Ernest Hemingway Home and Museum
Hemingway wrote 'For Whom the Bell Tolls' here. The six-toed cats that wander the property are direct descendants of his original cat. There are about 60 of them.
Ernest Hemingway lived at 907 Whitehead Street in Key West from 1931 to 1939 — the most productive decade of his life. He wrote 'A Farewell to Arms,' 'To Have and Have Not,' 'The Snows of Kilimanjaro,' and 'For Whom the Bell Tolls' here, or began them here. The house is a Spanish Colonial built in 1851, with the first in-ground swimming pool in Key West, which cost $20,000 to install and nearly bankrupted him.
When the pool was finished, Hemingway threw a penny into the wet cement and told his wife: 'You've spent my last penny, you might as well have it.' The penny is still embedded in the pool deck.
A ship's captain gave Hemingway a six-toed cat named Snow White. The descendants of that cat — polydactyl cats with extra toes, a genetic trait that breeds true — still live on the property. The museum employs a full-time staff to care for them. There are currently about 60 cats, roughly half of them polydactyl. They have names. They have opinions about tourists.
Located at 907 Whitehead St, Key West. Open daily 9 AM to 5 PM. Admission charged. Guided tours run every 30 minutes and are worth taking — the guides know the house in detail. The cats are everywhere and completely indifferent to visitors. The writing studio above the pool house is where Hemingway actually worked.