Monday, April 29, 2024

The Ernest Hemingway House and Museum in Key West

hemingway house key west

We chose to purchase tickets in advance because we visited in January 2021, and the museum had to restrict the number of guests per tour due to COVID. It was probably a mix of the big game fishing opportunities and the laid back drinking scene that first made Hemingway feel at home here in Key West. The downtown area was close to his property, and was a popular place for Hemingway to go for some drinks.

The famous Hemingway House cats

The new owners, who had planned to live in the house, found that most of the furnishings and other memorabilia remained there, and they opened it as a museum in 1964. The Ernest Hemingway House was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1958. It is packed with Hemingway memorabilia—his typewriter, photos, and animal skins.

Visiting the Ernest Hemingway House in Key West

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Today, Finca Vigia is a museum where Pilar is on display atop the tennis courts with a walkway encircling her so visitors can view the interior.. The finished yacht cost $7500 and was brought to Key West and christened Pilar. Returning to Key West from an African safari in 1934, Ernest Hemingway stopped off in New York to take a few meetings. At one with the editor of Esquire, Arnold Gingrich, Hemingway was given a $3300 advance for some short stories. He promptly took himself out to Coney Island to the Wheeler Shipyard and used the cash as a down payment on a customized yacht. I’m happy to accommodate him, but I’d rather be fishing for marlin.

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Ernest’s presence can still be felt in his studio where he produced some of his most well-known works. In addition, a very visible and living link to the past are the descendants of Hemingway’s cats. The story goes that Hemingway made the acquaintance of a sea captain who owned an unusual six-toed tomcat, which captured Ernest’s fancy. Upon his departure from Key West, the captain presented the cat to Hemingway. Today many of the numerous cats that inhabit the grounds still possess the unusual six toes.

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hemingway house key west

Ernest Hemingway lived in his Key West house in the 1930s and wrote many books while he did so. Hemingway’s time in Key West was in fact one of the most prolific periods of his writing career. Today, the beautiful Ernest Hemingway Key West Home & Museum is open for visitors to come and see how he lived.

hemingway house key west

Prior to that date, the islanders collected rainwater in cisterns, two of which are still on the property today. Mr. SBC and I visited the Ernest Hemingway Home and Museum on a cruise stop in Key West, and it was only a 20-minute walk from the pier. If you’re planning to also visit the famous Southernmost Point Buoy, it’s right down the road. You can buy tickets easily on their website (must be 24 hours in advance), or walk-up and get tickets the same day.

Hemingway’s first cat, Snowball, was a polydactyl cat with six toes on her front paws and five toes on her back. At times as many as 30 cats descended from Snowball had the run of the place. 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. In the fall of 1921, he married Hadley Richardson, eight years his senior, and, on the advice of friends, the couple moved to Paris later that year.

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You can’t get closer to the work and life of Hemingway than by stepping back in time here in Key West. To take your Hemingway adventure one step further, weddings can also be held at the Hemingway Home and Museum. Weddings are held in the garden, and the property can be rented for daytime or evening events, large or small. Private evening tours can also be arranged for you and your guests, so you can experience Hemingway like never before.

The couple lived on-and-off in Key West for several years (spending summers in Wyoming), before finally putting down more permanent roots in 1931. Pfeiffer found a house for sale at auction, and her uncle purchased it for $8,000 (approximately $134,00 today) as a belated wedding gift. Born in 1899 in Oak Park, Illinois, Hemingway grew up in a comfortable, but fractious, family. Childhood trips to the remote woods of Michigan inspired his fascination with nature and a lifelong quest for adventure, including his passion for hunting and fishing. Interested in writing from an early age, he began his career as a journalist, working as a reporter in the Midwest.

Each new relationship seemed to lead to a change of location, explaining why Hemingway left Key West after less than a decade despite having several productive years there. To this day, the Hemingway House remains the largest residential property on Key West. Make sure you bring cash because the museum doesn’t accept credit cards.

Pick from authentic, immersive Epic Trips, compact and action-packed Mini Trips and sparkling, expansive Sailing Trips. I love sharing my best cruise tips with you, along with reviews of cruise destinations, shore excursions, cruise ships and cruise lines. We are planning a trip to Key West so this is going on our list of places to visit. You can access the studio only via a set of steep stairs, and a gate blocks the doorway, but it’s worth climbing up to view this peaceful sanctuary if you can. Pauline, outraged by the unsightly bathroom fixture prominently displayed in the garden, glued tiles around its edge and added an antique urn to create a fountain.

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