About an hour and a half from Atlanta, down winding country roads lined with farmland, is Milledgeville, Georgia. In Milledgeville, you’ll find a farm called Andalusia, the home of legendary Southern Gothic author Flannery O’Connor. Here’s what you need to know to visit this historic site.
About Andalusia and the O’Connors
The property known as Andalusia was first settled in 1814 and unfortunately was a cotton plantation where enslaved peoples were forced to labor. It was this way until Flannery O’Connor’s uncle Dr. Bernard Cline purchased the 520-acre property in 1931 and turned it into a dairy farm.
Flannery O’Connor, formally Mary Flannery O’Connor was born in Savannah in 1925 and moved with her family to Milledgeville in 1940 following a brief stint in Atlanta. Flannery attended Georgia State College for Women, now known as Georgia College and State University, in Milledgeville. She then left the south to participate in the creative writing master’s program at Iowa and pursue writing in New York. However, she returned to Milledgeville following health issues, which led to a lupus diagnosis, in 1951. She stayed at the family farm with her mother, Regina, from that time until Flannery’s death in 1964. During her time at Andalusia, Flannery wrote her two novels, Wise Blood and The Violent Bear it Away and 32 short stories. Andalusia also continued to operate as a working dairy farm and was also home to Flannery’s dozens of pet birds who roamed the property (two peacocks continue to live at the farm today).
After Flannery’s death, Regina did not want to live at Andalusia, so she moved to another family home in Milledgeville. Andalusia continued to be under the care of the O’Connor family, with much of the inside remaining as it was in the 1960s. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. In 2003, the property was transferred to a private foundation and in 2017, it came into the care of Flannery’s alma mater, now called Georgia College and State University.
Hours, Tickets, and Contact Information
Visitors are welcome to experience Andalusia. The Andalusia Interpretive Center is open Tuesday to Saturday from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM and Sundays 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM (closed Mondays). The interpretive center houses artifacts and a gift shop.
Tours of the O’Connor home take place during the center’s regular business hours. The tours begin at the top of the hour. Tickets can be purchased at the interpretive center and cost $7 for adults; $6 for senior citizens and/or pre-booked groups of 10 or more adult guests; $2 for students; and free for children younger than 6, as well as GCSU faculty, staff, and students.
I highly recommend taking a tour of the home. (I have not included photos of the inside, because they really don’t do it justice – though I have some video posted here.) It is a beautifully preserved historic home even if you’re not familiar with O’Connor, and a truly incredible experience for O’Connor fans. It’s almost surreal to see the home much as it was in the 1960s – in Flannery’s bedroom you’ll see the furniture as she arranged it, her Bible on the bedside table, and a half-empty bottle of Aspirin, among other items. To stand in the room where she wrote and to walk the property that inspired her stories is truly a unique experience.
Andalusia is celebrating 100 years of Flannery O’Connor this year. It’s a wonderful place to visit for book fans.
Andalusia is located at 2628 N. Columbia St., Milledgeville, GA 31061.
The phone number is 478-445-8722.
Cheers and happy bookish travels!
