Visiting Flannery O'Connor on her Birthday

Flannery O’Connor’s birthday today marks the beginning of spring and the perfect time to visit the landmarks of her life in Georgia.

Lafayette Square in Savannah is the site of O’Connor’s Childhood Home. The house, where she lived from her birth in 1925 until 1938, has been turned into a museum, meant to look the same as it did during her life there. It’s open for tours from 1-4 p.m. Friday through Wednesday. Tickets are $6 for adults, $5 for students and free for children under 15. You can also visit the cathedral across the square where O’Connor was baptized.

The Flannery O’Connor Collection and Memorial Room at Georgia College in Milledgeville houses O’Connor’s personal collection of manuscripts, letters and books. Her mother donated the items to the college, where O’Connor earned her bachelor’s degree in 1945. The room, located on the corner of Wilkinson and Clarke streets, is open Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m.-4 p.m.

Milledgeville is also the home of Andalusia, the 544-acre family farm where O’Connor lived with her mother from 1951 until her death in 1964. She completed two of her novels and two story collections here. The home is open for self-guided tours on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 10 a.m.-4 p.m.

O’Connor is buried in Memory Hill Cemetery. Her grave isn’t marked with any kind of sign, but you can find it in her family’s plot on the east side in section A, lot 39. Fans often leave behind coins, flowers, poems or peacock feathers.

To find out more about these and other sites related to Flannery O’Connor, download the Deep South Literary Trail App, now available direct from iTunes and for Android. 

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