Andalusia Farm

Located just a few miles from Milledgeville, Andalusia Farm was the former home of the acclaimed American writer Flannery O'Connor, who lived there from 1951 until she died in 1964 from lupus. She is best known for her short stories, for which she earned awards and wide recognition. The property comprises the farm buildings, the family house, and hundreds of acres of undeveloped land, providing a natural setting. It is at the house, which was built in the 1850s, where O'Connor wrote the majority of her works.

Human presence at the farm goes back 12,000 years. Archaeologists have found numerous Native American artifacts and there are also mounds on the property. The site was also where Europeans and Natives traded, as several trade routes converged here. The property was settled in 1814 as part of the Wilkinson land grant that the government enacted to move settlers to the area. Joseph Stovall built the first structure on the property. The Hill House that he built is still on the property today. In the mid-19th century, the site was a 1,700 acre cotton plantation, whose owners gave the name of the farm house "Andalusia." The next owner Nathaniel Hawkins built the original part of the house in 1850.

Flannery's uncle, Dr. Bernard Cline, bought the property in 1930 to use it as a weekend getaway to raise horses. He also started a dairy farm on the property, Flannery's mother Regina ran the business so that Flannery could focus on her writing. She moved to the house in 1951 with her mother shortly after she was diagnosed with Lupus. She wrote 31 short stories and two novels while living on this farm. The scenery around her clearly inspired some of her works as she was known to write in the southern gothic genre. Her room was on the first floor of the home in what was originally the front parlor of the home. Her Lupus affected her joints heavily and prevented her from being able to go up the stairs to the other two bedrooms in the house. She wrote for three hours a day during the 13 years that she lived at Andalusia. On the property also lived Flannery's collection of birds, that she took care of throughout her life. This included ducks, geese, swans, peafowl, chickens and more. There is also a large manmade pond that was commissioned by Regina for the cows on the dairy farm.

A combination the complications with a tumor on her kidney and violent flare ups from her Lupus led O'Connor into kidney failure, she then passed away in 1946. Her mother had already lost Flannery's father Edward to Lupus earlier in 1941. Regina moved out of the house after Flannery's death. In 2001, two cousins established a foundation to develop and support Andalusia. The farm remained in the O'Connor family until 2003 when it was opened as a museum. In August 2017, the site was given to O’Connor’s alma mater, Georgia College.

http://andalusiafarm.org/flannery-oconnor-2 Steve Henson. "Andalusia," National Register of Historic Places. 2-8-80.

Visit Milledgeville. Accessed July 25th, 2025. https://www.visitmilledgeville.org/listings/andalusia-farm%3A-home-of-flannery-o%E2%80%99connor/299/.

Andalusia, Georgia College and State University. Accessed July 26th, 2025. https://www.gcsu.edu/andalusia.