Willa Cather Childhood Home

A National Historic Landmark

The Childhood Home, the treasure of our restored buildings, contains many family artifacts including furniture, canned goods, prints and artwork, and family photographs and books. Grandma Boak's room evokes the description in Cather's short story "Old Mrs. Harris." Upstairs, a "story within itself," is young Willa's small attic bedroom, which closely resembles Thea Kronborg's in The Song of the Lark. Willa is believed to have wallpapered this room herself, taking the wallpaper as pay for her work at Dr. Cook's drug store. The same rose-covered wallpaper is preserved there today.

Our founder Mildred Bennett purchased the Willa Cather Childhood Home with her husband, Dr. Wilbur Bennett, in 1960 and began a years-long restoration of the house that ended when the home opened for tours in 1967. The house was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1972. Through the support of a Save America's Treasures grant from the National Park Service, the site underwent a major restoration and rehabilitation and was rededicated in 2024.

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