Qualla: The Hemingway House: Where the Cats Outnumber the Tourists https://qualla.com/ernest-hemingway-house en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:13 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/d/h/m/g/ernest-hemingway-house-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: The Hemingway House: Where the Cats Outnumber the Tourists https://qualla.com/ernest-hemingway-house The Hemingway House: Where the Cats Outnumber the Tourists: Introduction https://qualla.com/ernest-hemingway-house/ Photo credit Reyvato, CC BY-SA 3.0. 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.

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Image: Reyvato | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/h/m/g/ernest-hemingway-house-wp/dhmg-the-hemingway-house-where-the-cats-outnumber-the-t-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full The Hemingway House: Where the Cats Outnumber the Tourists: A Wrecker's Mansion Reborn https://qualla.com/ernest-hemingway-house/ Photo credit Joeschmitty at English Wikipedia, CC BY 2.5. 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 isla...

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Image: Joeschmitty at English Wikipedia | CC BY 2.5

]]> Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/h/m/g/ernest-hemingway-house-wp/dhmg-the-hemingway-house-where-the-cats-outnumber-the-t-a-wreckers-mansion-reborn.mp3 0:06 2 full The Hemingway House: Where the Cats Outnumber the Tourists: The Penny in the Pool https://qualla.com/ernest-hemingway-house/ Photo credit Abujoy, CC BY 3.0. 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 le...

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Image: Abujoy | CC BY 3.0

]]> Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/h/m/g/ernest-hemingway-house-wp/dhmg-the-hemingway-house-where-the-cats-outnumber-the-t-the-penny-in-the-pool.mp3 0:06 3 full The Hemingway House: Where the Cats Outnumber the Tourists: Words That Echoed from Whitehead Street https://qualla.com/ernest-hemingway-house/ Photo credit unattributed, Public domain. 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 Macombe...

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Image: unattributed | Public domain

]]> Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/h/m/g/ernest-hemingway-house-wp/dhmg-the-hemingway-house-where-the-cats-outnumber-the-t-words-that-echoed-from-whitehead-street.mp3 0:06 4 full The Hemingway House: Where the Cats Outnumber the Tourists: The Six-Toed Dynasty https://qualla.com/ernest-hemingway-house/ Photo credit Averette at English Wikipedia, CC BY 3.0. 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 ...

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Image: Averette at English Wikipedia | CC BY 3.0

]]> Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/h/m/g/ernest-hemingway-house-wp/dhmg-the-hemingway-house-where-the-cats-outnumber-the-t-the-six-toed-dynasty.mp3 0:06 5 full The Hemingway House: Where the Cats Outnumber the Tourists: Surviving the Storms https://qualla.com/ernest-hemingway-house/ Photo credit Upstateherd, CC BY-SA 4.0. 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...

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Image: Upstateherd | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/h/m/g/ernest-hemingway-house-wp/dhmg-the-hemingway-house-where-the-cats-outnumber-the-t-surviving-the-storms.mp3 0:06 6 full