Ernest Hemingway Home and Museum

The Ernest Hemingway Home and Museum is a Spanish Colonial house museum on Whitehead Street in Key West. Hemingway and Pauline made this 1851 house their home, and the property still brings together its furnished rooms, tropical garden, pool, and the upstairs studio where he wrote. If you’re interested in Hemingway’s Key West years, it’s an easy stop to recommend; the resident cats are a draw in their own right.

Start with the guided orientation, then take another pass through the rooms and garden at your own pace. Allow about an hour if you want to take it in without rushing. The two-story house has stairs and wheelchair access is limited; check the current arrangements if step-free access matters to you.

Built from local rock in Spanish Colonial style, the house was already standing when Hemingway first came to Key West in 1928. He and Pauline acquired it in 1931 and restored it. Inside, look for European antiques and hunting trophies from the couple’s travels. Hemingway’s former writing studio occupies the second floor of the pool house.

Hemingway spent three weeks living above a Ford dealership while he waited for his car to arrive, and finished A Farewell to Arms during that stay. Key West’s people and places later fed into To Have and Have Not, his novel about the town during the Depression. The house makes those connections feel tied to a real place rather than just a list of book titles.

The pool was built in 1937 and 1938 at a cost of $20,000. Hemingway pressed a penny into wet cement at the north end of the pool patio; it is still there between the flagstones. It’s a small detail, but a good reason to slow down outside instead of heading straight back to the house.

Nearly 60 cats live on the property, and about half visibly have extra toes. Some descend from Snow White, a white six-toed cat given to Hemingway by a ship’s captain. Polydactyl describes the extra toes, not a separate breed. The cats wander through the house and garden, so you may see them lounging wherever the shade is good.

Leave time for the garden, with its pool, pond, and small cat cemetery among the greenery. The gift shop and bookstore carry Hemingway-related books and souvenirs. If you want the exterior in your photos, the garden arbor gives you a clear frame around the house.