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THE HEMINGWAY HOUSE KEY WEST

The Hemingway House Key West Florida was the home of Ernest Hemingway, the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1953 and the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954 – “for his mastery of the art of narrative, most recently demonstrated with The Old Man and the Sea, and for the influence he has exerted on contemporary style”.

As a writer myself, my visit to The Hemingway House Key West was a highlight of a recent trip to Florida.

The house is impressive and exudes the distinct air of rich ambience and of old-world elegance.

The Hemingway residence in Key West was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1968, recognizing its significance in American literature and culture.

Today, The Hemingway House is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Key West, drawing thousands of visitors each year who come to experience its history and literary significance.

Explore the historic Key West Hemingway House with me!

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• THE HEMINGWAY HOUSE KEY WEST
• HEMINGWAY HOUSE INTERIOR
• HEMINGWAY HOUSE KEY WEST BOOKS AND MOVIES
• THE HEMINGWAYS IN KEY WEST
• HEMINGWAY HOUSE SWIMMING POOL
• HEMINGWAY HOUSE SIX-TOES CATS
• THE HEMINGWAY HOUSE HISTORY
• Hemingway and The Pilar
• HEMINGWAY AND THE MOB
• HEMINGWAY INSPIRED TOURS IN KEY WEST
• WHERE TO STAY IN KEY WEST

HEMINGWAY HOUSE INTERIOR

The house at Key West was Ernest Hemingway’s primary residence from 1931 to 1939.

During this period, he wrote some of his most famous works, including The Snows of Kilimanjaro and To Have and Have Not.

Hemingway wrote in a detached studio above the carriage house, which has been preserved and still contains his typewriter and desk.

Built in 1851, the house is an excellent example of Spanish Colonial-style architecture, featuring thick limestone walls designed to withstand hurricanes.

A high brick boundary keeps the property private but the view from the first-floor wrap around porch takes in not only the garden but the adjacent street in what is an affluent residential part of town.

I loved walking around the airy rooms of the interior of the Hemingway house and perusing the book-lined hallways, taking in family photographs and the personal effects.

I could almost pretend I was a house guest exploring the place while Ernest and Pauline (Hemingway’s second wife) had just popped out momentarily.

HEMINGWAY HOUSE KEY WEST BOOKS AND MOVIES

THE HEMINGWAYS IN KEY WEST

The house gives the visitor a real feel for the life the Hemingway’s led in Key West during the 1930’s.

Our tour guide happily gave out lots of insider information about the history of the house, the escapades of the children, the Hemingway marriage, the huge row over the famous swimming pool and the story behind Ernest Hemingway’s ‘last penny’.

HEMINGWAY HOUSE SWIMMING POOL

The story is that Hemingway’s wife, Pauline, had a large saltwater swimming pool installed in the 1930s, a rarity in Key West at the time.

The swimming pool replaced what had been Ernest’s personal boxing ring and was contracted at great expense by Pauline after she found out about her husband’s affair with Martha Gellhorn, his third wife to be.

The pool is 24 feet long and 60 feet wide and is said to have cost $20,000.

In 1938, when Ernest came back from assignment to find out the exorbitant cost of the pool – a significant expense during the Great Depression – and he was reported to have thrown a penny onto the ground in front of Pauline, saying, ‘you’ve spent all but my last penny, so you might as well have that!’

Pauline had the penny set into the path where it lay and it is still there today.

HEMINGWAY HOUSE SIX-TOES CATS

Another extraordinary feature of the house are all cats that reside at the Hemingway House.

These are descendants of a six-toed cat called Snowball and one of Snowball’s kittens (named Snow White) was gifted to Ernest Hemingway by a salvage and shipwreck captain (a respected and official position in those days) called Harold Stanley Dexter.

Ever since, the six-toed polydactyl (six-toed) gene has been passed down through all the generations of cats at the Hemingway house.

All were named after Ernest’s famous friends and the cat in my photo is called Rita Hayworth.

THE HEMINGWAY HOUSE HISTORY

I was so engrossed and enthralled by the house and its history and the life of Hemingway, that the following day we visited the Hemingway exhibit in town.

There were many exhibits and pictures and movie posters reflecting his work but the centrepiece is the bronze sculptor by Terry Jones (2005) which captures a young, enthusiastic and adventurous Hemingway, fishing off his beloved boat ‘Pilar’.

Hemingway and The Pilar

Extracted from a notice I read at The Hemingway exhibit about Hemingway and The Pilar.

By 1934, Ernest Hemingway has grown tired of fishing from bridges, from his friend’s boats or charter boats in the Florida Keys.

It was time for him to invest in his own fishing boat, one that would permit him to travel as far as Cuba and the Bahamas in search of marlin, sailfish, and tuna.

