 

University’s Leslie Dunlop picked through Sandburg’s library, selecting some 6,000 volumes that 

were carried away. Even then, there remained over 

12,000 books at Connemara, and only later did 

Helga admit to hiding some of the books in which 

she was most interested in her closet.

Sandburg celebrated his eightieth birthday in 1958, 

but he continued to travel and lecture. In February 

1959 he appeared before a joint session of Congress 

which he addressed in honor of the 150th anniverFIGURE 56. Mr. and Mrs. Sandburg on Front Porch, February 

1957. (CARL 13015, photo by Barber)

FIGURE 57. Helga Sandburg and children at 

Connemara, 1946. (CARL300/08/23P) 

FIGURE 58. Carl Sandburg on the Front Porch at 

Connemara, 1952. (CARL 2675, photo by June 

Glenn, Jr.) 133. Herbert Mitgang, ed., The Letters of Carl Sandburg, 

(1968), p. 495.
National Park Service 47

Part I: Developmental History

sary of Lincoln’s birth, and in 1960- 1961 he spent 

several months in Hollywood as script consultant 

for The Greatest Story Ever Told.

When Sandburg returned from California, however, 

his step was noticeably slower, and in 1963 he was 

hospitalized. After that, he rarely left Connemara. In 

September 1965, his health was so poor, Mrs. Sandburg had a hospital bed brought into her bedroom. 

On 22 July 1967, he “breathed away” into death, and 

Mrs. Sandburg told the press, “Now Carl belongs to 

the ages.” A simple funeral was held at St. John in the 

Wilderness, where a Unitarian minister spoke a 

eulogy full of Sandburg’s poetry. The organist 

played “John Brown’s Body” and “Shout All Over 

God’s Heaven,” the bell tolled once, and it was 

over.134 As he wished, Sandburg’s body was cremated and the ashes were interred beneath a great 

granite boulder behind his birthplace in Galesburg, 

Illinois. When his wife died ten years later, her ashes 

joined his.

All my life I have been trying to learn to read, to see 

and hear, and to write. At sixty- five I began my first 

novel, and the five years lacking a month I took to finish it, I was still traveling, still a seeker. . . . It could be, 

in the grace of God, I shall live to be eighty- nine, as did 

[the Japanese poet] Hokusai, and speaking my farewell 

to earthly scenes, I might paraphrase: "If God had let 

me live five years longer I should have been a 

writer."135

Mrs. Sandburg soon made up her mind to offer the 

place to the Federal government as a memorial to 

her husband. Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall 

was an old friend of the Sandburgs and, after a visit 

to Connemara in October 1967, threw his weight 

behind the project. A deed of gift for the house and 

its contents was signed by Mrs. Sandburg in July 

1968136 and on 17 October 1968 President Lyndon 

Johnson approved the Congressional Act creating 

the Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site.137

In the summer of 1969, Mrs. Sandburg, Margaret, 

and Janet moved out of Connemara and into their 

new home in Asheville.

134. Steichen, My Connemara, p. 176.

135. Preface to Complete Poems.

136. Henderson County Deed Book 468, p. 321.

137. Public Law 90-592.

FIGURE 59. Mrs. Sandburg, her brother Ed 

Steichen, and Helga Sandburg, relaxing in 

the Dining Room (112) after Sandburg’s 

funeral, 24 July 1967. (CARL3000/05/50P)
48 Connemara Main House HSR

Historical Background & Context
National Park Service 49

From its construction, which was more or less complete by July 1839, until its acquisition by the 

National Park Service in 1969, the Main House at 

Connemara was home to four families: the Memmingers, the Greggs, the Smyths, and the 

Sandburgs. Prior to 1924 when the Smyths adapted 

the house for year- round residential use, it was 

occupied only about four months out of the year. 

Until the late nineteenth century, when epidemics 

of malaria, yellow fever, and cholera finally began to 

be controlled, the Memmingers generally left 

Charleston around the end of June and did not 

return until the threat of disease began to fade in 

late October or early November. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, “the season” at 

Flat Rock generally ran from late May into September. From 1924 until 1942 and again from 1945 until 

1969, when it became a national historic site, the 

house was a year- round residence.

As with most old buildings, there have been a variety of alterations and additions to the house that 

Christopher Memminger built in 1838- 1839. These 

include alterations to the original interior and a 

large addition that Memminger himself made 

around 1848 as well as a series of late- Victorian 

alterations and additions that were most likely made 

by the Greggs shortly after they bought the property 

in 1889. In 1924, Smyth replaced Memminger’s 

addition and adapted the house for year- round 

occupancy. The last major changes occurred in the 

two or three years immediately following World 

War II when the Sandburgs made significant alterations to the house as they adapted it for their own 

use. This section of the Historic Structure Report 

summarizes the physical construction, modification, and use of the structure, with the text based on 

historical documentation supported by first- hand 

observation and materials analysis. 

The Sandburgs’ early alterations to the house are 

well documented through a large series of invoices 

and letters relating to the renovations after World 

War II, most of them among Mrs. Sandburg’s papers 

now in the park’s collection. In addition, the Southern Historical Collection at the University of North 

Carolina in Chapel Hill has a collection of Memminger papers that includes an account book that 

Memminger kept of his expenses related to the 

construction and operation of Rock Hill between 

1838 and 1862.138 Entitled “Account of Expenditures 

for a/c of Buncombe Establishment,” it provides significant amounts of information, especially for the 

early part of that period.

The park has also collected a large number of historic photographs over the last thirty- five years. 

While the earliest of these is probably no earlier 

than the 1870s, there are a large number of images 

from the Smyth era in the park’s collection and with 

images from the collections of Smyths’ greatgrandchildren William McKay and Julianne Heggoy 

have been indispensable in establishing the building’s chronology.

Reconstructed floor plans and typical molding 

details for each period in the house’s evolution 

can be found at the end of this section.

Materials analysis has been limited mostly to visual 

inspection of accessible portions of the building, 

and it was not possible to open walls and ceilings to 

establish all framing details. An analysis of selected 

painted finishes and mortars produced much useful 

information, but it too was limited by the nondestructive nature of the present study. (See Appendix for details of paint analysis.)

138. C. G. Memminger Papers (#502).

Chronology of 

Development and Use
50 Connemara Main House HSR

Chronology of Development and Use

In spite of these limitations, an inventory and analysis of the building’s historic material fabric reveal a 

typical pattern of material design and use (and reuse) for each generation of changes to the building. 

Where alterations are not mentioned in the historical documentation- - which is the case more often 

than not, particularly during the Gregg and Smyth 

eras- - identification and dating of alterations has 

depended on differences in materials, design, and 

technology. While the sum of archival, photographic, and physical evidence establishes a 

chronology for the house’s historic evolution, all 

questions regarding the building have not been 

resolved, and the building’s floor plan as it existed 

prior to the alterations in the late 1840s can only be 

hypothesized.

The Memmingers’ 

Rock Hill

As noted in the previous section of this report, 

Memminger made his first recorded visit in search 

of property around Flat Rock in the fall of 1836. “Of 

course,” he wrote in his journal,

the first comers had the best sites for residences. 

But as I also wanted a farm I could not be so 

easily furnished as the land near Flat Rock is 

miserably barren. Nevertheless after much 

cruising I at last found a place that would suit 

very well and authorized the Count to purchase 

it if it could be had, on Mr. Baring tendering to 

let me have some of his contiguous land and the 

use of a spring from an elevation of his land.

Memminger was in Flat Rock for only a little over a 

week that October of 1836, but in addition to finding 

land, he wrote,

We also sketched the plan of a kitchen to be built 

for our occupation next summer on the spot,- - -

a project by the way of which I am rather 

doubtful because my kitchen is rather too fine an 

affair. I ought to hire Mr. King’s house if possible 

and build at once.139

However, the economic downturn that began early 

in 1837 apparently stalled Memminger’s idea to 

“build at once,” nor did he move forward on constructing his kitchen, which journal entries show he 

did not begin constructing until 1838. In the meantime, he must have reached some sort of agreement 

with Baring for the land, and in the late fall of 1837 

began some preliminary work, including construction of a bridge across the creek at the foot of the 

hill.

Design

In planning his house, Memminger consulted an 

architect, and as was discussed in the previous section of this report, he could not have chosen a more 

fashionable architect than Charles F. Reichardt. 

Unfortunately no documentation exists for their 

relationship beyond a single account book entry, 

which appears to have been entered after the fact, 

noting that Memminger paid fifty dollars to “Reichardt for plans” in July 1838. Later in 1838, 

Reichardt prepared plans for Beth Elohim Synagogue, in Charleston, whose building had been 

destroyed in the April fire that also destroyed Reichardt’s Charleston Hotel. The congregation paid 

Reichardt one hundred dollars for “a plan of the 

Exterior & Interior of the Synagogue,”140 and 

although the synagogue ultimately did not use his 

design, the transaction may give an indication of the 

relative amount of work for Memminger’s house at 

Flat Rock.

Nothing has survived of any drawings or specifications that Reichardt might have produced for 

Memminger, although a plan, a page or two of specifications for materials, and elevations were likely 

produced to guide construction. In addition, Reichardt’s career is so poorly documented that it is 

impossible to say what was characteristic of his 

work, beyond perhaps a few generalizations about 

his monumental work.

In addition, the house that was finally constructed 

for Memminger had some stylish Greek details, but 

neither its plan nor much of its architectural detail 

were particularly innovative. Indeed, some design 

details could be found in the widely used pattern 

books of Asher Benjamin, especially The Builder’s 139. Both quotations were published in Patton, Flat Rock, 

p. 39, and in Memminger, Flat Rock, p. 13. Although 

dates conflict in those published accounts, references 

to “Friday, October 14” prove 1836 to be the date of 

these journal entries.

140. Lane, Architecture of the Old South: South Carolina, 

p. 192.
National Park Service 51

Part I: Developmental History

Guide, which went through numerous editions and 

provided the design for much of the moldings, 

ornaments, mantels, and mill work used in the first 

half of the nineteenth century in the United States.

In his journal in October 1836, Memminger wrote 

that “we also sketched out a plan for a kitchen,” but 

the identity of who assisted him in the plan is not 

clear. His foster father, Thomas Bennett, was an 

amateur architect of sorts, and Jefferson Bennett, 

Memminger’s traveling companion on that trip, may 

have had a similar interest and could have helped 

Memminger sketch out the kitchen. With the Bennett family’s long- standing interests in lumber 

mills, Memminger would have access to all sorts of 

advice and assistance, including pattern books, and 

planning construction of his house at Rock Hill 

would not have been an unusual task for him to 

undertake. 

Greek Revival. Memminger had probably already 

set his sights on a Greek Revival design prior to 

contacting Reichardt, which is not surprising given 

the acclaim surrounding the Charleston Hotel, the 

reconstruction of which after it burned in April 1838 

was getting underway only a few blocks from Memminger’s house. As James Fenimore Cooper wrote 

that same year,

The public sentiment just now runs almost 

exclusively and popularly into the Grecian 

school. We build little besides temples for our 

churches and banks, our taverns, our 

courthouse and our dwellings. A friend has just 

built a brewery on the model of the Temple [sic] 

of the Winds!141

While his comments were given tongue- in- cheek, 

Cooper’s perception of the popularity of Greek 

Revival was accurate, especially in the South where 

it was only then just being built on a wide scale.

The genesis of the style came in 1762 with publication in Britain of James Stuart’s and Nicholas Rivet’s 

Antiquities of Athens, which included measured 

drawings of the Choragic Monument of Lysicrates, 

the Temple on the Ilissus, the Tower of the Winds, 

and the Parthenon, buildings that inspired design 

throughout the Greek Revival period. Already 

Rome had provided the models for Palladio, Wren, 

and Jefferson’s Classicism and much else, but Benjamin Latrobe, the nation’s first trained architect, 

was the first to use and even prefer Greek details in 

his designs, beginning as early as the late 1790s.

His pupils and successors, especially Robert Mills, 

William Strickland, William Small, Gideon Shryock, 

and Thomas U. Walter, generally followed and 

expanded on his example and with Ithiel Town and 

Alexander Jackson Davis did much of the best work 

in the early American Greek Revival. Reichardt, 

though not as prolific as that pantheon of greats, 

brought with him a Prussian sense of the style that 

the late architectural historian Mills Lane thought 

quite significant to the Greek Revival movement.142

Robert Mills, who was born in Charleston in 1781, 

worked for Latrobe off and on for more than a 

decade, before returning to Columbia, South Carolina, in 1820 and is credited with introducing the 

Greek Revival into the South. His success was considerable, and his work was part of a movement that 

transformed the Greek Revival from a rather 

obscure, avant garde style into a national craze that 

did not run its course until the Civil War.

In spite of claims to the contrary by contemporary 

commentators, Greek Revival buildings were rarely, 

if ever, purely Greek in design and certainly not in 

their manner of construction. A striving for perfect 

copies could be accommodated through pattern 

books such as those of Minard Lefever and Asher 

Benjamin, which were crucial to the widespread use 

of Greek design details. But adaptation and innovation, not slavish reproduction, marked the best of 

the Greek Revival, whether architect- designed or a 

vernacular interpretation by an obscure builder. As 

a result, the American Greek Revival as it developed 

in the second quarter of the nineteenth century, 

produced thousands of adaptations that, at the far 

end of the spectrum, might be little more than the 

presence of a vaguely Greek- inspired entrance or 

Greek columns holding up the front porch. Such 

was the house that Memminger built at Rock Hill, 

which might lead one to question whether Reichardt’s plans for Memminger were executed at all.

141. Lane, Architecture of the Old South: South Carolina, 

p. 195.

142. See especially Roger Kennedy, Greek Revival America 

(New York, NY: Stewart, Tabori, & Chang, 1989)
52 Connemara Main House HSR

Chronology of Development and Use

FIGURE 60. Opening page of Memminger’s Account Book for Rock Hill, photocopy from 

microfilm. (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Southern Historical Collection.)
National Park Service 53

Part I: Developmental History

Wood- framed and weatherboarded, Memminger’s 

house was certainly not a Greek temple, and even 

with an addition to the rear in the 1840s, it remained 

a relatively small house, especially when compared 

to Wade Hampton’s Millwood and Anderson’s Milford, two of the more spectacular residential designs 

that some have credited to Reichardt. Though not 

grand, Memminger’s house included a stonewalled ground floor that raised the first floor eight 

to nine feet above grade at the front of the house. 

The house’s front- gabled portico is too steep to be 

properly Greek, but its four fluted Doric columns, 

which originally sat on shallow square plinths, are 

thoroughly Greek in their sturdy proportions, and 

the entire ensemble must have made a strong 

impression amid the Federal and plain- style architecture that Memminger’s predecessors at Flat Rock 

constructed in the late 1820s and early 1830s. Today, 

even without the original portico balustrades, which 

were executed in a sheaf- of- wheat design used 

throughout the Classical Revival period,143 Memminger’s house on its magnificent terraced site part 

way up Glassy Mountain has an aura of classical 

grandeur unequaled in the area.

Plan. There is strong evidence that the original 

house, which included the stone- walled portion of 

the ground floor and the story and a half above, was 

also altered at a very early date, most likely when the 

house was expanded to the rear in the late 1840s. 

Differences in architectural details, painted finishes, 

and apparent anomalies in the framing all suggest 

early alterations. Specifically, framing for the floor 

opening for the ground floor stairs (the staircase 

itself is gone) is not mortised into adjacent beams 

and joists, as would be expected if the stairs had 

been constructed in the 1830s, indicating that they 

are almost certainly not an original feature. Oddly 

angled framing members and other irregularities 

along the west side of the central chimney suggested 

the possibility that it might not have been part of the 

house’s original construction either, although mortar analysis does not support that idea.

Variations in molding profiles indicate two types of 

six- panel doors and two types of door casing associated with the antebellum period. These 

differences suggest that the west wall of the Farm

143. The Greek Revival was part of a larger revival of 

interest in the classical architecture of both Hellenic 

Greece and Imperial Rome.

FIGURE 61. The floor plan that Reichardt 

originally designed for Memminger might have 

been similar to these, although without the 

curving stair. Top, Lowther Hall (1822), Clinton, 

Georgia; center, Brown-Sandford House (1822), 

Milledgeville, Georgia; bottom, Jackson House, 

Gaines, Alabama (1830)
54 Connemara Main House HSR

Chronology of Development and Use

Office (Room 113) was added after the house’s original construction, although it has not been possible 

to retrieve the paint samples that might confirm or 

refute that suggestion.

While these issues might have alternative explanations, the preponderance of evidence suggests that 

there were major alterations to the stair hall at an 

early date. Reichardt and other architects of the 

Early Classical Revival eschewed the traditional, 

front- to- rear, center hall in favor of a stair hall at 

the rear connecting to a narrower but usually longer 

front hall in a T- shaped plan. A glance at the 

present plan of the house shows that such a plan 

would have been entirely possible within the original house, although how it might have been carried 

out in terms of stair design and door placement 

remains entirely speculative.

Original Characteristics. The original house 

included the present stone foundation and woodframed story and a half above that. There were at 

least two brick chimneys, ending in simple corbeled 

courses without the arched brick flue covers that 

were added at a later date.

Much of the original 5”- wide lap siding remains 

intact, but the original roof covering would most 

likely have been wood shingles. The deeply molded 

corner blocks and casing on the front of the house 

are original features, as is the plain beaded casing 

that was used at the windows (e.g., W- 36) on the 

sides and presumably the rear of the original house.

Interior walls and ceilings were plaster on split lath 

on the first and second floor and many of these 

remain intact, although first- floor ceilings are hidden by the lower, twentieth- century ceilings, except 

in the Stair Hall (Room 115). Ceilings in the dining 

room and sitting room (now Rooms 001 and 002) on 

the north side of the ground floor were paneled with 

wide, beaded, tongue- and- groove boards, twothirds of which remain in place. According to Memminger’s account book, the stone walls in these two 

rooms were plastered in 1841, but practically all of 

that material has now disappeared.

Floors were wooden on all three floors, with the 

ground floor flooring probably on locust sleepers 

laid directly on the earth. The ground floor flooring 

has been lost, but original 5”- to 8”- wide boards are 

FIGURE 62. View of Rock Hill, from stereo graph, perhaps as early as the 1870s, part of 

the park’s Memminger collection and the earliest image of the house. (CARL 28466)
National Park Service 55

Part I: Developmental History

concealed beneath later oak flooring on the first 

floor but are exposed on the second floor.

The original window sash were all double- hung, 

some with counterweights, with nine- over- nine 

sash at the first floor and six- over- six at the ground 

and second floor windows. Original sash remain in 

most windows, although nearly all of the original 

muntins were removed by the Sandburgs. The original six- panel exterior doors in the ground floor 

remain largely intact as well, although some panels 

were replaced with glass by the Sandburgs. The 

original six- panel front doors on the first floor were 

all replaced in the 1920s.

The two- panel doors on the second floor are also 

original and, like the exterior doors, have raised, 

square- edged panels on one side and flat panels 

without molding on the reverse. On the first floor, 

the original six- panel doors remain at the openings 

between Rooms 102 and 104, Rooms 115 and 118, and 

Rooms 115 and 121. These doors also have raised, 

square- edged panels on one side, but the flat panels 

on the reverse are finished with a 1”- wide, doubleogee bed mold.

Baseboards in the original house were typically 8” 

to 9” high with a bead along the upper edge. 

Whether or not a shoe mold was present is not 

clear. Picture moldings or rails were almost universal in the nineteenth century as a way of hanging 

pictures and other items without the necessity of 

damaging the plaster by insertion of nails. Two 

images of the Smyths in the Front Room (102) in 

1926 show what appears to be a picture rail in Sandburg’s Office (101), but the quality of the images is 

such that it cannot be characterized. It appears to 

have been set at approximately the present ceiling 

height in that room, or about two feet below the 

original ceiling height.

The original deeply molded interior casing, similar 

to that used on the exterior, remains at the exterior 

doors and at the windows but with plain, unmolded 

corner blocks. On the main floor of the house, only 

three of the original windows (W- 15, W- 17, W- 35) 

retain the original molded panel below the opening, 

and all have lost their muntins. Two original windows were turned into doors (D- 25 and D- 37) by 

removing the sash and the molded panel but the 

original casing remains in place.

Contractor and Craftsmen

As noted in the historical background, Memminger 

contracted with James B. Rosamond to build the 

main house, a stable (which may no longer be 

extant), and the kitchen (converted into the present 

garage by the Sandburgs).144 Hiring Rosamond was 

probably Memminger’s most crucial decision, since 

the builder could be as important as the architect in 

determining the final appearance of the house. His 

judgment in interpreting what were probably very 

limited, at least by modern standards, architectural 

specifications was especially critical, but Memminger seems to have chosen well, since there is no 

record of the sort of disputes that sometimes cloud 

the builder/client relationship.

Among Memminger’s first payments was a sevendollar charge for “Oliver Smith, Stone Masons 

wages,” paid on 7 April 1838. That is the only payment to Smith, however, and there is no mention of 

the scope of the work he performed. Four days later 

Memminger paid “Expenses of John Kenney in 

going to Buncombe,” and a couple of weeks later he 

paid similar expenses for “Doogan.” Both were 

masons in Charleston, young men in their twenties, 

perhaps just starting their careers since Memminger 

recorded purchasing “sundry tools” for the brick 

mason, John Kenney, in April 1838. Born in Ireland 

about 1811, Kenney continued to work as a mason 

throughout his life, but is also credited with being a 

“leading builder and contractor” in Charleston after 

the Civil War. 145 Kenney appears to have worked 

through the summer, returning the following year to 

complete his work, which would have included at 

least the chimneys in the kitchen and the main 

house, all of which were constructed of brick on 

stone foundations. Less is known about Patrick 

Dugan, the stone mason, except that he, too, was 

born in Ireland, around 1815.

Numerous names appear in Memminger’s account 

book, the most frequent perhaps being Kinson 

Middleton, whom Memminger made his overseer 

in 1839, and Joseph Kirkendall, both of whom lived 

nearby. In addition, Memminger apparently 

employed at least one slave, Peter, at Rock Hill.146 In 

1838, 1839, and 1840, Memminger listed annual pay144. Park staff indicate that the building may have been 

substantially rebuilt in the twentieth century prior to 

the Sandburg era.

145. Poston, The Buildings of Charleston, p. 326.
56 Connemara Main House HSR

Chronology of Development and Use

ments of $70 as “wages for Peter,” but it is not clear if 

Memminger was paying one of his own slaves for 

work, which is unlikely, or was renting Peter from 

someone else. There are also payments to “carpenter Ben,” but they are less frequent than those to 

Peter, who was also described as a carpenter in one 

or two ledger entries.

Materials

Memminger’s son Edward recalled that “in early 

days, before dynamite, the quarry on Tranquility 

was the only workable quarry in the settlement and 

it furnished rock for most of the houses built at that 

time.”147 Only later, apparently, did the more prominent quarry near the present Flat Rock Playhouse 

come into operation. An enormous amount of stone 

had to be hauled up to the building site, and on 18 

April 1838 Memminger paid a hundred dollars for a 

yoke of oxen and a cart. There was apparently more 

work than the oxen could handle, and in July, he 

bought a pair of mules and a wagon as well. His 

account book records constant use of these animals, 

which sometimes made trips as far as Green River to 

retrieve materials.

Memminger’s son also recalled that “at the time fine 

work was not possible, so the house was built from 

hewn sills and beams... the same being true of all 

pioneer settlers.”148 In this he was slightly mistaken. 

True, the house was built with hand- hewn sills and 

beams, but the bulk of the lumber, including joists, 

studs, and rafters, was mill sawn, almost certainly at 

one of the nearby sawmills. Brick, too, may have 

been produced locally as well, although by whom, 

we do not know. The source of neither the brick nor 

the lumber can be determined, since these were 

apparently included in Rosamond’s initial bid, and 

except for occasional hauling charges, do not 

appear in Memminger’s account book.

Memminger paid for nails (500 pounds in 5 kegs), 

paint, glass, lime, mill work, and hardware, some 

perhaps through local suppliers, but all ultimately 

shipped from Charleston by train to Aiken and then 

by mule- or ox- drawn wagons the rest of the way. 

Some of the woodwork, including the two- panel 

doors and some of the simpler moldings, may have 

been made by Rosamond or his assistants, probably 

on site, but the deeply molded casing and corner 

blocks used at window and door openings on the 

front of the house and on primary interior elevations were largely machine- made and probably 

shipped in from Charleston.

Frank Ballard, in interviews in the 1970s, believed 

that the late Victorian mantels now in the park’s 

curatorial storage were original and had been 

imported from England. While those mantels 

clearly date to the late nineteenth century, Ballard 

might have been recalling a tradition that the building’s original mantels, which remain in Rooms 102, 

104, and 121, in fact were imported from England.149

If this is true, Memminger made no notation of the 

fact in his account book, since their cost also was 

probably included in Rosamond’s original bid.

Memminger also did not account specifically for the 

Carpenter and Co. locks that remain at the bedroom 

doors on the second floor. Patented in 1820 and 

predating 1851 when the name was changed to Carpenter and Tildesly, all of these locks were imported 

from England, although Rosamond or Memminger 

probably acquired them from a domestic supplier in 

Charleston.150 That they are installed with flattipped screws is evidence that they were part of the 

original construction and not the building campaign 

in the late 1840s, by which time pointed screws were 

in use.

Construction

Although Memminger did not begin his account of 

expenditures at his “Buncombe establishment” until 

1 April 1838, he records then that one of the local 

men, Noah P. Corn,151 had built a bridge on the new 

property in late fall of 1837, presumably to provide 

access from Crab Creek Road (now Little River 

Road) to the hillside on which Memminger planned 

to build. Early in 1838, work must have also begun to 

146. In his account book, Memminger appears to always 

reference his white craftsmen by their surnames, 

while the slaves or servants are known only by a first 

name.

147. Memminger, Rock Hill, p. 23.

148. Quoted in Bailey, From Rock Hill to Connemara, p. 18.

149. A fourth wooden mantel, similar to the one in Mrs. 

Sandburg’s Room (121), is stored in the wood shed.

150. See <http://www.localhistory.scit.wlv.ac.uk/Museum/

locks/gazetteer/gazcaa-chu.htm>, accessed 10 August 

2004.

151. It is not clear if this is the Noah P. Corn listed as a 

potter in the 1850 Buncombe County census, nor is it 

clear his relationship to Peter Corn who was listed as a 

stone cutter in the 1850 Henderson County census.
National Park Service 57

Part I: Developmental History

create a building site on the steep slope of Glassy 

Mountain.

If Memminger did not arrive at Flat Rock with his 

masons, he must have come up soon afterward.152

He appears to have made three trips to Flat Rock 

that year, the first in March or April, another in July, 

and a final trip in October. In the meantime, 

Rosamond was left to supervise construction while 

Middleton appears to have directed much of the 

clearing and fencing and grading that went on 

simultaneously. Sometimes Memminger left money 

with Middleton or Rosamond to cover expenses, 

especially payment of laborers. Other times, neighbor Andrew Johnstone or a “Colonel Lucas” were 

apparently called upon to advance cash until Memminger’s next visit.

Kenney and Dugan, Memminger’s masons from 

Charleston, were in Flat Rock to begin work sometime in the second or third week in March 1838.153 In 

April 1838, Memminger purchased a team of oxen 

and, two weeks later, a team of mules, and hauling 

of stone for the masons must have been well underway. Memminger paid freight on a stone cutter, too, 

even though only window and door sills and headers appear to have been dressed in any but the 

roughest manner. Both Kenney, the brick mason, 

and Dugan, the stone mason, probably worked on 

the stone foundation, and by early August, it was 

mostly complete. Probably in August, 16,000 brick 

were hauled to the site, and Kenney began work on 

the chimneys.

Rosamond must have begun work in early April 

1838, since Memminger made an advance payment 

to him on the eleventh, and while the masons were 

at work, Rosamond appears to have been constructing the stable and the kitchens, probably in 

that order. In July 1838, painting of “two houses” 

was added to his contract, but it is not clear if this 

152. Entries in Memminger’s account book are sometimes refers to the main house and the kitchen or the 

difficult to interpret, due to double-entry bookkeeping in which credits and debits do not always 

match, but the general progress of the work can be 

discerned

FIGURE 63. Detail from view of Rock Hill, taken prior to the late Victorian additions and 

alterations that were made around 1890, with Memminger’s antebellum addition 

partially visible at left. Note the absence of stairs to the front porch. (CARL3001/01/48P, 

photo by Baker Barber)

153. On 4 August 1838, Memminger paid his mason for 

nineteen weeks work.
58 Connemara Main House HSR

Chronology of Development and Use

kitchen and stables, or some other buildings.154 By 

the time the ground floor walls were finished in 

August, Rosamond would have had sills hewn, his 

sawmill lumber delivered, and if he had not done so 

already, begun framing the main house. His goal 

surely would have been to get the house framed, 

roofed, and “dried in” by the time the rains and cold 

weather returned in November. It is not clear if 

work continued straight through the winter, but 

there was probably a break in activity from shortly 

before Christmas until around the first of March 

1839.155

In early April, Memminger paid for 13- 1/2 kegs of 

white lead and a single keg of green paint, which 

would have been used on the exterior, the initial 

color scheme of which was almost certainly white 

with green shutters. Final painting or wallpapering 

of the interior plaster would have been delayed until 

1840 or 1841, in order to give the plaster time to cure, 

although curing plaster could be given a temporary 

covering with a water- soluble distemper paint in 

the meantime.

The major part of the work was complete and the 

house was at least partially furnished by the time the 

Memmingers arrived at Flat Rock near the end of 

July 1839. Memminger made his last payment to 

Rosamond on 4 January 1840, and he sold the oxen, 

mules, and wagon in February. Some work continued after that, and Memminger appears not to have 

concluded his accounting for the original construction of Rock Hill until 1842.

Addition, 1848

Edward Memminger recalled that the house was not 

constructed all at once but that “ground was later 

removed on the back side and the house increased 

in size.”156 The park’s earliest historic photographs 

154. The added charge was only $25.

155. There are no account book entries for January and 

February of 1838.

FIGURE 64. The Smyth grandchildren on a home-made merry-go-round, perhaps around 

1915, showing one of the most detailed views of Memminger’s antebellum addition. 

(CARL3003/01/05P)
National Park Service 59

Part I: Developmental History

document the nineteenth- century additions at the 

rear of the house, of which there appear to have 

been two. The addition to which Edward Memminger referred was no doubt the range of rooms 

and a porch that were torn down and replaced with 

the present kitchen, dining room, and bedroom in 

the 1920s. Since practically all physical evidence of 

this addition was obliterated in 1924, it would be 

virtually impossible to date its construction were it 

not for Memminger’s account book. His account 

book records what appear to have been three significant building campaigns at Rock Hill during the 

antebellum period. For each of these, Memminger 

records the acquisition of building materials and 

payments to workers, but does not state specifically 

what was being done, except in general terms such 

as “Improvements” or “Work on the House.” Only 

the Ice House project, from 1847, is mentioned specifically by name.

However, quantities of materials and certain aspects 

of the work that were recorded suggest that the first 

campaign occurred in 1841 when the carpenters 

known only as Ben and Peter, who were almost certainly slaves, built a small servant’s house probably 

for the cook, just south of the kitchen. Undocumented elsewhere except on a sketch map 

(probably done around 1855) in Memminger’s 

account book, it is too small to have been the product of the two later campaigns. In the late 

nineteenth or early twentieth century, this servant’s 

house was converted into a wash house by the 

Smyths and called the “Chicken House” by the 

Sandburgs), 

Significant amounts of work were also recorded in 

1848- 1849 under the heading of “Work on House” 

and in 1850- 1853 under the heading of “Improvements.” The largest quantity of stone work appears 

to have occurred in the 1850s and was probably 

associated with construction of the stone foundation and chimney for the main servants’ house, the 

so- called Swedish House. The account book 

entries in 1848- 1849 are most likely related to Memminger’s addition to the rear of his original house.

Plan. The addition was wood- framed with a shed 

roof and ran the length of the house. Later photographs indicate that it was only about 10’ in depth, 

versus nearly 16’ in the present addition (which 

includes Rooms 107- 112, 116- 117, and 120). Edward 

Memminger was correct in remembering that 

“ground was removed,” as the site was excavated at 

least three feet. A low stone retaining wall and 

broad stone piers that tapered toward the top 

formed an open porch- like area at ground level and 

provided head room so that there could be covered 

stairs to a new back porch on the first floor.

At the first floor level, the back porch was flanked 

by two rooms, one on each side and each with a 

door opening on to the porch and an internal connection to the original part of the house, probably 

where windows had originally been located. There 156. Patton, Flat Rock, p. 40.

FIGURE 65. Sketch plan of house prior to 1924, as remembered by Mrs. Rogers, 

one of the Smyths’ grandchildren, in the 1970s. (CARL 3001)
60 Connemara Main House HSR

Chronology of Development and Use

is no indication of how these rooms were used, 

although they could have been built as large dressing rooms for the adjacent bedrooms. 

The addition apparently precipitated some alterations to the interior, but the nature and extent of 

these alterations remains something of a mystery. It 

is most likely that the now- missing stairs to the 

basement dining room and the west wall in Room 

113 were created at this time and that the stairs to the 

second floor were relocated or altered in some way. 

If there is ever the occasion to remove the shelving 

on the west wall of Room 113, a closer investigation 

of the fabric of that wall might provide additional 

clues to the evolution of this part of the house. 

According to interviews with the Smyths’ granddaughter Mary McKay and to the sketch plan of the 

house prior to 1924 that was made by one of her sisters (Figure 65), Room 113 was used as a bedroom 

and, although connected to Rooms 114 and 104 by 

doors, had only a window opening on to the back 

porch, where Room 112 is now located. There was 

no connection to Room 101, and paint analysis suggests that the borrow light on the west wall was not 

installed until the 1920s, this in spite of the fact that 

the moldings are typical of those used in the 1840s 

alterations.

Characteristic Features. In addition to the characteristic rusticated stone piers and retaining wall, the 

character of the addition’s exterior was similar to 

the original house with 5”- lap siding and a woodshingled roof. Windows were double- hung, nineover- nine with louvered shutters, and although 

casing of the openings is not visible in historic photographs, it was probably a plain beaded casing like 

that used originally on the sides of the house.

Virtually nothing can be said about the interior finishes of the addition. However, the floor joists 

beneath the present dining room are cross braced 

with scraps of beaded tongue- and- groove boards 

that were quite possibly salvaged from the ceilings of 

the demolished porch or the adjacent rooms.

The changes on the interior utilized materials similar to the original construction. Six- panel doors 

with raised, square- edged panels continued to be 

used but with a smaller, simpler molding against the 

flat sides of the panels. One of these doors may have 

been re- used at the opening into Room 010 when 

that room was constructed in 1924. Door casing is 

FIGURE 66. View at west end of Main 

House, showing window at west end of 

Memminger’s addition, c. 1910. 

(CARL3001/01/30P)

FIGURE 67. Smyth grandchild sitting on 

foundation wall of Memminger’s rear addition 

to the first floor of the original building. 

(CARL3001/01/27P)
National Park Service 61

Part I: Developmental History

also similar to the original but also uses a smaller, 

simpler molding against the backband. 

Construction. Construction of the addition is not 

as well documented in Memminger’s account book 

as the original construction. Most of the lumber was 

purchased from H. T. Farmer (who built Front Lake 

for Memminger a few years later), but some was 

also bought from “King,” Count de Choisel, and 

other suppliers.

The name “Drake” is frequently found among 

Memminger’s accounting entries, a number of them 

relating to carpentry, but only occasionally is a first 

name given. James, Nathan, and Nathan M. Drake 

are identified at various points between 1844 and 

1855, but none of them have been surely identified. 

Many of the payments to “Drake” for oats, corn, 

and hay were probably to Memminger’s neighbor in 

Henderson County, Nathan Drake, who was born 

about 1798. He may also have been the N. Drake to 

whom Memminger paid $70.00 in 1852 for a “wagon 

to Aiken.” The Drake family remains poorly 

documented.

Other payments to Drakes are clearly related to carpentry work, including a payment to N. Drake for 

nails and to “Drake, carpenter” in 1844. Payments to 

unidentified Drakes for carpentry are also shown in 

1848 and 1849. A payment of $20.00 for board for 

Drake is also shown in October 1849. There are also 

large payments to N. M. Drake and to Nathan 

Drake in 1853 that may document completion of the 

Swedish House. Whether this is the same Nathan 

Drake who provided Memminger with fodder and 

other supplies is not clear, but many nineteenthcentury farmers were competent carpenters who 

supplemented their agricultural income by hiring 

out their services as a carpenter.

Payments were also made to a James Drake in 1850, 

but it is not clear for what. He might be the same 

James Drake born about 1810 who was residing in 

Henderson County in 1850. However, that entry in 

the account book is followed a few lines later by 

payment for “board” for “Drake” and, a few lines 

after that, payment of $107.25 for “Drake’s bill for 

trip,” the amount suggesting a trip from elsewhere, 

perhaps Charleston, to Flat Rock. A New Yorker 

named James P. Drake, born about 1825, appears in 

the 1850 census in the parish of St. Michael and St. 

Philip in Charleston, Memminger’s home parish. 

His occupation was given as blacksmith, which suggests the possibility that Memminger brought him 

to Flat Rock for some specialized work in 1850. 

