Table Of Content
- The Best Vacation Rentals to Book in Florida
- Hemingway’s time in Key West inspired some of his most famous works
- Visit Ernest Hemingway’s Famous Home In Key West, Florida
- The Ernest Hemingway Key West home
- Spanish Civil War
- Ernest Hemingway’s Works Written in Key West
- Experience Paradise: Kimpton Winslow’s Bungalows in Key West

They placed it next to Pauline’s pool, where it still serves as the water bowl for the family’s cats. The Key West Lighthouse that was built long before he entered the scene stands just across the road from the old home. As the story goes, the lighthouse was very well-needed, if not necessary, to guide Hemingway home to the house after his wet nights on the town. So you have plenty of chances to make their acquaintance when you visit the Ernest Hemingway house in Key West.
The Best Vacation Rentals to Book in Florida
As in Key West, Hemingway happily held court, in a home filled with mementos and items that the notorious pack-rat refused to throw out, and surrounded by a gaggle of cats. Recently, he received a Creative Capital Award in 2022 to support his latest art project, "The Underwater," which involves over 2,000 students from his alma mater, Miami Senior High School, in Miami's Little Havana neighborhood. Ernest did use his Key West home as a stop-over residence on the way to other places while he lived in Cuba, and still saw his kids and Pauline. When Pauline died in 1951, after one of her sons was arrested, he rented the main house.
Hemingway’s time in Key West inspired some of his most famous works
The kitchen counters were raised several inches, so Ernest could clean his fish without straining his back. A catwalk was put in to connect the second-floor master bedroom to Ernest’s floor loft in the carriage house. The famous author and his wife Pauline lived there with their many cats and their sons Patrick and Gregory from 1931 until 1940. All FHS Members receive our newsletter, The Society Report, a 10% discount at Florida Books & Gifts bookstore in Cocoa Village, and early notice of special events, including our Annual Meeting and Symposium.
Visit Ernest Hemingway’s Famous Home In Key West, Florida
As Hurricane Ian hits Florida, Ernest Hemingway's granddaughter fears his Key West home could be destroyed - Fox News
As Hurricane Ian hits Florida, Ernest Hemingway's granddaughter fears his Key West home could be destroyed.
Posted: Wed, 28 Sep 2022 07:00:00 GMT [source]
Hemingway and his wife left Cuba in 1960, following Fidel Castro’s overthrow of the Batista government (although the left-leaning Hemingway’s sympathies were with the revolutionaries). In ill health and increasingly suffering from the depression that ran through his family, and which he had struggled against all his life, Hemingway settled in Idaho. On July 2, 1961, he shot himself in his Ketchum home and died, aged 61.
The Ernest Hemingway Key West home

Even more mind-boggling is the sheer labor of digging, in solid coral, a massive hole 24 feet wide, 60 feet long, 10 feet deep at the south end, and 5 feet deep at the north end. The Hemingway pool—the only one within 100 miles in the 1930s—was truly an architectural feat. My name is Lynda and I am a recovering sugar addict and travel junkie. I’m also a mom of two children & 2 dogs, wife of 1….and a messy cook taking life one bite at a time. Whether your tour guide looks like Ernest Hemingway or not, you will learn a lot about the great writer, his wives, his time in Cuba, and so much more. While you can explore the home on your own, we recommend that you go on one of the guided tours.

