The Ernest Hemingway House - Key West Florida
You are transported back to the 1930’s when you step into the Hemingway house, located on 907 Whitehead St., Key West Fl. This tropical mansion is filled with some of the original furniture, and paintings put there by Ernest , and his second Wife Pauline.This is where Hemingway called home from 1931 to 1939. The late Nobel Prize winner, Ernest Hemingway, is one of the most honored and respected authors in America. The Hemingway's had lived in Key West since 1930, but had rented housing. Pauline Hemingway found the Tift house in 1931, for sale at a tax auction. Pauline's uncle Gus bought it for her and Ernest, for $8,000 cash, and presented it to them as a wedding gift. It was in this house that he did some of his best work, including the final draft to "A Farewell to Arms," and the short story classics "The Snows of Kilimanjaro," and "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber." Outside the main house is where he had a writing studio built. This became Ernest Hemingway’s office where he wrote such novels as “To Have and To Have Not”, “For Whom the Bell Tolls”, and “Death in The Afternoon”. The office holds some of the original furniture, and paintings of this great American author as well.
The house stands at an elevation of 16 feet above sea level, but is still only the second highest site on the island. It was originally built by Asa Tift, a marine architect and salvage wrecker, in 1851 in colonial southern mansion style, out of limestone quarried from the site. As testament to its construction and location, it survived many hurricanes, and the deep basement remained, and remains, dry. The house was one of the first on the island to be fitted with indoor plumbing, and the first on the island to have an upstairs bathroom with running water. It was also the first home to have a swimming pool in Key West, and the only pool within 100 miles in the late 30's. The pool is a surprisingly 65 feet long. It remains the largest pool in Key West to this day. Pauline Hemingway spent $20,000 to have the deep well fed pool built for her husband, while he was away as a Spanish Civil War correspondent in 1938. When Hemingway returned, he was reportedly "unpleasantly surprised" by the cost, and exclaimed: "Well, you might as well have my last cent." This penny is still embedded in concrete today near the pool. In 1935, when the visitor bureau included the house in a tourist brochure, Hemingway hired his friend, driver, and handyman Toby Bruce to build the beautiful high brick wall that surrounds it today.
Key West was a big part of Ernest Hemginway’s life. It is where he learned to fish, and met a collection of characters affectionately named the "mob". With the mob, Hemingway would go on long fishing trips to the Dry Tortugas, Cuba, and Bimini. Many of his friends, and experiences in Key West are immortalized in his novels. Another of Hemingway's loves was boxing. He set up a ring in his yard and paid local fighters to box with him, as well as refereeing matches at Blue Heaven, then a saloon but now a restaurant, at 769 Thomas Street.
As you walk around the house you will see lots of cats. Many of them have extra big front paws, with an extra toe, that look like catchers mitt. Theses are the famous 6 toed cats. They are permanent residents at the Hemingway House. You will notice the little homes built for the cats hidden in the landscaping, and gardens that surround the home. And there are cages behind the house for the more than 40 cats on the premises, many of which are said to be descendants of Hemingway 6 toed cat. Hemingway converted a urinal obtained after a renovation at Sloppy Joe's bar into a water fountain in the yard, where it remains a prominent feature at the home and serves as one of many water sources for these cats.
Along side Hemingway's office you will notice in the side garden that there is even a cat cemetery, to remember all the feline friends that had once shared this memorable place.
Another famous piece of information is that the house was in 1988, a filming location of the 16th James Bond movie License To Kill. In the scene Bond resigns from the secret service and then flees through the garden. In protection of "M" the fictional guards watch from the Key West Light across the street.
The house is a Registered National Historic Landmark and insightful, educational guided tours of the house and gardens are available.
Open 365 days a year
9am to 5pm daily
General Admission : $12.00
Child: $6.00
Children (5 and under) Free
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