There is no clue as to what that work might have 

been. Additional research will be necessary to 

determine the identity of the individuals named 

Drake who received payments from Memminger in 

the 1840s and 1850s.

Memminger made payments for hauling brick in 

1849, but there is no indication of how these might 

have been used. He also paid Patton & Summey for 

“tinwork,” which might have been only for flashing 

since the charge for $48.50 does not appear large 

enough to account for a metal roof over the entire 

house. Finally, in 1850, Memminger paid $76.00 for 

three lightning rods, which were presumably 

installed on the house at that time. Purchases of a 

bed and of other unspecified items of furniture in 

1850 may signal that the rear addition was complete.

Memminger made only erratic entries in his Rock 

Hill account book after 1853, and evidence for further alterations is limited. However, it is likely that 

the house’s exterior, which was repainted in 1848, 

was painted at least one more time prior to the Civil 

War.

Postwar Alterations

Memminger’s youngest son Edward, who was eight 

years old in 1865, recounted the story of the dangerous postwar years and the effect on the house in his 

memoir of Flat Rock in 1922.

As the defenders of the house were but two men 

and a boy, resort had to be had to other means of 

defence, so the steps in front of the house, from 

the portico to the ground, were pulled down, 

port- holes were cut in the doors holding 

strategic positions, the windows on the ground 

floor were barricaded with sand- bags and 

chevaux de frises157 and communication cut 

through doors and floors from story to story. 

The house never was attacked though 

threatened.158

157. Usually a piece of timber or an iron barrel on which 

rows of sharpened stakes five or six feet long are 

attached and used to impede cavalry and foot 

soldiers.

158. Memminger, Flat Rock, p. 14.
62 Connemara Main House HSR

Chronology of Development and Use

No physical evidence for these emergency alterations has been observed in the present house, 

except perhaps for the odd embrasure in the west 

wall of the old ground floor pantry (Room 018). 

Measuring around 15” high and but 3” wide on the 

exterior, the interior of the opening is splayed on 

both sides to form a larger interior opening, now 

mostly covered by the modern enclosure for firesuppression equipment. Although there is no clear 

indication the opening was an addition to the original house, it appears that the opening could have 

been created only as a gun port. If ground floor 

windows were sandbagged, this opening could have 

provided a well- protected guard post that would 

cover both the drive up the hill from Front Lake and 

the farm road coming toward the house from the 

west.

Since Rock Hill was apparently occupied until the 

family was able to return to Charleston sometime in 

1867, the house may have been better protected 

against vandalism and other damage. There was, 

however, bound to have been some neglect and 

damage, and it is likely that some repairs were made 

in the late 1860s and 1870s. Historic photographs 

show that, somewhat surprisingly, the steps to the 

front portico were not rebuilt, and a balustrade 

matching the sheaf- of- wheat design of the original 

balustrades filled the opening where the stairs had 

been.

All of the original rim locks on the first floor, which 

were larger than those that remain on the second 

floor, have been replaced with smaller rim locks 

with white or brown knobs typical of the late nineteenth century. Between 1840 and 1900 hundreds of 

patents were issued for improved locks, with the 

leader in the field being the firm of Russell and 

Erwin. One of the new designs was the widely used 

“Mineral” knob, patented in 1851 by John Pepper. 

Cornelius Erwin helped Pepper form the Mineral 

Knob Company, which made the knobs in white, 

“Bennington brown,” and black.159 A number of 

these knobs can be found in the main house at Connemara, all apparently dating to the postwar period, 

but are not necessarily Russell and Erwin hardware. 

A few rim locks are marked “Corbin,” another large 

hardware manufacturer, founded by Phillip and 

Frank Corbin in New Britain, Connecticut, in 1849. 

Whether the smaller rim locks throughout the 

159. See <http://www.ballandball-us.com/

lockhistory.html>, accessed 10 August 2004. Also see 

Illustrated Catalogue of American Hardware of the 

Russell and Erwin Manufacturing Company, originally 

published 1865; reprinted by Association of 

Preservation Technology, 1980

FIGURE 68. Connemara in the spring of 1901, with late nineteenth century alterations in 

place. (CARL3001/01/04P)
National Park Service 63

Part I: Developmental History

house were installed by the Memmingers, or the 

Greggs, or even the Smyths, is not clear.

Alterations to the chimneys are apparent in comparing the two earliest images of the house, both 

images made before the addition of the east porch 

and the west bay. The Memminger stereographic 

image (Figure 19), which may have been made as 

early as the 1870s, shows the center chimney and the 

east chimney with simple corbeled courses at the 

top, but the west chimney has a trio of arched, brick 

flue covers. By the time the next photograph of the 

house was taken (Figure 20), most likely in the 

1880s, the other chimneys had similar covers.

The lightning rods that Memminger noted in his 

account book as having purchased in 1847 cannot 

be discerned in any of the early photographs, 

although the quality of the two earliest images is so 

poor that they might have still been present at that 

time. Assuming that the original roof covering was 

wood shingle, the only other major, nineteenthcentury alteration to the house that cannot be 

dated, but which might be attributed to Memminger, was installation of the standing- seam metal 

roof, which was present at least by 1900 and presumably, judging from its apparent condition at that 

time, for some time before that. Again, the quality of 

the Memminger- era image obscures the detail that 

would allow characterization of that roof covering.

The Greggs’ Rock 

Hill

Previous studies, following Bailey’s lead, have stated 

that there is no documentation for the Greggs’ 

making changes to or even living in the house after 

their purchase of Rock Hill in 1889. There is also no 

documentation that they did not, and it seems 

unlikely that they would have owned the house for 

twelve years and not used it, whether or not they 

made changes. The lack of documentation may 

simply be because the Greggs’ tenure was short (he 

died in 1895) and they did not have strong ties to the 

Flat Rock community. More to the point, however, 

historic photographs show that there were significant additions after the two earliest photographs of 

the house were taken but prior to the Smyths’ first 

photographs in the spring of 1901.160 While it is possible that Memminger made significant changes to 

the house in the 1880s, that does not seem likely, 

since home owners are generally more likely to 

undertake major renovations shortly after the purchase of a new home rather than in old age near the 

end of their tenure on the property. In addition, 

these changes have never been attributed to the 

Memmingers, nor did any of the Smyth grandchildren who have been interviewed recall their family 

having made these changes. The added porches and 

bay windows do not appear to be brand new in the 

photographs taken in the spring of 1901, which they 

would have had to have been if they had been built 

by the Smyths, and with the general character of the 

alterations being more reminiscent of 1890 than of 

1900, it can only be concluded that the Greggs did, 

in fact, make some significant alterations to the 

house around 1890.

Exterior Alterations

On the east side of the house, a long porch was 

added off the Front Room (Room 102) and Margaret’s Bedroom (Room 104). The original nine- overnine window sash in the openings on the east side of 

those rooms were removed along with the panel 

below, and the opening was extended to the floor. 

Two, large two- over- two sash, each at least 3’- 2” by 

nearly 5’- 0”, were installed to provide access, albeit 

somewhat awkward access, to the porch. A close 

examination of the Smyth- era images shows no 

sign of a door at either opening, and the porch has 

apparently never been accessible from the ground. 

Supported by three turned posts, the porch featured a gracefully curved hipped roof on chamfered 

posts set in pairs, and balustrades with turned balusters. The irregularity of the balusters suggests that 

they were turned by hand by a local carpenter, but 

there is no record of who the Greggs might have 

hired to do that work.

On the west side of the house, off what was probably always a master bedroom (Room 121), the Greggs 

added the superb demi- octagonal bay window, 

with its base arched above the ground floor window 

below and rising in a shallow arc to the outside of 

the bay window itself. The exterior was panelled 

with double- and triple- beaded tongue- andgroove paneling, and an exceptionally wide quar160. Some of the earliest of the Smyth images are 

inscribed with dates on the reverse side, inscriptions 

that are apparently contemporaneous with the 

images. 
64 Connemara Main House HSR

Chronology of Development and Use

ter- round cornice finished the walls to the eaves. 

The original window in the master bedroom was 

removed, but the interior casing on the three, new, 

two- over- two windows in the bay matched the 

original as did the paneling of the wall below each 

window, except for the use of a molded panel molding rather than the plain chamfered molding used 

originally at the window panels.

At the east end of Memminger’s rear addition, 

another bay window was also built, but perhaps 

because of its less prominent location, it was not as 

elaborate as the bay window on the west side of the 

house. Like the west bay, it featured two- over- two 

sash and was paneled on the exterior with beaded 

tongue- and- groove boards in much the same manner as the west bay. Several feet lower to the ground 

than the west bay, it had a straight base supported at 

its outside edge by a pair of stone posts.

In addition, the front steps were finally replaced 

with a wooden T- shaped stairway, and the original 

sheaf- of- wheat balustrades on the portico were 

replaced with turned balusters like those used on 

the east porch. Although much larger, the turned 

newel posts at the foot of these stairs were similar to 

the turned posts on which the east porch was 

constructed.

Smyth- era photographs also show a room added 0ff 

the western end of the rear of Memminger’s addition. Although it was destroyed when Smyth rebuilt 

the rear addition in the 1920s, its turned wooden 

support posts and the presence of two- over- two 

windows like those in the bay windows suggest that 

this room was at least roughly contemporaneous 

with the east porch and west bay. The Smyth photographs of the rear of the house, which were made 

around 1910, also show what appear to be a pair of 

water pipes descending from the east side of this 

room, suggesting that the room could have supplied 

a wall- hung lavatory, like those that remained in 

many of the bedrooms in 1945, or even a fullfledged bathroom. 

Interior Alterations

The interior floor plan of the house does not appear 

to have changed dramatically in the late nineteenth 

century, although there were minor alterations. It is 

not clear when running water was first introduced 

into the house, but considering the ease with which 

it could be done using spring- fed artesian or gravity 

flow, the Memmingers could have made that 

improvement at a very early date. It is more likely, 

however, that running water was not added until 

sometime in the last quarter of the nineteenth 

century.

The Smyth grandchildren remembered a bathroom 

at the east end of the back porch from their earliest 

memory, recalling too that the men usually reserved 

that indoor bathroom for the women and continued 

FIGURE 69. Mary H. Smyth and her son Joe, with a 

view of the room that was added to Memminger’s 

addition, probably by the Greggs about 1890. 

(CARL3000/01/25P)

FIGURE 70. Olive Hill and Sarah Smyth, 6 April 1901, 

sitting in bay window added at the eastern end of 

Memminger’s antebellum addition about 1890. 

(Collection of Julianne Heggoy, greatgranddaughter of the Smyths)
National Park Service 65

Part I: Developmental History

to use the privy just down the hill at the west end of 

the Swedish House (see Figure 13).161 Entered only 

from the back porch, the bathroom appears to have 

been added by enclosing part of the back porch and 

occupied more or less the same position as the 

present bathroom (Room 111) off the Dining Room. 

The bathroom or a simple water closet could have 

been added by the Greggs, but because the room 

and its fixtures no longer exist, it is impossible to 

attribute this bathroom to them or to the Smyths.

In addition sinks were installed in most if not all of 

the bedrooms. The Sandburgs had all but one of 

these (in Sandburg’s Bedroom, Room 202) removed 

in 1945. The sinks were white porcelain on cast- iron 

and wall- hung, generally on outside walls where the 

supply lines were run exposed across the exterior 

siding. As with the back porch bathroom, it is not 

known if these sinks were installed in the 1890s or 

very early in the Smyth era.

Two of the original mantels appear to have been 

replaced, probably around 1890, with mahoganystained mantels in the so- called Eastlake style. Presumably these were installed at two of the three 

locations on the first floor where mantels are now 

missing (Rooms 101, 113, and 118).162 The Smyths 

removed these mantels in the 1920s when central 

heating was installed and some fireplaces closed. 

The Ballards took the mantels and installed them in 

the Farm Manager’s House, from which they were 

removed by the NPS and placed in museum storage.163 Both are elaborately- decorated mahogany 

mantels with overmantels and beveled mirrors and 

most likely were located at the fireplaces in Rooms 

101 and 113.

All of the four- panel doors in the house appear to 

date to the last quarter of the nineteenth century, 

but slight differences in molding suggest they might 

have been installed at different times. The door 

between Rooms 104 and 107, which has molded 

stiles and a square edge to its panels, is probably the 

oldest of the four- panel doors, but it is not clear if it

161. McKay interview, 16 January 1973.

162. That there were fireplaces in each of these rooms is 

proven by the presence of three flues in each of the 

chimneys.

163. Interview with Frank Ballard, 19 October 1982.

FIGURE 71. View of mantel now in storage, 

installed in the 1890s, probably in what is now 

Sandburg’s Office (101). (T. Jones, NPS, 2004)

FIGURE 72. View of late-nineteenth century 

mantle, with overmantel detached, installed in 

the 1890s, probably in the Farm Office (113) or 

the Utility Room (118). (T. Jones, NPS, 2004)
66 Connemara Main House HSR

Chronology of Development and Use

is in its original location since the opening is cased 

with the plain casing used by the Smyths and the 

Sandburgs.

The door between Rooms 101 and 102 was also 

replaced with a four- panel door. Why that would 

have been necessary is not known, but it may relate 

to the apparent relaying of flooring that occurred in 

that same area. The odd design of the connection 

between the master bedroom (121) and the hall (115) 

suggests that it was an alteration to the original 

building, but paint analysis indicates that not to be 

the case.

A two- panel door that was added between the bedrooms on the west side of the second floor (Rooms 

201 and 202) was probably added in the 1890s and is 

the only door from this era that retains its original 

spindle- top hinges. A similar opening might have 

been created between the rooms on the east side (211 

and 214) door at the same time, but if so, it was 

removed for construction of the Sandburgs’ closets 

in 1945.

The Smyths’ 

Connemara

As is the case with the Gregg era, there is little documentary evidence for the Smyth-era changes, but valuable 

information has been gleaned from oral interviews with 

some of the Smyths’ grandchildren, especially Mrs. 

Mary McKay, and from numerous historic photographs 

taken by the Smyths, beginning in April 1901 shortly 

after they acquired the property. Another of the Smyths’ 

grandchildren also made a rough sketch plan of the 

house (Figure 65) as she remembered it prior to 1924 

and, with the historic photographs, provides some of the 

best documentation for the house as it existed early in the 

Smyths’ tenure.

Early Alterations

Historic photographs show that the Smyths had the 

house repainted in the spring of 1901, and for the 

first (and only) time, the house was no longer white 

with green shutters. Instead, the Smyth grandchildren remember the house being painted green with 

white trim, a color scheme that may have remained 

until after World War I.

Water. One of the earliest changes that the grandchildren remembered was Smyth’s construction 

around 1912 of a second bathroom to augment the 

old bathroom on the back porch.164 To accomplish 

this, he had a new reservoir constructed higher up 

the Glassy Mountain that provided enough “head” 

for the water to rise to the second floor of the house. 

Presumably, this was the origin of the dual water 

supplies- - one spring fed, the other from the reservoir- - which are represented by the valves at the 

foot of the ground floor stairs in what is now the 

Laundry Room (015).165

FIGURE 73. View of Connemara, perhaps 

around 1915, showing bay window added at 

west end of Main House in the 1890s. 

(Photograph by Baker Barber, CARL3001/01/

06P)

FIGURE 74. View of carriage turn-around at 

near northeast corner of house. (Collection of 

William McKay, great-grandson of Smyths.)

164. McKay Interview, 16 January 1973.

165. David H. Wallace, Historic Furnishings Report, Main 

House and Swedish House at Carl Sandburg Home 

National Historic Site, Flat Rock, North Carolina. 

(Frederick, MD: NPS, 1984), p. 10.
National Park Service 67

Part I: Developmental History

The southeast corner of the Upstairs Hall was 

walled off, incorporating the center dormer into the 

new bathroom, and a footed, cast- iron tub, wallhung lavatory, and toilet were installed. Lavatories 

were also installed in most if not all of the bedrooms 

at the same time. Installation of the second floor 

bathroom may have precipitated lowering of the 

ceiling in Room 113 to accommodate the large, castiron waste line that now runs between the two ceilings in that room, since it seems unlikely that Smyth 

would have left it exposed in that room.166

Skylight. No documentation for the skylight has 

been located during the course of the present study. 

Memminger might have installed a skylight above 

the stair hall, but with the light that was originally 

available from the center dormer, a skylight was 

probably unnecessary, and it seems unlikely that 

Memminger would have created a feature that even 

today is notoriously difficult to maintain. The earliest photograph showing the skylight in place, which 

is also the earliest photograph of the rear shed of the 

roof (Figure 85), was taken in 1946 or 1947, but the 

skylight almost certainly predates the Sandburg era. 

Smyth’s granddaughter Mrs. McKay was asked 

about the skylight in interviews with her in the early 

1970s, and uncertainly replied that she thought it 

had been there as long as she could remember. The 

skylight’s metal frame and textured, wire- reinforced glass are typical of the early twentieth 

century, and a more likely explanation for the skylight may lie with the second floor bathroom that 

Smyth installed shortly before World War I. Even 

with the translucent panels on the bathroom door, 

the light from the center dormer was effectively lost 

on the hall and stairwell. With electric lights not 

added until around 1920, the skylight above the 

stairwell was probably installed in conjunction with 

the upstairs bathroom in order to provide light for 

those stairs. The “borrow light” on the west wall of 

Room 113 may have been installed at the same time.

Lighting. Throughout the antebellum period, the 

Memmingers depended on candlelight or oilburning lamps to illuminate interiors. By the end of 

the 1860s, kerosene would have been the fuel of 

choice, and for the remainder of the nineteenth and 

continuing into the twentieth century, kerosene 

lamps would have provided light at Rock Hill. 

There is no evidence for gas lighting having ever 

been installed.

A battery- powered, Delco lighting system was 

installed to provide electric lighting for the house 

even before the house was renovated for year166. It is possible the waste line was changed when the 

Sandburgs remodeled the house, and it was they who 

lowered the ceiling. However, there is no record of 

their having made changes to the waste line.

FIGURE 75. View of Connemara after it was 

painted green in the summer of 1901, showing 

East Porch and front steps added in 1890s. 

(CARL 30328, photo by Baker-Barber)

FIGURE 76. Smyth grandchild at west end of Main 

House, showing west bay and exposed waste 

lines and vent stacks for the lavatories in the 

Rooms 118 and 121. (CARL3001/01/32P)
68 Connemara Main House HSR

Chronology of Development and Use

round use.167 First offered by the Dayton Engineering Laboratories Co., commonly known as Delco, in 

1916, these systems were typically 32 volt, direct current, using batteries that could generate anywhere 

from 600 to 3,000 watts of electricity, with 850 watts 

the most common output for residential use. Costing just a few hundred dollars in the 1920s, more 

than 367,000 of these lighting systems were sold by 

1935.168 By that time, standard electrical service had 

been brought to Connemara, replacing the old 

Delco system.

Front Porch. Smyth also replaced the late- nineteenth- century stairs to the front porch with the 

present concrete staircase. A Smyth- era photograph 

dated August 1921 shows these concrete steps, and 

their condition at that time indicates that they had 

been in place for some time, perhaps as early as 1910 

or 1912. Probably at the same time, Smyth made 

major repairs to the front porch that included 

shortening the original wooden columns and placing them on the present brick piers. This was 

probably done because of accumulated damage and 

deterioration to the column bases. Only the two 

pilasters against the house were not shortened. The 

wooden newel posts from the foot of the old stairs 

were placed on either side of the drive where it splits 

to go around the house and remained in place into 

the Sandburg era.

Rehabilitation

In 1923, Smyth established Balfour Mills, just north 

of Hendersonville, and probably around the same 

time began making plans to live at Flat Rock on a 

year- round basis. His renovation of the house 

apparently took place in 1924, and by 1925 the 

Smyths had sold their house in Greenville and 

became permanent residents of Flat Rock. Here, 167. McKay interview, 16 January 1973.

168. http://www.hisfin.org/Stories3.htm

FIGURE 77. Captain and Mrs. Smyth in the Front Room in 1926. Note the electrical extension cord at 

upper left, trailing down from the overhead light, which is out of view, a common sight as lamps 

(one is on the table behind Mrs. Smyth) and other electrical devices proliferated in the 1920s. 

(Collection of Julianne Heggoy, great grand-daughter of the Smyths)
National Park Service 69

Part I: Developmental History

too, no records to document the Smyths’ changes 

have been located beyond the historic photographs 

and oral interviews mentioned above. Nevertheless, 

examination of the existing house and of the historic photographs reveals the extent of most of the 

Smyths’ alterations to the house in the 1920s.

Rear Addition. Smyth began his rehabilitation of 

Connemara for year- round occupancy by completely demolishing Memminger’s antebellum 

addition along with the room added in the late 

nineteenth century. He might have contemplated 

simply renovating these rooms, but their relatively 

small size and perhaps deteriorated condition 

probably made that seem impractical. Instead 

Smyth excavated for an addition that would be perhaps four feet deeper than Memminger’s addition 

and built the present rooms at the rear of the first 

floor (Rooms 107- 112, 116, 117, and 120). While Mrs. 

McKay appeared to think that her grandfather had 

simply enclosed and perhaps “enlarged” the old 

back porch, it is clear both from historic photographs and from examination of the addition’s 

wood frame that nothing remains of Memminger’s 

antebellum addition.

Kitchen. Somewhat surprisingly perhaps, the 

Smyths used what is now the kitchen (Room 117) 

only as a butler’s pantry, with major food preparation continuing in the old antebellum building off 

the southwest corner of the house. One of Smyth’s 

granddaughters remembered that they kept the 

outside kitchen after 1924 “because we had plenty of 

servants- - - you could get them for so little.”169

Reports of a breezeway having been built from the 

kitchen to the house are apparently erroneous. It is 

likely that the Smyth grandchild who reported a 

breezeway was remembering the carport that Smyth 

installed before World War II. If a breezeway was 

constructed it does not appear in any historic photographs or other documentation.

Bathrooms. A bathroom (Room 111) was part of 

Smyth’s new rear addition, replacing the house’s 

original bathroom in Memminger’s old addition, 

and the second floor bathroom (217) may have been 

renovated in the 1920s as well. In addition to these, 

two more bathrooms were constructed on the first 

floor. One of these bathrooms (Room 120) was

actually part of the rear addition and served the 

middle bedroom (Room 118).

The other new bathroom served the master bedroom (Room 121), and it was actually built off the 

west end of the house on a brick foundation identical to that of the rear addition. Shed- roofed with 

unboxed eaves and conventional lap siding, the 

master bathroom was accessed by a narrow door 

opening created in the side of the bay window. Presumably a full three- piece bathroom, it had two 

squarish windows set high on its west wall, and 

although not identifiable in the photograph, the 

sash in these windows were probably the same sash 

glazed with translucent glass that were re- used by 

169. McKay interview, 21 August 1974.

FIGURE 78. View of Connemara, undated but 

probably 1930s. (CARL3001/01/49P)

FIGURE 79. Captain and Mrs. Smyth, daughter 

Margaret, and unknown visitor on concrete 

front steps at Connemara, August 1921. 

(Collection of Julianne Heggoy, great granddaughter of the Smyths.)
70 Connemara Main House HSR

Chronology of Development and Use

the Sandburgs and remain on the east wall of Room 

012.

Heating. Part of Smyth’s rehabilitation of the house 

for year- round occupancy included installation of a 

steam heating system, the first central heat in the 

house. The present furnace room was constructed 

for that purpose, including the pit in which the original furnace sat. Just inside the rear wall of the 

original house and adjacent to the furnace room, 

Smyth constructed a chimney for the furnace flue. 

The outside of the chimney was plastered where it 

rose exposed through the southwest corner of Margaret/Helga’s Room (104). Conventional steam 

radiators were installed throughout the house, 

mounted on ceilings in the ground floor and generally located beneath windows on the first and 

second floors of the house.

With central heat, the fireplaces were not needed, 

and it was probably at this time that the fireboxes 

were bricked up in what are now Sandburg’s Office 

(101), the Farm Office (113), and in the old ground 

floor sitting room at the west end of what is now 

Room 001. The Smyths’ caretaker, Ulysses Ballard, 

retrieved the two Victorian- era mantels that were 

probably located in Rooms 101 and 113 and installed 

them in the Farm Manager’s House, where they 

remained until removed by the NPS and placed in 

storage in 1996.

Windows and Doors. Smyth made several changes 

to the windows and doors in the house. At the rear 

or south end of the Farm Office (113), the original 

window was removed and the present double 

French doors flanked by sidelights were installed. At 

the front of the house, the two antebellum six- panel 

doors were also replaced by French doors.

At the porch on the east side of the house, Smyth 

removed the tall two- over- two windows installed 

by the Greggs in Rooms 102 and 103 and installed the 

present French doors with nine- light transoms. 

Paint analysis suggests that the sash in the transom 

above the front door (D- 10) in Room 101 was also 

replaced at the same time, but if it was, it is curious 

that the muntin pattern in the replaced sash is the 

same as that in the original sash and does not match 

the transoms above the doors to the east porch. The 

paint on the transom at D- 11 was not tested, and 

additional investigation will be necessary to explain 

this apparent anomaly.

Although Smyth retained most of the original antebellum window sash throughout the house, his 

effort to “winterize the house” appears to have 

included installation of the galvanized steel weatherstripping that remains at all of the windows, 

FIGURE 80. Detail of view of Connemara in 1938, 

showing Conservatory constructed by Smyth on 

east side of Front Room. (CARL3001/01/45P)

FIGURE 81. Ellison Smyth seated in the Front 

Room, perhaps around 1930. (CARL3001/16/

26P)
National Park Service 71

Part I: Developmental History

except those windows installed by the Sandburgs in 

1945. 

One of the more unusual features of Smyth’s rehabilitation of the house was the vestibule that he had 

installed on the front porch at the entrance into 

Sandburg’s Office (101). Just tall enough to encompass the door opening and not more than 3’ or 3- 1/

2’ square, the vestibule had walls that were glazed in 

the manner of French doors. It was no doubt 

installed to reduce heat loss when entering and 

exiting the house during cold weather.

Flooring. Smyth was apparently responsible for the 

installation of oak flooring throughout the first 

floor of the original house. A common renovation in 

the early twentieth century, the oak flooring was 

simply laid over the original pine flooring, but its 

installation may have required trimming some of 

the original doors and replacement of saddles at 

door openings.

Roofing. Smyth replaced the standing- seam metal 

roof that had been on Connemara perhaps since the 

mid- nineteenth century. The new roofing was 

cement- asbestos shingles, widely used in the period 

between the world wars, not only for its durability 

but for its resistance to fire as well. Although there is 

no documentation other than the historic photographs for this alteration, it is likely, given the 

apparent condition of the roofing in photographs in 

the late 1930s, that it occurred in conjunction with 

the renovation in the mid- 1920s.

Conservatory. One of the last major alterations 

that Smyth made to Connemara was construction of 

a conservatory off the Front Room. Perhaps not 

occurring until after Mrs. Smyth’s death in 1927, its 

construction necessitated removal of two- thirds of 

the 1890s porch. This conservatory was torn down 

by the NPS in 1969, and the present Conservatory is 

a mostly accurate reconstruction of the original.

Carport. The origins of the carport on the west 

side of the house are obscure, but it appears that the 

present structure was built by the Smyths rather 

than by the Sandburgs. The earliest photograph 

showing the entire carport was taken in 1946, and it 

does not appear to be a new structure at that time. 

As noted above, one of the Smyths’ grandchildren 

remembered a breezeway having been constructed 

in the 1920s to connect the kitchen with the main 

house, but it is likely that she remembered the carport rather than a breezeway. A photograph of the 

house taken in 1938 (Figures 83) provides a glimpse 

of a structure off the west side of the ground floor in 

FIGURE 82. View of Connemara in 1938. (CARL3001/23/03P, photo by Bayard Wooten, Carolina Coll., 

University of North Carolina.)
72 Connemara Main House HSR

Chronology of Development and Use

the location of the present carport. Magnification of 

the image shows that what little is visible of the 

structure closely resembles the present carport. The 

use of double- beaded tongue- and- groove paneling 

on the carport ceiling is perhaps the most conclusive 

evidence that the carport dates to the 1920s rather 

than the 1940s. Not only was such material almost 

never used in the 1940s, the double- beaded boards 

are identical to the boards used in Smyth’s 1920s- era 

Barn Garage. In addition, the absence of charges for 

such material in the Anders invoices that document 

the Sandburgs’ renovation lends additional credence to the assumption that the Smyths built the 

carport.

Finally, it should be noted that the carport, as it is 

called on the 1976 plans of the house, was not really 

the partially enclosed space called a carport that 

largely replaced fully enclosed garages after World 

War II. Frank Lloyd Wright was a major proponent 

of carports, believing garages to be an unnecessary 

expense. “A carport will do,” he wrote in 1938, “with 

liberal overhead shelter and walls on two sides.”170

Instead, at least for the Smyths, Connemara’s carport functioned more as an old- fashioned porte 

cochere, serving to shelter passengers entering and 

leaving the house, but not as a place where the automobile was always parked. According to his 

descendants, Smyth’s chauffeur always kept the 

vehicles in the building now known as the Barn 

Garage.

The Sandburgs’ 

Connemara

As Dr. David H. Wallace documented in his extensive study of Connemara’s historic interiors in 1984, 

the Sandburgs began remodeling the main house 

even before the sale was completed on 18 October 

1945.171 Although most of the work was completed 

by January 1946, material shortages that developed 

as the nation’s economy shifted from war to peace 

delayed some work, and the last of the Sandburgs’ 

remodeling of Connemara was not completed until 

the summer of 1948. Over the next twenty years, 

Connemara underwent typical routine maintenance 

such as painting along with repairs, minor alterations, and equipment replacement in the house’s 

heating, electrical, and plumbing systems.

Mrs. Sandburg left numerous invoices and some 

correspondence, especially with Joe Anders, her 

contractor in 1945. Mrs. Sandburg, who is reported 

to have designed their Michigan house herself, 

appears to have drawn up some floor plans, to 

which she refers in her correspondence with 

Anders, but none of these nor any specifications 

FIGURE 83. View of west end of house, c. 1938, with 

bathroom addition just visible beyond the bay window 

and a glimpse of the carport beyond that. (CARL3001/

23/03P, photo by Bayard Wooten, Carolina Collection, 

University of North Carolina)

FIGURE 84. Detail of 1938 photograph by Bayard 

Wooten showing Smyth’s glass-walled vestibule. 

(CARL3001/23/03P, Carolina Collection, University 

of North Carolina, Chapel Hill)

170. H. Ward Jandl, et. al., Yesterday’s Houses of Tomorrow

(Washington, DC: Preservation Press, 1991), p. 119.

171. David H. Wallace, Historic Furnishings Report, Main 

House and Swedish House at Carl Sandburg Home 

National Historic Site, Flat Rock, North Carolina. 

Frederick, MD: NP, 1984.
National Park Service 73

Part I: Developmental History

have been located. If photographs were taken 

before work commenced in 1945, these have also 

not been located either.

However, the park’s collection includes hundreds of 

images of the house, both inside and out, taken from 

1946 through the 1960s, and the NPS conducted 

extensive interviews with Sandburg’s widow and 

children over the years, especially as the house was 

readied for public visitation in 1974 and during the 

course of Dr. Wallace’s 1984 furnishings study.

Most of these sources were incorporated into Dr. 

Wallace’s detailed architectural analysis of the 

house at that time, and his conclusions were based 

almost completely on documentary sources from 

the Sandburg era. The architectural investigation 

and analysis during the course of the present study 

support most of his conclusions, and the reader is 

referred to his report for additional details about the 

Sandburgs’ alterations to and use of the house.

Remodeling, 1945-1948

When the Sandburgs bought Connemara in the fall 

of 1945, the house remained much as it had been 

since Smyth’s rehabilitation twenty years earlier. As 

Smyth’s health declined in the 1930s, the house had 

probably been subject to the kind of benign neglect 

typical of many elderly home owners, and after his 

death in 1942, the house appears to have sat vacant 

for over three years. With gloomy interiors, dated 

systems, and an almost total lack of closets, the 

house may not have been dilapidated, but a thorough renovation was certainly overdue. At least by 

the end of September 1945, work was underway to 

renovate the house, the fourth in a series of major 

FIGURE 85. View of rear and west end of house in 1946 or early 1947. Aga stove chimney 

had not yet been built and the foundation remains unpainted. (CARL3000/15/26P)
74 Connemara Main House HSR

Chronology of Development and Use

building campaigns that began with Memminger’s 

alterations to the original house nearly a hundred 

years earlier.

Floor Plan. On 5 October 1945, with the closing of 

their purchase of Connemara still two weeks away, 

Mrs. Sandburg wrote Joe Anders, the Hendersonville builder that she had hired to renovate the 

house. “I suppose,” she wrote, “by this time you 

have made good headway with the preliminary 

work taking out partitions; removing loose plaster 

and patching up.”172 By then, decisions had already 

been made for alterations to the floor plan in order 

to accommodate new bathrooms and closets, and 

the “partitions” to which she referred would have 

included the wall on the west side of the fireplace 

between Rooms 118 and 121, the wall on the east side 

of the fireplace between Rooms 2 and 214, and all of 

the partitions in the ground floor. Other demolition 

was also required to remove the old bathroom from 

what became the small porch on the west side of the 

house, to create a door opening between Rooms 101 

and 113, and to create a window in each of the new 

bathrooms (Rooms 123 and 213) and five windows in 

the kitchen. By the time Mrs. Sandburg arrived for 

the real estate closing on October 15, the new bathrooms and many of the new closets on the first and 

second floor were probably framed.

Electrical System. Invoices suggest that the house 

was completely rewired by the Sandburgs, a necessity by the 1940s since the original 1920s system 

would have been limited to overhead light fixtures, 

with few if any convenience receptacles.173 A few 

remnants of the original knob- and- tube wiring 

system can still be seen (e.g., the west wall of Room 

012), but most of the old wiring no longer exists. The 

new system used modern Romex wiring, black 

metal junction and switch boxes, and a twelve- circuit fuse box typical for the period. The Smyth- era 

light fixtures were retained in the Front Room (102), 

Margaret/Helga’s Room (104), and the Utility Room 

(118), but eight fluorescent fixtures and numerous 

keyless, porcelain receptacles (with a bare bulb) 

were used throughout the rest of the house.174

Smyth- era chandeliers may have remained in Sandburg’s Office (101) and the Farm Office (113) for a 

time, but these too were replaced in the 1950s or 

early 1960s by the present fluorescent fixtures.

FIGURE 86. John Carl and Paula, with view of old 

kitchen house after its conversion to a garage in 

1945. (CARL3000/010/01P)

FIGURE 87. View of East Porch and Conservatory, 

showing window added in east gable for new 

bathroom on second floor. (CARL3000/15/28P)

172. Mrs. Sandburg to Joe Anders, 5 October 1945, letter 

located in Anders file in CARL Coll.

173. The Smyth-era interior photographs shows an 

electrical cord that was apparently run from the 

ceiling fixture to a table lamp, a common make-shift 

as lamps and electrical appliances began to 

proliferate in the 1920s.

174. Some of the Smyth-era light fixtures replaced by the 

Sandburgs remain in the park’s collection.
National Park Service 75

Part I: Developmental History

Heating System. The Sandburgs retained the 

existing steam heating system installed by the 

Smyths in the early 1920s, but some repairs and 

alterations were required. On 27- 29 September

1945, Mrs. Sandburg had Pace Heating and Plumbing Company in Hendersonville inspect the system 

to make sure it was in working order. The only 

repairs shown in the invoices, and probably the only 

ones that were necessary, were repair of leaking 

pressure- relief valves located on each radiator. 

Seventeen Sylphons, a trademark name for thinwalled bellows used to complete the seal in the 

valves, were replaced, and presumably the heating 

system was then up and running.175 It was, however, 

necessary to expand the system to add radiators in 

the new bathrooms (123 and 213) and to remove one 

from where the Smyth- era master bathroom was 

removed (see below).

Plumbing System. It is unclear how much of the 

Smyth- era waste and supply lines were retained by 

the Sandburgs, but since most of that system was 

only some twenty years old, it is doubtful that much 

of it was replaced in 1945. The exception might have 

been the old pre- WWI bathroom on the second 

floor (217), where reconfiguration of fixtures might 

have precipitated replacement of the main waste 

line, which crosses between the ceilings above the 

Farm Office (113) and down the north wall of the 

Back Hall (116) and Laundry Room (015). If it was 

not replaced by the Sandburgs, then the waste line 

must have run exposed across the original ceiling, 

which is unlikely, or else Smyth had that ceiling 

lowered to hide the pipes to the bathroom above. 

Typical of the period, cast- iron waste lines and galvanized steel supply lines were used for the new 

bathrooms, just as they had been for the earlier 

bathrooms.

Bathrooms. The Sandburgs completely remodeled 

three Smyth- era bathrooms (111, 120, and 217), 

removed a fourth to form the West Porch, and 

installed two entirely new bathrooms (123 and 213). 

Cabinets were built in the old bathrooms, and tile 

was installed on all of the floors and as a high wainscot on all walls. Many, but not all, of the earlytwentieth- century plumbing fixtures were also 175. Wallace, p. 10.