His knowledge of the seas surrounding Key West and The Gulf Stream allowed him to recognise what type of boat he wanted, built to his exacting specifications.

On a return trip from Africa, Hemingway stopped in New York for a meeting with his editor at Esquire Magazine.

His editor advanced him $3000 for future stories about his trip. Armed with his Esquire check, Hemingway climbed into a taxi with Pauline and set out for the Wheeler Shipyard in Brooklyn.

The check was promptly used as a down payment on the customised boat of his dreams.

He soon became an avid sports fisherman and in 1938 he established a world record for catching seven Marlin in one day.

HEMINGWAY AND THE MOB

Ernest Hemingway’s first visit to Key West in 1928 was only meant to a short stopover, but once he’d felt the sun on his face, inhaled the salty air and met the locals, he knew it would be his home with second wife Pauline.

He also garnered a reputation for hard drinking with his new friends Josie ‘Sloppy Joe’ Russell, fisherman Eddie ‘Bra’ Saunders and his brother ‘Burge’ and later Toby Bruce who became his right-hand man and life-long companion.

Extracted from a notice I read at The Hemingway exhibit about Hemingway and his friends.

Hemingway’s love of fishing led him to meet several Key West residents, particularly Charlie Thompson, whose family owned Thompson Marine Hardware Store and other businesses.

The two men met soon after Hemingway arrived in the island in 1928, becoming fast friends and maintaining a relationship until the author’s death in 1961.

Thompson introduced the writer to a number of other like-minded locals including the fishing guide ‘Bra’ Saunders, his half brother Berge, Joe Russell (owner of a small ‘speak-easy’ eventually called Sloppy Joe’s, one of the models for Harry Morgan in To Have and To Have Not and an avid fisherman with a boat names Anita). James B. ‘Sully’ Sullivan and the lawyer George Brooks (Bee-lips in To Have and To Have Not).

All of these people, including Pauline Hemingway, fished in local waters on Charles’s or Bra’s boats.

Over the period of his Key West years (1928- 1939) Hemingway invited some relatives and several earlier friends including Henry ‘Mike’ Starter, Waldo Peirce, Bill Smith, Joh Herrmann, his editor Maxwell Perkins, the poet Archibald MacLeish and his wife Ada and John Dos Passos.

All made the journey south where they met and fished with Hemingway’s new friends and stayed at the inexpensive Oversea Hotel on Fleming Street.

The author referred to the group from the north as The Mob, giving each a nickname, and before too long he began referring to himself as Papa.

I loved finding out about one of my writer heroes and adored Key West and I’m told that some visitors and staff have reported seeing Hemingway’s ghost wandering the halls, adding an air of mystery to the property!

Museum is open everyday. 9:00am-5:00pm for walk-in visits.

There is so much to see and to explore and there’s lots to do in Key West.

The food is fabulous and the restaurants plentiful.

In the Hemingway tradition, bars are a fun feature too and Sloppy Joe’s Bar is still there and there’s also the first and original of Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville.

HEMINGWAY INSPIRED TOURS IN KEY WEST

I recommend taking Hemingway Inspired Tours in Key West. Why not try The Hemingway Tour with a local guide who will take you to several of Ernest Hemingway’s haunts where he lived and worked and drank and tell you incredible stories of history and lore about Hemingway and Key West.

Or The Hemingway’s Life and Local Food Tour that will guide you to walk in the footsteps of Hemingway to see important landmarks from the author’s life and indulge in some delicious local specialties along the way.

Why not indulge in an All-in-One Adventure with The Hemingway Tour with Food Tastings and Cocktails that will take you on a fabulous tour of Hemingway’s home and haunts on a Key West “bucket list” to eat, drink, and explore The Old Town through “Papa’s” eyes.

There are many ways to get to The Florida Keys and to get down to Key West.

We’d taken a Greyhound Bus from Miami and stopped off in Key Largo for a couple of nights before heading across the Keys and the famous bridges down to Key West, again by Greyhound Bus. It was fantastic!

WHERE TO STAY IN KEY WEST

In Key West, we had a wonderful stay at one of the Key West Historic Inns – The Lighthouse Hotel – located on Whitehead Street and in the iconic heart of Key West and just across the road from The Hemingway House and a five minute walk to all the fabulous and famous activities on Duval Street.

FIND YOUR PERFECT PLACE TO STAY IN KEY WEST USING THIS INTERACTIVE MAP

Author note: I so enjoyed meeting the six-toed cats that a fictional six-toed offspring features in my romantic adventure novel ‘Island in the Sun‘ and the cat in the story is aptly named ‘Hemingway’! Find out more on My Books Page.

Have you ever explored the Hemingway House in Key West

Have you ever named a pet after someone famous?

Don’t hesitate to leave a comment – I love to hear from you!

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