The Ernest Hemingway House was built in 1851 by Asa Tift, a marine architect and salvage wrecker. It was the residence of author Ernest Hemingway from 1931 to 1939. Today, it is a private, for-profit museum now populated by approximately 40-50 polydactyl (six-toed) cats that are descendants of Hemingway's cats.
It was in this house that Hemingway wrote some of his best work, including the short story classics "The Snows of Kilimanjaro" and "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber", his novel To Have And Have Not, and the non-fiction work Green Hills of Africa.
The house stands at an elevation of 16 feet (4.9 m) above sea level but is still the second-highest site on the island. It was originally built in 1851 in a French Colonial estate style, out of limestone quarried from the site. As testament to its construction and location, it survived many hurricanes, and the deep basement remained, and still remains, dry. Before Hurricane Irma struck the Florida Keys in September 2017, the entire population of the island chain were ordered to evacuate by the federal government, but the museum's curator, general manager and a team of Hemingway Home employees declined to leave the house or evacuate its cats. Several Hemingway Home employees stayed with the cats and the house. They all survived the storm intact.
The house was one of the first on the island to be fitted with indoor plumbing and the first on the island to have an upstairs bathroom with running water, fed from a rain cistern on the roof.
Also notable are a built-in fireplace and the first swimming pool in Key West, which was the only pool within 100 miles (160 km) in the late 30s. In November 1936, in an interview with the Key West Citizen, Hemingway showed the reporter the location he had planned for a pool. It was his second wife, Pauline Hemingway, though, who spent $20,000 (equivalent in 2013 to $330,000) to have the deep well-fed pool built for her husband while he was away as a Spanish Civil War correspondent in 1938. When Hemingway returned, he was unpleasantly surprised by the cost and exclaimed, "Well, you might as well have my last cent," before tossing a penny into the pool. This penny is embedded in concrete today near the pool.
In 1937, when Ernest was in Spain, Pauline hired Ernest's friend, driver, and handyman, Toby Bruce, to build the high brick wall that surrounds the house today.
Another of Hemingway's loves was boxing. He set up a ring in his yard and paid local fighters to box with him. He also refereed matches at Blue Heaven, then a saloon but now a restaurant, at 769 Thomas Street.
Hemingway converted a urinal obtained after a renovation at Sloppy Joe's bar into a water fountain in the yard, where it remains a prominent feature at the home, filled with water from the large Cuban jar and serving as one of many water sources for the grounds' cats. The grounds of the house are maintained as a garden, with many tropical plants installed after Hemingway moved to Cuba. In Hemingway's time, the grounds, like the island, were sparse and dry due to lack of water that only came later, with the Navy's installation of a water line from mainland.
The house was originally purchased for $8,000. After Hemingway's death in 1961, the house was sold by his widow, Mary, to Mrs. Bernice Dickson, the founder of the museum. A prominent feature of the dining room is a Murano glass chandelier. Upstairs, a book display shows books owned by Hemingway while he lived in Key West—including Red Pete the Ruthless by C. M. Bennett. Clearly visible is the inscription, "Given to Hemingway—1936," from Sister Ida, a nun at the local St. Joseph's convent.
Hemingway's writer's studio in the second floor of a free-standing carriage house, and where he stayed briefly (in the 1950s) when visiting from his home in Cuba, was once connected by a second story walkway to the master bedroom. The walkway, shown in pictures from archives, has not been reconstructed.
A garage on the property, with a caretaker's apartment on the second floor, was built to house Ernest's Buick automobile.
In 1988, the house was a filming location of the 16th James Bond movie Licence to Kill. In the scene, Bond resigns from the secret service and then flees through the garden. In protection of M, the fictional guards watch from the Key West Light across the street. Hemingway often remarked on how convenient it was to live close to a lighthouse, as it could often guide him home when drunk.
The house is also featured in the 2017 film The Leisure Seeker starring Helen Mirren and Donald Southerland.
On November 24, 1968, the Ernest Hemingway House was designated a U.S. National Historic Landmark.
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