FIGURE 88. Carl Sandburg’s Connemara, c. 1952. (CARL 109718, photo by June Glenn, Jr.)
76 Connemara Main House HSR

Chronology of Development and Use

replaced. All of the old footed tubs and all of the 

bedroom lavatories except the one in Sandburg’s 

Room (202) were removed. The tubs were replaced 

by a metal shower in the original second- floor 

bathroom (217) and by 4- 1/2’- long, enameled- steel 

tubs elsewhere.176 All of the toilets were replaced as 

well, but since enameled cast- iron lavatories were 

not available amid the postwar material shortages, 

Mrs. Sandburg retained the old Smyth- era lavatories and the two large sinks in the Kitchen (117) and 

Laundry Room (015) until new cast- iron sinks 

became available. As it turned out, vitreous china 

lavatories dominated the market after World War II, 

and in spite of Mrs. Sandburg’s misgivings about 

their quality, these were eventually installed in the 

two new bathrooms. The other enameled cast- iron 

lavatories and the large cast- iron sinks in the 

Kitchen and Laundry Room were never replaced.

Kitchen. Because it was then thought that Smyth 

had only renovated and not replaced Memminger’s 

addition in 1924, Wallace and others believed that 

the Sandburgs created the present Kitchen (117) by 

combining an old dressing room and the Smyths’ 

old pantry or storeroom, which had been converted 

to a small kitchen after Mrs. Smyth’s death. In fact, 

no walls were apparently removed to create the 

present space, although it was completely remodeled by the Sandburgs. The room’s original 

fenestration is uncertain, but all of the old windows 

were removed and five new, smaller windows set 

higher on the wall were installed. As noted earlier, 

these and the other windows installed by the Sandburgs can be distinguished by the lack of metal 

weatherstripping. As already noted, the old castiron sink installed when the room was first constructed in 1924 was left in place. “You might not like 

the idea of using the old kitchen sink,” Mrs. Sandburg wrote Anders,

but [keeping it] will save time and money now, 

and in the end we can have a much better job, as 

metal and linoleum are not up to standard now. 

So it is better to get along with an old sink 

temporarily, with movable floor cabinet 

alongside- - both to be replaced in future when 

better metal will be available, which is very 

important around water.177

FIGURE 89. Sandburg and his secretary in the Front Room. (CARL 12344, 

photograph by June Glenn, Jr.)
National Park Service 77

Part I: Developmental History

Even with the old cast- iron sink, the kitchen that 

Anders created for the Sandburgs in 1945 was thoroughly modern, with its high windows, white metal 

cabinets (which most likely had linoleum countertops), white enameled walls and ceiling, and 

linoleum floor.

Flooring. All of the Smyth- era oak and pine flooring remained intact and probably in very good 

condition, required only minor patching. In 

November 1945, Anders invoiced Mrs. Sandburg for 

sanding the floors, presumably on both the first and 

second floor. There was also a charge for 1,125 linear 

feet of oak shoe molding, since the old shoe molding, which would have been taken up so that the 

flooring could be properly sanded, was probably 

damaged in the process.

Mrs. Sandburg did not think the linoleum available 

in 1945 was “up to standard” and apparently delayed 

installation of any in the kitchen. By 1950, however, 

a dark linoleum, in a uniform color that might have 

been red, had been installed in the room, presumably over the 1920s pine flooring that remained in 

place.

Closets and Cupboards. When the Sandburgs 

bought the house, it may have had no more than 

four closets. One was certainly located on the west 

side of the chimney in Margaret/Helga’s Room 

(104), and there may have been a similar, narrow 

closet, typical of the nineteenth century, next to the 

chimney in the Utility Room (118). These were both 

replaced by larger closets (105 and 119) and a small 

closet (103) off the Front Room. Two closets (109 

and 110) were also built in the Children’s Room (108) 

FIGURE 90. View of Front Room, 1956. (CARL 109707, photograph by Douglas 

Depew)
78 Connemara Main House HSR

Chronology of Development and Use

and another (122) in the northeast corner of Mrs. 

Sandburg’s Bedroom.

It appears that Smyth may have added two closets 

by partitioning the north side of the Upstairs Hall. 

The doors to the two closets (204 and 210) both have 

casing that has a backband with molding, typical of 

the Smyth period and earlier. In addition, a base cap 

like that used in Smyth’s rear addition was used in 

place of a proper baseboard, suggesting that these 

two closets were built by Smyth. The plain casing at 

the door to the closet (203) off Sandburg’s bedroom 

(202) and the use of plaster board to create the partitioning wall indicate that this closet was almost 

certainly created by the Sandburgs by partitioning 

the larger closet from the 1920s.

In addition, the Sandburgs added five other closets 

(208, 209, 212, 215, and 216) and possibly a sixth (206) 

on the second floor. Besides these closets, the Sandburgs also added a series of what Wallace calls 

“cupboards” throughout the house, including in the 

space above the closets. Most of the present closets 

and cupboards were installed by the spring of 

1946.178

Shelving. Partly because of postwar material 

shortages, Mrs. Sandburg had all of the old shelving 

from their house and barn in Michigan dismantled 

and brought to Connemara. There is no record of 

how much shelving was moved but it must have run 

into thousands of linear feet. Anders apparently had 

to dress some small part of the material and run stop 

molding with which to install it, but invoices show 

that he bought no more than 1000 feet of shelving 

new. The shelving around Sandburg’s Office (101, 

where Smyth may have already installed some 

shelving), in the northeast corner of the Living 

FIGURE 91. Sandburg and Leslie Dunlop from the University of Illinois in Sandburg’s Office (101), 

as they select Sandburg’s library for books to be donated to the University of Illinois, summer 

1956. (CARL 9546, photograph by Douglas Depew)
National Park Service 79

Part I: Developmental History

Room (102), at each end of the Dining Room (112), 

and around the Upstairs Hall was apparently 

installed in the winter of 1945- 1946. With that much 

shelving, the boxes stored in the ground floor could 

be unpacked, and in the spring of 1946, Anders also 

erected shelving in what became known as the 

Book Room (018).179

Walls. The plaster walls in the house required 

extensive repairs, with the older plaster in the original part of the house obviously requiring more 

repairs than the relatively new plaster in Smyth’s 

1924 addition. When the Sandburgs bought Connemara, many of the walls were wallpapered, and Mrs. 

Sandburg remembered that there were “big cracks 

through the plaster in all directions.” Anders’ plasterer had assured them that repairs would be 

straightforward, but as work got underway, it 

became clear that far more would be required to put 

the walls in good condition.

Interviews with Mrs. Sandburg suggest wholesale 

removal of the old plaster, and Wallace stated that 

“much of the old wood lath had to be replaced with 

metal lath.”180 Although the Anders invoices include 

the purchase of metal lath, there were also large 

quantities of wood lath (which was probably for the 

ceilings, as discussed below), and it seems likely that 

most if not all of the metal lath would have been 

used in tiling the bathrooms and perhaps for isolated repairs elsewhere in the house. There would 

have been no reason to replace the original lath, in 

spite of its irregularities (which Mrs. Sandburg 

greatly exaggerated),181 although removal of some or 

even all of the plaster itself in some rooms in the 

FIGURE 92. View of Dining Room, 1967. (CARL4011/01-03, photograph by Cecil 

Stoughton)
80 Connemara Main House HSR

Chronology of Development and Use

original portion of the house apparently was 

necessary.

Mrs. Sandburg also thought that the walls were not 

originally plastered. “It was something that they 

used in those days in place of plaster ... sort of a 

brown affair.”182 It is worth noting, however, that the 

original plaster ceilings and what remains on the 

walls (above the lowered ceilings), even today, 

appears to remain sound and reparable. It is not 

clear to what Mrs. Sandburg was referring, since 

surviving plaster above the ceilings does not quite 

match her description. Perhaps removal of the wall 

paper took much of the neat plaster with it, leaving 

the base “brown coat” exposed. Laboratory analysis 

of paint and plaster will be necessary to identify 

how much of the original plaster remains in the 

house.

Ceilings. Wallace attributed the lowered ceilings 

on the first floor to the Sandburgs, but he found no 

documentation to support that assumption beyond 

Paula Steichen’s mention in her memoir that “the 

ceilings were too high to permit proper heating,” 

although she did not go on to say that the ceilings 

had actually been lowered.183 Two of the three interior photographs from 1926 suggest that the ceiling 

in Room 101, at least, had not been lowered by the 

Smyths, but the quality of the photographs is such 

that the opposite conclusion might also be reached.

However, among the first of Anders’ invoices for 

labor and materials are charges for more than one 

hundred pieces of lumber 2” by 8” and ranging from 

12’ to 16’ long, and it would appear that these could 

only have been used for ceiling joists. Of some 

interest is the fact that the ceiling joists do not have 

the appearance of lumber from the postwar period 

and are extremely irregular in dimensions, somewhat of a surprise in the postwar era. However, 

immediately following the war, there were severe 

FIGURE 93. View of the Front Room in 1967. (CARL4011/01-07P, photograph by Cecil Stoughton)
National Park Service 81

Part I: Developmental History

material shortages nationwide, especially in lumber, 

and it is likely that the material used to frame the 

ceilings was actually salvaged material. By contrast, 

all of the lumber observed in the ground floor walls, 

which were constructed in 1947, is in standard 

modern dimensions.

In addition there are charges for more than 500 

“bales” or “bundles” of wood lath, 100 or more 

sheets of metal lath, at least 269 bags of plaster, and 

more than 50 bags of gauging (finish) plaster. Since 

these are far more materials than would have been 

necessary for the new bathrooms (where the metal 

lath would have been used) and closet walls, it can 

be assumed that the Sandburgs did, in fact, have all 

of the first floor ceilings in the original part of the 

house lowered except in the Front Hall (115).

Windows and Exterior Doors. All of the existing 

windows and exterior doors were retained by the 

Sandburgs, but with rather radical alterations. In the 

three solid six- panel doors on the north side of the 

ground floor, all of which date to the house’s original construction, Anders replaced the four upper 

panels with glass. In the door from the carport to 

the Laundry Room (015), which was also an original 

176. Wallace believed that there was a footed tub only in 

Room 111 and that the other two Smyth bathrooms 

(120 and 217) had only a lavatory and toilet. 

Considering the size of the rooms and what was 

typical for the period, it seems unlikely that Smyth 

would not have installed tubs in those bathrooms, 

too, especially on the second floor.

177. Mrs. Sandburg to Joe Anders, 29 October 1945, letter 

in Anders file in CARL Coll.

178. Wallace, p. 17.

179. Wallace, p. 74.

180. Wallace, p. 14.

181. Interview with Mrs. Sandburg by Robert Cahn, 1968.

182. Interview with Mrs. Sandburg by Robert Cahn, for 

article in Christian Science Monitor, 1968, Pt. 1, side 2.

183. Wallace, p. 11; Steichen, My Connemara, p. 10.

FIGURE 94. View west in Mrs. Sandburg’s Room (121), 1967. (CARL4011/01-09, photo by Cecil 

Stougnton)
82 Connemara Main House HSR

Chronology of Development and Use

door although not in its original location, the two 

center panels were removed and replaced with glass.

Broken sash cords and missing hardware were 

replaced at the windows, but more significantly, 

Mrs. Sandburg had Anders remove the dividing 

muntins from all of the sash except in the windows 

in the ground floor, in the bay window in Mrs. 

Sandburg’s Room (121), in the Children’s Room 

(108), and in the Back Hall (116). The sash were then 

reglazed with large sheets of double- strength glass, 

converting the original nine- over- nine, six- oversix, and two- over- two windows to more modern 

one- over- one windows. Although this change 

would not have made the windows any more energy 

efficient, Mrs. Sandburg may have remembered the 

problems they experienced with the twelve- overtwelve sash at the house in Michigan, where the 

winds howling off the lake rattled the panes if they 

were not reputtied every two or three years.184 Perhaps even more important, removal of the muntins 

improved the view through the windows, virtually 

none of which ever had curtains or drapery during 

the Sandburg’s tenure in the house.

Garage. Capt. Smyth, who always had servants and 

drivers, built the large garage near the farm complex 

in the 1920s, and it appears to have remained in use 

throughout his life.185 By 1945, the old antebellum 

kitchen may not have been used for a decade or 

more, and with the new modern kitchen in the 

house, and without servants to fetch the car, the 

Sandburgs decided early to convert the old kitchen 

into a garage.

To accomplish that, it appears that the building was 

completely gutted, the chimney and fireplace 

demolished, the east wall reframed for garage doors, 

and a concrete floor poured inside the building, 

which was then resided and reroofed. When the 

boxcar load of 400 boxes of books arrived from 

Michigan in the second week of November 1945, 

they were stored in the new garage and in the 

ground floor.186

Roof and Gutters. In 1945, the “buff- red,”187

cement- asbestos roof that Smyth had installed less 

than twenty years earlier would have still been in 

excellent condition, and although the converted 

garage was reroofed with asphalt shingles, the main 

roof did not need any repairs at all, except where 

the new kitchen chimney penetrated the roof.

Anders invoices document repairs to the existing 

half- round gutters and round downspouts, but with 

some of the half- round gutters replaced by 80’ of 

modern ogee gutters and 60’ of 4” round downspouts and 30’ of 3” downspouts replaced.188 The 

new gutters appear to have been mostly used across 

the rear of the house, where photographs show the 

184. Interview with Mrs. Sandburg, 1967, Roll 2.

FIGURE 95. Sandburg’s study, 1967. (CARL4011/01-

06, photograph by Cecil Stoughton)

185. Wallace’s footnotes, p. 30, indicate uncertainty as to 

who converted the kitchen into a garage, but there 

appears to be no reason for Smyth to have made that 

conversion. According to Smyths’ grandchildren, the 

old kitchen remained in use into the 1930s.

186. Mrs. Sandburg to Joe Anders, 5 November 1968, letter 

in Anders file, CARL Coll. It is assumed that the old 

kitchen remained more or less intact when the 

Sandburgs bought Connemara, although there are no 

historic photographs of the building after the first 

world war.

187. Svejda, p. 36, recorded the color, which he noted was 

severely faded and discolored by numerous patches.

188. Anders invoice, 1 November 1945.
National Park Service 83

Part I: Developmental History

original half- round gutters were completely 

replaced, which would probably have required 

removal of any crown molding where the fascia 

meets the roof. Round downspout continued to be 

used, and the 90’ of downspout invoiced by Anders 

would have been enough to replace all or nearly all 

of the downspouts around the house, although it is 

possible that some of this material was used on the 

garage.

Anders also charged the Sandburgs for 85 square 

feet of standing- seam metal roofing in an invoice 

dated 28 February 1946. It is doubtful that the roof 

on the east bay window would have needed 

replacement barely twenty years after it was built. 

This would not have been enough material to reroof 

the East Porch, but would be approximately enough 

to reroof the west bay window, the roof of which 

was probably of the same vintage as that on the East 

Porch, but because of its low pitch might have been 

in poorer condition.

Painting. Mrs. Sandburg was careful not to get 

overextended financially and delayed some work 

along the way. As she wrote Anders on 29 October 

1945:

Give separate estimate [emphasis in original] on 

painting house outside, burning off only where 

necessary as around porch. Don’t start painting 

as this is something that could be put off till 

summer or fall- - if your total estimate runs 

higher than we can safely handle right now.189

Anders quickly responded and within the week, 

Mrs. Sandburg wired him to proceed with painting 

the exterior. Invoices show the purchase of 40 gallons of “O. S. White Paint” in October 1945, which 

was undoubtedly the ready- mixed, linseed- oilbased, white- lead paint Anders used on the exterior. The old shutters were already down and were 

not being reinstalled, so there was no need for the 

green paint that had accented the house since the 

Memminger era.

Mrs. Sandburg also wrote Anders on 5 November 

1945 with instructions “for the color of Kem- tone” 

for several rooms, most of it “Ivory Kem- tone” but 

also including “Peach Kem- tone” in Janet’s Room

189. Mrs. Sandburg to Anders, 29 October 1945, letter in 

Anders file, CARL Coll.

FIGURE 96. View of stair hall in 1967. 

(CARL4011/01-09, photograph by Cecil 

Stoughton)

FIGURE 97. Sandburg on the telephone. Note 

absence of shelving on the west wall of his 

Office and of the cupboard on the south wall. 

(CARL3000/02/04P)
84 Connemara Main House HSR

Chronology of Development and Use

(211), “Midland Green Kem- tone” in the Guest 

Room (214), and “Cameo Rose Kem- tone” in the 

Children’s Room (108). The entire interior was 

repainted, and other colors may have been used, 

including the blue in the Utility Room and the 

green- and- white color scheme in the Back Hall and 

stairs, which John Steichen thought had always been 

painted in two colors.

Not introduced until 1941, Kem- tone was the first 

commercially successful, water- based, interior wall 

paint that could withstand at least some washing. 

Oil- based paints, glue- based distempers, and 

whitewash had long been the only options for 

painting materials, with oil- based paints universally 

used on exterior and interior woodwork and, quite 

often, on cured plaster walls as well. Wartime shortages of linseed oil accelerated research into 

alternative binders and led to development of emulsion paints, while wartime shortages of pig bristles 

for brushes and the unsuitability of bristle brushes 

for the application of water- based paints also led 

Sherwin- Williams to develop its trademark RollerKoater for applying their new product. The two 

were wildly successful, and even before the end of 

World War II, more than ten million gallons had 

been sold and rolled on to walls and ceilings across 

the nation.190 Although Kem- tone and similar 

water- based paints were widely used, the early versions of these paints were still not as durable and 

washable as the company’s marketing led consumers to expect. Consequently, the new water- based 

paints were typically used only on walls and ceilings, 

with oil- based, semigloss enamels still used on 

woodwork and in bathrooms and kitchens, a pattern of use that continued until the last quarter of 

the twentieth century. Mrs. Sandburg followed suit 

and was careful to distinguish between “paint,” by 

FIGURE 98. Sandburg, c. 1946 (CARL 104103, photo by June Glenn, Jr.)

190. See the American Chemical Society’s National Historic 

Chemistry Landmarks at <http://

www.rockbridgegroup.com/review/new_nhcl/nhcl_2/

landmarks/kem>, accessed 24 October 2004.
National Park Service 85

Part I: Developmental History

which she meant old- fashioned linseed- oil paint, 

and Kem- tone. The kitchen was apparently painted 

white, using oil- based enamel. It was, Margaret 

remembered, “the kind of white kitchen which 

many women dream about having."191

Ground Floor. In the original part of the ground 

floor, all of the wood floors, wooden partitions, and 

perhaps the old staircase from the first floor, if it still 

survived, were removed in 1945. The floors in 

Smyth’s 1924 addition were probably already paved 

with concrete in 1945,192 and additional concrete 

was poured in the original part of the ground floor 

after the wood floors had been removed. According 

to Wallace, only part of the original ground floor 

was paved at that time, with the Sandburg’s grandson remembering the north part of the ground floor 

(Rooms 101 and 102) still without flooring, leaving 

the earth below exposed.193

While Wallace found that the remainder of the 

ground floor was apparently not paved and new 

rooms not created until 1947, the Sandburgs may 

have had the brick walls and the pair of brick columns in Room 001 constructed earlier. The brick 

walls probably replaced original wooden curtain 

walls in the same locations. Smyth’s granddaughter 

did not remember the contemporaneous brick columns as having been present in the 1920s,194 and 

although there is little documentary evidence, it is 

likely that the columns and partition wall were part 

of the Sandburgs’ alterations to the ground floor in 

the 1940s, and that the columns were installed to 

support the great weight of books on the floors 

above.

191. Wallace, p. 157.

192. This is assumed because a concrete floor would be 

typical of a ground floor in the 1920s, and the 

patching of the fresh-air intake in the floor of the 

furnace room appears to indicate that the floor was 

contemporaneous with the pre-Sandburg furnace.

FIGURE 99. View of Connemara, c. 1960. (CARL3000/15/12P)

193. Wallace, Historic Furnishings Report, p. 14.

194. Wallace, Historic Furnishings Report, p. 52.
86 Connemara Main House HSR

Chronology of Development and Use

The chimney for the Aga stove that the Sandburgs 

built in 1947 utilized new brick for which there are 

receipts, but there are no receipts for the brick used 

to construct the walls and columns on the ground 

floor. At least part of the brick apparently came 

from a chimney flue or fireplace, as evidenced by 

the blackened surface of some of the brick, and the 

size of the brick is close to that of the chimneys in 

the main house. Given the Sandburgs’ well- documented propensity to conserve and re- use 

materials, it is likely that the bricks in these ground 

floor features were salvaged from the fireplace and 

chimney of the old kitchen when they were knocked 

down and the building converted into a garage in 

1945.

The wood- framed wall at the west end of Room 018 

may have been constructed along with the brick 

walls in order to enclose the area where so many of 

Sandburg’s books were stored. The wall is unlike the 

other wood- framed walls in being finished with old 

lap siding that was clearly salvaged from another 

location. The red paint on one face of the boards 

suggest that the boards were salvaged from one of 

the buildings in the farm complex that the Sandburgs altered and repaired in 1945- 1946. The 

remainder of the partitions in the ground floor, 

which created the present floor plan, as well as the 

rest of the concrete floors, were installed in the 

spring and summer of 1947. These walls used framing lumber that was in standard dimensions and had 

grade stamps typical of the postwar period. The 

rush to provide building materials after extreme 

wartime shortages sometimes tempted suppliers to 

sell green lumber, which would often twist and warp 

as it dried and shrank. “KD,” for “kiln dried,” could 

then be specified, as it was on some of Anders 

invoices, where shrinkage was unacceptable.

Later Changes

According to Wallace, the work in the ground floor 

in 1947- 1948 completed the Sandburgs’ remodeling 

of Connemara, and the general appearance of the 

house changed “surprisingly little” after that.195

Around 1950, the East Porch was screened,196 and in 

January 1952 there were significant repairs to the 

roof. In February 1952, Helga remarried and she and 

FIGURE 100. Connemara, c. 1960. (CARL3000/15/38P)

195. Wallace, p. 18, 20.

196. Svejda, p. 27.
National Park Service 87

Part I: Developmental History

the children moved out of Connemara, which provoked some rearrangement of furniture and 

repainting as Margaret moved downstairs to Helga’s 

old room.

In 1957, the Sandburgs had the old boilers removed 

from the furnace room, and Pace Heating and 

Plumbing Company installed a General Electric oilfired boiler. This eliminated the need for coal storage, and it was probably at this time that Room 013 

came into existence.

It is not clear when the acoustical tile ceilings, perhaps Celotex, were installed in the Dining Room 

(112) and Hall (107). Photographs show them in 

place by the early 1960s. Wallace’s analysis of the 

park’s photographic collection showed that 

between 1961 and 1963 the present vinyl tile was 

installed in the Farm Office (113), Back Hall (116), 

and Kitchen (117) along with the large fluorescent 

fixtures in the Farm Office and in Sandburg’s Office 

(101).197 These changes are thought to have occurred 

while Sandburg was in Hollywood in 1961, and 

probably coincided with the installation of new 

counters in the kitchen and repainting the kitchen 

in its present yellow color.

Wallace also stated that Mrs. Sandburg installed the 

dishwasher and extended the cabinets on the east 

wall of the Kitchen (117) prior to November 1963. 

The formica countertop on the east side of the 

kitchen, which has an integral backsplash and rolled 

front edge, no doubt dates to the early 1960s as well, 

while the older, square- edged, wood- grained formica on the opposite wall may have been installed 

along with the metal cabinets in the late 1940s.

For unknown reasons, the toilet in the second floor 

bathroom (213) required replacement around the 

same time,198 and parts but certainly not all of the 

house were probably also repainted. There is no 

record of the Sandburgs’ repainting the exterior of 

the house, but they must have painted at least once 

and perhaps twice between 1945 and 1968. Photos 

show that the red- brick foundation of the Smyth 

addition at the rear of the house was painted white 

after 1950.

197. Wallace, p. 23.

198. The toilet bear an imprinted date of 1963.

FIGURE 101. The Sandburgs in the Kitchen, c. 1960. 

(CARL5000/2-139P)

FIGURE 102. View into Sandburg’s Office (101) in 

1967. (CARL 4011/01-04, photograph by Cecil 

Stoughton)
88 Connemara Main House HSR

Chronology of Development and Use

Carl Sandburg turned 80 in 1962 and was in increasingly poor health, and indeed in the last two years of 

his life, Sandburg was ill much of the time. Plagued 

with cataracts, for which there was then no good 

treatment, Mrs. Sandburg had her hands full just 

caring for her aging husband, and since she was 

unable to see clearly, maintenance of the house 

declined. The Conservatory was rapidly falling into 

decay, and all around the house little things were left 

undone. Following her husband’s death in July 1967, 

it must have been with a certain sense of relief that 

Mrs. Sandburg conveyed Connemara to the 

National Park Service in 1968, thereby insuring its 

continued preservation.

National Park 

Service

After Mrs. Sandburg’s departure from the house in 

the summer of 1969, the NPS appointed her old 

farm manager, Leroy Levi, to their maintenance 

team, but the NPS was faced with an array of problems, not the least of which was deferred 

maintenance. As one NPS staffer reported in September 1969, “the place evidentally [sic] has been 

neglected for some time.”

Exterior

The Conservatory was on the verge of collapse, and 

in 1970 it was dismantled entirely. In the spring and 

summer of 1971, the exterior of the house was 

repaired and repainted by Hendersonville Paint & 

Sand Blasting Corp. It is likely that this work 

included stripping of all paint back to bare wood, as 

documented by the paint study. Of immediate concern, too, was the roof, which was deemed to be in 

such poor condition that, in 1972, the cementasbestos shingles were stripped from the roof and 

replaced with a “temporary roof” of asphalt shingles 

until appropriate substitutes for the cement- asbestos shingles could be located. Reroofing with a 

mineral- fiber roofing material resembling the historic shingles was not accomplished until 1983. In 

1978, the bay windows and the East Porch were reroofed with flat- seam metal.199

FIGURE 103. Removal of Front Porch columns in 

the spring of 1974. The only original column 

that remains intact is the one at left in this 

image.(CALO4008/01/048P)

FIGURE 104. View at front porch, 1974. (CARL4008/01/

45P).) 199. The park’s maintenance files document most of these 

activities.
National Park Service 89

Part I: Developmental History

In 1974, the front porch floor framing, flooring, and 

three of the four columns were replaced. This front 

porch framing and flooring were replaced again in 

1996. The exterior was repainted in 1971, and again 

in 1979, 1985, 1990, and most recently in 2001- 2002.

In 1980, t he Conservatory was reconstructed, 

mostly on the basis of photographs. The reconstruction was apparently accurate, although the 

movable, wood- framed screens that were present at 

some openings were not reinstalled or recreated.

Handicapped accessibility became a pressing issue, 

and by 1990 the decision had been made to install a 

lift. In 1991, the balustrade at the south end of the 

East Porch was removed and a handicapped lift 

installed at that location. A plywood floor was also 

installed on part of the porch itself in order to eliminate the differential in floor levels inside and 

outside the house. Installation of the lift also eliminated the screening at the south end of the porch. 

That lift was replaced in 2004.

Interior

Much of the early work inside the house involved 

establishing tour routes and interpretation of the 

collection. In 1978- 1979, most of the first and second floor of the house was repainted, which 

included documentation of the historic colors. 

Halls and stairways from the ground floor to the 

second floor were repainted in 1989. The weight of 

books and visitors inside the house was a cause for 

some concern. The historic framing was in good 

condition but had inherent weaknesses, for which 

the NPS compensated in 1981 by installing the system of I- beams and posts to support the floor 

framing above the Book Room (118).

Systems

A security system was installed ins covers were 

installed on the bookcases that would be accessible 

to visitors. In 1975, the house was rewired, which 

appears to have included replacement of all wiring 

in the house and installation of larger service panels. Insulation was added in the attic in 1979. A firesuppression system was installed throughout the 

house in 1986- 1987. In 1988, the furnace was 

replaced. It may have been at that time, that exhaust 

fans were added in the attic, with the exhaust 

through the east and west chimneys. In 1995 all 

storm sash were glazed with a light- filtering material (70% filtration of visible light and 90% filtration 

of ultraviolet light), and where storm sash were not 

present, light- filtering film was applied to the primary glazing. The oil furnace was converted to 

natural gas in December 2001. In 2002, in response 

to curatorial concerns for the collection of furniture, books, and other objects inside the house, 

Watson & Henry, environmental consultants, conducted an assessment of the house’s environmental 

conditions. A severe outbreak of mold inside the 

house in 2003 prompted immediate implementation 

of their recommendation for a comprehensive environmental monitoring program as a first step in 

determining necessary improvements to the house’s 

internal environment.
90 Connemara Main House HSR

Chronology of Development and Use

Connemara Time 

Line

1836, fall Memminger begins looking for property at Flat Rock

1837, Noah Corn builds bridge for Memminger

1838, March 15 Probable start of construction

1838, April 1 Memminger begins keeping an account book for his “Buncombe Establishment,” i.e. Rock Hill

1838, summer Kitchen and stable constructed

1839, July Main house mostly complete and Memmingers arrive for first summer at Flat Rock

1840, January 4 Memminger makes final payment to his builder, James B. Rosamond

1841 Probable construction date of Cook’s house (present “Chicken House”)

1843 Noah Corn builds wagon shed

1845-1847 Memminger buys and develops Valley Farm, later known as Tranquility

1847 Ice House constructed

1848-1849 Addition of two rooms and a porch across rear of house, and probable date of alterations to the 

interior of the original house

1850 Memminger purchases three lightning rods for house

1850-1853 Servant’s House (present “Swedish House”) constructed

1864, summer Memmingers remove to Flat Rock for summer and do not return to Charleston for over two years

1865-1866 Confederate “bushwhackers” plague Flat Rock, forcing removal of front steps at Rock Hill

1867, winter Memminger’s citizenship restored, and Charleston house returned to his possession

1889 Memmingers sell Rock Hill to Greggs

c. 1890 Probable date of construction of east porch, west bay, replacement of front steps, and addition of 

another room and possibly a bathroom at rear of house

1900 Greggs sell Rock Hill to Smyths

c. 1912 Addition of a second bathroom as well as bedroom lavatories

c. 1920 Smyth installs furnace and Delco lighting system

1924 Smyth replaces the Memminger additions at the rear, weatherstrips windows and doors, and 

otherwise rehabilitates the house for year-round occupancy

c. 1930 Smyth removes part of east porch and installs conservatory

1945, October 18 Smyths sell Connemara to Sandburgs, who begin remodeling

1948, June Most of Sandburgs’ alterations are complete

c. 1950 East Porch screened

1952 Helga and the children move to Washington DC

1967 Carl Sandburg dies in May

Mrs. Sandburg signs deed of gift of Connemara to National Park Service in June

1968, July Mrs. Sandburg, Margaret, and Janet vacate Connemara

1970 Security system installed; conservatory removed to avoid collapse
National Park Service 91

Part I: Developmental History

1971 Exterior repainted

1972 Cement-asbestos roof covering replaced by “temporary” asphalt roof; additional hand railings 

installed at front steps

1974 Front porch floor framing and flooring and three columns replaced

1975 House rewired

1978 Bay windows and east porch re-roofed; exterior repaint begins; second floor repainted

1979 Insulation added in attic; first floor repainted

1980 Conservatory reconstructed

1981 Steel supports added for floors above Book Room (018)

1983 “Temporary” roof replaced with mineral fiber shingles (main roof) and fiberglass shingles (rear 

roof); gutters rehung; chimneys rebuilt above roof line

1985 Exterior repainted

1986 Fire-suppression system installed

1988 Furnace replaced

1989 Halls and stairways from ground floor to second floor repainted

1988-1990 Repairs and repainting on exterior

1991 Wheelchair lift installed to East Porch

2001 Oil-fired furnace converted to natural gas

2001-2002 Exterior of house repainted

2002 Watson & Henry conduct assessment of the house’s environment
92 Connemara Main House HSR

Chronology of Development and Use
National Park Service 93

Part I: Developmental History

Floor Plans and 

Molding Details, 

1850-1950
94 Connemara Main House HSR

Chronology of Development and Use
National Park Service 95

Part I: Developmental History

Reconstructed Floor Plans and 

Details, c. 1850.

portico balustrades

molding scale

first floor and second floor

basement

second floor and 

basement

first floor

baseboard not to scale

8"

door molding 

profiles

window and door casing window stool second floor

1" 2" 3" 4" 5"

interior casing

first floor windows

exterior window and door casing at 

first floor on front of house

added door casing

first floor

original door casing

first floor

up

up

up

not 

enclosed

basement

up

up

down

down

first floor

down

second floor
96 Connemara Main House HSR

Chronology of Development and Use
National Park Service 97

Part I: Developmental History

Reconstructed Floor Plans and 

Details of Added Features, 1900

down

up

down

not 

enclosed

up

first floor

basement

added windows

molding profiles for 

added doors

new balustrades

stile

stile

added doors

second floor
98 Connemara Main House HSR

Chronology of Development and Use
National Park Service 99

Part I: Developmental History

Reconstructed Floor Plans and 

Details of Added Features, 1925

baseboard cap (1924)

Rooms 107, 108

added baseboard and cap baseboard cap (1924) Rooms 112, 116

new windows

added window 

stool

new doors

casing for new openings

molding profiles of 

added doors

first floor

second floor

basement
100 Connemara Main House HSR

Chronology of Development and Use
National Park Service 101

Part I: Developmental History

Reconstructed Floor Plans and 

Details of Added Features, 1950

basement

second floor

new windows

molding profile of 

added doors

added doors

first floor
102 Connemara Main House HSR

Chronology of Development and Use
National Park Service 103

Built on a locally quarried, stone foundation that 

forms a full, day- light ground floor, the original 

main block of the house is wood framed, endgabled, and a story- and- a- half high. Built in 1838 

and mostly complete by the spring of 1839, the main 

house at Connemara is a relatively simple interpretation of the Greek Revival, with the style expressed 

mainly in the fluted Doric columns supporting the 

portico; in the deeply- molded casings and corner 

blocks found on the windows and doors on the 

principal elevation; and in the full cornice returns at 

the gabled ends of the house. Around 1848, Memminger enlarged the house by the addition of a onestory, shed- roofed range of rooms and a porch 

across the rear of the house. Around 1890, the house 

was remodeled by the Greggs, and in 1924 was thoroughly renovated for year- round residential use by 

the Smyths. After their purchase of the house in 

1945, the Sandburgs renovated the house again, 

adding bathrooms and nearly two dozen closets 

and, for the first time, bringing the main kitchen 

inside the house.

FIGURE 105. View of north side of Main House. (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004)

Physical 

Description
104 Connemara Main House HSR

Physical Description

Building investigation was limited to non- destructive visual inspection and analysis of selected 

painted finishes and mortar. Except for the Sandburg era, documentary evidence does not exist for 

most of the alterations that are evident in the present 

structure, but numerous photographs from the late 

Floor plans and molding profiles of the existing 

building can be found at the end of this section. 

All photographs in this section by NPS, 2004.

nineteenth and early twentieth centuries along with 

variations in existing materials clearly show the 

sequence in which most changes occurred and the 

approximate date of those changes.

Building Site

To provide a building site on the steep hillside on 

which he chose to build the house, Memminger 

created a series of three, more- or- less level terraces 

running east and west across the hill side, with the 

house constructed on the upper terrace. The terraces that presently characterize the site may not 

have been created at one time, since Memminger’s 

son recorded that his father “dug out” behind the 

original house in order to make an addition in the 

late 1840s.

Foundation

The main block of the house sits on a continuous 

masonry foundation. The original foundation was 

stone while that of the 1924 addition is brick laid up 

in a six- course common bond. The East Porch is set 

on wooden posts resting on stone slabs, while the 

Front Portico and the Conservatory are built on 

brick piers. The West Porch which has a continuous 

brick foundation contemporaneous with the brick 

foundation at the rear of the house.

Footings

Footings for the masonry walls were investigated 

prior to 1976, and Jones reported in his historic 

structure report that year that no footing was found 

for the stone or for the brick foundations, which is 

not unusual for residential buildings of the period. 

At least some of the walls, especially across the rear, 

may rest on the natural stone of the hillside, but even 

without footings, there is no evidence of excessive 

or differential settlement or other signs of foundation failure.

Stone Foundation

The original portion of the house is built on a continuous foundation of irregularly sized stone blocks 

that create a wall around 26” thick and ranging from 

a little more than 8- 1/2’ high at the northwest corner 

FIGURE 106. A view of the house from the southwest (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004)
National Park Service 105

Part I: Developmental History

of the house to around 6’ at the southeast corner. 

Window and door openings are created using large 

stone slabs as lintels along with 4”- thick wooden 

window sills. Door sills were originally wooden, 2- 1/

2” thick, but all have been replaced with concrete 

except at the western door on the north side of the 

ground floor. The rough coursing of stone visible on 

the sides of some openings appears to have originally been stuccoed to provide a smoother face 

framing the opening.

Brick Foundation

The rear addition, which replaced Memminger’s 

antebellum addition in the 1920s, rests on a continuous brick foundation put up in a six- course common bond, using a hard- fired, machine- made, red 

brick and grey Portland mortar. The foundation of 

the west porch is contemporaneous with the rear 

foundation and uses the same hard- fired, red brick. 

The face of some of the brick in both foundations 

exhibit the same distinctive, diagonal striations. The 

earliest photographs of the house show its stone 

foundation painted white, but the brick foundation 

was not painted white until after 1950.

The front porch is supported by four masonry columns around 31” square, 8’ high, and dating to the 

building’s original construction. Constructed of 

brick, the columns are stuccoed and were originally 

scored to resemble large stone blocks, although 

most of the scored lines are no longer evident on the 

corner piers.

