Nestled in the heart of the OldTown section of Key West, a mere one block from the Tropical Inn Bed & Breakfast, is the one time home of Nobel Prize winning author Ernest Hemingway. The colonial southern mansion style home witnessed some of the most prolific years of Hemingway’s career.
Located at 907 Whitehead Street, the Hemingway House has been listed as a U.S. National Historic Landmark since 1968. Serving as his home from 1931-39, this where Hemingway wrote such classics as the final drafts to “A Farewell to Arms” and short classics “The Snows of Kilimanjaro” and “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber.”
The original structure was built from limestone quarried from the site by Asa Tift in 1851. Only 16 feet above sea level, the house sits on the second highest location on the island and has survived many hurricanes, a testament to its location and construction.
Other notable facts of the Hemingway House include being one of the first homes on the island fitted for indoor plumbing and the first to have an upstairs bathroom with running water fed from a cistern collecting rainwater on the roof. The high brick wall surrounding the property was built in 1935 after Hemingway’s house was published in a Key West tourist brochure.
The home also has other notable features that will not be given away here, you have to see it for yourself. The house is a great tribute to one of America’s most fascinating but complicated authors. It is a must on any Key West itinerary and literally right around the corner from the quaint bed and breakfast, the Tropical Inn.
This entry was posted
on Friday, October 3rd, 2008 at 3:17 pm and is filed under Key West Attractions.
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