Things to do nearThe Hemingway Home and Museum

Ernest Hemingway lived and wrote at this Spanish Colonial-style house on Whitehead Street from 1931 to 1939, a period that produced some of his most celebrated work, including A Farewell to Arms and For Whom the Bell Tolls. Built in 1851, the house was one of the first in Key West to have indoor plumbing, and Hemingway's then-wife Pauline added the in-ground pool, which was an extravagance for the era.

Today the property operates as a museum, preserving the original furnishings, Hemingway's personal writing studio above the carriage house, and the lush grounds planted with native and tropical species. Visitors move through the sun-filled rooms at their own pace or follow a guided tour that brings the writer's daily routines and relationships into vivid focus.

The famous polydactyl cats, many of them descendants of a cat Hemingway reportedly received as a gift, roam freely across the property and have become an inseparable part of its identity. The surrounding Old Town neighborhood offers easy access to Duval Street dining and the waterfront, making the museum a natural centerpiece for a fuller exploration of Key West's character. For anyone drawn to American literary history or the particular atmosphere of early twentieth-century Florida Keys life, the Hemingway Home and Museum offers an unusually tangible and unhurried connection to both.