Originally constructed around 1930 and reconstructed in1980- 1981, the conservatory is supported 

by two brick piers, both around 17”, one around 6’-

8” high and the other 6’- 10” high. Brick are around 

8- 1/2” long, larger than any other brick in the building.

Wooden Posts

The foundation for the east porch is formed by a 

pair of turned, wooden posts, each around 7” in 

diameter and about 5’- 10” high. Dating to the 

porch’s original construction about 1890, these posts 

sit on stone blocks resting directly on the ground. 

The areas beneath the east porch and beneath the 

conservatory have been enclosed by lattice constructed with boards 3/4” by 1- 1/4”. The lattice was 

originally installed by Smyth, probably in the 1920s, 

and does not appear in historic photographs until 

the 1930s. Sandburg- era photographs show it missFIGURE 107. View of center chimney, as 

reconstructed in 1983. (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR,2004)

FIGURE 108. VIew of foundation at east end of 

1920s rear addition. (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004)

FIGURE 109. View of foundation at northwest 

corner of original house.(T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 

2004)
106 Connemara Main House HSR

Physical Description

ing in the 1950s (CARL3000/15/28P), but replaced by 

the 1960s (CARL3000/04/12P). The present lattice 

was installed when the Conservatory was reconstructed in1980- 1981.

Chimneys

Stone also forms the ground- floor foundation for 

the house’s three large, brick chimney stacks which 

rise through the ridge of the main roof. All three of 

these chimneys appear to be part of the building’s 

original construction, but all were rebuilt above the 

roof line in 1983. The original brick, which are still 

visible in the attic, are variable, ranging between 6- 1/

2” and 7- 1/2” long, generally 2- 1/2” thick, and 3- 1/4” 

to 3- 1/2” wide. The center and the east chimneys are 

both around 29” by 50” as they rise through the 

attic; the west chimney is slightly larger at around 31” 

by 51”.

Two additional chimney stacks are located at the 

rear of the house. Both are brick and rise around 15’ 

above the roof. The easternmost stack is around 30” 

square and has a stone or concrete coping course at 

the top. Rising through the southwest corner of 

Room 104, it was constructed to service the furnace 

installed by Smyth in the early 1920s. The western 

stack, which is around 20” square, was installed by 

the Sandburgs in 1947 to service the coal- burning 

stove in Room 015 but was little used because of its 

inadequate draft.

Structural System

The house is wood framed, using a modified braced 

frame in the original portion of the house and a 

conventional platform frame in the rear addition. 

Although much of the framing is obscured by finish 

materials, about half of the floor framing for the first 

floor is exposed, and most of the second floor ceiling framing and nearly all of the roof framing are 

visible in the attic areas. In addition, framing for the 

lowered ceilings on the first floor is visible from the 

rear attic that is accessed off the main stairwell and 

from the top of the closet by the fire place in Room 

104. The junction of the studs and top plates of the 

first floor walls and the original second floor joists 

are also visible from these areas.

Earlier reports, including historic structure report in 

1976, have stated that the house was built entirely of 

hand- hewn lumber, but that is not the case. Typical 

of the second quarter of the nineteenth century, sills 

in the original portion of the house are hand hewn, 

FIGURE 110. View of reconstructed conservatory and east end of house. 

(T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004)
National Park Service 107

Part I: Developmental History

but the remainder of the framing material is mill 

sawn. Lumber from the Memminger era is generally 

sash sawn (i.e., using a reciprocating saw) in varying 

dimensions typical of the period. Lumber from the 

Smyth era is generally circular sawn and in modern 

standard dimensions that are typically slightly larger 

than the circular- sawn lumber used in the Sandburg 

additions.

Mortise and tenon joinery is typical of the Memminger and Gregg eras, with machine- cut nails used 

for secondary connections. Wire- nailed connections are typical of the Smyth and Sandburg eras.

Sills, Beams, and Plates

Sills and beams in the original part of the house are 

hewn, approximately 7- 1/2” by 9- 1/2”, and are in 

excellent condition. Top plates are sash sawn 

around 3- 1/2” to 4” by 7- 1/2” to 8”.200 Sills and 

beams in the rear addition, which date to the 1920s, 

consist of tripled members, each member around 1-

1/2” by 9- 1/2”. Plates are doubled, with each member around 1- 1/2” by 3- 1/2”.

Joists

Floor. First floor joists in the original part of the 

house are variable, ranging from 1- 3/4” to 3” by 9- 1/

2” to 10”, with most approaching the larger dimensions, and are set on centers ranging from 19- 1/2” to 

24” apart. Second floor joists in the original part of 

the house are generally 2- 1/2” to 2- 3/4” by 6- 1/2” to 

7- 3/4” set on centers ranging from 21” to 27” apart. 

First floor joists in the original part of the house are 

connected by a relatively small mortise- and- tenon 

joint approximately 2- 1/2” wide. Second floor joists 

are s lapped over the top plates and extend beyond 

the outside walls to provide “lookouts” for the 

house’s boxed eaves. Floor joists in the rear addition 

are around 1- 1/2” by 9- 1/2”, set on 16” centers and 

cross braced at mid- span with beaded tongue- andgroove boards that were salvaged from another 

location, probably from the ceilings of the antebellum rooms at the rear that were replaced in the 

1920s. Diagonally laid subflooring around 8” wide 

was used in the rear addition, but no sub- floor is 

present in the original portion of the structure. 

Ceilings. The ceilings in most of the original firstfloor rooms were lowered in 1945. The joists in the

200. Dimensions are actual, not nominal (i.e., 1-1/2” by 3-1/

2” rather than conventional 2” by 4”, etc.)

FIGURE 111. View of typical original first floor 

joists, as seen from Room 018. (T. Jones, NPSSERO-CR, 2004)

FIGURE 112. View of hand-hewn beam in Room 018. 

(T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004)

FIGURE 113. View of typical, cross-braced, floor joists 

and diagonally laid sub-floor in rear addition. (T. 

Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004)
108 Connemara Main House HSR

Physical Description

lower ceilings are quite variable, ranging from 1- 5/8” 

to 2” by anywhere from 6” to 9” and may have been 

salvaged from another location. Ceiling joists in the 

rear addition are between 1- 1/2” to 1- 3/4” by about 

7- 1/2”, set on 16” centers.

Posts and Studs

Corner posts are inaccessible, but intermediary 

posts appear to be generally 4” by 7- 1/2” in the original part of the house. Posts in the addition may be 

4” by 4” or doubled 2” by 4” members (all nominal 

dimensions). Studs in the original portion of the 

house are typically 2- 1/2” to 3” by 3- 1/2” to 4” on 

centers 26” to 28” apart. These are joined to the 

plates and sills by tenons about 1” wide. Studs in the 

addition are around 1- 1/2” by 3- 1/2” joined with 

wire nails.

Rafters

The original part of the house has a common rafter 

roof with rafters set on a false plate and joined at the 

ridge by lapped and pegged connections without the 

use of a ridge board. Rafters in the main part of the 

house are typically 2- 3/4” to 3” by 6” to 7” on centers around 28” apart. Roman numerals are visible 

near the top of each rafter, inscribed during original 

construction so that rafters, which were cut and 

lapped on the ground, could be properly matched to 

one another when finally installed. Rafters for the 

dormer roofs and for the front gable are around 3” 

by 4” and are nailed to a ridge board. “Lookouts” to 

carry the gable eaves are mortised into the gableend rafters. Rafters for the added shed roof at the 

rear are around 1- 3/4” by 7- 1/2”.

Typical of a common rafter roof, rafters are covered 

with a continuous roof deck composed of tongueand- groove material in widths ranging from 6” to 

8”. The decking on the main roof must have 

replaced an original open deck for wood shingles 

when the house was roofed with metal, which 

requires a solid deck, in the nineteenth century. 

Decking on the shed roof at the rear dates to the 

1920s. Isolated sections of decking have been 

replaced with plywood during the course of modern 

repairs by the NPS.

Exterior Finishes

Much of the finish material on the exterior of the 

house is original millwork, except on the rear addiFIGURE 114. View east in attic of rear addition with 

framing of rear wall of original house visible at left. 

(T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004)

FIGURE 115. View of typical connection of rafters in 

main roof. Note inscribed Roman numeral XVII on 

face of right-hand rafter. (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 

2004

FIGURE 116. View of end rafter at west side of main 

roof, showing lookouts mortised and pegged in 

place. (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004)
National Park Service 109

Part I: Developmental History

tion where most material dates to the 1920s. Some 

material around the bathroom and kitchen windows 

may date to the Sandburgs remodeling after World 

War II. With very few exceptions, it is all in excellent 

condition.

Roof

The house’s original roof covering was probably 

wooden shingles, which were replaced with a 

standing- seam metal roof prior to 1900, probably in 

conjunction with the alterations to the house 

around 1890, but possibly much earlier. Photographs show that between the two world wars, 

probably in the 1920s, the house was re- roofed 

using a cement- asbestos shingle. That roofing was 

replaced with a temporary covering of asphalt shingles in 1972. In 1983, the present “mineral- fiber” 

shingle roof covering on the main roof and fiberglass asphalt shingle covering on the rear shed roof 

were installed. The roofs of the bay windows and 

the east porch were always covered with flat- seam 

metal, with the present metal roofing dating to 1978.

Gutters. Gutters are run across the lower edge of 

every roof shed, including the side porch and the 

bay windows, but not the Conservatory. Downspouts empty into 6” terra- cotta pipes and underground drainage lines that carry water away from 

the house. The Baker Barber photograph of the 

house from the 1880s (CARL3001/01/48P) shows the 

presence of gutters and downspouts on the front of 

the house, but the poor quality of the image makes 

characterization of the gutters impossible. Better 

images from the early twentieth century clearly 

show 4” or 5” half- round, roof- hung gutters and 

round downspouts, with built- in gutters at the two 

bay windows.

The present half- round gutters on the front of the 

house may date to the Sandburg era, but the NPS 

installed the present half- round gutters across the 

rear of the house to replace the historic K- style or 

ogee gutters installed by the Sandburgs in the 1940s. 

The NPS has replaced other gutters and downspouts around the house, but which ones is not 

clear.

Skylight. A skylight measuring about 3’- 6” by 3’-

6” is located in the roof above the stair hall (Room 

115). It is metal framed, divided into two lights, and 

glazed with wire- reinforced glass. Although there is 

no historical documentation, it is most likely that the 

skylight was installed when Smyth created a second- floor bathroom (Room 217) around 1912, which 

left the stair hall with little or no natural lighting.

FIGURE 117. View of rear (south) shed of main roof, showing skylight, lightning rods, and typical dormer. 

(T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004)
110 Connemara Main House HSR

Physical Description

Dormers. The main roof features five, windowed 

dormers, three on the rear shed of the roof and two 

on the front. Part of the original construction of the 

house, each dormer has a gabled roof and is finished 

with flush, tongue- and- groove siding on the gabled 

front and lapped weatherboard on the sides, similar 

to that on the main body of the house.

Lightning Rods

The house has five lightning rods, four spaced more 

or less evenly across the ridge of the main roof and 

one on the ridge near the top of the front gable. 

Although Memminger’s account book mentions 

installation of three lightning rods in 1847, rods are 

not visible in the earliest photographs of the house, 

and it appears that the present rods were contemporaneous with the cement- asbestos roof installed 

by the Smyths in the 1920s or 1930s. Other lightning 

rods, perhaps dating to an earlier era, remain in the 

park’s museum collection.

Windows and Doors

The present fenestration of the house includes windows and doors from each of the building’s historic 

periods. The original fenestration of the building 

was altered by Memminger when he added the 

range of rooms across the rear of the house in the 

late 1840s, and there were other alterations in the 

late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

The lack of a single, primary entrance off the front 

porch is a notable deviation from that which was 

typical of the Greek Revival. The present arrangement of windows and doors on the front porch was 

present when the house was first photographed in 

the 1870s or 1880s, and analysis of painted finishes 

indicates that the house’s original fenestration has 

not been altered.

The original first floor windows on the east side of 

the house were enlarged to floor- length openings 

when the east porch was constructed around 1890. 

The northernmost window on the west side was lost 

when the west bay window was built, also around 

1890. Original first- floor windows and doors at the 

rear of the house were relocated and/or replaced 

when the rear addition was built in the late 1840s. 

Original or very early windows and doors remain at 

openings on the east (W- 3 and 4), north (D- 1, 2 and 

3 and W- 1 and 2), and west sides (W- 3 and 4) of the 

original ground floor. The Sandburgs did not 

replace window sash, but they did convert most of 

FIGURE 118. View of Window W-36, showing 

typical original casing and sill. Nine-over-nine 

muntins have been removed from original sash. 

A four-light, exterior storm sash is installed at 

the opening in this image.(T. Jones, NPS-SEROCR, 2004)

FIGURE 119. Window W-2, with original sash, in 

north wall of Room 001. Note wooden sash stop 

near upper left corner of lower sash. (T. Jones, 

NPS-SERO-CR, 2004)
National Park Service 111

Part I: Developmental History

the multi- light sash to single light sash by removing 

muntins and reglazing each sash with single sheets 

of plate glass. The locations of mortises for the 

muntins are still evident in the stiles and rails of the 

sash.

Windows. The house has fifty- one exterior window openings, which are fitted with a variety of 

sash, all of which should be considered historic, 

even though most of them, except in the ground 

floor and part of the first floor, were altered by the 

Sandburgs. None of the original nine- over- nine 

sash remain intact in the house, but the original sixover- six sash survive in five ground floor windows 

(W- 1, 2, 3, 4, and 14). The sash in the west bay date to 

the bay’s construction around 1890, while all sash in 

the rear rooms date to the 1920s, except in the 

kitchen where the Sandburgs created new windows 

in 1945 (W- 30, 31, 32, 33, 34).201 The Sandburgs also 

created new windows in the new bathrooms (W- 37 

and 45).

All of the double- hung windows are counterweighted, but most sash have been painted shut and 

many of the sash- weight cords are broken. All of the 

double- hung windows were weather- stripped by 

the Smyths, using a crimped zinc strip that fits small 

grooves let into the edges of the sash. Windows 

installed by the Sandburgs were not weatherstripped.

The windows on the main floor of the house originally had nine- over- nine sash with six- over- six 

sash on the ground and second floors. Six- over- six 

sash were also used in the addition that Memminger 

constructed before the Civil War, but when a new 

door was created on the south side of Room 018 

around the same time, the old door on the west side 

of that room was replaced with a double casement 

window (W- 13), which remains in the opening 

today.

Window sash during the antebellum period were 

typically single- hung (i.e., only the lower sash was 

movable), with a wooden catch on the jamb pivoting 

to hold the sash in an open position (see east jamb of 

window W- 1 and elsewhere). Antebellum sash can 

be readily identified by the pegs used to join mortised rails and stiles with through tenons. Parting 

rails on these sash are generally 1” wide; stiles and

 

201. See Anders’ copy of invoice from Rigby-Morrow 

Company, dated 30 November 1945.

FIGURE 120. View of window (W-36), with original 

narrow beaded casing and thick sills used at 

openings on the sides of the original house. (T. 

Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004)

FIGURE 121. View of Window W-21, typical of rear 

addition (c. 1924), with two-over-two sash intact. A 

two-light, exterior storm sash is installed at the 

opening in this image. (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 

2004)
112 Connemara Main House HSR

Physical Description

rails are both around 2- 1/2” wide. Windows added 

in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, 

including the 1920s, had two- over- two sash like 

those that remain in the bay windows and the back 

stair hall. Two generations of two- over- two sash 

can be distinguished by the thicker muntins (1- 1/4” 

vs. 1”) in the sash from the 1920s. All of these windows were typically double- hung and counterbalanced.

In addition, divided- light transoms were installed 

above the four outside doors on the first floor. The 

ten- light transoms over the front doors were in 

place by the 1880s and may, at one time, have been 

glazed with colored glass in a manner typical of the 

period. The nine- light transoms over the doors to 

the conservatory and east porch were installed in 

the 1920s along with the French doors and have 

always been glazed with clear glass.

At the ground floor of the rear addition, windows 

are, with one exception, double casement windows, 

3’- 10” by 3’- 6”, fitted with interior, wood- framed, 

side- hinged screens. The exception is the opening 

at the east side of Room 010 which has a single, 

fixed, six- light sash that could be easily removed, 

probably to allow delivery of coal into that room.

On the east and north walls of Room 012 are matching six- light sash, each about 3’- 5” by 3’- 5”, and 

glazed with a machine- made, striated, translucent 

glass similar to that remaining in the door to the 

bathroom on the second floor (Room 217). These 

were probably salvaged from the pair of windows on 

the west side of the Smyth- era master bathroom 

where the West Porch is now located.

Exterior Shutters and Storm Sash. Most if not all 

of the windows were fitted with fixed- louver shutters, probably when the house was originally constructed, but certainly by the 1880s. Louvered 

shutters now in the Wood Shed may have come 

from the Main House. Historic photographs indicate that the shutters remained in place throughout 

the Smyth era and must have been removed when 

the Sandburgs began their renovations in 1945. Most 

of the windows are now fitted with removable, 

wood- framed, storm sash, some of which date to 

the Sandburg period, while others were installed by 

the NPS.202

Doors. There are seven exterior door openings in 

the house: three on the north side of the ground 

floor, one on the west side of the ground floor, two 

from the front porch, and one from the side porch. 

The side porch was historically inaccessible from 

the ground but now is accessed from the ground by 

a mechanical lift for handicapped accessibility. Like 

the windows, the house’s exterior doors have 

undergone a number of alterations. All of the existFIGURE 122. View of Window W-8, typical of ground 

floor windows in rear addition. (T. Jones, NPSSERO-CR, 2004)

FIGURE 123. View of window W-13, which 

was originally a door opening, and the 

adjacent embrasure. (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 

2004)

202. See Anders’ copy of invoice from Hendersonville 

Lumber Co., dated 12 December 1945.
National Park Service 113

Part I: Developmental History

ing exterior ground floor doors (D- 1, D- 2, D- 3, D4) are original, although the door to the carport (D4)is not in its original location. These doors originally had six wooden panels, but the Sandburgs 

replaced the upper four panels in each door with 

glass panes in the 1940s.203 (See descriptions of 

Rooms 001 and 002 for additional details on these 

doors.) As part of the 1920s rehabilitation, the two, 

original, six- panel, front doors were replaced with 

the present fifteen- light French doors. One of these 

original doors may be the six- panel door located to 

the left of the main doors to the Barn. Fifteen- light 

French doors (D- 13 and 14) as well as transoms also 

replaced the two large, two- over- two windows on 

the east side of the house in the 1920s.

Screening

Widespread use of screening for doors and windows 

did not evolve until after the Civil War, and the first 

screening at Connemara may not have come until 

the Gregg’s alterations to the house around 1890. 

The East Porch may not have been screened until 

the Sandburg era. The Front Porch has never been 

screened.

Door Screens. Wood- framed screened doors presently exist at all exterior door openings except the 

one to the Conservatory. The only screens prior to 

the 1920s were double screen doors at each of the 

front doors and possibly at the ground floor doors, 

although the photographic evidence is less clear for 

the latter. Photographs and the character of the 

existing screen doors suggest that Smyth replaced 

the double screen doors, which probably dated to 

the last quarter of the nineteenth century, with the 

present doors as part of his rehabilitation of the 

house in 1924.

Window Screens. Most home owners did not use 

window screens as long as exterior shutters were 

still being used, since shutters would not close with 

screens in place. So it was at Connemara, where 

shutters remained in place throughout the Smyth 

era, and the Sandburgs appear to have installed the 

first window screens on the house. These were 

wood- framed half screens, which covered only the 

lower sash opening. Some of these screens remain 

on the house while others are in museum storage.

.

203. Historic photographs from late in the Smyth era show 

D-1 and D-3 without glass panes.

FIGURE 124. View of Door D-1, one of the house’s 

original doors (c. 1838), altered by the Sandburgs 

in 1945.(T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 

FIGURE 125. View of Door D-11, with original casing, 

mid-19th century transom, and c. 1924 French door 

and screened door. (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004)
114 Connemara Main House HSR

Physical Description

Storm Windows

It is not clear if the Smyths used storm windows, but 

they may have been part of the 1924 renovation. 

Wood- framed storm windows are clearly evident in 

Sandburg- era photographs, and some of these 

remain on the house or in storage. Typically, screens 

were replaced by storm windows each autumn, 

since both could not be in place at the same time.

Exterior Woodwork

Most of the original, antebellum siding and trim 

appears to remain in place on the north, east, and 

much of the west side of the house. Most of the rest 

of the siding and trim dates to the 1920s and the 

1940s. As with the interior woodwork, each generation of alterations and additions is represented in 

the exterior siding and trim, and nearly all of the 

existing material should be considered historic. 

Analysis of painted finishes on the front of the house 

revealed that the woodwork was apparently 

stripped of all layers of historic paint in the 1970s or 

1980s.

Siding. The exterior of the original portion of the 

house is finished with a conventional lapped siding, 

using boards that are around 3/4” by 6” to 7” and 

laid with an exposure of around 5- 1/2”. Some of the 

siding on the west and north sides of the house may 

have been replaced when Memminger enlarged and 

altered the house in the late 1840s, and some siding 

might have been replaced on the east side when two 

first- floor windows there were changed to door 

openings around 1890. Siding on the rear addition 

dates to the 1920s, but there may have been some 

replacement in conjunction with the Sandburgs’ 

changes to the kitchen windows. Siding is in excellent condition all around the house.

Window and Door Casing. Two types of casing 

were used on the exterior of the original house. On 

the front, a deeply molded casing (see drawings at 

end of this section),5- 1/2” wide and similar to contemporaneous casing on the interior, was installed 

along with “bull’s- eye” corner blocks. On the sides 

and presumably the rear as well, casing was a simple 

board about 3” wide, beaded on the inside edge, and 

found in conjunction with a 3” sill at the window 

(W- 36) on the west side of Room 118 and around the 

doors to the conservatory (D- 13, D- 14), which were 

originally windows but were converted into door 

openings around 1890. Casing of the openings 

around the rear addition (c. 1924) is typically a plain 

FIGURE 126. View of original (1838) exterior window 

casings. (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 

FIGURE 127. View of typical eaves on original house, 

top, and on rear addition, bottom. (T. Jones, NPSSERO-CR, 2004) 
National Park Service 115

Part I: Developmental History

board about 4” wide with a 3/4” backband projecting about 1/2” beyond the face of the casing. Sills are 

typically 1- 1/2” thick at the openings created in the 

1920s. The Sandburgs used a similar treatment in the 

window openings they added in the 1940s.

Eaves. The eaves are relatively narrow, projecting 

about 12” from the walls. Typical of the Greek 

Revival, there are full cornice returns on each gable 

end. The fascia is plain, about 8” wide, with a 3” ogee 

crown molding at its junction with the roof deck. A 

similar 3” ogee crown molding finishes the junction 

of the soffits and walls. The eaves on the rear addition are similar but use slightly narrower moldings. 

The crown molding at the edge of the rear shed roof 

was removed when the Sandburgs installed boxed 

gutters across the rear of the house in the 1940s. 

Eaves on the west bay (c. 1890) feature an exceptionally wide crown molding where the soffit meets 

the walls.

West Bay Window. The bay window on the west 

side of the house, which was part of the late Victorian alterations, is paneled on the exterior with three 

types of tongue- and- groove boards. Originally, the 

sides were paneled with 4- 1/2” double- beaded 

boards, but some of these have been replaced on the 

south side of the bay with 3- 1/2” double- beaded 

boards, probably the result of repairs when the 

adjacent bathroom was removed. The outstanding 

design of the lower portion of the bay, with its 

curves springing over and around the ground floor 

window below, is accentuated by 4- 1/2”- wide, triple- beaded, tongue- and- groove boards.

Portico

The portico is an original feature of the house, as 

evidenced by an examination of the framing where 

the front gable meets the main roof (visible from 

closets off Room 207), which shows no evidence 

that the portico was a later addition. With its spectacular views and ample size, the portico was a 

much- used feature of the house from the beginning. Given its exposure to the elements, numerous 

repairs were probably made during the historic 

period, at least including replacement of some or all 

of the flooring. The floor framing would almost certainly have been completely rebuilt when the brick 

piers and concrete steps were constructed around 

1920, and it was probably that material that was 

replaced by the NPS in 1973. The existing flooring,

FIGURE 128. View of west bay window.(T. Jones, 

NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 

FIGURE 129. View of part of bay window on west 

side of house.(T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 

FIGURE 130. View of Portico.(T. Jones, NPS-SEROCR, 2004) 
116 Connemara Main House HSR

Physical Description

.

joists, and beams date to a second NPS reconstruction in 1996.

Flooring. Flooring is 1” by 2- 3/8”, tongue- andgroove, painted grey, and also dates to 1996. Flooring is in good condition except for some rot at the 

ends of some boards at the front steps

Ceiling. The ceiling, which is set at 12’- 6” above the 

floor, is finished with 1” by 8”, beaded, tongue- andgroove boards that were most likely part of the 

building’s original construction. Boards are around 

8’ long, laid with staggered joints in a manner typical 

of the early nineteenth century. The deep header 

that surrounds the porch is finished with a 1”- diameter bead mold along the lower edges, and the junction between ceiling and header is finished with a 4” 

ogee crown molding.

Columns. The portico roof is supported by four 

fluted Doric columns terminating in an unmolded 

abacus approximately 2” thick. The columns originally extended to the floor until shortened and set 

on brick piers in the 1920s, probably due to deterioration of column bases. Original, full- length pilasters survive at the wall on each side of the porch. 

These too may have sustained damage to the base, 

but only a few inches of the original pilaster were 

removed and the present plinth installed, perhaps in 

conjunction with installation of the late Victorian 

balustrade that presently surrounds the porch. The 

plinths are around 6” high with a 3/4” chamfer at the 

upper edge. Three of the four original columns were 

replaced by the NPS in the 1970s. Only the column 

on the west side of the front steps is original.

Piers. Dating to the 1920s, the painted brick piers 

were built on top of larger antebellum foundation 

piers described earlier and are around 20” by 20” 

except for the top two courses which are corbeled 

out about an inch on all sides. A 2”- thick, painted, 

concrete cap around 22” by 22” and probably contemporaneous with the pier itself serves as a base for 

the wooden column. The masonry that projects 

through the floor at the two corner piers may be the 

result of a construction error. At the center columns, 

the wood floor system covers the change in dimension between the added brick piers above and the 

wider antebellum piers at the ground floor level. At 

the corners, however, new brick construction followed the wider dimension to floor level so that the 

transition between the two dimensions is exposed.

FIGURE 131. View of typical Portico details. 

.(T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 

FIGURE 132. View of pilaster plinth on Portico. (T. 

Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 

FIGURE 133. View of northeast corner of Portico 

showing typical balustrade (c. 1890) and brick pier 

(c. 1924). (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 
National Park Service 117

Part I: Developmental History

Balustrade. The existing balustrades date to the 

late Victorian renovation of the house and generally 

match the balustrades that survive on the East 

Porch. In relatively good condition, they replaced 

the original balustrades and were installed around 

1890 with installation of the first wooden, T- shaped 

front steps, which featured similar balusters. The 

present balustrade is about 31- 1/2” high and includes 

a 4- 1/2” by 2- 1/2” oval top rail and a 2- 3/4” by 2- 3/

4” bottom rail, reeded on both faces. The top of the 

bottom rail angles to a ridge down the center of the 

rail, with the baluster ends broadly notched to sit on 

the ridge. Turned balusters are around 1- 3/4” by 1- 3/

4” but are extremely variable in their molding, indicating that the balusters were hand- turned, perhaps 

locally.

Front Steps. The original front steps, which may 

have descended in a single flight to the ground, were 

removed in 1865. The present T- shaped staircase 

and the balustrades are concrete, installed by Smyth 

prior to 1921 to replace a wooden T- shaped staircase 

built about 1890. The balustrade consists of a 4”-

thick concrete wall on which the imprint of the vertical tongue- and- groove form work is clearly visible, a 7”- wide concrete coping, and 9” concrete 

newel posts with 12” concrete caps. Smyth installed a 

2” metal pipe railing on both sides of each flight of 

steps prior to 1938, but some or all of that railing was 

replaced in 1972.

East Porch

The north half of the porch that was built on the east 

side of the house around 1890 was replaced by the 

Conservatory in the late 1920s or early 1930s, but the 

southern half of the porch remains intact. Designated Room 106 in earlieri plans of the building, it 

retains many of its original features, and even the 

shortened roof maintains the concave ridges of the 

original hipped roof. The porch underwent significant alterations in 1991 when the NPS installed a 

mechanical lift at its south end.

Floor. The historic floor framing appears to remain 

mostly intact. Sills are circular sawn, around 4” by 

6”, with 2”- thick joists set on 24” centers. Joists 

range from 7” to 8- 1/4” deep which creates 1- 1/4” 

slope to the floor away from the house. The original 

supporting posts remain in place at each corner of 

the porch. These are turned, about 6- 1/2” in diameter, and set on a low stone block resting on the 

ground. Flooring is 4- 1/2” tongue- and- groove

FIGURE 134. View of original posts and balustrades 

(c. 1890) on East Porch..(T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 

2004) 

FIGURE 135. View of lift to East Porch..(T. Jones, 

NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 

FIGURE 136. View of East Porch and 

Conservatory..(T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 
118 Connemara Main House HSR

Physical Description

boards, but the south side of the floor is covered 

with a modern 3/4” plywood floor. The wood floor 

is modern, painted grey, and was installed to raise 

the floor to the level of the door sill for handicapped 

accessibility.

Ceiling. The ceiling is at 10’- 5” above the floor and 

finished with 4- 1/2”- wide, double- beaded boards 

similar to those used on part of the late Victorian 

bay on the west side of the house.

Posts and Balustrades. The existing chamfered 

posts are an original feature of this porch. Set in 

pairs, each post is about 3- 3/4” by 3- 3/4”, with 

edges chamfered from about 36” above the floor. 

The balustrades are more- or- less identical to the 

balustrades just described for the portico.

Screening. It is not clear when the East Porch was 

first screened, but at least by 1951 detachable woodframed screens had been installed. These screens 

remain in place only on the east side, but the screens 

from the south end, which were removed for installation of the handicapped lift, are in storage.

Miscellaneous Features. Large iron hooks are 

mounted on two of the columns with two matching 

hooks mounted on the wall of the house. These 

were evidently used to hang hammocks. 

Conservatory

The Sandburgs referred to the glass- enclosure off 

the east side of the house as the Conservatory to 

distinguish it from the larger greenhouse located 

near the vegetable garden. Built around 1930, the 

historic Conservatory was so badly deteriorated that 

it was removed sometime between June 1970 and 

April 1971. It was reconstructed in 1980 - 1981 and 

apparently replicates most of the features found in 

the historic Conservatory, except for the screened 

sash that were present at four of the openings. The 

only original material are three of the windows and 

the wall below them on the south side of the Conservatory and the metal drip trough that runs along 

the interior of the Conservatory’s east side.

Floor. Sills and center beams are made up of doubled 2” by 10” members; joists are also 2” by 10” set 

on 24” centers. A diagonally- laid sub- floor is overlaid with 4- 1/2” tongue- and- groove flooring. All of 

this material dates to the 1980 reconstruction.

Enclosure. The conservatory is surrounded by a 

low wood- framed wall, paneled on the interior with 

double- beaded tongue- and- groove boards and on 

the exterior with a continuation of typical lapped 

siding. Surrounding the space are sixteen, awninghung, single- light windows, all 2’ by 4’. The side 

walls above these windows are finished with vertiFIGURE 137. View northeast in 

Conservatory..(T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 

FIGURE 138. View of lattice under East Porch..(T. 

Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 
National Park Service 119

Part I: Developmental History

cal, double- beaded boards like those paneling the 

lower walls. The ceiling/roof is wood- framed with 

over- lapping panes of glass forming the covering.

Lighting. An early twentieth century electric light 

fixture is mounted to the wall near the door into the 

space. Supplied by surface- mounted wiring, the 

fixture probably dates to the first electrification of 

the house around 1920.

West Porch

This porch rests on the brick foundation of a bathroom constructed by the Smyths in the 1920s and 

removed by the Sandburgs in 1945. The brick here is 

identical to that used in the foundation of the rear 

addition. The Sandburgs removed the bathroom, 

had a concrete slab poured for a floor and installed a 

balustrade. The balusters are identical to those used 

on the Portico and on the East Porch and were 

probably salvaged and stored when Smyth removed 

part of the east porch and constructed the Conservatory in the 1920s. An access door on the south side 

of the foundation provides entry into the unfinished 

ground floor of the structure.

Carport

Constructed by the Smyths in the 1920s, the socalled carport might better be termed a porte 

cochere. It was built on a poured concrete pad about 

12’- 6” by 18- 6”. The structure consists of a flat, 

built- up roof supported by a pair of boxed columns, 

8- 1/2” by 8- 1/2”, set on plain 2”- thick plinths. The 

original round downspouts remain in place. The 

ceiling is finished with 3- 1/2”- wide, doublebeaded, tongue- and- groove boards. A 2” bed mold 

trims the soffit, but the crown molding that originally trimmed the fascia was removed when the 

present box gutters were installed by the Sandburgs 

after World War II.

Interior

The Sandburgs altered the ground floor considerably by removing all of the original wood floors and 

all of the original wall partitions. In the original part 

of the main floor, the Sandburgs added a bathroom 

and a number of closets, but retained nearly all of 

the historic finish material, much of which dates to 

the antebellum period. They also maintained most 

of Smyth’s rear addition from the 1920s, except in 

FIGURE 139. View of West Porch. (T. Jones, NPSSERO-CR, 2004) 

FIGURE 140. View to northeast of porte cochere. (T. 

Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 

FIGURE 141. Light fixture, c. 1920, on west wall of 

conservatory. (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 
120 Connemara Main House HSR

Physical Description

the bathroom and the kitchen, both of which were 

thoroughly remodeled. Although the Sandburgs 

added a second bathroom on the floor, the second 

floor is the least altered part of the house, with most 

of its original flooring, plaster, and woodwork, and 

all of its original doors and their hardware still 

intact.

Under the NPS, most rooms have been repainted (in 

the original colors) at least once, the electrical and 

heating systems have been rehabilitated, and a 

sprinkler system has been installed. Nevertheless, 

the NPS has maintained the appearance of the 

house with very few changes since the Sandburg era. 

Ground Floor

Sandburg himself was adamant that the house did 

not have a “basement,” which he understood to 

mean a floor that was at least partially below 

grade.204 However, in the nineteenth century, the 

term was commonly used to refer to a building’s 

ground floor, and not until the twentieth century 

did the term gain the connotations of modern use 

where “basement” refers to cellars and secondary 

spaces that are at least partially below grade.

The ground floor occupies a footprint of about 3000 

square feet with eight main rooms and eleven closets 

and other secondary spaces. The floor houses the 

main visitor contact point and book sales; the building’s furnace, main electrical panels, and other utilities; as well as spaces furnished and maintained for 

interpretation.

The original ground floor was limited to the stonewalled portion (Rooms, 001- 009, 018, 019) of the 

present floor. The rooms at the rear (010- 017), 

which are surrounded by the brick foundation, were 

all constructed as part of the Smyths’ renovation of 

the house in 1925. The Sandburgs removed all of the 

partitions in the original part of the ground floor 

and created an entirely new floor plan in that area, 

but the newer rear part of the ground floor was little 

altered.

The floors in Rooms 001- 009 are approximately 6” 

lower than the floor in the remainder of the ground 

floor. The elevation of Room 018 and the rooms at 

204. Wallace, p. 71. 

FIGURE 142. View east in Room 001. (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 
National Park Service 121

Part I: Developmental History

the rear is most likely due to the presence of subsurface rock that made it not feasible to lower the 

grade in that area.

The ground floor has some of the house’s most significant architectural features, including original 

hand- wrought iron hinges at one of the entrances 

into Room 001. Although much of the lumber for the 

house was mill sawn, and all of the late nineteenth 

and twentieth century moldings, doors, and windows were machine- made, the door between 

Rooms 015 and 118, where evidence of hand planing 

is visible on the panels, is an excellent example of 

the original craftsmanship, probably that of James 

Rosamond, Memminger’s carpenter and contractor 

for construction of the house.

Workshop and Closet (001 & 019). This room is 

used for visitor contact and includes the site’s book 

store. Measuring about 40’ by 16’ and encompassing 

the western two- thirds of the house’s original dining room, the present space was created in the 1940s 

when the Sandburgs removed a wall that originally 

created a small sitting room at the west end of the 

present space and then built a new wall to create the 

present Room 002.

Flooring: Pouring of a concrete floor is documented 

in Room 018 in 1945, and the concrete floor in this 

room was apparently created in 1946 or 1947 in conjunction with the Sandburgs’ other changes in the 

ground floor. One of the Sandburg children 

remembered this floor as being dirt,205 but the room 

almost certainly had a conventional wooden floor at 

least as long as the room continued in use as a dining 

room. McKay remembered wide tongue- andgroove flooring, probably laid over sleepers of 

locust or some other insect- and rot- resistant 

wood, in Room 018 and similar flooring most likely 

existed throughout the ground floor at one time.

Walls: The north and west walls are formed by the 

coursing of the house’s stone foundation, which 

Memminger’s account book indicates were originally plastered. All of the plaster is now missing, 

except at the sides of the window and door openings, which are stuccoed and roughly scored in a 

diamond pattern

The south walls between the fireplaces are brick, 

with the brick generally 7- 3/4” by 2- 1/4” by 3” and 

laid in a common bond with a hard, Portland mor205. Wallace, Historic Furnishings Report, p. 53.

