Writer Ernest Hemingway lived in Key West for about 10 years, and his Spanish Colonial home is now a museum and National Historic Landmark. Built in 1851 and purchased for the Hemingways in 1931, the house was in poor condition and required major restorations when they moved in.
Tickets were a little pricey at $19 per person, which made me a little less upset that 3 of the 4 boys hadn’t joined us. Included tours start every 15 minutes and last 20-30 minutes, or you can wander the house and grounds on your own. We chose to wander.
The home itself has been turned into a museum, and a gorgeous one at that. From the huge arched windows with their plantation shutters to the fully wrap around porch, the home oozes Spanish charm.
Once inside, each room features original artifacts and furnishings, as well as exhibit items and interpretations. We walked through the living room and dining room downstairs before going upstairs to see the bedroom. We were especially excited to see a model of the “Hemingway house on water”, the remnants of which we had seen on our snorkeling trip.
Aside from the home itself, there are 3 key attractions – the writer’s studio, the pool, and the cats. Yes, cats! The cats are remarkable both in their overall number (almost 60!) and in their number of toes (6). While most cats have 5 toes on their front paws and 4 on the back, about half of the cats at the Hemingway Home are six-toed (polydactyl), and as descendants of Hemingway’s original six-toed cat Snow White, all of them carry the polydactyl gene. The cats are literally everywhere on the property, lounging inside and outside of the house. They even have their own cat house that is a replica of the real house.
And the cats clearly don’t have to play by the museum rules!
The writer’s studio is perhaps the most important part of the museum. Located on the second floor of the carriage house, the studio was accessible from the main house via a catwalk when Hemingway lived there. He wrote some of his most famous works here, including A Farewell to Arms and For Whom the Bell Tolls. The catwalk was destroyed by a hurricane in 1948, nine years after Hemingway moved out, so visitors today must file up and down the staircase from the courtyard. There is a small roped-off standing area at the top of the stairs where you can view the well-preserved room. It is amazing to see the actual table and typewriter that he worked at and picture him there penning his novels.
The last highlight of the museum is the pool. While the pool may not seem that spectacular today, it was a modern (and extravagant) marvel at the time it was built. It was the first in-ground pool in Key West and was built at great expense. The solid coral rock foundation of the island made digging a 60′ long by 24′ wide and between 5 and 10′ deep hole an unbelievably difficult and manual task. And Hemingway paid dearly for the labor. The final cost of his finished pool was $20,000, which is roughly equivalent to $470,000 today. And the expense did not stop there. In order to fill the 80,000+ gallon pool, a pump pulled water from the saltwater table below ground, a process that took 2-3 days. For sanitation purposes, the pool had to be drained every 2 or 3 days, cleaned and then refilled. The maintenance costs of this lengthy and frequent process were astounding.
The Hemingway House is definitely worth a visit. We enjoyed learning the history of both Hemingway and the island itself. It is easy to see why Hemingway was so enamored with the house and Key West in general and found it an inspirational place to work on his writing.
