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TIME
Eastern Standard Time


STATE
Florida

REGION
South East States





Key West: Home with Hemingway

The house and gardens at 907 Whitehead St. in Key West are still "home" to one of the United States' most renowned writers – the late Ernest Hemingway. Now a registered National Historic Landmark, the Spanish colonial villa is open to the public as a museum honoring the island's most famous literary resident.

Winner of both the Nobel and Pulitzer prizes, the author lived on the property with his second wife Pauline and their two children from 1931 to 1940. He owned the home until his death in 1961.

Hemingway wrote many of his best-known works in the second-story writing studio adjoining the house. Following his death, the unpublished manuscript that was to become "Islands in the Stream" was found in a vault in the property's garage.

Today, the home's furnishings and atmosphere evoke the Hemingway era, as if the author were about to return from a fishing trip or a cocktail at his favorite watering hole.

The unique confluence of history, climate, natural beauty, cultural diversity, architecture and unabashed romantic appeal cloak the island of Key West in mystery.

Residents and visitors to Key West actively participate in sightseeing, outdoor and maritime activities, and shopping by day, then yield to the transition toward evening, when flame swallowers, tightrope walkers and shopping-cart balancers strive to show up a more captivating performer – the fiery sun settling into the Gulf of Mexico.

Located closer to Cuba than to Miami, Key West is Florida's independent and irreverent southwestern subtropical paradise. Key West's Bahamian and Cuban heritage is evidenced throughout the island in restaurants and cigar shops, museums and accommodations.

Visitors to Key West can pet a shark, tour a cemetery, visit Ernest Hemingway's former home and experience the riches of a spectacular salvage expedition. Island beaches offer ample sunning and watersports opportunities, while beneath the surrounding turquoise and cobalt waters, historic shipwrecks, a living coral reef and myriad marine plants and animals entice those eager to explore.

For anglers, billfish beyond the reef and permit and tarpon on the flats are just a few of the local game fish that offer spirited and sometimes acrobatic displays of strength.

At night, the stars illuminate assorted entertainment opportunities including jazz clubs, piano bars, dance clubs, drag shows and saloons. Theatrical stagings at three area playhouses feature Broadway-quality performances November through May.

Bahama Village is a revitalized neighborhood showcasing Key West's Caribbean heritage through a Bahamian marketplace, shops, ethnic restaurants and galleries. The Lofton B. Sands African-Bahamian Museum and Resource Center in Bahama Village spotlights the island's African-Bahamian history.

At the north end of the island some 100 land- and sea-based waterfront businesses bring Key West's seafaring heritage to life at Historic Seaport at Key West Bight.

The Key West Aquarium showcases the diverse marine life that inhabit the waters of Key West; visitors to The Key West Butterfly & Nature Conservatory can observe between 750 and 1,200 butterflies; and the Audubon House & Tropical Gardens contains original Audubon engravings from 1832.

The Harry S Truman Little White House was the late United States president's former tropical retreat. Self-guided tours are offered through the lush rainforest habitat of Nancy Forrester's Secret Garden.

Among the museums are The Ernest Hemingway Home & Museum, the late author's home and second-story writing studio; The Key West Lighthouse Museum; The Key West Museum of Art & History in Key West's restored Custom House building; the Turtle Kraals Museum where visitors can learn about turtles and their preservation; and The Oldest House/Wrecker's Museum.

The museum and gallery at historic Fort East Martello is filled with unique artifacts and memorabilia. Artifacts, historic film footage and still photographs at Flagler Station Over-Sea Railway Historeum commemorate Henry Flagler's construction of "the railroad that went to sea", connecting Key West with the mainland for the first time. Mel Fisher Maritime Museum showcases the richest single collection of 17th-century maritime and shipwreck antiquities in the Western Hemisphere.

The San Carlos Institute, founded in 1871 to preserve Cuban culture and promote the freedom of Cuba, is today a museum affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution.

The Civil War-era Fort Jefferson, Dry Tortugas National Park, is the largest masonry structure in the Western Hemisphere. Fort Zachary Taylor State Historic Site's collection of Civil War cannons is the largest in America.

Built in 1896 overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, the The Southernmost House epitomizes the grandeur of the island city's historic heyday. A larger-than-life buoy marks The Southernmost Point in the continental United States - only 90 miles from Cuba.

KEY WEST HOTELS


Photo courtesy Florida Keys & Key West Visitors Bureau

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