FIGURE 143. View west-southwest in Room 001. (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 
122 Connemara Main House HSR

Physical Description

tar. The Sandburgs removed the original wooden 

curtain walls and constructed these walls using 

brick that was probably salvaged from the old 

kitchen chimney when the kitchen was converted to 

a garage in 1945. The east wall, which was also constructed by the Sandburgs in the 1940s, consists of 

vertical, tongue- and- groove boards around 3/4” by 

7” to 7- 1/2” wide.

Ceiling: Set around 8’ above the floor, the ceiling is 

finished with beaded, tongue- and- groove boards 

ranging from 9- 1/2” to 13- 1/2” wide. It appears to 

date to the building’s original construction. Some 

ceiling boards were removed at the east end, probably when the wall creating Room 002 was built in the 

1940s. In 1979, the ceiling was taken down and reinstalled by the NPS, apparently to remove debris 

trapped above the ceiling. Of interest is the ghosted 

outline of the wall that created what the Smyths 

called “the little sitting room” at the west end of the 

original dining room, the outline being most visible 

at the edge of the western- most window on the 

north wall. At the east end of the room where the 

ceiling boards have been removed (probably by the 

Sandburgs), ghosting on the underside of the flooring in Room 102 indicates that those floor boards 

have been taken up and relaid or salvaged from 

another location.

Doors: Two exterior doors in the north wall open 

into this space. Both are around 3’- 6- ” by 7’- 0” by 

1- 1/4”, with stiles and rails mortised and pegged 

together. The western- most door is notable for its 

two wrought- iron strap hinges, each about 17- 1/4” 

long, one of only two pair of hand- wrought hinges 

that survive in the main house (the other is at Door 

D- 3 in Room 002), although similar hinges can still 

be found in the Wash House and in the Swedish 

House. This door also features a large, cast- iron rim 

lock about 5” by 8” in dimension that has lost its 

knob but is apparently an original feature as well. 

Just above it is a smaller Corbin rim lock with porcelain knob that is typical of hardware installed in 

the last half of the nineteenth century.

FIGURE 144. View northwest in Room 001. (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 
National Park Service 123

Part I: Developmental History

Door D- 2 may have been added at an early date, 

perhaps replacing an original window at that location. It has molded flat panels (D- 1 and D- 3 have 

flat panels without molding) and has 3” by 4- 1/2” 

butt hinges with fixed pins, which are apparently 

original. The ghost of a large rim lock similar to 

those found on D- 1 and D- 3 can also be discerned. 

A smaller horizontal rim lock, dating to the nineteenth or early twentieth century, replaces the larger 

lock, which is missing. The Sandburgs altered both 

exterior doors by replacing four wooden panels in 

each door with glass.

A door from Room 018 opens on the south wall, 

typical of the doors installed in the ground floor by 

the Sandburgs in the 1940s. The existing door is varnished pine or fir, 2’- 0” by 6’- 5”, with a large light 

above a single, flat, wood panel. The door opening 

into Room 005 also dates to the Sandburgs’ alterations in the 1940s. It is varnished pine or fir, 2’- 6” 

by 6’- 7” with three horizontal wooden panels below 

three vertical glass lights. On the east wall is the door 

into Room 002, which also dates to the 1940s. Measuring 2’- 5” by 6’- 5”, it is painted pine or fir and 

features three large horizontal panels.

Windows: The room has three windows, one on the 

west wall and two on the north wall. All are sixover- six, single- hung, around 3’- 5” by 5’- 2”, and 

apparently original features of the building. Each 

has a single, center- mounted, cupped lift installed 

in the twentieth century, probably by the Smyths

Lighting: Lighting is provided by five, ceilingmounted fixtures. Four keyless porcelain fixtures 

are generally along the room’s center line, while a 

fifth light illuminates the northwest corner of the 

room. This fifth light, which is fitted with a green 

metal shade, was rather haphazardly installed, 

probably by the Sandburgs. The non- standard wiring that runs across the ceiling to supply this fixture 

is no longer active, having been replaced by the NPS 

with concealed wiring. In addition to the five historic light fixtures, modern track lighting has been 

installed by the NPS to illuminate modern displays 

on the north and the south walls of the room.

Heating: The north half of the ground floor in what 

are now Rooms 001 and 002 was originally heated 

by three, large, interior fireplaces. All three featured 

fire boxes 36” to 40” wide by about 18” deep. The 

fire box openings were originally around 38” high

FIGURE 145. View of west jamb of Door D-1. Left 

of center is part of the wooden nailer inset into 

the masonry. (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 

FIGURE 146. View of typical ceiling-hung radiator. (T. 

Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 

FIGURE 147. View of door from Room 001 into 005, 

typical of varnished fir doors installed by the 

Sandburgs around 1947. (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 
124 Connemara Main House HSR

Physical Description

but were lowered to around 31” using a cast- iron 

lintel, perhaps as part of a conversion to coal in the 

late nineteenth century. The western fireplace in 

Room 001 has been closed by masonry infill, probably before the Sandburgs’ alterations to the ground 

floor plan. A pair of ceiling- hung radiators, which 

date to the 1920s, now provide heat for the space. 

Each is about 28” wide, with the radiator at the west 

end of the ceiling around 7’ long and the one at the 

east end less than 6’ long. Pipes to the radiators on 

the main floor of the house are also exposed across 

this ceiling.

Miscellaneous Features: Each about 12” by 12”, the 

two brick columns that interrupt this space were 

installed to provide additional support for the walls 

forming the east and west side of Room 101. As discussed above, they were probably installed along 

with the south wall by the Sandburgs in the 1940s. 

Along the west and north walls, rough- sawn boards 

are mounted in the masonry wall, apparently to 

serve as nailers for a plate rail since there is no evidence that the walls were ever paneled. The boards 

were mounted at heights that vary from 56” to 59”, 

except on the south side of the west window where 

the nailer is mounted at about 68” above the floor 

and may continue into what is now Room 019.

Bedroom and Closet (002-003). Encompassing the 

eastern third of the original dining room, this room 

and its adjacent closet were created by the Sandburgs in the 1940s. It was used as a room for the 

goats’ kids initially before being converted to a studio for Helga. By 1951, it was furnished as a guest 

room, which continued to be its use through most of 

the remainder of the Sandburg era. The Sandburg’s 

granddaughter Paula Steichen used the room when 

she was staying at the house in 1967- 1968. It is now 

used for visitor orientation.206

Flooring: The floor is concrete, probably contemporaneous with the floor in Room 001. Wall- towall, low- pile carpeting installed by the NPS was 

removed in February 2005.

Walls: The north and east walls are formed by the 

stone foundations walls. The south wall on the west 

side of the fireplace is brick; the remainder of that 

wall is wood framed. The west wall is a woodFIGURE 148. View southwest in Room 002. (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 

206. Wallace, Historic Furnishings Report, p. 55.
National Park Service 125

Part I: Developmental History

framed wall finished with plain tongue- and- groove 

pine or fir boards, 7” to 7- 1/4” wide, installed vertically. Rising damp has cause significant efflorescence of the plaster and mortar but the underlying 

stone remains sound.

Ceiling: The ceiling is finished with a 1/2”- thick fiber 

board panels, a material widely- used as a finish 

material in secondary rooms in the 1930s and 1940s. 

It is most likely contemporaneous with the creation 

of the room by the Sandburgs in the 1940s. The 

original ceiling boards at the east end of Room 001 

were removed, probably to construct the wall that 

created this room, and how much, if any, of the 

original boards remaining on this ceiling is not 

known.

Doors: In addition to the door from Room 001, there 

are two other doors in this room. On the north wall, 

Door D- 3 is almost identical to Door D- 1, with 

wrought- iron strap hinges, unmolded flat panels on 

the interior, and a large rimlock that is completely 

intact. The closet (Room 003) was added by the 

Sandburgs and is closed by a two- panel, fir door, 

2’- 0” by 6’- 8”.

Windows: The window in the east wall is 3’- 5” by 5’-

2”, six- over six, single- hung, and still contains its 

original sash.

Lighting: Typical of the ground floor, lighting is provided by a ceiling- mounted, porcelain fixture with a 

single bare bulb.

Heating: The fireplace on the north wall remains 

open but has undergone modifications similar to 

those evident in the fireplaces in Room 001, including installation of a cast- iron lintel that lowered the 

firebox opening to 31”. The room is now heated by 

means of a typical, ceiling- mounted, cast- iron 

radiator, about 4- 1/2’ long in four sections.

Miscellaneous Features: At the south end of the east 

wall, a board has been mounted horizontally 

between the stone coursing of the foundation wall 

about 55” above the floor. Like the similar ones at 

the west and north sides of Room 001, the board was 

probably placed to provide a nailer for shelving or a 

plate rail.

FIGURE 149. View northeast in Room 002. (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 
126 Connemara Main House HSR

Physical Description

Guest Room & Closet (004 & 007). This room and 

its adjacent closet were created along with Rooms 

005- 009 by the Sandburgs in 1947, and like Room 

002 was used as a guest bedroom.207

Flooring: The floor is poured concrete, presumably 

dating to 1947.

Walls: The east wall is formed by the stone foundation, while part of the north wall is formed by the 

base of the east chimney stack, although the 

masonry there is obscured by a plywood covering. 

The remainder of the walls are finished with vertical 

tongue- and- groove paneling, generally 7- 1/4” wide 

and dating to the Sandburgs’ 1940s remodeling. 

Because of plumbing and heating lines that run 

along the east side of the ceiling, the wall was not 

completed to the ceiling above the closet door. 

Chicken wire was installed to fill the gap, perhaps to 

keep the Sandburgs’ cats out of the closet.

Ceiling: The ceiling is finished with fiber board panels with lattice strips covering the joints between the 

panels, all painted white.

Doors: Dating to the late 1940s, the door from Room 

005 is varnished pine or fir, 2’- 8” by 6’- 4” with three 

horizontal panels below three vertical glass lights, 

similar to the door that opens from Room 001 into 

Room 005. The closet door is also varnished pine or 

fir, 2’- 0” by 6’- 4”, with two panels.

Windows: The window in the east wall originally lit 

the large room along the southeast side of the 

ground floor that served as a store room prior to the 

Sandburg era. The opening, which measures 3’- 5” 

by 5’- 2”, contains two of the building’s original 

antebellum, six- light sash. The large stone lintel 

exposed near the ceiling is typical of the original 

ground floor windows. Attached to the window’s 

right jamb is an iron hasp with the antique padlock 

still attached, and on the left jamb is a corresponding iron bracket. These were apparently meant to 

hold a wooden or iron security bar which would 

secure some sort of interior covering for the window.

Lighting: Lighting is provided by a typical bare bulb 

in a ceiling- mounted porcelain fixture.

207. Wallace, Historic Furnishings Report, p. 57. Heating: The spaces are unheated.

FIGURE 150. View southeast in Room 004. (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 
National Park Service 127

Part I: Developmental History

Miscellaneous: Waste and water supply lines from 

one of the second- floor bathrooms (213) traverse 

the east side of the ceilings and penetrates the wall 

above the closet door. Wall paneling stops short of 

the waste and water lines, with the gap between the 

wall and ceiling covered with chicken wire, perhaps 

to keep the Sandburgs’ house cats out of the closet.

Hall, Closet, and Preserve Room (005, 006, & 008). 

Constructed along with the surrounding rooms in 

1947 and functioning mainly as a hallway or passage, 

the hall connects to Room 001, Room 004, and 

Room 018 as well as to the Sandburg- era bathroom 

in Room 009 and the closets at Rooms 006 and 008, 

which was used by Mrs. Sandburg as a place to store 

preserves.

Flooring: The floors are poured concrete, dating to 

the 1940s.

Walls: Walls in the hall are paneled with varnished, 

tongue- and- groove paneling, 7- 1/4” wide, installed 

vertically. Walls in the closets are unfinished.

Ceiling: The ceiling is finished with fiber board and 

lattice battens typical of the 1940s.

Doors: In addition to the door opening into Room 

004 the door opening from Room 001, doors also 

open from the two closets (006 and 008) and into 

the bathroom (009). The closet doors are both varnished pine or fir, 2’- 0” by 6’- 4”, but the door to 

008 has only two panels while the door to Room 

006 has five panels. All, however, are apparently 

contemporaneous, dating to the 1940s.

The door that opens into Room 018 was re- used 

from another location in the house. Its style associates it with the late Victorian alterations to the 

house, but its original location is not known. The 

door is 2’- 9” by 6’- 8” by 1- 3/8” and has four, vertical, raised panels typical of the period. It is fitted 

with a rim lock with white porcelain knobs. The 

lock has patent dates of 21 October 1869 and 20 

March 1873. It is hung with 4” loose- pin, butt hinges 

with ball finials typical of those used by the Smyths 

and Sandburgs in the twentieth century.

Lighting: Lighting is by a typical ceiling- mounted, 

bare- bulb fixture.

Miscellaneous: In the northeast corner of the hall, 

the Sandburgs built a laundry chute, measuring 

about 26” by 28” in plan. It runs from a secondFIGURE 151. View northeast in Room 005. (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 
128 Connemara Main House HSR

Physical Description

floor closet (Room 215) through a first- floor closet 

(north end of Room 105) into this room, where 

laundry could be collected and carried to the laundry in Room 015. It is partially lined with fiber board 

at the lower level. What appear to be antique 

wooden hangers are let into the first- floor joists 

above Room 008 (and in Room 018). 

Bathroom (009). This bathroom was created by the 

Sandburgs, but precisely when is uncertain. Margaret Sandburg and John Carl Steichen thought it was 

in place by 1950, which may be true. However, the 

toilet bears a date of 4 April 1955, although that may 

simply indicate that the original toilet was replaced. 

Flooring: The floor is typical poured concrete.

Walls: The south wall is plywood installed over the 

stone foundation wall. The west and north walls are 

typical tongue- and- groove paneling, 7- 1/4” wide, 

but the north wall is not full height, stopping some 

ten inches from the ceiling. The east wall is also 

wood paneled except where the brick furnace flue 

rises in the southeast corner of the room.

Ceiling: The ceiling is a continuation of the fiberboard ceiling found in the hall (Room 005).

Doors: The door into this room is varnished pine or 

fir, two panel, 2’- 0” by 6’- 4”.

Windows: A roughly- made opening about 1’ by 2’ is 

present high on the south wall. Covered with lattice, 

it appears to have been created simply to provide 

additional ventilation, probably in association with 

the partitioning of the southeast quadrant of the 

original ground floor in the 1940s.

Lighting: Lighting is provided by a typical bare bulb 

in a ceiling- mounted porcelain fixture.

Miscellaneous: The brick chimney built by Smyth to 

serve the furnace in Room 011 rises in the southeast 

corner of this bathroom. On its west face near the 

floor is a cast- iron door to allow for cleaning out the 

FIGURE 152. View west in Room 005, with view into Room 006. (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 
National Park Service 129

Part I: Developmental History

flue. On the south wall next to the toilet is a wallhung, vitreous china sink. In the northeast corner of 

the room is a metal shower stall about 30” by 30” 

and of a type widely used for secondary bathrooms 

in the mid- twentieth century.

Kid Room (010). Part of Smyth’s rear addition in 

1925, this room was created at an early date, perhaps 

in conjunction with installation of central heat in the 

early 1920s. It may have been created for coal storage, which was probably delivered by removing the 

window sash on the east side of the room. When a 

more- efficient furnace requiring less coal was 

installed prior to 1945, coal storage was shifted to 

Room 012. Helga Sandburg used this room for her 

cats until about 1950, when Mrs. Sandburg started 

using it for new- born kids. After 1952, she partitioned the space so that two sets of kids could be 

housed. A wooden ramp to the east window, the 

sash of which could be taken out easily, allowed the 

older kids to use a fenced run underneath the east 

porch.208

Flooring: Like the other ground floor floors, this 

floor is poured concrete.

Walls: The north wall is formed by the stone foundation. The east and south walls are brick and were 

constructed in 1925. The west wall is constructed of 

horizontally installed board, 8” to 10” wide, perhaps 

installed around the same time.

Ceiling: There is no finished ceiling.

Doors: The opening into this room from Room 011 is 

hung with a very early door measuring about 3’- 1” 

by 6’- 4” by 1- 1/4” and having six panels raised with 

square edges on one side and flush without molding 

on the other. The door retains a nineteenth or very 

early twentieth- century paint scheme in yellow and 

brown. The door is hung with wrought- iron, strap 

hinges similar to those at Door D- 1, and it is fitted 

with a rim lock and brown “mineral knob” of a type 

first patented in 1851.209 The design of the door and 

the use of wrought- iron hinges suggests that this 

door is one of the first or second generation of at 

least five generations of doors present in the house, 

but it differs from the house’s other antebellum 

doors in the dimensions and proportions of the

208. Wallace, Historic Furnishings Report, p. 61.

209. See <http://www.ballandball-us.com/

lockhistory.html>, accessed 4 August 2004.

FIGURE 153. View of re-used antebellum door 

between Rooms 010 and 011. (T. Jones, NPSSERO-CR, 2004) 

FIGURE 154. View southeast in Room 010. (T. Jones, 

NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 
130 Connemara Main House HSR

Physical Description

raised panels and in the absence of molding on the 

flat side of the panels. If it could be determined that 

the door was installed along with construction of 

the adjacent wall in the 1920s, it might be assumed to 

have been salvaged from Memminger’s rear addition, but it is also quite possible that the door was 

salvaged from the kitchen when it was converted 

into a garage in 1945.

Windows: The window on the south wall is a casement window with double sash like those Smyth 

used all across the south wall of the ground floor in 

1925. Each sash measures 17” by 41” and the window 

is fitted with a wood- framed storm sash mounted 

on the interior. The window at the east end of the 

room measures 2’- 4” by 2’- 5” with six lights. There 

is no evidence that the sash was ever hinged, and it is 

currently held in place by three or four nails in such 

a way that it can be easily removed.

Lighting: Lighting is provided by a typical bare bulb 

in a ceiling- mounted porcelain fixture.

Miscellaneous: The low wooden partitions and ramp 

were constructed by the Sandburgs for the goats 

after 1952.210

Furnace Room (011). Like Room 010, this room 

was part of the Smyth addition. Room 011 has 

apparently always been used as a furnace room. Initially, there may have been no wooden partitions, so 

that what are now Rooms 011- 014 was all one space, 

but the presence of knob- and- tube wiring running 

through the top of the east wall indicates that Room 

012 was created prior to the Sandburg period, perhaps when the Iron Fireman was installed in the 

1930s. Room 012 was roughly partitioned by the 

Sandburgs to create Room 013, which was used initially as separate storage for the coke used to fire the 

Aga stove in Room 015.211 No more than a foot deep, 

what was designated Room 014 on earlier plans is 

not really a room at all, but only a roughly- made 

enclosure, perhaps to hang mops or other housekeeping equipment.

Flooring: The floors are poured concrete, dating to 

the 1920s. A large pit for the furnace occupies the 

center of the room. On the south side of the pit the 

concrete has been patched, apparently to fill in an 

exterior air duct for the original, coal- fired furnace.

Walls: The south wall is formed by the brick foundation and the north wall by the stone foundation. 

There is also a brick wall separating these spaces 

from Room 015. In addition to the wooden east wall, 

210. Wallace, Historic Furnishings Plan, p. 63. 211. Wallace, Historic Furnishings Plan, p. 67.

FIGURE 155. View northwest in furnace room. (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 
National Park Service 131

Part I: Developmental History

other wood walls partition the west side of the space 

into Rooms 012- 014.

Ceiling: There is no finished ceiling. The exposed 

joists are cross- braced with beaded tongue- andgroove boards that may have been part of the Memminger addition replaced by Smyth in the 1920s. Old 

flooring used as a sub- floor in the bathroom above 

the southeast corner of this room may also be from 

the Memminger addition.

Doors: In addition to the antebellum door opening 

into Room 010, another antebellum door hangs at 

the opening from Room 015. The door measures 

slightly less than 3’- 0” by 7’- 0” and has six raised 

square- edged panels on one side and flat panels 

with applied molding on the other. A cross- braced, 

board- and- batten door, painted white and possibly 

salvaged from another location, opens from Room 

012.

Windows: There are two windows on the south wall 

of Room 011 and one on the south wall of Room 012. 

All are typical casement windows with double sash 

like those Smyth used all across the south wall of the 

ground floor in 1925. Each sash measures 17” by 41”, 

and each window is fitted with a wood- framed 

storm sash mounted on the interior. Of interest on 

the wall separating Room 011 and 012 are the window sash glazed with a striated translucent glass like 

that which remains in the door to the second floor 

bathroom (Room 217). These sash were probably 

salvaged from one of the early twentieth- century 

bathrooms, perhaps from the one that was removed 

and converted into a side porch on the west side of 

the house in the 1940s.

Lighting: Lighting is provided by a typical bare bulb 

in a ceiling- mounted porcelain fixture.

Miscellaneous: Connemara was heated only by fireplaces and, perhaps, stoves prior to Smyth’s installation of a hot water and steam heating system in 1924. 

A large coal- fired boiler, “encased in mortar and set 

in a drained pit,” according to Wallace, was located 

in the pit where the present boiler is now located. 

Prior to the Sandburg’s acquisition of the house, 

that boiler was replaced by an “Iron Fireman,” a 

new, self- regulating type of furnace that was more 

efficient and easier to maintain than the original 

FIGURE 156. View to east in Room 011. (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 
132 Connemara Main House HSR

Physical Description

boiler. It was installed by Citizens Transfer and Coal 

Company in Asheville, whose card recording the 

installation remains on the east wall near the door to 

Room 010. In 1957, the Sandburgs had the old boilers 

removed, and Pace Heating and Plumbing Company 

installed a General Electric oil- fired boiler, which 

eliminated the need for coal storage in the ground 

floor. In 2001 the NPS installed the present WeilMcLain, gas- fired boiler. In the northeast corner of 

the room are two water heaters. The one closest to 

the corner is an “Electric 600” by Sears and Roebuck and was installed by the Sandburgs to replace a 

pair of earlier, Smyth- era water heaters. The Sears 

heater is no longer operative, having been replaced 

by the NPS after 1975. The metal pipe railing around 

the furnace pit was installed in 1975 to protect 

employees from injury.

Coal Bin and Coke Room (012-013). Room 012, 

which was initially combined with Room 013, was 

created by the Smyths when the Iron Fireman was 

installed. That furnace did not require as much coal 

as the original furnace boiler and so this smaller 

coal- storage room was created. Room 013 was created by the Sandburgs for the coke used to fire their 

Aga stove in the nearby downstairs kitchen (015).

Laundry Room (015-016). Part of the Smyth addition to the ground floor in the 1920s, the Laundry 

Room provides a rear entrance to the house, with 

entry from the carport and a wide staircase rising to 

the first floor. The large, enameled, cast- iron sink is 

one indication that Smyth may have built this room 

as a scullery for the outside kitchen, which presumably remained in use until Smyth’s death in 1942. 

The Sandburgs used this room for a laundry, but 

also utilized it for canning fruits and vegetables and 

for various activities relating to the goats.212 The low 

closet under the stairwell (Room 016) was used for 

storage.

Flooring: As elsewhere on the ground floor, the floor 

is poured concrete, probably dating to construction 

of the addition in the 1920s.

FIGURE 157. View southwest into Room 012. Window sash was probably salvaged by the Sandburgs 

when they demolished Smyth’s master bathroom where the west Porch is now located (T. Jones, 

NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 

212. Wallace, Historic Furnishings Report, p. 68-71.
National Park Service 133

Part I: Developmental History

Walls: Walls surrounding the space are formed by 

the brick and stone foundation walls, with woodframed, plastered partitions forming Rooms 016 and 

017. All of these walls probably date to the 1920s.

Ceiling: The ceiling is plaster over wood lath, dating 

to the 1920s, and the only plaster ceiling found in the 

ground floor rooms.

Doors: In addition to the door into Room 011, 

already described, a second antebellum door opens 

into Room 018. The door may be an original exterior 

door, and if so it is the only one of the exterior doors 

to have survived unaltered. Since the grade had to be 

lowered in order for Memminger to build his addition to the house in 1848, this opening was probably 

created at that time, and this door relocated from 

where the casement window is now located at the 

west end of Room 018. The six- panel door to the 

carport is also an early door, measuring 3’- 6” by 6’-

10” by 1- 3/8” and with the ghosted outline of a large 

rim lock visible on its inside face. Its original location cannot be determined, but most likely, it was 

part of Memminger’s addition and was installed at 

this location when the addition was replaced in 

1924. The Sandburgs replaced the two center panels 

with glass.

Windows: There are two windows across the south 

wall, both typical double casement windows dating 

to the 1920s, with the overall opening measuring 

around 34” by 41”. The east window (W- 9) retains 

its original, wood- framed screens, hinged on the 

inside; at the other window, the screen is replaced 

by a fixed, interior storm sash.

Lighting: Lighting is a typical bare bulb in a ceilingmounted porcelain holder.

Heating: Heating is provided by a single, ceilingmounted radiator.

Miscellaneous Features: On the south wall is an 

enameled cast- iron sink, marked “Kohler USA,” 

similar to the other Smyth- era sink that remains in 

the Kitchen upstairs. Around six feet long, it has 

enameled legs and a center basin with drain boards 

on each side. Next to it is a deep, double laundry 

sink made of galvanized steel. It is not clear if it was 

installed by the Smyths or by the Sandburgs. On the 

north wall next to the closet is an early- twentiethcentury, wooden, pie safe that remained in the 

house from the Smyth era. The rear edges of the 

boards making up the sides have been cut to follow 

the irregularities of the stone wall behind it.

FIGURE 158. View east in Laundry Room. (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 
134 Connemara Main House HSR

Physical Description

The waste line from Smyth’s second floor bathroom 

(217) descends against the north wall opposite the 

foot of the ground floor stairs. Along side it are pipes 

and valves for the water system first installed by 

Smyth in 1924. There were apparently two sources 

of water, one from a spring near the house and the 

other from the reservoir up Glassy Mountain, but 

when one was used rather than the other is not 

known.213

Closet (017). This room was created by the Sandburgs and houses the circuit breakers for the house’s 

electrical system. The main breaker panel is a 400-

amp panel. The Sandburgs’ stove chimney, which 

was constructed in 1947, was run through the southeast corner of this room.

Flooring: Flooring is concrete. Walls and ceilings are 

plaster on wood lath but have been badly damaged 

by installation of various pieces of electrical equipment. Much of the historic shelving that lined the 

walls in this room has been removed. On the west 

wall is a single- sash, casement window dating to the 

1920s. It has six- lights and is about 1’- 6” by 2’- 0”.

Book Room (018). Part of the original ground floor 

of the house, this large room served as a serving 

pantry for the adjacent dining room (Room 001) 

until construction of the new dining room (Room 

112) in the 1920s. Since McKay remembered the 

original stairway from the first floor opening 

directly into the dining room, it is likely that the 

stairs were walled off from the pantry, but that is not 

certain.214

Flooring: The Sandburgs replaced the original wood 

flooring with the present poured concrete in 

November 1945.

Walls: The south and west walls are the stone foundation of the house. The north wall is the brick wall 

that was probably constructed by the Sandburgs to 

replaced an earlier wooden wall in 1945. The east 

wall is wood- framed, covered with exterior lapped 

siding salvaged from another location, and was also 

part of the Sandburgs’ remodeling of the ground 

floor in 1945- 46. The siding almost certainly came 

from one of the barns, since its reverse side is 

painted red.

213. Wallace, p. 10.

FIGURE 159. View southwest in laundry room. (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 

214. McKay interviews
National Park Service 135

Part I: Developmental History

Ceiling: There is no closed ceiling. The underside of 

the original first floor boards are visible throughout 

the space.

Doors: In addition to the Sandburg- era door on the 

north wall at Room 001, there are two other doors, 

the earliest being the door on the south wall that 

opens from Room 015. Measuring 3’- 5” by 6’- 9”, it 

has six raised panels and is similar to the exterior 

doors at the front (north side) of the ground floor 

that were altered by the Sandburgs. Entirely handplaned, the door dates to the original construction 

of the house, but may have originally been located in 

the door opening that was later converted to the 

present window opening at the west end of Room 

018. The door is hung with 5”, fixed- pin hinges, 

which probably replaced earlier wrought- iron strap 

hinges when the door was installed at its present 

location sometime before the Civil War. The door 

has lost its original, large rim lock, but the original 

escutcheon, 1- 3/4” in diameter, remains in place on 

the 015 face of the door. The door now has a smaller, 

nineteenth century rim lock and a mineral knob.

Windows: The room is lit by a double casement window on the west wall. It measures 3’- 5” by 5’- 0” 

with ten lights in each sash. Glass is antique and the 

frame has pegged, through tenons which distinguish 

the window from similar casement windows in 

Rooms 015, 012, and 010 that were installed by Smyth 

in the 1920s. Irregularities in the stone wall below 

the window opening and the lack of a projecting 

window sill indicates that this window opening is 

the result of closing an original door opening, probably when the grade was lowered for Memminger’s 

rear addition, which allowed for a sheltered opening 

into the north side of the Book Room.

The design of the door on the east wall into Room 

005 indicates that it was originally part of the lateVictorian alterations to the house. It was salvaged by 

the Sandburgs from an unknown location and 

installed in its present location as part of the their 

remodeling of the ground floor in the 1940s. The 

door is 2’- 9” b y 6’- 8” by 1- 3/8” and has four vertical panels raised on one side and molded stiles and 

rails. The door is hung with 4”, loose- pin hinges 

with ball- tops, typical of the hinges used by both the 

Smyths and the Sandburgs. The door is fitted with a 

rim lock around 3- 1/2” by 4- 1/2” with porcelain 

knobs and inscribed with patent dates of 21 October 

1869 and 20 March 1873.

FIGURE 160. Left, view west in Room 018; right, view north in Room 018. (T. 

Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 
136 Connemara Main House HSR

Physical Description

Lighting: Lighting is by bare, incandescent bulbs 

dating to the 1940s rewiring of the house. The 

three- way switch for the lights was installed by 

Helga Sandburg in the 1950s.

Shelving: According to McKay, the room originally 

had large bins and shelves for storage, but the 

present shelving was installed by the Sandburgs in 

1946.

Miscellaneous: The NPS added a steel structure to 

reinforce the first floor framing above this room in 

1981. The structure consists of six, 4”- diameter 

metal posts supporting a rectangular frame of 4” by 

6” I- beams.

Room 020. This space is encompassed by the brick 

foundation that was created when Smyth added a 

bathroom in the 1920s. The bathroom was removed 

by the Sandburgs, who then poured a concrete slab 

for a floor above and created the present balcony. 

This space was probably never used except to provide access to the bathroom’s waste and supply 

lines.

First Floor

Encompassing around 3000 square feet of floor 

space, not including the porches and conservatory, 

the first floor is furnished and exhibited much as it 

was during the Sandburgs’ occupancy. The exceptions are Room 108, which is used by the park’s 

curatorial staff, and most of the closets and cupboards, some of which are used for general storage.

Plan: The original plan of the first floor remains 

mostly intact, although there appear to have been 

some antebellum changes to the Stair Hall (Room 

115) and the adjacent Farm Office (Room 113), which 

probably occurred in conjunction with Memminger’s addition of two rooms flanking a porch at 

the rear of the house in 1848. Smyth removed Memminger’s antebellum addition and built the present 

range of rooms (Rooms 107- 112, 116, 117, and 120) 

across the rear of the main block of the house in 

1924. The Sandburgs made some alterations to create the present kitchen (117), to add a bathroom off 

the master bedroom (123), and to add numerous 

closets and book shelves in almost every room.

Walls and Ceilings: Walls are plaster, mostly on wood 

lath, as are ceilings in the main part of the house, all 

of which the Sandburgs lowered about two feet in 

FIGURE 161. Both faces of D-36, presumed to 

be typical of original first-floor doors, but 

with hardware installed in 1924. (T. Jones, 

FIGURE 162. Both faces of D-48, antebellum 

but with slightly different panel molding (T. 

Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 

FIGURE 163. View of late nineteenth-century, 

four-panel doors D-43 (left) and D-26 (right) 

(T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 
National Park Service 137

Part I: Developmental History

1945, except in Room 121 (Mrs. Sandburg’s Bedroom) where the ceiling was lowered by less than a 

foot and in the Stair Hall (Room 115) where the original height remains at 12’- 7”. The original plaster 

ceilings and upper portion of the plaster walls 

remain visible above the present ceilings in the original part of the house, accessible through the rear 

attic by way of the service door on the stair landing. 

Original antebellum plaster was installed over split 

wooden lath, while late nineteenth and twentieth 

century plaster was installed over sawn lath, except 

for some metal lath that was used in the bathrooms 

in 1945.

Walls and 9’- high ceilings in the rooms in the 1920s 

rear addition were originally plaster on sawn lath, 

although some metal lath may have been used in the 

bathroom and perhaps in the kitchen as well. The 

Sandburgs covered the ceilings in the Hall (107) and 

the Dining Room (112) with fiberboard acoustical 

tiles on 1” x 4” furring strips. 

Flooring: Oak flooring, 2- 1/4” wide, was laid over 

the wider pine flooring in the original part of the 

house in the 1920s. In the rooms added at the rear in 

the 1920s, the flooring is pine, 2- 1/2” wide. In the 

Dining Room (112) and the Hall (107), quarter- sawn 

pine was used. The Back Hall (116), the Kitchen (117), 

and the Farm Office (113) are covered with a vinylasbestos tile installed after World War II.

Doors: Doors on the first floor include several sixpanel doors dating to the antebellum period (D- 31, 

32, 36, 46, and 48), although some of these are not in 

their original location. All of these have squareedged, raised panels with molded flat panels on the 

reverse side, but differences in molding suggest that 

they are from different antebellum eras. It appears 

that the double- ogee molding (e.g., D- 36) represents the original type and the simple ogee molding 

(e.g., D- 31) represents the type added as part of 

Memminger’s alterations in 1848. Although the door 

between Rooms 102 and 104 (D- 36) has lost its original rim lock, the original hinges, door frame, and 

casing have survived. There are also three fourpanel doors that date to the late nineteenth century 

(D- 26, D- 43, and D- 45). The several French doors 

date to 1924. Doors in the rooms added in the 1920s 

are generally two- panel as are the doors added by 

the Sandburgs, with a slight difference in the molding of stiles and rails distinguishing the two (see 

molding profiles at the end of this section).

FIGURE 164. Left, view of typical door dating 

to 1924 and, right, typical door dating to 

1945. (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 

FIGURE 165. View of baseboard and casing at 

southwest corner of Hall (115). Casing at right is 

assumed to be original (1838) while casing at left 

dates to Memminger’s remodeling in 1848. (T. 

Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 

FIGURE 166. View of baseboard and casing 

typical of 1924 additions.(T. Jones, NPSSERO-CR, 2004) 
138 Connemara Main House HSR

Physical Description

.

All of the nineteenth- century rim locks were 

replaced with the present brass mortise locks in 

1924. Mortise locks added in 1945 were of very similar design. All feature a rectangular escutcheon 

measuring 2- 1/4” by 7”. Antebellum hinges are generally 3” by 4” with fixed pins. Twentieth century 

hinges are slightly larger and have loose pins with 

ball top.

Moldings: All of the original windows, probably 

including those across the rear of the original house, 

were trimmed on the interior with a deeply- molded 

casing differing only slightly from that used on the 

exterior at the front of the house, but with plain 

corner blocks rather than the molded bull’s- eye 

blocks used on the exterior. Casing is run to plinths 

at the floor at these windows, with a single flat panel 

fixed with a widely- chamfered bed mold, 1- 3/8” 

wide. The west bay windows (W- 38, 39, and 40) 

were finished in a similar fashion but with a doubleogee bed mold instead of the chamfered bed mold. 

Stools are generally 3/4” by 1- 3/4”.

Antebellum door casing is of two types, both being 

about 5- 1/2” wide but differing in the original use of 

a quirked ovolu with astragal at the backband (see 

D- 32 between Rooms 101 and 115) and a simple 

ovolu molding at the backband on door casing 

added or altered before the Civil War (see D- 48 

between Rooms 115 and 118). See “Drawings,” following this section for molding profiles. Doors 

altered or added by Smyth in the 1920s are generally 

cased with a plain 4- 1/2” casing and a 3/4” backband 

projecting about 1/2” beyond the face of the casing. 

Sandburg- era windows and doors generally are 

cased with plain boards without a backband.

Most of the original 8” beaded baseboard remains in 

the original part of the house, but in the twentieth 

century additions an 8” baseboard with a molded 

base cap is used. Baseboard installed after World 

War II is typically a plain 1” by 4” or 1” by 6”, without 

a cap. Somewhat unusually for a house with plaster 

walls, there are no picture rails, since these were 

removed when the ceilings were lowered in 1945.

Mantels: Four of the house’s six original, Early Classical Revival mantels remain intact, although one 

(probably from the Farm Office) was removed by 

the Sandburgs and is now stored in the wood shed. 

The remaining mantels (in Rooms 102, 104, and 121) 

are similar in design, differing mainly in the treatFIGURE 167. View of mantel in Front Room (102). 

