Andalusia Farm

Andalusia was the home of American author Flannery O'Connor from 1951 until her death from lupus in 1964. This is where O'Connor was living when she completed her two novels and two collections of short stories. Andalusia is open for self-guided "walk-in" tours on 10am to 5pm Thursday through Sunday. All other visits are by advance appointment only by calling 478-454-4029. Andalusia is located in Baldwin County, Georgia about four miles northwest of Milledgeville, on the west side of U.S. Highway 441. Rolling hills, red clay, pine trees, and hardwoods characterize this part of the state. Native Americans inhabited this region for at least 12,000 years, leaving behind an impressive array of earthen mounds, pottery, tools, weapons, and place names. In fact, several major trading paths converged at a site near Milledgeville. When the city was surveyed in 1803, it was on the very edge of the Georgia frontier. The 544-acre estate is composed of gently rolling hills divided into a farm complex, hayfields, pasture, man-made and natural ponds, and forests. Tobler Creek, a spring fed waterway, intersects the property entering near the west corner and meandering down to exit at the middle of the southeast boundary. The farm complex at Andalusia consists of the main house, a peafowl aviary, Jack & Louise Hill's House, the main cow barn, an equipment shed, the milk-processing shed, an additional smaller barn, a parking garage (also called the Nail House), a water tower, a small storage house (formerly a well house), a horse stable, a pump house, and three tenant houses. This complex, which also includes a man-made pond south of the main house, comprises roughly twenty-one acres of the property. Andalusia is more than just an author’s home. It is a place that attracts the interests of diverse groups of people. For historians and archaeologists this is a place where Europeans and Native Americans intersected and developed trade agreements. Tobler Creek that runs through the property has been documented as one of the “rum-running” creeks in this area going back to the 18th century. The history of the farm itself provides insight into agrarian trends and patterns in Georgia. The property has an abundance of wildlife: white-tail deer, wild turkey, red-tail hawks, beaver, raccoons, foxes, aquatic birds, and a whole host of reptiles and amphibians. There is also an interesting range of ecosystems from marshes and bogs to beautiful hardwood clearings. Excluding wetland areas and the acreage detailed above, the remainder of the property consists of timberland.