He is friendly with staff and visitors, though in life he didn’t care for the public. Hemingway House, FL (In life, Pauline was devastated when Ernest left her for his new lover. She must have some peace now, being so close to him once again, seeing him work from her special window and doing what she can for him). Hemingway’s house of course was put on the maps of famous places, causing unwanted intrusions from mainland tourists. In 1935, Ernest was fed up with looky-loo tourists walking into his yard, and even coming into the house, invading his privacy. He had his friend Toby build a wall of stone to give the Hemingway clan and his celebrity guests some peace away from the clamorous new throngs of humanity who came to Key West.
Ernest Hemingway’s Works Written in Key West
Ernest Hemingway was a Nobel Prize-winning author known for his concise writing style and profound influence on 20th-century fiction. His adventurous and robust lifestyle was a source of inspiration for his novels. Ernest Hemingway was a man who lived in many wonderful places, and traveled to many more. But the house on Whitehead Street in Key West was of particular importance, both in Hemingway’s personal life and in his literary development.
After his 1939 divorce, Ernest lived in Cuba with his new wife, Martha Gellhorn, while Pauline and the boys lived in the Key West home. Asa was a talented marine architect and very successful salvage wrecker, who was one of Florida’s wealthiest men when he built this this lovely, Spanish Colonial style two story villa, using coral rock quarried on its property. Asa added his own architectural touches, such as the New Orleans wrought-iron porch railings, balcony supports and Italian marble fireplaces. In the late summer that year we lived in a house in a village that looked across the river and the plain to the mountains.
Experience Paradise: Kimpton Winslow’s Bungalows in Key West
Most recently, Clinton was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, a special proclamation from Leon County, and a key to the city of Tallahassee. The paranormal group SEFGR have caught some hard evidence pointing to the existence of spirits in the house museum and Ernest’s writing workroom in the loft. Her gray apparition has been seen the most at the top of the central staircase by staff and visitors, being the courteous, welcoming hostess. This social pleasure was something she didn’t get to do much while alive, because Ernest abhorred outside visitors. She is a gracious hostess, a cultural norm she learned from her upbringing.
The museum provides guided educational tours that cater to both school groups and individuals seeking to learn about Hemingway’s life, his literature, and his influence. Tour guides offer detailed insights into Hemingway’s years spent in Key West, with a particular emphasis on how the location impacted his writing. The Hemingway Home & Museum offers a diverse range of educational opportunities designed for learners of all ages, focusing on the life and works of Ernest Hemingway. From in-person tours to workshops and a variety of online resources, the museum serves as a critical point of learning and engagement for students, writers, and enthusiasts.
Hemingway also built a boxing ring on the property, allowing the self-styled pugilist a place to spar. For more than a decade, Ernest Hemingway called Key West home, producing some of his most famous works and immortalizing what had been a somewhat remote stretch of land in southern Florida. Today, his estate is a tourist hotspot, providing visitors with a unique look into the legendary writer’s life. An author, artist, filmmaker and balloonist, Bensemer has lived and worked in Florida since his parents moved to Clearwater when he was nine years old, 66 years ago. He pursued his passion for art at the Ringling School of Art and Design in Sarasota before serving in the U.S. Navy and using his abilities as an Illustrator/Draftsman for the “Cruiser-Destroyerman” magazine while stationed on an aircraft carrier in Mayport.
The staff employs best practices to maintain the genetic lineage of the polydactyl cats while also ensuring the population remains at a sustainable number through a spay and neuter program. A highlight of the property is the in-ground swimming pool, an extraordinary feature for a residential home in the 1930s. Hemingway’s pool was an extravagant addition, costing, at that time, an astonishing $20,000 to construct. Pauline Pfeiffer, Hemingway’s second wife, played a significant role in his life during their time in Key West. Their marriage marked a period of prolific writing which included works like To Have and Have Not set in Key West.
Loss and tragedy continued, with the deaths of longtime keyboard player Billy Powell in 2018 and founding guitarist Gary Rossington last year. Inductees receive a commemorative bronze sculpture commissioned from St. Augustine artist Enzo Torcoletti and a permanent plaque on the Florida Artists Hall of Fame wall located in the rotunda of the Florida Capitol building. Pauline is still helping Ernest — The VP sound of a typewriter can still be heard by the living. Perhaps she is still trying to help Ernest, keeping her connection to him. Pauline’s love and dedication to Ernest despite how he treated her has not waned in the afterlife.
As a metaphor for the expense of the pool, Hemingway took a penny and stuck it into the wet concrete of the patio surrounding the pool. One of the most unusual features of the home is the large swimming pool. It was completed in 1938 at a cost of $20,000, which was a lot of money in those days. You find many more interesting things to do in Key West near Ernest Hemingway House & Museum.
Descendants of Snowball descendants, at least 50 or so, have the run of the place now – those weird, six-toed cats that are a favorite of tourists. While visiting the Hemingway home, guests are likely to spot some of the polydactyl cats that have lived there since Ernest’s time. Captain Harold Stanley Dexter sailed to Key West with his white six-toed cat, Snowball.
All FHS Memberships run for one year from the month payment is received. Hemingway was so angry about the cost of the pool that he threw a penny at Pauline, telling her that she might as well take his last cent. Ernest Hemingway, born in 1899, published his first novel, The Sun Also Rises, in 1926.
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