(T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004) 

FIGURE 168. View of mantel in Room 104. (T. Jones, 

NPS-SERO-CR, 2004)

FIGURE 169. View of mantel in Mrs. Sandburg’s 

Bedroom (121). A similar mantel was removed 

from the house, probably from Room 113 or 

118, and is now stored in the wood shed. (T. 

Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004)
National Park Service 139

Part I: Developmental History

ment of the pilasters flanking the firebox. In the late 

nineteenth century, two of the original mantels, 

probably those at the fireplaces in Rooms 101 and 

118, were replaced by Eastlake- style mantels, which 

were themselves removed by Smyth in the 1920s. At 

that time, Ballard installed both Victorian mantels in 

the farm manager’s house, from which they were 

removed and placed in storage by the NPS. In oral 

interviews, Frank Ballard stated that the mantels had 

been shipped from England and “hauled up from 

Charleston by ox cart,” but the late- Victorian style 

of these mantels contradicts that tale. Quite probably they were manufactured in Charleston around 

1890 and installed as part of the Greggs’ remodeling.

Sandburg’s Office (101). Entered from the exterior 

by one of the French doors off the portico, this room 

functions as an entrance hall, but was used as a 

library by the Smyths and continued to be used in 

essentially that capacity by the Sandburgs, although 

they referred to the room as Sandburg’s “office” or 

“downstairs workroom.”215 The Smyths kept a 

bookcase in front of the door to Room 121, while the 

Sandburgs removed the door entirely and installed 

the present shelving along that wall as well as cabinets and shelving on the south wall.

Flooring: Flooring is 2- 1/4” wide, oak, varnished, 

installed over the original, wider, tongue- andgroove flooring in the 1920s.

Walls: Walls are largely concealed by floor- to- ceiling bookshelves, but are all plaster on wood lath.

Ceiling: The ceiling is plaster on wood lath, set at 

10’- 6”, and dates to 1945 when most of the ceilings 

on the first floor were lowered.

Doors: The exterior door opening from the portico 

(D- 10) is a fifteen- light French door, 3’- 6” by 7’- 9”, 

installed in the 1920s. It retains its original 5” ballpin hinges and mortise lock with glass knobs. There 

is a wood- framed, screened door that is probably 

contemporaneous with the French door. The door is 

surmounted by a multi- light, fixed transom that was 

an original feature, although the transom was 

replaced in 1924. The door to the Hall (D- 22) is a 

six- panel door, 3’- 2” by 7’- 5” by 1- 3/8”, part of the 

house’s original construction. The door opening 

into the Front Room (D- 12) is original, but the fourpanel door itself is typical of the late nineteenth 

century and measures 3’- 7” by 7’- 5” by 1- 1/4”. 

Hardware is twentieth century. The door opening 

between this room and the Farm Office (D- 17) was 

created by the Smyths in 1924. The door is a fifteenlight French door, 3’- 2” by 7’- 5”.

215. Wallace, p. 85.

FIGURE 170. View of original window panels, 

right, and panels added c. 1890, left.(T. Jones, 

NPS-SERO-CR, 2004)

FIGURE 171. View southwest in Room 101.(T. 

Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004)
140 Connemara Main House HSR

Physical Description

Windows: The room has a trio of double- hung, 

one- over- one, windows on the north wall, which 

are original to the house. The center window is 3’-

5” by 7’- 7” and is flanked by smaller openings, 1’- 4” 

by 7’- 7”. As with most of the sash, the Sandburgs 

had the nine- over- nine muntins removed and the 

sash reglazed as one- over- one windows.

Trim: Parts of an original 8” beaded baseboard survive on the walls that are not covered by book cases. 

Window casing is typical of the casing used in the 

original construction. Door casing at D- 10, D- 12, 

and D- 22 is typical of original woodwork, although 

the casing at D- 12 is 4- 1/2” wide while that at D- 10 

and D- 22 is only 4” wide. D- 17, which was added by 

the Sandburgs, is cased with a plain 1” by 4” board 

with no backband.

Lighting: The room is illuminated by a fluorescent 

fixture, 16” by 96”, installed in 1961 or 1962 by the 

Sandburgs and hanging from metal rods about seven 

feet above the floor. 

Heating: A single radiator, 52” long and about 27” 

high and dating to the 1920s, is located under the 

front window.

Miscellaneous: Both McKay and Ballard remembered this room as being the Smyths’ library, with 

McKay saying that Smyth installed some of the 

shelving in the room, although only movable bookcases are visible in historic Smyth- era photographs.216 Smyth is known to have had a large 

library, although not as extensive as his father’s or 

Sandburg’s. Smyth may have installed some of the 

shelving on the north and east walls, but Wallace 

stated that most of the shelving was added by the 

Sandburgs in 1945- 1946, while the shelving on the 

west wall and the cabinets and upper shelving on the 

south wall were added in May or June 1948.217

It is likely that one of the two Victorian mantels now 

in museum storage was removed from this room 

when the fireplace on the south wall was closed, 

probably by Smyth in the 1920s.

Front Room (102-103). This room, which includes a 

closet built into the south wall on the west side of 

the fireplace, appears to retain its original plan. The 

room was probably used as a parlor in the nineFIGURE 172. View northeast in Sandburg’s office (101).(T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004)

216. Ballard interview, 19 October 1982; McKay interview, 

16 January 1973.

217. Wallace, p. 86.
National Park Service 141

Part I: Developmental History

teenth and early twentieth centuries. Although 

Sandburg used the room as a work room for a 

period in the late 1950s and early 1960s, it was otherwise used as a parlor or living room. The Sandburgs primarily used it as a family room, for 

entertaining visitors, and as a music room, and it is 

likely that the Memmingers did as well. In September 1839, Memminger paid twenty dollars for tuning 

their piano, which had been imported from Europe 

and delivered to the house in the spring of that year.

Flooring: Flooring is typical, twentieth- century 2- 1/

4” oak flooring laid over the original wider pine 

flooring. The underside of some of the earlier flooring is visible from the ground floor at the east end of 

Room 001 and shows marks that indicate it was 

taken up and relaid. The reason for that is not 

known.

Walls: Walls are typical plaster on wood lath. Much 

of it is thought to have been replaced in 1945.

Ceiling: The ceiling is plaster on wood lath, set 

around 10’- 6” above the floor, and dates to 1945 

when most of the ceilings on the first floor were 

lowered.

Doors: The door opening from the portico (D- 11) is 

original, although the present, fifteen- light, French 

door in the opening was one of the doors installed 

by Smyth in the 1920s. Similar to D- 11, this door 

measures 3’- 6” by 7’- 9” and also retains its original 

5” ball- pin hinges and mortise lock with glass 

knobs. There is a wood- framed, screened door that 

is probably contemporaneous with the French door. 

The door opening is surmounted by a multi- light, 

fixed transom, about 24” high, the sash of which was 

replaced in 1924.

Historic photographs show that the door to the 

conservatory (D- 13) was originally a typical window 

opening with nine- over- nine sash. As part of the 

late Victorian remodeling, the opening was 

extended to the floor and changed to a doublehung, two- over- two window that allowed access 

from the parlor to the new piazza on the east side of 

the house. In the 1920s, the window sash were 

removed and the present French door installed. 

Measuring 3’- 2” by 7’- ”, it has fifteen lights and 

mortise lock with glass knobs. Since the size of the 

original window opening was not reduced, a 32”, 

nine- light transom, which differs slightly from the 

ten- light transoms over the portico doors, was also 

installed in the 1920s.

The door that opens from Room 104 (D- 15) is one of 

the few original doors in its original location. It 

measures 3’- 2” by 7’- 5” and has a raised, squareFIGURE 173. View northwest in Front Room (102).(T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004)
142 Connemara Main House HSR

Physical Description

edged panel on one side with the reverse side flat 

with molding at stiles and rails. It is hung with 5”, 

fixed- pin, butt hinges, typical of the earliest hinges, 

but has a mortise lock with metal knobs and rectangular escutcheons, typical of the hardware from the 

1920s. The door that opens from Room 101 (D- 12) is 

typical of the doors added during the late Victorian 

period, although the opening itself is apparently 

original. The door measures 3’- 7” by 7’- 5” x 1- 1/4” 

and has four, vertical, slightly- raised panels with 

molded stiles and rails. The original 5” butt hinges 

have been replaced with 4” loose- pin, ball- top 

hinges typical of the 1920s.

Window: There is one window in this room, located 

on the north wall. It is double- hung, one- over- one, 

3’- 5” by 7’- 7” and has an exterior wood- framed 

storm sash divided into four lights. The window 

sash are original (1838), but as elsewhere, the Sandburgs had the muntins removed and the sash 

reglazed as a one- over- one window.

Trim: The room has its original 8” beaded baseboard. Casing of windows and doors, except at the 

added closet doors on the south wall, are all typical 

antebellum moldings.

Lighting: The room has a ceiling- hung, four- light 

chandelier with tulip- shaped, frosted- glass, downlighting shades, with each light individually 

switched. It is one of the few light fixtures that survive from Smyth’s wiring of the house in the early 

twentieth century.

Heating: A 32”- long radiator is located under the 

north window. The fireplace has a firebox about 33” 

high, 33” wide, and 16” deep., with a cast- iron lintel 

and a concrete hearth, the latter probably dating to 

the 1920s. The Federal- style mantelpiece with its 

fluted pilasters and elaborated ogee moldings is 

nearly identical to the mantelpiece in Mrs. Sandburg’s bedroom (Room 121), both presumably original features. The top of the mantel is at 57” but the 

original mantel shelf has been replaced by a muchthicker, boxed shelf dating to the 1920s.

Miscellaneous Features: The small closets (103) on 

the west side of the fireplace were added by the 

Sandburgs in 1945- 1946. A pair of two- panel doors, 

2’0” by 6’- 0”, open the closets proper, while plywood doors, 2’0” by 3’- 0”, open the cabinets 

located above the closets.

FIGURE 174. View east in Front Room (102).(T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004)
National Park Service 143

Part I: Developmental History

Helga’s/Margaret’s Bedroom (104-106). Probably 

always used as a bedroom, this room connects to the 

parlor, to the small hall off the east end of the dining 

room, and to the east porch. Major changes have 

included replacement of windows on the south and 

the east walls with doors and the Sandburgs’ installation of closets (105) in 1945- 1946.218

Flooring: Flooring is typical 2- 1/4” oak flooring laid 

over the original wider pine flooring. 

Walls: Walls are typical plaster on wood lath. Much 

of it is thought to have been replaced in 1945. The 

boxed shaft for the furnace chimney installed in 

1924 rises in the southwest corner of the room.

Ceiling: The ceiling is plaster on wood lath, set 

around 10’- 6” above the floor, and dates to 1945 

when most of the ceilings on the first floor were 

lowered.

Doors: In addition to the door from the Front Room 

(D- 15), a second door (D- 16) opens from the Hall 

(107). This latter door, which has been taken down 

by the park and is currently stored in Room 108, may 

be characteristic of the doors added by Memminger 

when he constructed the rear addition around 1850, 

but it is probably not in its original location since the 

surrounding door casing appears to date to the 

twentieth century. The door is about 2’- 7” by 6’- 7” 

by 1- 1/2” and has four vertical raised panels along 

with molded stiles and rails joined by through tenons. The door to the east porch (D- 14) measures 3’-

2” by 7’- 0” and is a typical, fifteen- light French 

door installed in the 1920s. The five closet doors in 

the room are all around 2’- 0” by 6’- 0”, two- panel 

doors installed along with the closets in 1945.

Windows: The room originally had a window on the 

east wall, but it was replaced with a floor- length, 

walk- through window similar to the one that was 

installed on the east wall of the Front Room when 

the east porch was first constructed in the late nineteenth century. Originally, there was also at least one 

window on the south wall, probably in the center, 

but it was closed or replaced by a door when Memminger constructed his addition before the Civil 

War.

Trim: There are elements of the room’s wooden trim 

that date to all eras of the house’s history. The 8” 218. One of the few original closets in the house was 

located on the west side of the chimney breast.

FIGURE 175. View northeast in Margaret’s/Helga’s Room.(T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004)
144 Connemara Main House HSR

Physical Description

beaded baseboard, 5” door casing at D- 15, and the 

more- elaborate casing of the window that is now a 

door (D- 14) is typical of that used in the house’s 

original construction. Casing at the door to Room 

107 is typical of casing from the 1920s. The closet 

doors are cased with a plain 5” board, typical of the 

Sandburg era.

Lighting: The room has a ceiling- hung, four- light 

chandelier with tulip- shaped, frosted- glass, downlighting shades with painted details and with each 

light individually switched. It is one of the few light 

fixtures that survive from the 1920s.

Heating: The fireplace is an original feature as is the 

Federal- style mantelpiece. The fire box, which has a 

cast- iron header, may have been reduced in size for 

burning coal but that is not certain. A typical castiron radiator, 36” long, sits under the north window.

Hall (107). This small hall, part of the 1920s addition, provides a passage between the dining room, 

the bathroom, and the two bedrooms (Rooms 104 

and 108) on the east side of the house.

Flooring: Flooring is typical 1920s tongue- andgroove flooring, 2- 1/2” quarter- sawn pine. Smyth’s 

addition was apparently built so that the finished 

floor level in the new part of the house would match 

the original floor level in the main part of the house. 

However, the addition of new flooring over the 

original flooring in the main part of the house left 

the floors in the addition about an inch lower than 

those in the main part of the house. This difference 

is evident at the doorway between this room and 

Room 104.

Walls: Walls are plaster on lath dating to the 1920s.

Ceiling: The ceilings were originally around 9’ high 

but the Sandburgs covered the original 1920s plaster 

ceiling with 12” by 12” acoustical tiles apparently 

installed on 1” by 4” furring strips.

Trim: The ceiling is finished with a 3/4” cove molding where the ceiling meets the walls. The baseboard 

is 8” high with a 1- 3/4” molded base cap from the 

1920s. Door casing is typical 1920s, 4- 1/2” wide with 

a 3/4” backband.

Lighting: A bare bulb in a ceiling- mounted, keyless 

fixture lights the space. A push- button switch, the 

only one of its type in the house, is located on the 

FIGURE 176. View west in Margaret’s/Helga’s room (104). Similar banks of closets were added 

in most of the other bedrooms.(T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004)
National Park Service 145

Part I: Developmental History

east wall and was probably part of Smyth’s original 

wiring system.

Children’s Room, Margaret’s Study (108-110). Part 

of the 1920s addition, this bedroom replicated a 

room of slightly smaller size in Memminger’s 1849 

addition along with a bay window that was added to 

that earlier room around 1890. This room was used 

as a bedroom by the Smyths and then by the Sandburgs’ grandchildren. The Sandburgs added the 

closets (109 & 110) in 1945. After 1952 the room 

became Margaret’s study, although still sometimes 

used as a guest room. Since October 1975, it has been 

used by the curatorial staff as a work room and is 

not furnished or exhibited.219

Flooring: Dating to the 1920s, flooring is typical 2- 1/

2”- wide tongue- and- groove pine, but as a cost saving measure, the flooring is straight sawn, not quarter sawn like that in the hall and dining room.

Walls: Walls are plaster on wood lath, dating to the 

1920s.

Ceiling: The ceiling, which is around 9’ high, is plaster on wood lath, dating to the 1920s.

Doors: The door from the Hall is a typical twopanel door from the 1920s, measuring 2’- 7” by 7’- 0” 

by 1- 3/4”. Hardware is brass, with 4” hinges and 

ball- tipped pins and a mortise lock with escutcheon

measuring 2- 1/4” by 7”. The door to the closet 

(Room 110) on the west wall dates to the 1940s and 

has similar hardware, but measures 2’- 6” by 7’- 0” 

by 1- 3/8”. The two, two- panel doors to the south 

closet (Room 109) are 2’- 4” by 7” by 1- 1/4” and date 

to the 1940s. The door opening into the bathroom 

(Room 111) was also created by the Sandburgs and 

has a two- panel door, 2’- 6” by 7’- 0”.

Windows: The room has four windows, one on the 

south wall and three in the bay window on the east. 

All date to the 1920s and are among the few sash 

which retained their muntins after the Sandburgs’ 

remodeling in 1945. Windows are two- over- two, 

double- hung, counter- weighted, measuring 2’- 9” 

by 5’- 5”. Each window has a single, cupped, brass 

lift mounted at the center of the bottom rail of the 

lower sash. Muntins in the sash in the bay windows 

are 1- 1/4” thick; muntins in the other two- over- two

.

219. Wallace, pp. 116-120.

FIGURE 177. View southeast in Children’s Room 

(108).(T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004)

FIGURE 178. View of Hall (Room 107) from 

Margaret’s Room (108). (T. Jones, NPS-SEROCR, 2004)
146 Connemara Main House HSR

Physical Description

sash in the house, they are generally 1” wide. A paint 

study might indicate whether they were salvaged for 

re- use in 1924, perhaps from the Gregg- era bay 

window in this location.

Trim: The room has a typical 8” baseboard with a 1-

3/4” molded cap like that used in the Hall (Room 

107). Doors and windows are trimmed with a plain 

4- 1/4” casing with a 3/4” backband on all but the 

doors to Rooms 109 and 111, which were installed by 

the Sandburgs using a 1/2” backband. Windows have 

a plain 4- 1/4” apron and 3- 1/2” stool with an ogee 

curve at the front edge.

Lighting: There is a single, ceiling- mounted, keyless 

fixture with a bare bulb to light the room.

Heating: There is a 32” radiator under the south 

window.

Bathroom (111). This bathroom was part of the 

1920s addition and replaced an earlier bathroom 

that had been added, probably around 1900, off the 

old back porch. The Sandburgs removed the old 

footed tub, built a cupboard in the southeast corner 

of the room, and installed a built- in tub, 4- 1/2’ long. 

They also installed the ceramic tile and created a 

door opening into the adjacent bedroom.220

Flooring: The floor is tiled with an unglazed, 1”-

diameter, hexagonal, ceramic tile in black and white 

laid in a basket- weave pattern.

Walls: Walls are tiled to a height of 52” with a 4- 1/4” 

white tile with a narrower black border and a black 

base tile. Walls are plaster above the tile and were 

most likely replaced when the Sandburgs remodeled 

the room in 1945.

Ceiling: The ceiling, which is around 9’ high, is plaster on wood lath, dating to the 1920s, but it has 

undergone significant repairs by the NPS.

Doors: The door from the hall is a typical, twopanel door from the 1920s, measuring 2’- 4” by 7’- 0” 

by 1- 3/8”, with 4” brass hinges and a brass mortise 

lock and privacy latch.

Window: The window is double- hung, 2’- 4” by 4’-

6”, dating to the 1920s. The Sandburgs removed the

FIGURE 179. View of Bathroom (111). (T. Jones, NPSSERO-CR, 2004)

FIGURE 180. View of Bathroom (111). (T. 

Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004 220. Wallace, pp. 121-125.
National Park Service 147

Part I: Developmental History

original muntins, changing the window from sixover- six to one- over one.

Lighting: Lighting is provided by a single- light fixture, probably installed in 1945 or 1946. The fixture 

is mounted above the medicine cabinet and has a 

chrome- plated base and a frosted glass shade that 

appears to be original.

Heating: A small radiator, 10” long, stands on the 

west wall between the sink and the door.

Miscellaneous Features: The 24”- wide, wall- hung 

sink with a 12’ back splash is porcelain- enameled 

cast iron dating to the 1920s. In addition to replacing 

the old tub with the present, porcelain- enameledsteel, Master Pembroke tub, 4’- 4” long, the Sandburgs also installed the Kohler toilet, the tank lid of 

which is imprinted with the date 9/6/45. At least one 

of the old footed tubs was used as a watering trough 

and was in the Buck House in 1969.221 Two footed 

tubs are presently exhibited in the wood shed, and 

another is used as a watering trough at the barn.

Dining Room (112). The dining room is located in 

the approximate position of the antebellum back 

porch, but contrary to Wallace and to Mrs. McKay’s 

recollection, her grandfather did not simply enclose 

the porch, but tore it down along with the rest of the 

rear addition and replaced it with entirely new construction in the 1920s.222 The Sandburgs added the 

book shelves at each end of the room and the 

acoustical tile ceiling. The room was an important 

gathering place for the family, one that Wallace 

called “the heart of the house.”223

Flooring: Flooring is typical 2- 1/2” tongue- andgroove pine, quarter sawn to provide more attractive and durable flooring. As noted earlier, Smyth’s 

addition was apparently built so that the finished 

floor level in the new part of the house would match 

the original floor level in the main part of the house. 

However, the addition of new flooring over the 

original flooring in the main part of the house left 

the floors in the addition about an inch lower than 

those in the main part of the house. This difference 

is evident at the doorway between this room and the 

Farm Office (113).

221. Wallace, p. 125.

FIGURE 181. View east in Dining Room (112).

222. Wallace, pp. 125-145.

223. Wallace, p. 128.
148 Connemara Main House HSR

Physical Description

Walls: Walls are plaster on wood lath dating to the 

1920s.

Ceiling: Set 8’- 11” above the floor, the acoustical tile 

ceiling, which is probably Celotex brand, was 

installed prior to 1960 on 1” by 4” furring strips 

nailed against the original 1920s plaster ceiling, 

which had been damaged by a persistently leaking 

roof. Although the roof has long since been 

repaired, the damaged tiles, which existed during 

Sandburg’s lifetime, have been preserved in 

place.224

Doors: The door from Room 107 is a typical twopanel door from the 1920s, measuring 2’- 7” by 7’- 0” 

by 1- 3/4”. Hardware is brass, with 4” hinges and 

ball- top pins and a mortise lock with rectangular 

escutcheon measuring 2- 1/4” by 7”. The door to the 

Hall (116) leading to the Kitchen (117) is also twopanel, 3’- 0” by 7’- 9” by 1- 3/4” but is mounted as a 

swinging door. A large three- part opening on the 

north wall dates to the 1920s, connecting with and 

providing light to the Farm Office (113). Double 

doors, each 2’- 6” by 1- 3/4” with ten lights, are 

flanked by 2’- 0” by 7’- 0” side lights, each also with 

ten lights.

Windows: A bank of five one- over- one, doublehung windows nearly fills the south wall. All are 2’-

9” by 5’- 5” and are typical of the windows installed 

in the 1920s, except that the Sandburgs removed the 

muntins, converting two- over- two windows into 

one- over- one.

Trim: The eight- inch baseboard has a 2- 1/4” 

molded cap with a slightly different profile from that 

used in the adjacent Hall (107) and bedroom (108). 

Window and door casing is 4- 1/2” wide with a back 

band typical of the 1920s addition.

Lighting: The Sandburgs replaced the Smyths’ 1920s 

light fixture with the present 36”- long fluorescent 

fixture. In early January 1946, Anders billed the 

Sandburgs for three of these fixtures at $15.50 each. 

Two are located in the kitchen.

Heating: Heat is provided by a single 48”- long radiator located under the center window on the south 

wall.

Miscellaneous: The Sandburgs installed book shelves 

on the east and part of the west walls.

224. Wallace, p. 145, note 39.

FIGURE 182. View northwest in dining room (112). (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004)
National Park Service 149

Part I: Developmental History

Farm Office (113). Like the adjacent Stair hall 

(Room 115), there remains some uncertainty as to the 

early characteristics of this room, since the bookcases prevented investigation of the room’s west 

wall. Early occupants, including the Smyths, used 

the room as a bedroom before 1924, after which it 

was used as a library. The Smyths installed the 

present door and sidelights as well as the French 

door into Room 101. The Sandburgs added the book 

shelves on the west wall, and Mrs. Sandburg used 

the room as her office.

Flooring: The original flooring was probably overlaid with narrow oak flooring in 1924, but the Sandburgs installed the present vinyl- asbestos, 12” by 12” 

tile around 1960.

Walls: Walls are plaster on wood lath and probably 

date to the nineteenth century, except on the south 

which was altered in the 1920s.

Ceiling: The ceiling is plaster on wood lath and set at 

10’- 9” above the floor.

Doors: In addition to the double French doors and 

sidelights on the south wall and the French door to 

Sandburg’s Office (Room 101), this room has a door 

on the west wall (D- 18) opening to the passage 

beneath the main staircase. It is 3’- 2” by 6’- 11” with 

six raised panels on one face and molded flat panels 

on the reverse, typical of what are assumed to be the 

doors added as part of Memminger’s alterations in 

1848. The mortise lock is typical of the hardware 

installed by Smyth in the 1920s.

Windows: The room originally had a window on the 

south wall, but it was replaced by the present door 

and sidelights in the 1920s. On the west wall is a 

transom- like “borrow light” that provides light 

from the stair well. Paint evidence suggests that this 

window was created by the Smyths. The opening is 

2’ by 4’ with a 2- light sash with a 1- 1/4” muntin like 

those in the windows in the east bay.

Trim: The room has a typical 8” beaded baseboard, 

typical of the nineteenth century. The door on the 

west wall to Room 114 is cased with a 5”- wide casing 

typical of what appears to be the casing used as part 

of Memminger’s 1848 alterations. Casing of the borrow light on the west wall is similar. Casing of the 

French doors and sidelights is typical 5” casing with 

straight backband, while casing of the door to Sandburg’s Office is plain 1” by 5” boards.

FIGURE 183. View south in Farm Office. (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004)
150 Connemara Main House HSR

Physical Description

Lighting: The room probably had a ceiling hung fixture from the 1920s before the Sandburgs installed 

the present fluorescent lighting sometime before 

1963.

Heating: The room was originally heated by a fireplace on the north wall but it was apparently closed 

by Smyth in 1924. One of the two late- Victorian 

mantels that were removed from the Farm Manager’s House by the NPS probably came from this 

room (see mantel notes in Sandburg’s Office, 

above). There is no radiator.

Stair Closet (114). Combined as one “room” for 

the purpose of reporting, this space historically 

consisted of a short connecting passage between the 

hall and Room 113 and, at an early date, stairs that 

descended under the main staircase to the ground 

floor dining room.225 When the addition and the 

present ground floor stairs (116) were created in the 

1920s, the stairs here may have been removed or that 

might not have occurred until the Sandburg era. The 

use of drywall in part of the wall on the west side 

suggests that this space was enclosed on that side by 

the Sandburgs using nineteenth- century materials 

salvaged from somewhere else in the house. Paint 

analysis shows that the vertical beaded tongueand- groove boards beneath the outside stringer of 

the stairs was also a product of the Sandburg era.

Front Hall and Stairs (115). This is the only room 

on the first floor where ceilings have not been lowered. Paint analysis and stylistic considerations 

indicate that the present stairs were installed as part 

of Memminger’s 1848 alterations to the house, but 

why that was done so soon after the house’s construction is not clear, nor is there any indication of 

the configuration of the original stairs.

Flooring: Flooring is typical 2- 1/2” oak tongue- andgroove flooring laid over the original flooring in the 

1920s.

Walls: Walls are plaster on wood lath, but the west 

wall may date to the house’s original construction 

while the east wall may date to the changes in 1848. 

Ceiling: The ceiling is the only ceiling in the original 

part of the house remaining at its original height of 

225. Framing for the ground floor stairs is nailed and not 

mortised into place, as it almost certainly would have 

been if it had been part of the original construction.

FIGURE 184. View north in Farm Office (113). (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004)
National Park Service 151

Part I: Developmental History

12’- 7”. Much of the ceiling is the original plaster 

over split lath.

Doors: The door opening to the Back Hall (116) 

originally opened on to the back porch and was 

probably created when the porch was originally 

built around 1848. In 1924, Smyth removed the original door, which was probably a solid panel door, and 

installed the present fifteen- light French door, 3’- 6” 

by 6’- 10” by 1- 3/4”, with 4” butt hinges. The door 

opening into Room 118 (D- 20) is six panel, 3’- 1’ by 

6’- 11” by 1- 3/8”, typical of the earliest antebellum 

doors in the house. The door opening into the hall 

from Room 114 (D- 19) is a six- panel door, 3’- 1” by 

6’- 10” by 1- 3/8” and may have originally been 

located between Rooms 101 and 121.

Window: Windows like the one above the stairs on 

the east wall are often called “borrow lights,” since it 

was intended to allow additional light from the skylight into Room 113. Casing and trim match that on 

the Farm Office side of the window. The wall of 

which it is a part may have been added in the late 

1840s, but paint analysis suggests that the window 

itself is a product of the 1920s.

Skylight: As noted earlier, no documentation for the 

skylight has been located, but it is most likely to have 

been installed when Smyth installed the secondfloor bathroom around 1912, which cut off light to 

the stairwell from the center dormer at the rear of 

the house.

Trim: The room has a typical 8” beaded baseboard 

dating to the antebellum period. Door casing is 

antebellum, 4” to 5” wide, with the earliest openings 

characterized by the use of Type C molding at D- 20 

and D- 22, and Type D molding at D- 21, the door to 

Room 116, and the borrow light.

Lighting: A ceiling- hung, three- light metal chandelier, c. 1924, is located at the north end of the hall.

Staircase: The U- shaped stairway, which is apparently not the original staircase, rises in two flights, 

with one flight to a landing at about 8’ above the 

floor and then a second, shorter flight returning in 

the opposite direction to the second floor. Steps 

generally have a rise of 7- 1/2” and a run of 10- 1/2”. 

The balustrade has a plain, circular railing and 3/4” 

by 1” balusters. The stair is cased below the stringer 

with 3- 1/2” tongue- and- groove boards with quaFIGURE 185. View south in Front Hall (115). (T. 

Jones, NPS-SERO-CRD, 2004)

FIGURE 186. View north in Front Hall. (T. Jones, 

NPS-SERO-CRD, 2004)
152 Connemara Main House HSR

Physical Description

druple reeding along one side, similar to that used in 

construction of the west bay window around 1890. 

However, the paint study revealed only three layers 

of paint, suggesting that the boards were not 

installed until the Sandburg era. This apparent 

anomaly has not been explained.

Back Hall (116). Part of Smyth’s 1924 addition, this 

hall includes stairs to the ground floor, replacing 

exterior stairs in the antebellum back porch. The 

waste line from the second- floor bathroom is boxed 

into the northeast corner of this room.

Flooring: The original flooring is assumed to be the 

same quarter- sawn pine over a diagonal sub- floor 

that was used in the dining room (112). The Sandburgs installed the existing, 9”- square, brown, marbleized vinyl tile over Masonite sheets around 1960.

Walls: Walls are typical plaster on wood lath dating 

to construction of the room in 1924.

Ceiling: The ceiling is original plaster on split lath 

and is at 9’, typical of the original ceiling heights in 

the 1924 addition.

Doors: See notes in Rooms 112 and 115.

Trim: An eight- inch baseboard with 2- 1/4” base cap 

like that used in the Dining Room (112) is original to 

the space. Doors and windows have a 4- 1/2” casing 

with 3/4” backband typical of the 1924 addition.

Windows: A large double window with two- overtwo double- hung sash with double, two- light transoms above opens on the south wall. Each window 

is 2’- 9” by 5’- 5”, with transoms measuring 2’- 9” by 

2’- 9”. The sash apparently date to the 1920s and are 

among the few in the house that retain their original 

muntins.

Lighting: Lighting is provided by a single bare bulb in 

a ceiling- mounted, porcelain, keyless fixture.

Heating: A 24” radiator stands next to the balustrade 

return at the head of the stairs.

Miscellaneous Features: The stairs to the ground 

floor have a rise of 7- 1/4” and a run of 11- 1/4”. The 

balustrade features an 8” square newel post, molded 

hand railing, and square pickets that are all typical of 

FIGURE 187. View south in Back hall (116). (T. Jones, 

NPS-SERO-CRD, 2004)

FIGURE 188. View southwest in Kitchen (117). (T. 

Jones, NPS-SERO-CRD, 2004)
National Park Service 153

Part I: Developmental History

early- twentieth century Colonial Revival architecture.

Room 117 (Kitchen). Constructed as part of the 

1924 addition, this room was initially used by the 

Smyths as a store room for foodstuffs and as a serving pantry for food cooked in the old kitchen outside. Smyth installed the large, enamelled, cast- iron 

sink, and at least some, if not all of the cooking was 

being done in this room toward the end of Smyth’s 

life. In 1945, the Kitchen was thoroughly remodeled 

(but apparently not enlarged) by the Sandburgs, and 

new windows were installed that were smaller and 

set higher on the walls in order to accommodate the 

kitchen cabinets.226

Flooring: The flooring is probably 2- 1/2” pine, 

tongue- and- groove, typical of that used in the 1920s 

addition. Since it was used as a kitchen by the 

Smyths, it is likely that some sort of linoleum floor 

covering existed at one time. The floor is now covered with 9” brown vinyl tile installed by the Sandburgs around 1960.

Walls: Walls are plaster on wood lath, some of it 

probably dating to the 1920s but much of it dating to 

the 1940s, since the Sandburg alterations would have 

required numerous repairs.

Ceiling: The ceiling, which is around 9’ high, is plaster on wood lath. It is likely that the west and south 

walls required extensive repairs, if not total replacement, when the windows were changed in 1945.

Doors: The door to the hall is a typical, two- panel 

door from the 1920s. Hung with 4” ball- pin hinges, 

it is 3’- 0” by 7’- 0” by 1- 3/4”.

Windows: Five one- over- one, double- hung windows light the room. The pair on the west wall is 2’-

4” by 4’- 2”; the trio on the south wall are 2’- 9” by 

4’- 2”. All date to 1945.

Trim: The door has typical 1920s casing, 4- 1/2” wide 

with a 3/4” backband. The windows are cased with 

plain boards, 4- 1/2” wide without a backband, typical of the Sandburg era. The baseboard is a plain 

board, 3- 1/2” wide, painted black.

226. Wallace, pp. 154-156.

FIGURE 189. View northwest in Kitchen. (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004)
154 Connemara Main House HSR

Physical Description

Lighting: Lighting is provided by a pair of ceilingmounted 2- light fluorescent fixtures and one larger 

3- light fixture installed by the Sandburgs in 1945.

Fixtures: The enamelled, cast- iron sink on the south 

wall, which is very similar to the one in the ground 

floor, was installed after 1924. The “Youngstown 

Kitchens by Mullins” enameled steel sink in a metal 

cabinet on the north wall was installed by the Sandburgs in the 1940s. At some time before November 

1960, an electric dishwasher was installed next to the 

cast- iron sink and the cabinet and countertop on 

the east wall was extended.

Room 118-119 (Utility Room). Used as a bedroom 

by the Smyths, this was Captain Smyth’s room after 

his wife’s death until his own death in 1942. Construction of the master bathroom (Room 123) and 

the closets (Room 119) by the Sandburgs reduced the 

size of the room considerably. The Sandburgs used 

the room mostly for sewing and ironing and occasionally as a guest room for their more familiar 

guests.227

Flooring: Flooring is 2- 1/4”, tongue- and- groove 

oak installed over the original wider tongue- andgroove flooring in the 1920s.

Walls: Walls are plaster on wood lath. The west and 

south walls are mostly original; the north and east 

walls date mostly to the 1940s.

Ceiling: The ceiling, which was lowered to its 

present 10’- 6” as part of the 1940s renovation, is 

plaster on wood lath.

Doors: The door to the hall is a six- panel door, 3’- 1” 

by 6’- 11” by 1- 3/8”, hung with 5” butt hinges that are 

original and a typical 1920s mortise lock and privacy 

latch. The door to the bathroom is two- panel, 2’- 6” 

by 6’- 10” by 1- 3/8” and dates to the 1940s. It has a 

typical mortise lock and privacy latch. 

Window: The window on the east wall is 3’- 5” by 7’-

7” and is one of the house’s original windows, 

although the Sandburgs removed the original nineFIGURE 190. View northeast in Utility Room (118). (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004)

227. Wallace, p. 161.
National Park Service 155

Part I: Developmental History

over- six muntins to convert the window to oneover one.

Trim: The original window casing and paneling 

remain in place at this window, one of three such 

windows that remain intact on the first floor. The 

casing of the door to the hall is typical original casing, Type C. Casing of the bathroom door is plain 4-

1/2” wide with 3/4” backband. The room has an 8” 

beaded baseboard typical of the antebellum period.

Lighting: Smyth’s original 3- light, metal chandelier 

remains in this room

Heating: There is a typical 1920s radiator, 36” long, 

under the window. The room originally had a fireplace on the north wall approximately where the 

book shelf is now located, but the fireplace was 

closed, perhaps when central heating was installed.

Miscellaneous Features: In addition to the closets, 

the Sandburgs also installed shelves against part of 

the south wall and where the mantel had been 

located on the north wall. A mantel similar to the 

one remaining in Mrs. Sandburg’s Room (121) is now 

stored in the wood shed and may have been originally located in this room. It was probably removed 

by the Sandburgs in 1945. It is also possible that the 

original mantel in this room was replaced by one of 

the Victorian mantels now in storage that were 

removed by Smyth in the 1920s.228

Room 120 (Bathroom). This was one of the bathrooms installed by Captain Smyth, perhaps as early 

as the 1920s. The Sandburgs removed the old footed 

cast- iron tub and replaced it with an enameled steel 

tub. As they did elsewhere, they retained the original 

enameled, cast- iron sink. There was a delay in 

obtaining the tubs, and this bathroom was not completed and tiled until 1947, after construction of the 

stove chimney that rises in the southeast corner of 

the room.

Flooring: The floor was tiled by the Sandburgs in 

1947, using unglazed tiles, in black and white, 1’ in 

diameter, in two hexagonal shapes like the other 

bathrooms. 

Walls: Walls are tiled to a height of 52” with a 4- 1/4” 

beige tile with a narrower black border and a black 

base tile. Walls are plaster above the tile and may 

have all been replaced when the Sandburgs remodeled the room in 1945.

