Hemingway Home & Museum

Pulitzer and Nobel Prize-winning author Ernest Hemingway and his wife, Pauline Pfeiffer, lived in a house at 907 Whitehead Street from 1931 to 1939. Asa Tift, a marine architect and salvage wrecker, built the house in a French Colonial estate style. Construction on the house started in 1848 and completed in 1851. When Pauline first saw the house in deep disrepair, she labeled it a “damned haunted house.” However, she convinced her wealthy uncle to buy it for $8,000 for her and her husband as a wedding present. Today, the Ernest Hemingway Home and Museum in Key West, Florida, is equal parts shrine to Hemingway and a historic house. The house, a National Historic Landmark, showcases Hemingway’s possessions, including his writing desk, hunting trophies and books. It is also famous for its resident cats, many of which are descendants of Hemingway’s original pet cats and are said to have six toes.