The large windows upstairs are all doors that open onto a large porch that wraps around the house entire house. Not only is it a beautiful place to sit and enjoy the Key West scenery, but it helps to keep the mansion cool even during the hottest Florida summer. One of Hemingway's wives didn't like the ceiling fans that were in nearly every room, so while he was on a trip she replaced them all with chandeliers. Not a good cooling system for the tropics...
In one room there is what he called his "wall of wives", pictures of all of them grouped together. The furniture in the house is the original furniture that Hemingway had there. There are many pictures of Hemingway from childhood through adult on the walls, and quite of few of his collections. The bottle safe that sits on the table in front of his "wall of wives" was his, he measured it daily to make no one helped themselves. The room where Hemingway wrote is in a separate small building behind the house. It was a little apartment above the garage. Now the downstairs is a gift shop, but the upstairs has been preserved exactly as it was when he wrote many of his most important books there. The furniture and even the typewriter are his. It was a very private getaway room where he was not to be disturbed by anyone when he worked.
Hemingway lived in the mansion from 1931 until his death in1961. During those years, Mr. Hemingway wrote some of his most important books including: A Farewell to Arms, For Whom the Bell Tolls, and The Snows of Kilimanjaro. After his death the mansion was sold to the city of Key West. |