Ceiling: The ceiling, which is around 9’ high, is plaster on wood lath, dating to the 1920s.

Doors: The door from the Utility Room is a typical, 

two- panel door from the 1920s, measuring 2’- 4” by 

7’- 0” by 1- 3/8”, hung 4” brass hinges and with a 

brass mortise lock and privacy latch.

Window: The window is one- over- one, doublehung, 2’- 4” by 4’- 6”, dating to the 1920s, although it 

was originally six- over- six until the Sandburgs 

removed the muntins.

Lighting: Lighting is provided by a simple fixture 

with a curved glass shade mounted above the medicine cabinet.

228. Interview with Frank Ballard.

FIGURE 191. View of Bathroom (120) off of 

Utility Room. (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004)
156 Connemara Main House HSR

Physical Description

Heating: The room has a small 14” radiator against 

the west wall

Miscellaneous Features: The 24”- wide, wall- hung 

sink with a 12’ back splash is porcelain- enamel cast 

iron dating to the 1920s. The Kohler toilet is 

imprinted with the date 8/22/45.

Mrs. Sandburg’s Room (121-122). According to 

tradition this bedroom was used as a bedroom by 

Mrs. Memminger and Mrs. Smyth and it was also 

used as a bedroom by Mrs. Sandburg.229 The elaborate bay window was added by the Greggs about 

1890, and may be an indication that it was not always 

used as a bedroom. In 1924, Smyth added a bathroom on what is now the west balcony, but it was 

removed and the present bathroom in Room 123 was 

installed by the Sandburgs in 1945. They also 

installed closets (122) along the north wall and a 

small cabinet on the west side of the bathroom door. 

There were originally two entrances into this room, 

one from Sandburg’s Office (Room 101) and one 

from the Hall (Room 115). One of the Smyths’ 

grandchildren remembered and historic photographs corroborate that both entrances remained in 

existence until the Sandburgs closed the entrance 

from Sandburg’s Office in 1945. The door from that 

opening is probably the door (D- 19) between 

Rooms 114 and 115.

Floor: Flooring is oak, 2- 1/4” wide, tongue- andgroove, laid over the original antebellum flooring.

Walls: Walls are plaster on wood lath, most of them 

original.

Ceiling: Like all of the ceilings, except in the Front 

Hall (115), the ceiling in this room was lowered by 

the Sandburgs and now stands at 11”- 10”. Unlike the 

other ceilings, this one was lowered less than a foot, 

probably because a lower ceiling height would have 

spoiled the aesthetics of the arched opening to the 

bay window on the west wall.

Doors: The door from the Front Hall is a six- panel 

229. Wallace, p. 164. door, 3’- 1” by 7’- 4”, and bears the ghost of a 4” by 7” 

FIGURE 192. View of northwest Mrs. Sandburg’s Room (121). The free-standing 

cabinet left of center is a dehumidifier installed by the NPS on a temporary basis. (T. 

Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004)
National Park Service 157

Part I: Developmental History

rim lock, typical of the original doors in the house. 

The swing of the door has been reversed. The door 

to the bathroom is two- panel, 2’- 0” by 6’- 5”. The 

doors to the closets are also two- panel, 2’- 0” by 6’-

0”. The two- panel doors all are typical of the 1940s.

Windows: The window in the north wall is 3’- 5” by 

7’- 7” and is one of the house’s original window 

openings, although the Sandburgs removed the 

muntins from the original nine- over- nine sash and 

converted them to one- over- one. The bay window 

has three window openings, each 2’- 9” by 7’- 2” 

with two- over- two sash that are original to the bay 

(c. 1890). Windows are fitted on the interior with 

louvered, bi- fold shutters that are probably also 

original.

Trim: The original window casing and paneling 

remain in place at the north window, one of three 

original windows that remain intact on the first 

floor. The casing of the door to the hall is typical 

original casing, Type C. Casing of the bathroom 

door is plain 4- 1/2” wide without a backband. The 

room has an 8” beaded baseboard typical of the 

antebellum period.

Lighting: Lighting is a shallow, ceiling- mounted fixture of a type common in the 1950s and 1960s.

Heating: The room has two radiators, one 36” long 

under the north window and a smaller 32” unit 

under the north window of the bay. The fireplaces 

throughout the house are around the same size, 

except in this room where the fire box is larger and 

the mantel shelf is set higher (at nearly five feet) than 

any of the others. The fire box opening is 38” wide, 

36” high, and 16” deep, which is 5” wider and 3” 

higher than the others. The Federal- style mantelpiece is completely intact. The top shelf of the mantel in the Front Room (102) was probably identical to 

the one here.

Bath Room (123). This bathroom was constructed 

by the Sandburgs to replace the bathroom that 

Smyth had constructed on what is now the adjacent 

West Porch. It was created out of space from both 

Room 118 and Room 121. This and the bathroom 

between the bedrooms on the second floor (Room 

213) were both constructed new by the Sandburgs, 

while the other bathrooms on the first and second 

floor were rehabilitations of earlier, Smyth- era 

bathrooms.

FIGURE 193. View southeast in Mrs. Sandburg’s bedroom. (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004)
158 Connemara Main House HSR

Physical Description

Flooring: The floor is tiled with the same unglazed, 

black- and- white, hexagonal tile used in the other 

bathrooms. 

Walls: Walls are tiled to a height of 52” with olivegreen, glazed, 4- 1/4”- square tile accented with 

black border and a black base. Above the tile, walls 

and ceiling are plaster dating to the 1940s.

Door: The two- panel door dates to the 1940s and is 

2’- 0” by 6’- 0” with a mortise lock and privacy latch.

Window: The window, which dates to the room’s 

construction, is one- over- one, measuring 2’- 10” by 

3’- 6”.

Lighting: Lighting is provided by a simple fixture 

with a curved glass shade, mounted over the sink 

and medicine cabinet.

Heating: A small 14” radiator is located against the 

south wall.

Miscellaneous Features: Like the other bathrooms, 

this bath was not completed until 1947 when the 4’-

3” steel tub was installed. The wall- hung, Kohler 

sink dates to the same period as does the toilet, 

which bears a date of 2/12/1947.

Second Floor

Although there have been some changes, mostly 

additive in nature rather than destructive, the rooms 

on this floor, which contains about 1740 square feet, 

are the least altered of any in the house. The original 

tongue- and- groove flooring remains exposed and 

the original doors remain in their original locations. 

The bedrooms on the west side of the hall were 

joined by a new doorway in the late nineteenth century, and there may have been a similar connection 

added between the somewhat larger bedrooms on 

the east side of the hall, but it was obliterated when 

the closets were installed by the Sandburgs in 1945.

Around 1912, the Smyths enclosed the southeast 

corner of the hall and added a bathroom with running water from a reservoir that was built higher up 

on Glassy Mountain. They also installed lavatories 

in some of the bedrooms. In the 1920s, the Smyths 

built closets against the knee walls on both sides of 

the passage to the Crow’s Nest (207) on the north 

side of the hall.

FIGURE 194. View southeast in Master 

Bathroom (123). (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 

2004)

FIGURE 195. View of door at Crow’s Nest 

(207), typical of original bedroom doors on 

the second floor. (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 

2004)
National Park Service 159

Part I: Developmental History

In 1945, the Sandburgs apparently removed a castiron bathtub in the Smyths’ old bathroom and 

installed a metal shower surround in the northeast 

corner of the room. They also created a small closet 

in the bathroom’s southeast corner for the adjacent 

bedroom and added a second bath between the east 

bedrooms on the east side of the east chimney and 

banks of closets for both bedrooms on the west side 

of the chimney. Finally, the Sandburgs subdivided 

one of the Smyth- era closets to create a separate 

closet for Sandburg’s bedroom.

Upstairs Hall and Closets (Rooms 200, 204, 206, and 

210). Sometimes referred to as the Lincoln Room 

because of the Lincoln memorabilia and books that 

Sandburg displayed or stored here, this hall provides 

access to all the rooms on the second floor. If, as was 

suggested in the preceding section of this report, the 

stairwell was altered or relocated as part of Memminger’s addition to the house in the late 1840s, 

there would have been significant alterations to this 

space.

Around 1912, Smyth created a second bath room for 

the house (there was already a bathroom on the first 

floor off the back porch), made possible by a new 

reservoir on Glassy Mountain that allowed water to 

rise to the second floor level of the house. Located 

in the southeast corner of the Upstairs Hall, the bath 

blocked light to the stairwell from the center dormer 

window and was likely the occasion for installing the 

skylight. Smyth also appears to have created the 

bank of closets (203, 204, and 210) against the knee 

wall on the north side of the hall. In 1945- 1946, the 

Sandburgs installed book shelves against the north, 

west, and east walls and on all but the west side of 

the chimney.

Accessed through a plywood door, Room 206 is not 

a finished space but was apparently opened to provide access to the attic above the front bedroom 

(207) and to provide a view of the framing and 

decking of the original roof. Judging from the materials present, the space appears to date to the last 

half of the twentieth century. Smyth’s granddaughter believed the passage to the Crow’s Nest was 

wider at one time- - in fact examination of the 

structure reveals that the passage is at its original 

width but was made longer when the closets 

(Rooms 203- 204 and 210) on the north side of the 

upstairs Hall were installed by Smyth in the 1920s.230

FIGURE 196. View east in Upstairs Hall (200). (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004)

230. Wallace, p. 196.
160 Connemara Main House HSR

Physical Description

Flooring: The original tongue- and- groove flooring 

remains in place and in good condition. Widths 

ranging from 5- 1/2” to 8” wide, unlike the first floor, 

where widths were generally around the smaller 

dimension.

Walls: The west and east walls are probably the original plaster on split lath. The north wall and the 

walls creating the bathroom are probably plaster on 

sawn lath, dating to the 1920s and around 1912, 

respectively.

Ceiling: The ceiling in the hall is at 8'- 11" and is the 

original plaster on split lath.

Doors: The five doors opening into the bedrooms 

appear to have been part of the original construction of the house. All are around 3'- 0" by 6'- 8" by 

1- 1/4" with two vertical, square- edged, raised panels, and except for the door to Mr. Sandburg’s Study 

(201), all have what must be their original Carpenter 

& Co. rim locks, 4" by 5" with small brass knobs. 

The original lock on the door to Sandburg’s office 

was replaced in the late nineteenth or early twentieth century by the present 3- 1/4" by 4" rim lock 

with brown mineral knobs. 

The door opening from the bathroom was part of 

that room’s original construction around 1912. Measuring 2'- 10" by 6'- 9" by 1- 3/8", it has two vertical 

raised panels below four lights of translucent glass, 

is similar to and probably contemporaneous with 

that found in the window sash at the ground floor 

coal bin (012). The door has a small rim lock, 4" by 

4- 1/2", bearing the imprint “Belknap, Blue Grass, 

Louisville, K,” with a white porcelain knob. The 

two- panel doors to the two closets (204 and 210) are 

2’- 4” by 6’- 0” with a molding profile that suggests 

they were installed in the 1930s or 1940s.

Skylight: The metal- framed skylight is around 3'- 6" 

square, divided into two lights glazed with wirereinforced plate glass. A simple beaded molding 

about 1" wide trims the otherwise plainly finished 

skylight shaft.

Trim: All of the original bedroom doors (and windows) have a similar 4- 1/2" Greek Revival casing, 

Type G. Casing of the closet doors is molded, in two 

profiles. Casing of the door to Room 204 is 4" wide 

with a profile similar to that on the door between 

Rooms 201 and 202. Casing of the door to Room 210 

FIGURE 197. View southwest in Upstairs Hall 

(200). (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004)

FIGURE 198. View of Carpenter & Co. rim lock, 

typical of original locks on second floor. (T. 

Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004)

FIGURE 199. View of typical late-nineteenth 

century rim lock in Sandburg’s Study (201). 

(T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004)
National Park Service 161

Part I: Developmental History

is 4- 1/2" wide, molded but without the beaded edge, 

unlike any other found in the house. Instead of a 

baseboard, both closets use a 2- 1/4" molding similar 

to the base cap used in the Dining Room (112) and 

Back Hall (116). The bathroom door is cased with 

plain boards 4- 1/2” wide.

Lighting: Lighting is provided by a 30” metal fluorescent fixture located in the northeast side of the 

ceiling.

Heating: A typical radiator, 32” long, 37” high, and 8” 

deep, stands against the west side of the chimney 

breast. The radiator dates to the 1920s. Typical of the 

nineteenth century, the second- floor bedrooms 

remained unheated until introduction of steam 

heating in the 1920s. There was never a fireplace in 

this room and no evidence of a stove either.

Miscellaneous: The Sandburgs installed a modern 

disappearing stairway to the attic in the ceiling on 

the east side of the chimney stack.

Sandburg’s Study (Room 201) . One of the original 

bedrooms, this room was more or less identical to 

the adjacent bedroom (Room 202). The two were 

not connected originally, but in the nineteenth century, probably around 1890, a connecting door 

opening was created on the east side of the chimney 

breast. Although Mrs. Sandburg thought her husband would have his office in the Crow’s Nest (207), 

he decided that the spectacular view from its windows would prove distracting and instead set up his 

office in this room.

Floor: Flooring is like that in the hall, original, 5” to 

8” wide tongue- and- groove and is typical of the 

second floor.

Walls: Walls are the original plaster on split lath.

Ceiling: The ceiling is the original plaster on split 

lath, 8’- 11” above the floor.

Doors: In addition to the door opening from the 

hall, the added door to Room 202 opens into this 

room. Similar to the door between 101 and 102, it is 

2'- 9" by 6'- 9" by 1- 3/8" with four, vertical, raised 

panels, and original 4" butt hinges with spindle- top 

pins. The rim lock is 3- 1/2" by 4- 1/2" and has a white 

porcelain knob.

FIGURE 200. View northeast in Upstairs Hall. (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004)
162 Connemara Main House HSR

Physical Description

Windows: Two windows light the room, one on the 

west wall and the dormer window on the south. The 

west window is 3'- 4" by 5'- 2" and has its original 

sash, minus the original six- over- six muntins which 

the Sandburgs had removed in 1945. The dormer 

window is 2'- 10" by 4'- 6" and its original six- oversix muntins were also removed in 1945.

Trim: The 9" beaded baseboard is original. The casing of the windows and of the door to the hall is 

generally 4- 1/2”- wide, typical of that used originally 

at the doors and windows on the second floor. Casing of the door between Room 201 and 202 is similar 

to that found at the door to one of the closets (204) 

on the north side of the hall. Window stools are 

around 5/8" thick with a wide, half- round bead 

along the facing edge. Aprons are around 3- 3/4" 

wide with a bead across the lower edge.

Lighting: The room is lit by a fluorescent fixture typical of those installed by the Sandburgs in the 1940s 

and 1950s.

Heating: In addition to a typical 1920s radiator 

located under the west window, the room has a 

small, “Dixie Flyer” stove added by Sandburg. The 

stove is made of sheet metal and cast iron, is wood 

burning, and is vented into the chimney breast on 

the north wall. The room never had a fireplace.

Sandburg’s Bedroom (Rooms 202-203). Another of 

the original bedrooms, this one has a closet (203)

created out of one of the Smyth- era closets (204) by 

the Sandburgs after World War II.

Flooring: Flooring is typical tongue- and- groove 

pine, 5" to 6- 1/2" wide.

Walls: Walls are all assumed to be the original plaster 

on split lath.

Ceiling: The ceiling is at 8’- 11” and is the original 

plaster on split lath.

Doors: In addition to the door opening from the hall 

and into Room 201, this room has a closet door 

opening, 2'- 0" by 6'- 0". The left- hinged door itself 

is not present and was apparently not present during at least part of the Sandburg era.

FIGURE 201. View east in Sandburg’s Bedroom (202). (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004)
National Park Service 163

Part I: Developmental History

Windows: Windows are similar to those in Room 201 

with one on the west wall and a dormer window on 

the north. The west window is 3'- 4" by 5'- 2" and 

has its original sash, minus the original six- over- six 

muntins which the Sandburgs had removed in 1945. 

The dormer window is 2'- 10" by 4'- 6" and its original six- over- six muntins were also removed in 1945.

Trim: The 9" beaded baseboard is original. The casing of the door to the hall and the casing of the windows are typical original casing for the second floor. 

Window stools are around 5/8" thick with a wide, 

half- round bead along the facing edge. Aprons are 

around 3- 3/4" with a bead across the lower edge. 

Casing of the door into Sandburg’s office (201) is 

similar to that found at the door to one of the closets 

(204) on the north side of the hall. The closet door 

opening is cased with plain 4- 1/2" boards without a 

backband. A 2- 1/4" molding similar to the base cap 

used in the dining room and elsewhere in the 1920s 

addition is used in place of a baseboard in the closet.

Lighting: The room is lit by a 24"- long, ceilingmounted, fluorescent fixture installed by the Sandburgs.

Heating: A 24” radiator is located under the west 

window.

Miscellaneous Features: The Sandburgs installed the 

range of book shelves behind the bed against the 

west wall. On the south wall on the west side of the 

chimney breast is a wall- hung sink, porcelainenameled cast iron, 18" by 24" with a 10" back 

splash. Similar to the sink that remains in the 

Smyth- era bathroom (217), this is the only sink 

remaining of a number of sinks that were installed in 

nearly all of the bedrooms during the Smyth era. It 

appears to have retained all of its original fittings, 

except for the waste line and trap, which may have 

been replaced in the 1940s.

“Crow’s Nest” (207-209). Referred to as “the Bull’s 

Eye” by the Smyths, the Sandburgs called this room 

the “Crow’s Nest.” It provides a spectacular view of 

the valley in front of the house and the mountains to 

the northeast. The Sandburgs created small openings on the south wall and built closets (208 and 

209) above the roof framing behind the wall.

FIGURE 202. View of late Victorian hinge, door, and casing at door between Rooms 

201 and 202. (T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004)
164 Connemara Main House HSR

Physical Description

Floor: Flooring is original tongue- and- groove pine, 

5” to 8” wide.

Walls: Walls are typical plaster on split lath.

Ceiling: The ceiling is at 8’- 11” and is the original 

plaster on split lath.

Doors: In addition to the original two- panel door 

opening from the Upstairs Hall passage, two plywood doors are present on the south wall. Both 

doors are 3/4" plywood, 26" by 63".

Windows: A large double- hung, one- over- one 

window is centered on the north wall and flanked 

by narrow windows of the same type. The center 

window is 3'- 5" by 5'- 3" and the flankers are 1'- 6" 

by 5'- 3". As elsewhere in the house, the Sandburgs 

removed the muntins from these windows.

Trim: The room has a typical 9" beaded baseboard 

and door and window casing and trim like that 

found in the other bedrooms on this floor. All of the 

trim is original except for the small closet doors, 

which are cased with plain 1” by 3” boards.

Heating: A small 24” radiator is located in the southwest corner of the room.

Miscellaneous Features: The interior of one closet 

(208) is finished with plain 2- 1/2" tongue- andgroove boards. The other closet (209) is finished 

with plain 3- 1/2" tongue- and- groove boards.

Janet’s Room (211 and 212). The two bedrooms on 

the east side of the house (211 and 214) have architectural features similar to those found in Rooms 201 

and 202 but the east bedrooms are about 6'- 7" 

longer, east to west, than those on the west. This 

bedroom was reduced in size in the 1940s when the 

Sandburgs added the bathroom (213) on the east side 

of the chimney breast, cabinet and shelves across 

the chimney breast, and the closet (212) on the west 

side of the chimney breast, the latter perhaps covering a connecting door similar to the one between 

Rooms 201 and 202.

Flooring: Flooring is typical tongue- and- groove 

pine, 5- 1/4" to 8" wide.

Walls: Walls are all assumed to be the original plaster 

on split lath, except the south wall, most of which 

dates to the 1940s. The NPS made significant repairs 

to the north wall.

Ceiling: Set at 8’- 11”, the ceiling is original plaster on 

wood lath.

Doors: In addition to the original door opening from 

the hall, double doors to the closet (212) and the 

door to the bathroom (213) are all two- panel, 2'- 0" 

by 6'- 0" by 1- 3/8", with typical mortise locks from 

FIGURE 203. View southwest in Crow’s Nest (207). 

(T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004)

FIGURE 204. View north in Crow’s Nest (207). 

(T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004)
National Park Service 165

Part I: Developmental History

the 1940s. The door to the cabinet built against the 

chimney breast is 3/4" plywood, 17" by 64". A 

smaller plywood door above the closet door at 212 

opens to additional storage space above the closets.

Windows: Windows are similar to those in the other 

bedrooms with one on the east and a dormer window on the north. The east window is 3'- 4" by 5'- 2" 

and the dormer window is 2'- 10" by 4'- 6". Both 

have had their original six- over- six muntins 

removed to create one- over- one windows.

Trim: The 9" beaded baseboard is original.The casing of the door to the hall and of the windows is 

typical original casing for the second floor. Window 

stools are around 5/8" thick with a wide half- round 

bead along the facing edge. Aprons are around 3- 3/

4" with a bead across the lower edge. Casing of the 

doors into the bathroom (213) and the closet (212) 

are cased with plain 4- 1/2" boards without a backband, typical of the Sandburgs’ work.

Lighting: Lighting is provided by a bare bulb in a 

ceiling- mounted keyless porcelain fixture.

Heating: A small 24” radiator is located under the 

east window

Bathroom (Room 213). This bathroom was 

installed by the Sandburgs in 1946 and is similar to 

the first- floor bathrooms that they installed at the 

same time. It is finished with tile similar to that used 

in the downstairs bathrooms.

Flooring: The floor is tiled with the same unglazed, 

black- and- white, hexagonal tile used in the other 

bathrooms.

Walls: Walls are tiled to a height of 52” with olivegreen, glazed, 4- 1/4”- square tile accented with 

black border and a black base. Above the tile, walls 

and ceiling are plaster dating to the 1940s.

Door: The two- panel doors to the adjacent bedrooms date to the 1940s and are 2’- 0” by 6’- 0” with 

mortise locks and privacy latches.

Window: The window, which dates to the room’s 

construction in 1945, is double- hung, one- overone, and measures 2'- 4" by 3'- 11".

FIGURE 205. View west in Janet’s Room (211). (T. 

Jones, NPS-SERO-CRD, 2004)

FIGURE 206. View east in Janet’s Room (211). (T. 

Jones, NPS-SERO-CRD, 2004)

FIGURE 207. View southwest in Janet’s Room (211). 

(T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CRD, 2004)
166 Connemara Main House HSR

Physical Description

Fixtures: Begun in 1945, this bathroom was not completed until the 4- 1/2’ long tub was delivered in 1947. 

The toilet was apparently replaced in the 1960s since 

the existing toilet bears a date of 25 June 1963.

Guest Room (214-216). Like Janet’s Room (211), this 

bedroom is 6'- 7" longer than the west bedrooms, 

and like Janet’s Room, it was reduced in size in the 

1940s when the Sandburgs added the bathroom (213) 

on the east side of the chimney breast, cabinet and 

shelves across the chimney breast, and the closet 

(215) on the west side of the chimney breast, the latter perhaps covering a connecting door similar to 

the one between Rooms 201 and 202. They also created another closet (216) out of part of the Smythera bathroom (217).

Flooring: Flooring is typical tongue- and- groove 

pine, 5- 1/4" to 8" wide.

Walls: Walls are all assumed to be the original plaster 

on split lath, except most of the north wall which 

dates to the 1940s.

Ceiling: The ceiling, which is around 8’- 11” high, is 

original plaster on split lath.

Doors: In addition to the original door opening from 

the hall, double doors to the closet (215) and the 

door to the bathroom (213) are all two- panel, 2'- 0" 

by 6'- 0" by 1- 3/8", with typical mortise locks from 

the 1940s. The door to the cabinet built against the 

chimney breast is 3/4" plywood, 17" by 64". A 

smaller plywood door above one of the closet (215) 

doors opens to additional storage space above the 

closets. The door opening to the west closet (216) is 

also plywood.

Windows: Windows are similar to those in the other 

bedrooms with one on the east and a dormer window on the south. The east window is 3'- 4" by 5'- 2" 

and the dormer window is 2'- 10" by 4'- 6". The 

Sandburgs removed the original six- over- six 

muntins from the sash, converting them to oneover- one

Trim: The 9" beaded baseboard is original. The casing of the windows and of the door to the hall is 

typical original casing for the second floor. Window 

stools are around 5/8" thick with a wide bead along 

the facing edge. Aprons are around 3- 3/4" with a 

bead across the lower edge. Casing of the doors into 

FIGURE 208. View southwest in Guest Room (214). 

(T. Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004)

FIGURE 209. View northwest in Room 214. (T. 

Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004)

FIGURE 210. View southeast in Guest Room (214). (T. 

Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004)
National Park Service 167

Part I: Developmental History

the bathroom (213), and the closets (215 and 216) are 

cased with plain 4- 1/2" boards without a backband, 

typical of the Sandburgs’ work.

Lighting: Lighting is by a bare bulb in a ceilingmounted porcelain fixture.

Heating: A 24” radiator is located under the east 

window.

Upstairs Bathroom (Room 217). As noted above, 

this space was created by the Smyths around 1912. 

The Sandburgs removed the old footed, cast- iron 

tub that sat along the east wall and installed a metal 

shower surround in the northeast corner of the 

room and, in the southeast corner, another small 

closet (216) for the adjacent bedroom and a small 

closet for the bathroom itself against the south wall.

Walls: Walls are plaster on wood lath, except the 

west wall, where the infilled portion is paneled with 

3- 1/2", double- beaded, tongue- and- groove boards 

installed vertically. Boards 3- 1/2" wide run along 

part of the west and north walls and hold a series of 

brass clothes hooks, probably dating to the early 

twentieth century.

Ceiling: The ceiling is plaster on wood lath. 

Window: The room is lit by a single, double- hung, 

one- over- one window. The opening, which is 2-

10" by 4'- 6", is original but, as elsewhere, the original six- over- six muntins were removed by the 

Sandburgs in 1945.

Trim: A 9” beaded baseboard runs along the south 

wall while a 4- 1/2" beaded baseboard was used 

along the west and north walls. Window casing is 

typical antebellum casing. The door is cased with 

plain 4- 1/2” boards.

Fixtures: The wall- hung, enameled, cast- iron sink is 

apparently original to the room (c. 1912). Similar to 

the lavatory in Sandburg’s bedroom, it has retained 

all of its original fittings. The metal shower surround 

is about 30" by 30" and dates to the 1940s. The 

original toilet was replaced in 1945 by the present 

unit, which bears a date of 8/22/45.

FIGURE 211. View southeast in Room 217. (T. 

Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004)

FIGURE 212. View northeast in Room 217. (T. 

Jones, NPS-SERO-CR, 2004)
168 Connemara Main House HSR

Physical Description
National Park Service 169

Part I: Developmental History

Floor Plans and 

Molding Details, 

2004
170 Connemara Main House HSR

Physical Description
National Park Service 171

Part I: Developmental History

Plan of ground floor

001

002

003

004

007 008

009

005

006

018

010

011 012

013

014

015

017

016

D-3 W-2 D-2 W-1 D-1

W-3

W-4

W-5

W-6 W-7 W-8 W-9 W-10

D-4

W-11

W-12

W-13

W-14

D-5

D-6

D-7

D-8

019

N

0 10

wood

brick

stone

001 Workshop 005 Hall 009 Bathroom 013 Coke Bin 017 Storage Room

002 Studio/Bedroom 006 Closet 010 Kid Room 014 Cabinet 018 Book Room

003 Closet 007 Closet 011 Furnace Room 015 Laundry Room 019 Closet

004 Guest Room 008 Preserve Room 012 Coal Bin 016 Closet 020 Old Bath Foundation

020

021

lift
172 Connemara Main House HSR

Physical Description
National Park Service 173

Part I: Developmental History

Plan of First Floor

D-8

W-33

W-21 W-22 W-23 W-24 W-25 W-26 W-27 W-28 W-29 W-30 W-31 W-32

W-20

W-19

W-18

D-10

W-37

W-34

W-35

W-36

W-38

W-39

W-40

W-17 W-16 W-15

D-11

123

122119

118

115

114

113

111

107

110

106

105

103

121

120

117

109

112

116

108

104

102

101

D-20

D-21

D-12

D-14

D-16

D-15

D-19 D-18

D-17

0 10

brick

wood N

D-22

101 Sandburg's Office 106 Side Porch 111 Bathroom 116 Back Hall 121 Mrs. Sandburg's Bedroom

102 Front Room 107 Hall 112 Dining Room 117 Kitchen 122 Closet

103 Closets 108 Margaret's Study 113 Farm Office 118 Utility Room 123 Bathroom

104 Margaret's Room 109 Closet 114 Closet 119 Closet 124 West Porch

105 Closets 110 Closet 115 Front Hall 120 Bathroom 125 Conservatory

124

D-13

125

lift
174 Connemara Main House HSR

Physical Description
National Park Service 175

Part I: Developmental History

Plan of Second Floor

brick

wood

N

200 Upstairs Hall 205 Hallway 210 Closet 215 Closet

201 Sandburg's Study 206 Closet 211 Janet's Room 216 Closet

202 Sandburg's Bedroom 207 Crow's Nest 212 Closet 217 Bathroom

203 Closet 208 Cupboard 213 Bathroom

204 Closet 209 Closet 214 Guest Room

200

217

211 202

207

D-27

D-22

D-23

D-28

D-24

D-25

D-26

0 10

W-46

W-51

W-50

W-47 W-48 W-49

W-45

W-44

W-43

W-42

W-41

212

215

213

216

210 204 203

209

206

208

214

201
176 Connemara Main House HSR

Physical Description
National Park Service 177

Part I: Developmental History

Molding Profiles

Panel molding at door between 102 and 101

Panel molding at door between 104 and 107

Original baseboard first and second floor (half scale)

Panel molding at original 

second floor doors

Baseboard cap (1924)

Rooms 112, 116

Baseboard cap (1924)

Rooms 107, 108

stile

stile

Panel molding at doors added in 1924

Panel molding at doors added in 1945-46

Panel molding at 

door between Rooms 

115 and 121*

Interior casing at front doors; both sides of door 

between 101 & 102; 115 side of doors to 101, 118, 

and 121; and both sides of door between 102 & 104

F

Original exterior window and door casing at first 

floor on front of house

Original interior casing at windows in Room 101, 

102, 118, & 121, and at french doors on east sides 

of Rooms 102 & 104

A

B

Door casing at 204

C*

Door casing at 210

E

Interior casing (width variable, 4"-5") at 121 side of door 

between 115 & 121; 118 side of door between 115 & 118; 

115 side of door between 115 & 116; 101 side of door 

betweeb 115 & 101; both sides of door b/t 113 & 114 

D*

Original window and door casing on 

second floor (width variable, 4" to 5")

G

1"

Panel molding at door 

between Rooms 011 

and 015*

Panel molding at door between 102 

and 104 (probably original)

2" 3" 4" 5"

H

Door and window casing added 

in 1924 and 1945-46

Original window stool at second floor

Original window stool at first floor

*Antebellum moldings, but whether 

1838 or 1848 is not certain
178 Connemara Main House HSR

Physical Description
National Park Service 179

The primary purpose of this historic structure 

report has been to document the historic evolution 

of the Main House at Connemara. An historic 

structure report was completed in the 1970s, but 

that report focused primarily on the building’s 

existing condition. Mrs. Sandburg and her daughters were interviewed extensively, but researchers 

did not have access to Memminger’s papers. In 1984, 

Dr. David Wallace produced a historic furnishings 

report that included copious documentation for the 

building as it existed during the Sandburg era. 

There remained, however, only a limited understanding of and, in fact, some significant misconceptions about the historic evolution of the house 

prior to the Sandburg era.

In addition, Watson & Henry Associates, preservation architect and engineers out of Bridgeton, New 

Jersey, conducted an assessment of the environmental conditions inside the Main House in 2002. 

One result of that assessment has been a comprehensive environmental monitoring program that is 

now underway. Their report also included a series 

of recommendations for improvements to not only 

the building’s mechanical and electrical systems but 

also to the building envelope. The wide- ranging 

scope of their recommendations highlighted the 

need for a broader understanding of the house’s 

history and existing condition in order to minimize 

the impact of the proposed improvements on the 

historic fabric of the building.

Built in 1838, the house is historically significant for 

its associations with Carl Sandburg, of course, but 

also for its associations with Christopher Memminger, Secretary of the Treasury of the Confederate States of America, and with Ellison Smyth, one 

of the leaders in the Southern textile industry in the 

late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The 

house is also architecturally significant as a good 

example of the Greek Revival in the South, designed 

by a Prussian- born architect who was one of the 

founders of the American Institution of Architecture, the country’s first professional association for 

architects. Expanded by Memminger in 1848, the 

house was remodeled by a subsequent owner 

around 1890, renovated by Smyth in 1924, and 

finally renovated again by the Sandburgs in 1945-

1946. Conveyed to the Federal government by 

Sandburg’s widow in 1968, the house has been preserved by the National Park Service through routine 

maintenance, except for reconstruction of the Conservatory and much of the Front Porch, installation 

of systems for fire- suppression and security, and 

rehabilitation of the mechanical and electrical systems. Overall, the house remains in good condition 

with most of its historic fabric still intact.231

Requirements for 

Treatment and Use

A number of laws, regulations, and functional 

requirements circumscribe treatment and use of the 

the historic structures in our National Parks. In 

addition to protecting the cultural resource, these 

requirements also address issues of human safety, 

fire protection, energy conservation, abatement of 

hazardous materials, and handicapped accessibility. Any treatment must be carefully considered in 

order that the historic fabric of the structure be preserved.

National Historic Preservation Act

The National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 as 

amended (NHPA) mandates Federal protection of 

significant cultural resources. In implementing the 

231. “Historic” fabric includes but is not limited to the 

original features and materials. All features and 

materials that existed in 1968 should be considered 

part of the building’s historic fabric.

Treatment and 

Use
180 Connemara Main House HSR

act, a number of laws and authorities have been 

established that are binding on the NPS.

Section 106. A routine step in the park’s planning 

process for the treatment of historic structures is 

compliance with Section 106 of NHPA, which 

requires Federal agencies “to take into account the 

effect” of any undertaking involving Nation¦al Register properties. To satisfy the requirements of Section 106, regulations have been promulgated (36 

CFR Part 800,"Protection of Historic Properties") 

that require, among other things, consultation with 

local governments, State Historic Preservation 

Officers, and Indian tribal representatives. Prior to 

any undertaking at the Main House, the NPS is 

required to “afford the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation established under Title II of this 

act [NHPA] a reasonable opportunity to comment 

with regard to such undertaking.”

In 1995, in an effort to expedite the review process, a 

programmatic agreement was made between the 

Advisory Council and the NPS that allows for a categorical exclusion of some activities from the Section 106 review process. These excluded activities 

are limited to routine repairs and maintenance that 

do not alter the appearance of the historic structure 

or involve widespread or total replacement of historic features or materials.

Americans With Disabilities Act of 

1990

The Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) 

establishes comprehensive civil rights protection for 

disabled Americans, both in employment and in 

their right to free, unaided access to public buildings. The Basement is partially accessible to handicapped visitors, and installation of a lift from the 

ground to the East Porch has made the first floor 

accessible to most visitors with restricted mobility. 

The second floor remains inaccessible to most of 

those visitors. While people with restricted mobility 

have most frequently benefited from ADA, protection also extends to those with other disabilities. 

This would include visitors with impaired vision or 

hearing, for whom printed tour scripts and audio 

tours allow for interpretation of the site.

Requirements for full compliance with ADA regulations are extensive and easiest to apply to new construction. Full compliance for historic buildings is 

more difficult and sometimes would require significant alterations to the historic character of the 

property. Where that is the case, ADA authorizes a 

process for arriving at alternatives to full compliance that can preserve historic character while 

maximizing a disabled visitor’s access to the historic 

building.

International Building Code

Building codes are generally applicable to all buildings whether they are historic or not. As a matter of 

policy, the NPS is guided by the International 

Building Code, which includes this statement 

regarding codes and historic buildings:

3406.1 Historic Buildings. The provisions of this 

code related to the construction, repair, alteration, 

addition, restoration and movement of structures, 

and change of occupancy shall not be mandatory for 

historic buildings where such buildings are judged by 

the building official to not constitute a distinct life 

safety hazard [emphasis added].

Threats to public health and safety should always be 

eliminated, but because this is an historic building, 

alternatives to full code compliance are always 

sought where compliance would needlessly compromise the integrity of the historic building.

DOI and NPS Policies and 

Regulations

In addition to Director’s Order #28, which has 

guided development of this historic structure 

report, there are policies and regulations that have 

been issued by both the Secretary of the Interior 

and the Director of the National Park Service which 

circumscribe treatment of historic buildings.

Secretary’s Standards. The Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties have established a framework in which to plan 

and execute treatment of historic structures. 

Guidelines for interpreting the Standards have been 

issued, and the NPS has also published forty- two 

Preservation Briefs that provide detailed direction 

for appropriate treatment of a variety of materials, 

features, and conditions found in historic buildings. 

Regardless of treatment approach, the Standards

put a high priority on preservation of existing historic materials and not just the architectural form 

and style. Replacement of a column, for instance, 

even when replacement is “in kind,” diminishes the 

authenticity of the building, if for no other reason 

than the elimination of the evidence of the passage 
National Park Service 181

Part II: Treatment and Use

of time, which after all is fundamental to the 

authenticity of an historic structure.

