Tomorrow, July 21, Key West raises a glass to its most famous former resident. Ernest Hemingway would have turned 127 this year, and this town still celebrates him like a favorite uncle.
Our Seven Keys office sits just a handful of blocks from the house where he lived, wrote, and kept his famous cats—close enough that on a quiet morning you can walk from our front desk to his front gate before your coffee gets cold.
In his honor, we’re pulling together everything worth knowing about Papa’s Key West years, along with where to stay if you want to spend a few days following in his footsteps.
A House Built for a Writer
Hemingway and his second wife, Pauline, bought the Spanish Colonial home at 907 Whitehead Street in 1931, a wedding gift funded in part by Pauline’s wealthy uncle. It was one of the first houses on the island built from native limestone, with high ceilings and wide porches designed to catch the trade winds long before air conditioning existed.
Hemingway lived there for roughly a decade, and it was inside those walls and out in the lush garden that he produced some of the writing he is best remembered for, including A Farewell to Arms, Death in the Afternoon, Green Hills of Africa, and To Have and Have Not, the last of his novels actually set in Key West.
Pauline added a swimming pool in 1938, reportedly the first in the Keys, at a cost so far beyond budget that Hemingway is said to have pressed a penny into the wet cement and told her she might as well take his last cent. That penny is still there today, a small, stubborn joke set in stone.
Papa’s Writing Routine
Hemingway was famously disciplined about his mornings, whatever the night before had looked like. He wrote standing up at a tall table in a converted studio above the pool house, connected to the main house by a second-story catwalk he had built so he could slip out to work without waking the household.
He kept a running word count taped to the wall, aiming for somewhere in the neighborhood of 500 words a day. By early afternoon, he was usually done—free to head out on his fishing boat, the Pilar, or down to Duval Street for the rest of the day.
The Six-Toed Cats of Whitehead Street
No Hemingway story is complete without the cats. Legend holds that a ship’s captain gave the family a white polydactyl, or extra-toed, cat named Snow White, and her descendants have had the run of the property ever since.
Today, somewhere around 40 to 50 cats live on the grounds, roughly half of them polydactyl. They are all named after celebrities and all seem remarkably unbothered by the visitors who come looking for them.
Hemingway Days Returns July 22–26, 2026
This is the 45th year of the island’s biggest tribute to Papa, with the Hemingway Look-Alike Contest at Sloppy Joe’s, the Key West Marlin Tournament, the Running of the Bulls, and Papa’s Birthday Bash.
Rooms across Key West book quickly during festival week, so if you’re planning to be here, now is the time to lock in a place to stay.
Stay Close to Papa’s Legacy
If you want your visit to feel like a true Hemingway pilgrimage, location matters. Our Papa’s Hideaway collection puts you within easy walking distance of Whitehead Street, Duval Street, and many of the places where the festival unfolds.
That means you can wander home for an afternoon nap between the Look-Alike Contest and dinner instead of hunting for a parking spot.
Explore Seven Keys Vacations and discover Papa’s Hideaway properties along with the rest of our Old Town collection. Book early before the week Papa comes home fills up.
