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Hemingway Home, Key West


Ernest Hemingway owned this home in Key West from 1931 until his
death in 1961. His most prolific years here were in the 1940s and
1950s. This was a great tour, not to be missed!

 
Hemingway's loft office where he did most of his writing. The original
typewritter, table and chair are just where he left them!

 
The house grounds are very beautiful and well kept. Here Maria
stands on a bridge across a pond.

 
An interesting statue of a heron sits on the pond.


Maria and I in front of the home.


Maria with the garden in the back yard. Note the lighthouse in
the background. Hemingway's drinking buddies accused him of
building his house next to the lighthouse so he could find his
way home after a long night of drinking on Duval street!

 
Hemingway liked cats. One of his original pets was a six toed cat
named Snowball. Today there are some 60 cats on the property, many
with the inherited six toes, descendants of Snowball!

 
One of "Papa" Hemingway's four wives, Pauline, decided to surprise
him by adding a swimming pool that ended up costing him twice
the price of the house! It had to be hand dug in coral rock and
then was only filled with salt water! He threw a penny to the ground
in front of her saying, "The sea is free, why did you do this?
You might as well take my last penny!"

 
As a joke, Pauline had the penny sealed in the pool deck where
all her friends could see that she took his last penny,
and here the penny remains today!

 
Hemingway had the last laugh; he put a urinal from his friend
Joe "Sloppy Joe" Russell's bar (still in Key West) out in Pauline's
garden, disguised as a trough for the cats. The cats like to stand
in it to drink the water flowing out of the amphora.

 
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