The Standards also require that any alterations, 

additions, or other modifications be reversible, i.e., 

be designed and constructed in such a way that they 

can be removed or reversed in the future without 

the loss of existing historic materials, features, or 

character. Thus, in installing the lift to the East 

Porch, where the porch floor is lower than the interior floor, the historic porch floor was not removed 

and rebuilt but was covered by a new floor that 

eliminates the difference in floor levels. The balustrade which had to be removed was not discarded, 

so that the lift could be removed in the future and 

the porch restored with minimal compromise of its 

authenticity.

General Management Policies. Finally, the NPS 

General Management Policies (2001) guide overall 

management of the Main House at Connemara, 

especially Chapter 5 “Cultural Resource Management.” Based upon the authority of some nineteen 

Acts of Congress and many more Executive orders 

and regulations, these policies require

planning to ensure that management processes 

for making decisions and setting priorities 

integrate information about cultural resources, 

and provide for consultation and collaboration 

with outside entities; and stewardship to ensure 

that cultural resources are preserved and 

protected, receive appropriate treatments 

(including maintenance), and are made available 

for public understanding and enjoyment.232

Section 5.3.5, “Treatment of Cultural Resources,” 

provides specific directives, including a directive 

that “the preservation of cultural resources in their 

existing states will always receive first consideration.” The section also states that

treatments entailing greater intervention will not 

proceed without the consideration of 

interpretive alternatives. The appearance and 

condition of resources before treatment, and 

changes made during treatment, will be 

documented. Such documentation will be 

shared with any appropriate state or tribal 

historic preservation office or certified local 

government, and added to the park museum 

cataloging system. Pending treatment decisions 

reached through the planning process, all 

resources will be protected and preserved in 

their existing states.233

Alternatives for 

Treatment and Use

An An Historic Structure Report typically considers 

and evaluates alternative uses and treatments for the 

historic structure. Emphasis is on preserving extant 

historic material and resolving conflicts, especially 

those that might result between the mandate to preserve and the necessity for use.

Given that exhibit and interpretation of the Sandburgs’ home and life is the primary reason for the 

park’s existence, there are few reasonable alternatives that could be conceived to the current 

approach to treatment of the house, which essentially has been to preserve and maintain the house 

as it was during Sandburg’s life. Except for reconstruction of the Front Porch floor and of the Conservatory, which were badly deteriorated by the 

time the NPS acquired the site, restoration and 

reconstruction has not been part of the NPS 

approach to treatment of the site. The NPS has even 

resisted the urge to replace water- stained acoustical 

ceiling tiles in the dining room, although the faulty 

roof that was the source of the damage during the 

Sandburg era has, of course, been repaired.

Most of the house is used as an interpretive museum 

exhibit, with nearly all of the main floor and the 

second floor furnished and interpreted with original Sandburg furnishings and artifacts that are part 

of the park’s museum collection. However, certain 

areas on all three floors of the house are used for 

storage and curatorial functions, or for other reasons are inaccessible to visitors. Throughout the 

house, visitor impact is carefully controlled by the 

use of runners, the roping off of some rooms, and, 

most important, the constant vigilance of NPS 

rangers and volunteers who always accompany visitors through the house. Here, too, it is difficult to 

envision alternative uses for most of the structure 

that would not diminish the historic resource.

Basement

The Basement and a few other areas in the house do 

lend themselves to alternate uses. Little altered since 

232. NPS General Management Policies (2001), p. 50. 233. NPS General Management Policies (2001), p. 56
182 Connemara Main House HSR

the Sandburg era, the basement is used primarily for 

visitor contact (001) and orientation (002), sale of 

books and other interpretive material (001), staff 

support facilities (004, 005, and 009), and building 

utilities (011 and 017). A number of spaces are used 

for general storage (003, 006- 008, 010, 012- 014, and 

019). The Laundry Room (015) and Book Room 

(018) are the only spaces that are furnished and 

interpreted as they were in the Sandburg era.

If there were a separate visitors center or other 

point of visitor contact, it would be possible to 

refurnish the Workshop (001) and Studio (002) to 

reflect their use during the Sandburg era. A separate 

visitors center could also make possible use of 

Rooms 001 and 002 as space for exhibits. However, 

a separate visitors center would likely have its own 

exhibit space, and portions of the Swedish House or 

Garage could also be adapted for exhibit space.

Room 108

The Children’s Bedroom (108) and the Crow’s Nest 

(207) are currently used by the park staff for curatorial services, and the door to Room 108 from the hall 

is routinely kept closed. In his plan for recreating 

the house’s historic interiors, Wallace suggested that 

the Children’s Room could be useful in interpretation of the period when there were two small children in the house (1946- 1952), a period which is 

“not otherwise visible at Connemara.”234 In addition, with its bay window dating to the Smyth era, 

but replicating a bay window from the Gregg era, 

and with its floor the only one of the plain- sawn, 3-

1/2”, pine floors that remains visible, the room has 

some architectural interest as well.

However, the park does not have the appropriate 

furnishings for this approach, although the room 

could be refurnished to reflect Margaret’s use of it 

as an office. Furthermore, the park’s curatorial staff 

requires a room in which to accomplish its ongoing 

work of conserving the thousands of books and 

other artifacts in the house, and logistics require 

that space be available for that purpose on each 

floor of the house.

Room 207

The only other significant room in the house that is 

not fully accessible to visitors is the Crow’s Nest 

(Room 207) above the Front Porch. It provides a 

spectacular view of the Front Lake and the mountains to the north and west, and if visitors were 

allowed access to the room, it might significantly 

enhance their experience of Connemara. However, 

the floor system in the room (which also forms the 

ceiling of the Front Porch) lacks the capacity to 

handle large numbers of people without major 

restructuring. If safe load limits could be established, and if curatorial services could be relocated 

to one of the large closets nearby, visitors might be 

allowed into the room a few at a time or, at the very 

least, allowed entry into the passage to the room. 

The logistics would be difficult, however, and for 

most tours, increased accessibility to the Crow’s 

Nest will not be an option.

Watson & Henry Recommendations

Watson & Henry’s recent assessment of the house’s 

environmental conditions includes recommendations for improvements to not only the building’s 

mechanical and electrical systems but also to the 

building itself. Most of these are well- founded, 

although with caveats regarding preservation of 

original material; but as discussed below, full implementation of their recommendations for the electrical system and for the windows have the potential 

for unnecessarily compromising the building’s historic fabric.

Room 004. The Watson and Henry recommendations would alter use of part of the basement. Specifically, the recommendation is made to relocate 

the staff break room outside the house in order to 

reduce the chances for pests being introduced into 

the house.

In addition, the room is the only practical location 

for the air- handling equipment, since it is adjacent 

to a chimney and to the laundry chute, both of 

which serve as utility chases. It is likely that even 

with operable windows (see below), the house will 

require additional ventilation, and use of this room 

for air- handling equipment will be necessary. The 

impact of this change on the historic fabric of the 

house would be relatively minor, limited mostly to 

alterations in Room 004 to allow installation of duct 

work and the air- handling equipment itself.

Boiler. Watson & Henry’s recommendation to 

remove the boiler from the Furnace Room (011) to a 

separate building or into a separate mechanical area 

with fire- rated construction has wider implications. 

234. Wallace, Historic Furnishings Report, p. 240.
National Park Service 183

Part II: Treatment and Use

Removal of the boiler from inside the house would 

certainly eliminate that risk of catastrophic explosion and/or fire in the house. In addition, relocation 

of the boiler would eliminate some safety concerns, 

so that the Kid Room (010) could be interpreted if 

desired.

Construction of a new building for the boiler would 

certainly be an unacceptable intrusion on the historic landscape, unless it were placed underground, 

which would present the usual problems of maintenance of an underground structure. One of the 

three nearby buildings might be used, but certainly 

such use of the Swedish House or the old Wash 

House would not be considered due to the large 

impact installation of a boiler room would have on 

the historic fabric and character of those buildings. 

Adaptation of part of the Garage for a boiler room is 

not, however, out of the question, since the impact 

on its historic character and fabric could be relatively small. Design of such a boiler room in the 

garage would have to address sound and other factors that might negatively affect use of the remainder of the building as a class room.

The risk from the boiler would be greatly reduced, 

although not entirely eliminated, if a fire- rated 

enclosure were provided inside the house. Such an 

enclosure would necessarily greatly alter the character of the Furnace Room (011) and effectively 

eliminate visitor viewing of the historic room. If the 

boiler were left inside the house, adaptation of the 

Kid Room as a fire- rated boiler room might be 

preferable, since there would then be no impact on 

the way the house is currently presented to visitors.

Electrical System. Watson and Henry recognized a 

number of issues with the existing electrical system, 

including the fact that all components are not 

grounded. As a first step in planning rehabilitation 

of the electrical system, the park should identify 

those light fixtures and receptacles that are essential 

to interpretation and to routine maintenance. All 

others should be put out of service. Improvements 

to the house’s ventilation system will automatically 

reduce the need for fans and extension cords, and 

careful planning could eliminate the need for many 

other receptacles. The necessary lighting and convenience receptacles could then be rewired and 

isolated on grounded branch circuits that could be 

deactivated at night and at other times the house is 

not occupied.

Circuits that are essential for fire protection, security, and emergency lighting should be on their own 

circuit or circuits, independent of the lighting and 

convenience receptacle circuits.

Flexible or rigid conduit, which greatly reduce the 

chance of accidental damage to wiring, should be 

installed wherever that can be achieved with minimal damage. Where installation would require significant trenching of plaster walls or other major 

damage, first consideration should be given to 

abandoning the relevant receptacle or circuit. 

Lighting that is necessary should be placed on 

remotely activated circuits that would eliminate the 

necessity for rewiring switches.

Fire Detection and Suppression. Watson & Henry 

also recommend expanding the house’s fire detection system to include all spaces in the house, and 

they recommend changes that would improve water 

delivery to the house’s sprinkler system. These 

alterations would significantly improve the ability to 

limit damage should a fire break out inside the 

house. The impact of the alterations on the historic 

fabric of the house need not be great if wiring is not 

placed in conduit or if wireless sensors are utilized 

where appropriate. An “addressable system” wired 

as a loop would eliminate many “home- runs” to the 

panel and thus reduce the impact on the house’s 

historic fabric. The Watson & Henry recommendation for installation of an auxiliary generator to 

insure that water can reach the sprinkler system at 

all times should also be considered.

Windows. Finally, Watson & Henry recommended 

that all of the windows in the house, including the 

conservatory, be repaired to working order, so that 

they might be used to manage the house’s environmental conditions. The most intrusive part of this 

work would be replacing sash cord for the counterweights. Because there are no access panels in the 

older sash channels, casing on both sides of each 

window may have to be removed in order to gain 

access to the counterweights and to re- tie the 

ropes. This could cause significant damage to the 

adjacent plaster walls. Alternatively, pockets to 

access the counterweights might be cut into the sash 

channels, but in either case, the metal weatherstripping would be damaged or destroyed and 

would be difficult or impossible to replace. However, operable sash are not necessary at every opening, and since these repairs expose the woodwork to 

damage and will inevitably lead to the loss of 
184 Connemara Main House HSR

antique nails and, if not carefully executed, historic 

plaster and weatherstripping as well, the work 

should be limited to those openings which will 

actually be used for ventilation.

In addition, if the windows are to be operable, the 

storm sash will have to be replaced with screens 

each spring and the screens with storm sash each 

fall, a routine that was also followed by the Sandburgs. The storm windows are fitted with UV- filtering film, and although screens would reduce 

some UV and visible light, protection would not be 

absolute. This should be considered when deciding 

which windows will be operable and which will 

remain closed. 

The existing UV- filtering film on the storm sash is 

reaching the end of its useful life. When it is 

replaced, the new film should be installed on the 

window sash rather than on the storm sash. This 

would allow seasonal installation of screens at all 

windows, including those that will not be opened, 

while maintaining UV and visible light filtration. 

Seasonal replacement of storm sash and screens at 

all windows would have the benefit of allowing a 

more authentic presentation of the house to park 

visitors. In recent years, at least some storm sash 

have typically been left in place year round, which 

significantly alters the historic appearance of the 

house during warm seasons of the years.

Ultimate 

Treatment and Use

The current use of the house primarily as an exhibit 

for interpreting the home and life of Carl Sandburg 

should be continued. Tours could be expanded to 

allow visitors to view but not enter Rooms 108 and 

207; but for the forseeable future, both rooms will 

continue to be used for curatorial services and be 

off limits for tours.

Environmental Improvements

Careful preservation of the status quo and repair 

when necessary is the only viable option for treatment of the house. However, the collection is 

threatened by less- than- ideal environmental conditions, and certain improvements are necessary if 

the rate of loss is to be reduced.For the most part, 

Watson & Henry’s recommendations for improvements to the mechanical and electrical systems 

inside the house and to the building itself should be 

implemented, although there should be some modification of their recommendations in order to 

reduce the impact on the historic fabric of the 

building.

Pest Control. To reduce the risk of attracting pests 

inside the house, Watson & Henry also recommended that the staff break room now in Room 004 

be relocated outside the Main House. This could 

free that room for installation of some of the additional ventilation equipment that they also recommended, since it is ideally suited for that purpose 

due to its proximity to available equipment chases 

through the laundry chute and the adjacent chimney stack.

Ventilation. The recommendation that all windows be repaired to operable condition appears to 

be unnecessary, since only some of the windows 

would be routinely used for ventilation. In the Front 

Room and Sandburg’s Office, for instance, the 

doors offer ample ventilation without the necessity 

of opening windows. In addition, if a window is 

open, UV and visible light protection for the interior 

is lost or reduced. The repair process poses the risk 

of glass breakage, damage to adjacent plaster and to 

window casing when it is removed, and the process 

will also lead to the practical loss of historic nails. 

Because of the potential for damage to woodwork, 

plaster, and glass, this project should be limited to 

those openings that would be necessary to accomplish the goals set forth in Watson & Henry’s recommendations.

Because of the tremendous heat gain in the summer 

from the poorly ventilated Conservatory, its windows should be restored to an operable condition. 

Again, proper ventilation may not require that all 

the Conservatory windows be operable, but since 

the design of these windows makes the risk of damage during repair less than inside the house, limiting 

the number of windows to be repaired may not be 

necessary. The historic screening of four Conservatory window openings should be restored and 

should provide adequate ventilation. There has 

never been a screen door at the opening between 

the Front Room and the Conservatory, and one 

should not be added, but all of the existing screen 

doors elsewhere should be repaired and maintained.
National Park Service 185

Part II: Treatment and Use

Gutters and Downspouts. Reducing moisture 

penetration into the house is one of the primary 

goals of the Watson & Henry recommendations, 

and gutters and downspouts that function properly 

are the first line of defense. The half- round gutters 

along the rear of the house are sometimes unable to 

carry all of the runoff from the roof, leading to saturation of the soil and increased dampness in the 

basement. Watson & Henry recommend the addition of a third downspout, but replacement of the 

six- inch half- round gutter with a six- inch ogeestyle box gutter, which was present during at least 

part of the historic period, would double the carrying capacity of the system, so that an additional 

downspout might not be necessary. All of the gutters should be inspected for proper pitch. The 

existing underground drainage system should be 

inspected and any necessary repairs made to insure 

that it functions properly as well.

Fire Safety

Disaster was narrowly averted in the 1970s when the 

boiler in the basement furnace room exploded 

while the house was unoccupied. Damage was limited then, but a number of changes now would significantly reduce the risk of loss from fire or another 

explosion inside the house. A Fire Security Survey is 

scheduled for the house and will probably confirm 

some if not all of the recommendations made in the 

Watson & Henry report.

Boiler. A new boiler room and electrical room 

should be constructed inside the garage and the 

boiler removed to that enclosure. This change 

would greatly reduce the risk of explosion and/or 

fire inside the house. Only the northern third of the 

garage would need to be altered, leaving the 

remainder of the building free for its present use for 

lectures and other presentations.

Lightning Protection. The lightning protection 

system should also be inspected for proper grounding. Because of the house’s exposed location, lightning protection should be maintained at all times.

Fire Detection. Although the house is completely 

sprinkled, Watson & Henry have noted the dearth 

of fire and smoke detectors inside the building. Following their recommendation, detectors should be 

installed in all rooms throughout the house and in 

the attics as well. Use of wireless sensors would 

minimize the impact on the house’s historic fabric.

Their recommendation for emergency power for 

the pump that serves the sprinkler system should 

also be implemented.

Repairs and Maintenance

Because preservation is maintenance, the NPS has 

developed an Historic Structure Preservation Guide 

for the Main House at Connemara. Complete with 

FIGURE 213. Windows suggested for repair to 

operable condition.

001

002

003

004

007 008

009

005

006

018

010

011 012

013

014

015

017

016

D-3 W-2 D-2 W-1 D-1

W-3

W-4

W-5

W-6 W-7 W-8 W-9 W-10

D-4

W-11

W-12

W-13

W-14

D-8

W-33

W-21

W-22

W-23

W-24

W-25

W-26

W-27

W-28

W-29

W-30

W-31

W-32

W-20

W-19

W-18

D-13

D-10

W-37

W-34

W-35

W-36

W-38

W-39

W-40

W-17 W-16 W-15 D-11

123

122119

118

115

114

113

111

107

110

106

105

103

121

120

117

109

112

116

108

104

102

101

W-46

W-51

W-50

W-47 W-48 W-49

W-45

W-44

W-43

W-42

W-41

212

215

213

216

210 204 203

209

206

208

214

201

200

217

211 202

207

125

D-20

D-21

D-12

D-5

D-6

D-7

D-8

D-14

D-16

D-15

D-19 D-18

D-17

D-27

D-22

D-23

D-28

D-24

D-25

D-26

019

N

D-22

Repair to working order all doors as well as windows W-3, W-4, W-6, W-7, W-8, W-9, W-10, W-14 

020

021

Repair to working order all doors as well as windows W-15, W-18, W-20, W-21, W-22, W-24, W-26, 

W-28, W-29, W-30 through W-34, W-35, W-36, W-37, W-53, W-55, W-58, W-62. W-65 through W-67

124

Repair to working order windows W-41, W-42, W-43, W-45, W-47, W-48, W-49 W-52

W-57

W-63

W-58

W-59

W-60

W-62

W-61

W-56W-55

W-54

W-53

W-64

W-65

W-66W-67
186 Connemara Main House HSR

inspection checklists and guidelines, it is meant to 

insure that simple, routine maintenance remains 

simple and routine and does not allow larger problems to mushroom out of control. Too often, maintenance tends to be crisis- driven, that is action is 

taken only after deterioration is well advanced, 

thereby unnecessarily compounding the damage 

and expense of repairs.

However, routine repairs and maintenance are 

potential threats to the integrity of the historic 

building. While it is true that preservation is maintenance, a careless approach can lead to significant 

loss of historic material and diminishment of the 

site’s authenticity as an historic site. The Secretary of 

the Interior’s Standards for the Treatment of Historic 

Buildings and the guidelines that accompany them 

aim to preserve not only the architectural form of an 

historic structure but its substance as well. Thus, 

reconstruction of an original chimney, for example, 

diminishes the resource, even if the original brick 

are re- used (as is proposed for the chimney at the 

Farm Manager’s House), since all of the mortar and, 

for all practical purposes, all evidence of historic 

craftsmanship will be lost. Likewise, replacement of 

siding may retain the appearance of the historic 

building, but at the expense of the original nails 

(which in and of themselves can be important dating devices, if nothing else); and again for all practical purposes, all evidence of the historic 

craftsmanship will be lost.

“In-kind” Material. Replacement of materials, 

even “in kind,” is problematic and should only be 

undertaken when absolutely necessary. “In kind” 

replacement of historic wooden siding, for instance, 

does not mean that any wooden siding is appropriate as replacement material. In the 1830s and continuing throughout the nineteenth century, oldgrowth lumber, some of it quarter- sawn and all of it 

extremely durable, was used for exterior woodwork. Such lumber is now almost impossible to 

acquire, so that repairs should always avoid removing any more historic material than is absolutely 

necessary. If the end of a run of siding is damaged, 

for example, the entire run should not be replaced 

but only that which is necessary to repair the damage.

Painting. Painting will always be part of routine 

maintenance of Connemara, but a distinction 

should always be made between routine exterior 

painting, which is necessary to preserve the building, and interior painting, which is generally not 

necessary for the building’s preservation and is only 

done to improve aesthetics. Given that the Sandburgs seem to have repainted the interior infrequently, the park has a certain amount of latitude in 

how much wear is acceptable.

The distinction between those areas finished with 

oil- based paints and those finished with latex or 

water- based paints should be maintained. As noted 

in the previous section of this report, the Sandburgs 

originally used oil- based enamels with their glossy 

or semi- glossy appearance in the kitchen, the bathrooms, the small hall at the east end of the dining 

room, and on most of the woodwork in the house. 

Plaster walls and ceilings in the rest of the house 

were finished with “Kem- tone,” the new waterbased paints that had a flat finish. Although modern 

acrylic paints can mimic the appearance of an oilbased enamel, the match in sheen is not perfect and, 

if not applied carefully, the painted surface can take 

on the appearance of grapefruit peeling.

Mildew on exterior woodwork is an ongoing problem. Prior to repainting, the house should be 

washed with a solution of household bleach, which 

kills the mildew, and a detergent like trisodium 

phosphate. Washing should be by hand scrubbing 

and not by pressure washing, although compressed- air sprayers can be used for delivering the 

bleach solution and for rinsing if the pressure is 

greatly reduced. As the Watson & Henry study 

pointed out, high- pressure washing risks injecting 

the house with moisture by forcing water through 

cracks and joints into the walls of the house. After 

washing, the house must be allowed to dry but then 

repainted within two weeks to prevent reinfection 

of the surfaces with mildew. Most modern paints 

contain mildewicides to protect the surface but 

additional mildewicides can also be added to most 

paints.

Problems of Repair. Overall the house is in excellent condition, but as with any old building, ongoing 

repairs and preventive maintenance will always be 

necessary. In any project, cost of proper care of the 

museum collection, including removal, storage, and 

any cleaning or conservation necessary as a result, 

should always be a part of the project budget.

Front Porch Columns: As of this writing, the park is 

proposing replacement of the four columns on the 

Front Porch. Three of the columns were replaced in 
National Park Service 187

Part II: Treatment and Use

the 1970s, leaving only one of the original columns 

in place, on the east side of the front steps. Total 

replacement of a major character- defining feature 

such as these columns should never have been 

undertaken, except as a last resort, but it is now 

imperative that the original column be repaired and 

preserved. Although the columns show signs of 

deterioration typical of such features, the damage is 

not so far advanced that the column cannot be 

repaired and preserved. Clearly total column 

replacement has offered no great advantage, if they 

are now requiring replacement only thirty years 

later. Careful repair of the existing columns is recommended, including insertion of a moisture barrier between the concrete pier caps and the wooden 

column base and careful maintenance of the 

caulked joint between the cap and the column. Here 

and throughout the house, the principle that repair 

is preferable to replacement, even if “in kind,” 

should guide treatment if the authenticity of the 

building’s architecture is to be preserved.

Front Porch Deck: Repairs to the Front Porch deck 

are needed, but here, too, total replacement of 

boards is not recommended. Typically, damage 

occurs at the outside end of boards, and repairs can 

be limited to replacing perhaps only two feet of each 

board. Although in this case, the decking dates to 

the 1970s and is, therefore, technically not historic, 

replacing only the outside ends of damaged boards 

would replicate treatment used by the Sandburgs 

themselves.235

Plaster Repair: Most of the plaster walls and ceilings 

are in good condition, with only a few areas of concern. Plaster repair inevitably generates significant 

amounts of fine, gritty dust that can penetrate well 

beyond the immediate work area. In damp weather, 

moisture in the air can combine with the lime in the 

dust, making the dust difficult to remove, especially 

from porous materials such as books and textiles. 

Furniture and other objects that are part of the 

house’s museum collection must be removed or 

otherwise protected until the repairs are complete. 

It would be preferable if any repairs necessary at the 

present time be delayed and implemented as part of 

a larger repair project after the other recommendations which will necessitate plaster repairs (window 

repair, e.g.) are implemented. This would also allow 

time for determining the cause of the recurring 

plaster damage that has occurred beneath windows 

and behind radiators in some rooms, particularly in 

Rooms 108 and 211.

Doors: The door is missing from the closet in Sandburg’s Bedroom (Room 202), but historic photographs suggest that it was taken down during 

Sandburg’s lifetime and should, therefore, not be 

re- hung.

Further Historical Research

Archival research for this project has been extensive 

but not exhaustive in terms of information that 

might be useful in interpretation of the building’s 

long history. Memminger’s papers, especially his 

account book, were critical to development of this 

HSR’s chronology of the building’s development 

and use in the antebellum period, but they remain a 

rich source of interpretive material.

Memminger’s Account Book. Examination of the 

original document at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and a full transcription would 

form the foundation for continued research that 

would no doubt add many useful details to the 

chronology of the building’s evolution and could 

support a broader interpretation of the site.

For example, the account book includes references 

to many individuals, and with further research in 

the Federal census and other sources, the park 

would be able to better interpret the enslaved servants and the overseers, craftsmen, contractors, and 

common laborers that built and maintained Rock 

Hill. Memminger’s account book ends in 1862, but 

more extensive census data and other useful 

resources exist for the period after the Civil War and 

would be a rich source of information on the free 

black servants, overseers, laborers and other individuals for whom Connemara was home.

Oral History Project. In addition, the park has 

requested funding for an oral history project, and if 

the interviews routinely emphasized the appearance 

and evolution of the historic building, understanding of the building could be significantly expanded. 

Use of floor plans and historic photographs would 

be indispensable in facilitating recall of memories 

about the house.

The interviews naturally focus on the Sandburg 

235. See CARL Photo #109107 in Figure 37. family, but it would also be helpful to interview 
188 Connemara Main House HSR

those who knew and worked with Sandburg, like 

local historian Louise Bailey and the Sandburg’s 

housekeeper Adeline Polega. The oral history 

project should also include interviews with older 

members of the Smyth family who have memories 

of Connemara. The children of the Fishers and the 

Ballards, if they could be located, might also make 

significant contributions to the project.

Further Building Investigation

A non- destructive approach to building investigation was taken during the course of developing this 

HSR. While this approach has been sufficient for 

present needs, much remains to be learned.

Ongoing Investigation. Much of the building’s 

wood frame is hidden from view, as are the surfaces 

of original floors, decking, and other materials. As 

repairs and other treatments necessitate removal of 

wall and ceiling finishes, flooring, and roof coverings, the affected areas should be thoroughly investigated and the as- found conditions recorded, both 

photographically and narratively. If the HSR is then 

periodically updated with this and other new information, the park’s understanding of the historic 

building will continue to grow.

Paint and Wallpaper. The analysis of the painted 

finishes in selected areas of the house that was 

conducted in the course of the present study was 

directed primarily at determining the evolution of 

the stair hall and adjacent rooms, which appear to 

have been altered prior to the Civil War. There 

remain records of the paints used by the Sandburgs, 

and most of these can still be readily reproduced, 

although recording the colors using the Munsell 

system would help insure that the paints could 

always be reproduced. Other aspects of the house’s 

paint and wallpaper are not as certainly known and 

could benefit from additional investigation.

There may have been subtle changes in the historic 

finishes (e.g., repainting enameled walls with latex 

or acrylic paints) over the years, but careful analysis 

of the existing finishes may be necessary to determine the extent of those changes. In addition, portions of the house’s original walls and ceilings are 

preserved above the present lowered ceilings on the 

first floor, and these are a potentially rich source of 

information. On those walls and ceilings is a complete history of how those features were treated 

between 1838 and 1946, and complete analysis could 

allow full interpretation of that aspect of the house’s 

history.
National Park Service 189

The current use of the house primarily as an exhibit 

for interpreting the life and work of Carl Sandburg 

will be continued. Any treatment, whether routine 

maintenance, repairs, rehabilitation, or restoration, 

must always respect the building’s architectural 

integrity and be planned in such a way as to 

minimize the loss of historic material. In addition, 

planning for any treatment must address proper 

care of the collection, and the cost of that care must 

be factored into the project budget.

Environmental 

Improvements

■ Relocate staff break area from inside the house

■ If additional ventilation equipment is needed as 

recommended by Watson & Henry, install in 

Room 004

■ Restore Conservatory windows to working 

order; install screening at selected openings

■ Rescreen south end of East Porch

■ Repair to working order the one or two 

windows in each room that would be needed 

for ventilation under the Watson & Henry 

approach to improving the house’s internal 

environment (see plan on p. 185)

■ Replace UV- filtering film on storm windows 

with new UV- filtering film on window sash

■ Inspect underground drainage system and make 

repairs as necessary

■ Install new 6” ogee- style gutter across the rear 

of the house and, if necessary, a third 

downspout

■ Inspect all gutters for proper drainage

Fire Safety

■ Rehabilitate a portion of the garage for a boiler 

room and relocate boiler from inside the house

■ Rewire house, eliminating unnecessary fixtures, 

receptacles, and circuits

■ Inspect the lightning rod system and insure 

proper grounding

■ Install appropriate smoke and fire detectors in 

all rooms and in the attics

Repairs and 

Maintenance

■ Always repair historic materials, replacing the 

material only where it is irretrievably lost

■ Avoid high- pressure washing of house

■ Continue to use oil- based paints on wood trim 

and in the bathrooms and kitchen and acrylic or 

water- based paints elsewhere on the interior

■ Repair, but do not replace, Front Porch 

columns

■ Repair Front Porch deck, piecing as necessary

Summary of 

Recommendations for 

Treatment and Use
190 Connemara Main House HSR

■ Insure routine inspections and cyclical 

maintenance as outlined in the preservation 

guide manual that has been developed for the 

house

■ Always include the cost of collection care in the 

budget for every project

Further Historical 

Research

■ Transcribe and continue research of 

Memminger’s account book and other papers

■ Emphasize building history in the oral history 

project

■ Conduct additional research of Gregg family

Further Building 

Investigation

■ Incorporate building investigation and 

documentation into any project that includes 

opening or removal of finishes from walls, 

ceiling, or floors

■ Record historic Sandburg finishes using 

Munsell notation

■ Investigate changes in paint type (e.g., oil- based 

to latex or semi- gloss to flat) during and after 

the Sandburg era

■ Conduct full study of paint and wallpaper that 

remains above first- floor ceilings
National Park Service 191

Manuscript 

Collections

Chapel Hill, NC. C. G. Memminger Papers (#502), 

Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, 

University of North Carolina, at Chapel Hill. 

Includes account book kept by Memminger during 

construction of Connemara as well as letters and 

other documents relating to Memminger’s life and 

career.

Flat Rock, NC. Carl Sandburg Home National Historic 

Site Collection. Includes numerous photographs, 

letters, and other documents relating to all periods of 

the site’s history.

Public Records

Henderson County, North Carolina, Registrar of Deeds 

and Mortgages, Courthouse, Hendersonville, North 

Carolina.

United States Census, 1790- 1930, original manuscript 

images at <www.ancestry.com.>

Primary Published 

Sources

Bailey, Louise Howe. From “Rock Hill” to “Connemara”: 

The Story Before Carl Sandburg. National Park 

Service, 1980.

Block, Milton, ed. Current Biography, 1940. New York, 

NY: H. W. Wilson Company, 1940.

Cahn, Dr. Robert. “Carl Sandburg,” Christian Science 

Monitor. 1968.

Capers, Henry D. The Life and Times of C. G. Memminger.

Richmond, VA: Everett Waddey and Co., 1893.

Cyclopedia of Eminent and Representative Men of the 

Carolinas, Volume 1, South Carolina. Madison, WS: 

Brant & Fuller, 1892.

Holcomb, Brent H. Southern Christian Advocate Marriage 

Notices, 1867- 1878. Columbia, SC: SCMAR, 1993

Jacobs, William Plummer. The Pioneer. Clinton, SC: 

Jacobs & Co. Press, (n .d., probably 1934).

Johnson, Allen, and Dumas Malone, editors. Dictionary of 

American Biography. New York, NY: Charles 

Scribner’s Sons, 1946.

Memminger, Edward Read. An Historical Sketch of Flat 

Rock. (Flat Rock, NC: privately published by Mrs. 

Walter M. Norment, 1954.

The National Cyclopedia of American Biography. New 

York, NY: James T. White Company, 1945. 

Patton, Sadie Smathers. The Story of Henderson County. 

Asheville, NC: The Miller Printing Company, 1947.

 . Flat Rock: Little Charleston of the 

Mountains. Hickory, NC: Sadie Smathers Patton, 

1961.

Steichen, Paula. My Connemara. New York, NY: 

paperback edition, 2002, originally published by 

Harcourt Brace & World, Inc., 1969.

Waugh, Barry, Ph.D. “Thomas Smyth,” The Southern 

Presbyterian Review Digitalization Project: Author 

Biography., <http://www.pcanet.org/history/

periodicals/spr/bios/smyth.html>, accessed 22 June 

2004.

Secondary 

Published Sources

Barber, Jody, and Bailey, Louise. Hendersonville, 

Henderson County: A Pictorial History. Norfolk/

Virginia Beach, VA: The Donning Co., 1988.

Coulter, E. Merton. The Confederate States of America, 

1861- 1865. Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State 

University Press, 1950.

_________________. The South During Reconstruction, 

1865- 1877. Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State 

University Press, 1947.

Sources of 

Information
192 Connemara Main House HSR

Hamlin, Talbot. Greek Revival Architecture in America. 

New York, NY: Dover Publications, 1964 reprint of 

original Oxford University Press edition of 1944.

Jandl, H. Ward, ed. Yesterday’s Houses of Tomorrow: 

Innovative American Homes, 1850- 1950. Washington, 

DC: Preservation Press, 1991.

Kennedy, Roger G. Greek Revival America. New York, NY: 

Stewart, Tabori, & Chang, 1989.

Lane, Mills. Architecture of the Old South: Greek Revival 

and Romantic. Savannah, GA: Beehive Press, 1996.

_________. Architecture of the Old South: South Carolina.

Savannah, GA: Beehive Press, 1997.

Nelson, Lee H. editor. Illustrated Catalogue of American 

Hardware of the Russell and Erwin Manufacturing 

Company. Originally published 1865; Association of 

Preservation Technology, First facsimile edition, 1980

Poston, Jonathan. The Buildings of Charleston: A Guide to 

the City’s Architecture. Columbia, SC: University of 

South Carolina Press, 1997.

Trenholm, Mrs. Alicia Middleton. Flat Rock, North 

Carolina: A Sketch of the Past. No publication data, 

1908, in CARL Coll.

NPS Studies

Hart, Susan. Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site 

Cultural Landscape Report. Atlanta, GA: NPS- SERO, 

Division of Cultural Resources, 1993.

Henry, Michael- - - -

Jones, Russell. “Historic Structure Report: Architectural 

Data, Home * Garage * Swedish House.” NPS: Denver 

Service Center, September 1976.

Pence, Heather Russo. Carl Sandburg Home National 

Historic Site: Archeological Overview and Assessment. 

Tallahassee, FL: Southeast Archeological Center/ 

National Park Service, 1998.

Steichen, Paula. “Hyacinths and Biscuits; The Life and 

Works of Carl Sandburg,” Handbook 117: Carl 

Sandburg Home. Washington, DC: NPS, Division of 

Publications, 1982.

Svejda, Dr. George J. “Historic Structure Report, Carl 

Sandburg Home National Historic Site.” NPS, Office 

of History and Historic Architecture, Eastern Service 

Center, 1972.

Wallace, David H. Historic Furnishings Report, Main 

House and Swedish House at Carl Sandburg Home 

National Historic Site, Flat Rock, North Carolina.

Frederick, MD: NP, 1984.

Oral Interviews

Bailey, Louise. 16 January 1973, interviewd by Gordon Gay. 

Local historian and typist for Sandburg in 1946.

Ballard, Frank. 19 October 1982, interviewer unknown. 

Son of Smyth’s farm manager, Ulysses Ballard.

Ballard, Emily Jane. 14 October 1975, interviewer 

unknown. Widow of Smyth’s farm manager, Ulysses 

Ballard.

Fisher, James. 18 November 1975, interviewed by Warren 

Weber. Smyth’s butler and valet.

McKay, Mary. 16 January 1973 and 21 August 1974, 

interviewed by Warren Weber. Smyth’s 

granddaughter.

Rogers, Mrs. ______. 3 December 1976, interviewed by 

Warren Weber and Len Brown. Smyth’s 

granddaughter.

Sandburg, Lilian Steichen. 1967. Interviewer unknown. 

(CARL 4023/2/I- VII). Widow of Carl Sandburg.

Sandburg, Lilian Steichen. Early 1968, interviewed by 

Robert Cahn. Widow of Carl Sandburg.
As the nation’s principal conservation agency, the 

Department of the Interior has responsibility for most 

of our nationally owned public lands and natural 

resources. This includes fostering sound use of our 

land and water resources; protecting our fish, wildlife, 

and biological diversity; preserving the environmental 

and cultural values of our national parks and 

historical places; and providing for the enjoyment of 

life through outdoor recreation. The department 

assesses our energy and mineral resources and works 

to ensure that their development is in the best 

interests of all our people by encouraging stewardship 

and citizen participation in their care. The 

department also has a major responsibility for 

American Indian reservation communities and for 

people who live in island territories under U.S. 

administration. 

NPS D- 43 September 2005