The Hemingway House: Where the Cats Outnumber the Tourists
Pauline Pfeiffer took one look at 907 Whitehead Street and called it a "damned haunted house." The place was in foreclosure, falling apart, its French Colonial bones crumbling behind overgrown vegetation across from the Key West Lighthouse. But Ernest Hemingway saw something else: seclusion, thick limestone walls, a sprawling lot where no one would bother him while he worked. They bought the wreck in 1931 and began restoring it, and over the next eight years Hemingway produced some of the most celebrated American prose of the twentieth century from a second-floor writing studio above the carriage house. The house outlasted the marriage, outlasted Hemingway himself, and now draws more visitors than any other attraction in Key West -- though most of them come for the cats.
A Wrecker's Mansion Reborn
Marine architect and salvage wrecker Asa Tift built the house in 1851, a grand two-story structure in the French Colonial style with limestone walls thick enough to withstand hurricanes. The site sits across from the Key West Lighthouse at the second-highest elevation on the island, a strategic choice for a man whose fortune came from the sea. The house passed through decades of owners before falling into disrepair. When the Hemingways moved in, they undertook a full restoration, and Pauline made the place her own -- replacing the ceiling fans with chandeliers, sacrificing airflow for elegance in the subtropical heat. Ernest claimed the upstairs writing studio, accessible by a catwalk from the main house, where he worked mornings in disciplined solitude before the afternoon drinking began.
The Penny in the Pool
In 1937, while Hemingway was reporting on the Spanish Civil War, Pauline made a bold decision: she installed a swimming pool on the grounds. It was the first swimming pool in the entire Florida Keys, a 24-by-60-foot luxury that cost a small fortune. When Hemingway returned and learned the price, he threw a penny from his pocket onto the ground with theatrical fury. "You might as well take my last cent," he declared -- never mind that Pauline had paid for it with her own family money. She kept the penny and later embedded it in the concrete near the pool, where visitors can still see it today. Hemingway also kept peacocks roaming the property and organized boxing matches on the lawn, turning the estate into something between a literary salon and a sporting club.
Words That Echoed from Whitehead Street
The house on Whitehead Street was not merely a residence; it was a factory for American literature. During his years there, Hemingway wrote the nonfiction work Green Hills of Africa in 1935, the short stories "The Snows of Kilimanjaro" and "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber" in 1936, and the novel To Have and Have Not in 1937 -- a book set in Key West itself. After his death in 1961, a manuscript was discovered in a vault in the garage, published posthumously in 1970 as Islands in the Stream. The Hemingways divorced in 1940, and Pauline stayed in the house until her death in 1951. The property sat vacant until Hemingway's children auctioned it for $80,000 later in 1961. The new owners intended a private residence, but tourists kept showing up. By 1964, they gave in and opened it as a museum.
The Six-Toed Dynasty
The Hemingway House shelters roughly sixty cats, about half of them polydactyl -- sporting six toes on each paw. The staff names them after famous contemporaries of Hemingway: Marilyn Monroe, Joe DiMaggio, John Wayne, Betty White. Whether Hemingway himself actually owned cats in Key West is a matter of family dispute. His niece Hilary and son Patrick both contested the claim, suggesting the polydactyl cats descended from a neighbor's pets. A photograph exists of young Patrick and his sister Gloria playing with a white cat on the property, but Patrick said he couldn't remember the incident. The cats have survived hurricanes, a nine-year legal battle with the USDA over whether the Animal Welfare Act applied to them, and the COVID-19 pandemic. When Hurricane Irma bore down in 2017 and the entire Keys were ordered to evacuate, museum staff refused to leave. Hemingway's granddaughter urged them to go: "It's just a house." They stayed with the cats. Everyone survived.
Surviving the Storms
The house that Asa Tift built to withstand hurricanes has done exactly that for over 170 years. When Hurricane Ian threatened in September 2022, Hemingway's granddaughter Mariel Hemingway told the press she feared her grandfather's estate would be destroyed. The museum closed for a single day. All 59 cats were secured, a few staff members stayed to feed them, and the home emerged with only minor damage. The house was designated a National Historic Landmark on November 24, 1968, and remains the most popular tourist attraction in Key West. In 2024, on the 125th anniversary of Hemingway's birth, it was named the most popular celebrity landmark in Florida. The limestone walls still stand, the penny still gleams in the pool deck, and the cats still sprawl across the porches and gardens, indifferent to the literary pilgrims stepping carefully around them.
From the Air
Located at 24.55°N, 81.80°W in Old Town Key West, directly across Whitehead Street from the Key West Lighthouse. The house sits at the second-highest elevation on the island. From 1,500 feet, the property is identifiable by its large grounds and swimming pool among the dense Old Town neighborhood. Nearest airport is Key West International (KEYW), less than 2 miles northeast. The house is approximately 3 blocks north of the Southernmost Point buoy. Best viewed in clear conditions at lower altitudes where the French Colonial architecture and surrounding tropical gardens become visible.