16 May 2025, Hemingway's Home, Key West, Florida
Today, we toured Hemingway's home. What a beautiful place. The house is furnished as it was when Hemingway lived there. You get to tour the entire house. You can take a guided tour or go on your own. We chose to go on our own. I have a document that we followed for the self-guided tour. It also provides history. For some reason, Blogger doesn't let you upload a PDF or Word document. Darn it!!!!
The house is also home to the descendants of Hemingway's original six-toed cat, Snow White. They are all so beautiful and have the run of the place. Please click on this link for the history of these fascinating cats. There is also a small cemetery, photo below, in the yard of previous cats that have passed over the rainbow bridge. They also have a massive outdoor play structure that is cool. I thought I took a photo, but it doesn't look like I did.
On our way home, we stopped at Keys Fresh Seafood Market to pick out lobster tails for tonight's dinner. You pick them from an outdoor tank, and guys cut the tails off for you. I can't wait. Barry does the best lobster tails on his grill.
It's a great way to finish the day. It's hard to believe we only have a few days left here.
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| Master Bedroom |
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| One of the six-toed cats |
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| Kitchen area |
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| Refridgerator |
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| One of the many garden areas |
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| Red Ginger |
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| Desert Rose |
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| Cat Cemetery |
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| Names of all the cats |
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| Scarlet Jungleflame |
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| Hemingway's last penny |
This swimming pool was the first residential pool on the island, and it remains the largest. Pauline had the pool built in 1938 while Hemingway was on assignment in Spain. The pool, like the home, was laboriously dug out of the island’s coral and limestone bedrock. Prior to the pool construction, Hemingway had a boxing ring located in this area of the yard. Hemingway was a huge boxing enthusiast and would spar with locals in his private ring. When he returned from Spain to find that his boxing ring had been replaced with a pool, and that the pool had cost over $20,000 dollars, he was less than pleased. Reportedly, Hemingway took a penny from his pocket, flicked it in Pauline’s direction and exclaimed, “You might as well take my last red cent!” Pauline knew the story would get lots of laughs amongst her visitor and decided to preserve that 1934 penny in the concrete. It is still visible on the patio near pool, right at the base of the green post. This info was pulled from the self-guided tour sheet I could not include in this post.
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The large olive jar just behind the main house serves as one of the many watering holes available to the cats on our property. It is unique in that the base is a men’s urinal from the original Sloppy Joe’s Bar, located on Green Street. (That location is now Capt. Tony’s Saloon). When the rent was raised, owner Joe Russell, decided to move his bar to its current location on the corner of Green and Duval Streets. Russell gutted the original location and in the process Hemingway, figuring he’d poured enough money down its drain, felt he earned the porcelain memento. Upon bringing it back here Pauline did her best to disguise it with the tiles you see around it today. This info was pulled from the self-guided tour sheet I could not include in this post. |
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| Plumeria |
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| More chickens by where we parked |
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I ate two and saved the other for later
Copyright © 2025 by Jacqueline Threet Henderson, Jacqueline's Jaunts. All rights reserved. |
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