Ernest Hemingway House Wikipedia
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He sailed his boat, Pilar, around the Keys and fished the Gulf Stream extensively. Many famous images of Hemingway picture him standing dockside in the Caribbean, the catch of the day hanging beside him. Those tourists bothered him, knocked on his door, distracted him from his writing. That’s what he told people anyway, though the truth was more complicated. The cats are not shy at all and you find them all over the grounds.
The Tift family: 1851-1931
In addition, the house and grounds are occupied by dozens of six-toed cats that are said to be descended from a cat that Hemingway owned. The Ernest Hemingway House was the residence of American writer Ernest Hemingway in the 1930s. It is at 907 Whitehead Street, across from the Key West Lighthouse, close to the southern coast of the island. Due to its association with Hemingway, the property is the most popular tourist attraction in Key West.
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Ernest Hemingway's Florida home is ready to withstand its 168th hurricane season - Popular Science
Ernest Hemingway's Florida home is ready to withstand its 168th hurricane season.
Posted: Fri, 01 Jun 2018 07:00:00 GMT [source]
Because the car had been delayed in transit, the Ford dealership insisted that they take up residence in an apartment located above the showroom on Simonton Street. Ernest and Pauline accepted the offer, and he resumed work on a war story he had started on the ocean passage to Key West. Hemingway continued his Paris habits of writing during the early mornings, and taking time to explore his surroundings in the afternoons. Hemingway’s time at Finca Vigia long outlasted his brief, tempestuous marriage to Gellhorn. They divorced after five years, thanks in part to mutual infidelity and Hemingway’s resentment of her flourishing career.
ERNEST HEMINGWAY in KEY WEST
Everyone in The Mob had a nickname, and Hemingway was often referred to by his friends and family during this time was “Papa”—it was a moniker that eventually stuck with him throughout his life. Hemingway’s Key West was a town unlike any place he ever experienced. It was filled with interesting people, ranging from well-to-do businessmen and lawyers, to down-on-their-luck fishermen, to shipwreck salvagers.
When Hemingway returned, he famously shouted, “Pauline, you’ve spent all but my last penny, so you might as well have that! A notable spot on the grounds is the swimming pool, which Pauline built when Hemingway was away covering the Spanish Civil War as a correspondent. Although it was his idea to build a pool, he left the oversight of the project to Pauline while he was away.
- The Family -
When poor eyesight kept him from enlisting during World War I, Hemingway volunteered as a Red Cross ambulance driver and was severely wounded in Italy at age 18, leading to a long convalescence. 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. One of the more stunning and unusual features of the Hemingway Home property is the in-ground swimming pool, an extraordinary luxury for a residential home in 1930s Key West. 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 home remained in Ernest Hemingway’s possession until he died in 1961. The home’s location is on the second-highest point on Key West, about 16 feet (4.88 m) above sea level. Tift chose an elevated spot in order to excavate limestone from the property to construct the house. The excavation also allowed for a basement under the home, a rarity on Key West. She used the perfect mix of humor and history to keep our group entertained and engaged while we learned about the house and Hemingway’s time in Key West. For a literary retreat like no other, step back in time to the Hemingway Key West days!
When the 30-minute tour ends I buy another copy of “The Old Man and the Sea” in the gift shop, which I always seem to do, and a postcard that shows a grinning Hemmingway posing with a dead marlin. The Hemingway on the postcard reminds me of my bare-chested dad when we lived in Key West when I was a boy, only my dad was one of those men who fished off the seawall because he got seasick. Writers have always loved the Keys, none more famous than Ernest Hemingway, who bought a beautiful Spanish colonial home at 907 Whitehead Street in 1931 and stayed eight years. The warm waters surrounding Key West seemed to beckon Hemingway. He quickly became obsessed with deep-water fishing, and soon bought his own boat, the Pilar. "Papa" Hemingway, as he’d dubbed himself, took to sailing the nearby waters with friends in tow, who were soon nicknamed the Key West Mob.
Not all the cats actually have six toes (about half of them do), but they all carry the gene, so they could have six-toed kittens, even if they don’t have six toes themselves. They’re all well-cared for, and their personal vet makes sure they’re healthy. Located at 907 Whitehead Street, the Hemingway Key West residence still stands and welcomes thousands of fans from all over. Their tour guides can tell you all about the history of the home and Hemingway’s many adventures in Key West while you roam his house and gardens, among the more than forty cats who now claim this place as home. To quote Hemingway, “One cat just leads to another.” Walking around the property you will see how accurate this is as descendants of that original cat freely roam the property.
Just remember, you may pet the cats, play with the cats, and photograph the cats, but please don’t pick them up. If you choose docent-guided, you can also come back through on your own to take a closer look, spend more time in any of the rooms, or lie in wait for the perfect cat-inclusive photos. Pilar was docked at Cojimar, a small fishing village east of Havana, which was the inspiration for Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea. 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.
Ernest Hemingway lived an exciting life and the guides do a great job telling the story. So expect a few laughs along the way as you tour the Hemingway house. Ernest Hemingway lived in the house in Key West from 1931 to 1939.
These cats are descendants of the cat Snow White that a ship captain once gave to Hemingway. The Hemingway house in Key West was a gift to Ernest Hemingway and his wife Pauline from the latter’s well off uncle. Originally the Key West house was built in 1851 from rock and in Spanish Colonial style.
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. One of the things you may first notice is the remarkable resemblance of some of the staff members to the writer. Mary was able to return to Finca Vigia to retrieve some of Hemingway’s belongings, but the house itself soon fell into disrepair.
Hemingway’s home was originally built in 1851 by Asa Tift, a former naval architect and sea captain from Groton, Connecticut. Tift owned several stores in Key West, along with ships and a large salvaging operation, making him one of the wealthiest men in the area at the time. The Ernest Hemingway Home and Museum is located at 907 Whitehead Street, close to the Key West Lighthouse and Museum. The line can be long, especially on days when cruise ships are in port. He landed at Normandy to report on the D-Day invasions and earned his Bronze Star as a civilian.
The Hemingway property has two notable fountains with interesting histories. Asa Tift constructed the fountain, and it’s in the form of an ironclad ship. JL stopped us for a bit at what she called the “Wall of Wives” to talk about Hemingway’s four marriages. He certainly followed a rogueish pattern of meeting women, falling desperately in love, and marrying them soon after the last wife served him with divorce papers. Asa Tift was a slave owner, and enslaved people likely were the primary labor source for the excavation, stone cutting, and construction of the home.
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