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Soon after arrival, Hemingway made the acquaintance of Charles Thompson, who ran the local hardware store. Charles Thompson introduced Hemingway to the exciting world of big game sport fishing, and a long friendship was born. Charles and his wife Lorine entertained the Hemingways at their home on Fleming Street. Lorine Thompson proved to be as friendly and gracious as her husband Charles, and it was during those early days in Key West she and Pauline forged a friendship that would endure for the rest of their lives. Both Ernest and Pauline grew to love Key West and its inhabitants, and soon decided to look for a permanent residence. After two seasons in Key West, Pauline’s Uncle Gus purchased the house on Whitehead Street for them in 1931.
6-TOED CATS ARE ALWAYS INVITED TO WEDDINGS AT HEMINGWAY HOUSE - Florida Keys Weekly
6-TOED CATS ARE ALWAYS INVITED TO WEDDINGS AT HEMINGWAY HOUSE.
Posted: Fri, 18 Nov 2022 08:00:00 GMT [source]
Hemingway's Last Penny
Currently, about 60 cats live on the property, and many are polydactyl, meaning they have six toes on their paws instead of five. The site where the pool is located was formerly the setting of Hemingway’s famous boxing ring, where he would spar with local amateur boxers such as Shine Forbes. Construction of the pool necessitated relocation of the boxing ring to the site now occupied by the Blue Heaven Restaurant on Petronia Street, a few blocks away. The warm waters surrounding Key West seemed to beckon Hemingway.
Ernest Hemingway House
Visitors often revel in the small details of the old house, whose best features are often not obvious and require some close attention in order to enjoy their true antiquated beauty. Hemingway was in fact an avid collector of furniture from Spain from the 17th and 18th centuries, and his 18th-century Walnut Secretary, complete with hidden compartments, remains one of the home’s most popular displays. There is certainly an element of vintage appeal throughout the house. The paintings, chandeliers, and other architectural details, which have been immaculately preserved over the years, foster a sense that time has magically stood still at the Hemingway house. Did you know – Culture Trip now does bookable, small-group trips? Pick from authentic, immersive Epic Trips, compact and action-packed Mini Trips and sparkling, expansive Sailing Trips.
The Cats
After Hemingway’s death in July of that year, his widow gave the ship to Gregorio Fuentes who had served as her captain. Fuentes also served as the basis for the character Santiago, in The Old Man and The Sea and passed away in 2002 at the age of 104. Hemingway’s boys named their new kitten Snow White and as Hemingway once wrote, “one cat just leads to another”. To this day, many of the cats that live at Hemingway Home are descendants of the original Snow White.
The Hemingway house was bought at a silent auction for $80,000 by Bernice Dixon, a local business owner. She lived in the main home until 1964, when she moved into the guest house and turned Hemingway’s home into a museum. Visitors to Key West are keen on seeing the house where Ernest Hemingway, one of America’s most respected novelists, lived and wrote for nine years.
On the wall of his home, a neat though cluttered house close to a cluster of small churches, the photo is displayed prominently. It shows a young Ellis with broad shoulders, huge arms and a massive chest, who looks like he might have given Mike Tyson a good fight. In 1940, when Ernest and Pauline divorced and he subsequently married Martha Gelhorn (whom he’d met at Sloppy Joe’s,) they relocated to Cuba and bought Finca Vigia (Lookout Farm) the home on a hilltop overlooking Havana. Pilar was docked at Cojimar, a small fishing village east of Havana, which was the inspiration for Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea. Returning to Key West from an African safari in 1934, Ernest Hemingway stopped off in New York to take a few meetings.
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It was on the advice of John Dos Passos, a fellow member of the “Lost Generation” of ex-patriate artists and writers populating Paris during the 1920s, that Hemingway was first prompted to visit Key West. Hemingway did not go directly to South Florida from Paris, but rather arrived through Havana, Cuba—a city and country that would prove to be critically important in Hemingway’s later personal and professional life. Upon his arrival in Key West in April 1928, the first order of business was to locate the new Ford Roadster that Pauline Hemingway’s wealthy Uncle Gus had so generously purchased for the newlywed couple. Hemingway and his wife left Cuba in 1960, following Fidel Castro’s overthrow of the Batista government (although the left-leaning Hemingway’s sympathies were with the revolutionaries). In ill health and increasingly suffering from the depression that ran through his family, and which he had struggled against all his life, Hemingway settled in Idaho. On July 2, 1961, he shot himself in his Ketchum home and died, aged 61.
Map of island of Key West,U.S. state of Florida
During his years in Key West, Hemingway completed about 70% of his works including A Farewell to Arms, Death in the Afternoon and For Whom the Bell Tolls. On a slightly odder level, the estate is also home to over 50 cats, with names like Pablo Picasso, Hairy Truman, and Audrey Hepburn. About half of these cats are polydactyls—animals with extra toes. A ship captain once gave Hemingway a six-toed cat, of whom the writer was extremely fond, and from whom these cats are supposedly descended.
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There are so many cats at Hemingway Home that the museum has its own veterinarian to care for them. Unfortunately, cats do not live forever, but you can pay your respects at the Cat Cemetery behind the house. As I was reading the plaque in the cemetery, I noticed that many of the cats were named after famous people. Charlie Chaplin, Emily Dickenson, Mark Twain and Marilyn Monroe were all cats that lived at the Hemingway house. The pool has a mammoth 80,784 gallon capacity, and at the time of installation there was no fresh running water in Key West. Accordingly, in 1938, pool construction involved drilling down to the salt-water table and installing a water pump to retrieve salt water to fill the pool.
The two-story house was built in 1851 of native limestone in a Spanish colonial style by noted marine salvager Asa Tift. Pfeiffer’s wealthy uncle bought the then-derelict house as a wedding present for her and Hemingway in 1931, and the couple had the entire interior restored. The second story of the coach house in the back was made into a writing studio for Hemingway. The swimming pool, built in 1938 as a present from Pfeiffer to her husband, was the first residential swimming pool built in Key West.
He quickly became obsessed with deep-water fishing, and soon bought his own boat, the Pilar. "Papa" Hemingway, as he’d dubbed himself, took to sailing the nearby waters with friends in tow, who were soon nicknamed the Key West Mob. A few weeks ago, she returned once again to L.A., the city that had spurned her so many times. She took the studio apartment in Santa Monica and began working to reclaim the old magic. Infamously, nobody on a low-salt diet is in a position to take Hellman’s word for anything.
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