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| Balcony of the Hemingway House with the lighthouse across the street |
Key West was originally part of the Spanish empire, and was named
Caya Hueso (translated – Bone Key) because the island was littered with the
bones of native people. One story we
heard was that one native group murdered another group and left the bodies to the
elements. Another story we heard was
that it was some kind of communal graveyard of the native people. Either way, when the island was passed along
to the English and Americans, the name was anglicized into Key West.
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| Fort Zachary Taylor seen from the sea |
Key West’s natural deep harbor became a stop-over spot for
ships passing between New Orleans and Savannah.
The ships attracted land-based professions and more people. At one point, it was the largest city in
Florida.
Fort Zachary Taylor
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| Inside the fort |
The first military presence in Key West was a small naval
force sent to quell the pirates that were preying on shipping in the early
1800’s. They were very effective,
leading to the arrest of over 80 pirates.
In 1845, the American government started building an army fort here as
part of a series of forts to protect the southeast coast. It took a long time to build because of
epidemics of Yellow Fever. When
completed, Fort Zachary Taylor was 3 stories tall, and built of brick. It has a moat around it. The fort was used by the Union army during
the Civil War, and was also used during the Spanish-American War.
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| The moat around part of the fort |
At some point the upper stories were destroyed and the
lowest level was made thicker and reinforced.
Later excavations found Civil War cannons and ammunition that was used
as part of the materials added to the walls to make them thicker. Eventually the navy (there is still a huge Naval presence on the island) took over the property
and the old fort was used as storage area and dump.
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| Civil War cannons embedded in the walls as fill. |
A Conch named Howard England started excavating the fort as
a volunteer. Slowly, he and a group of
other volunteers unearthed the fort. It is now
a Florida state park. England was the
first director of the park. It is kind
of a cool history. We visited on a
picture perfect Key West day. The fort
now holds the largest collection of Civil War cannons, some of them are still
embedded in the walls.
Key West Lighthouse
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| The lighthouse |
Early on it became clear that Key West needed a lighthouse
to help military and commercial ships past the shallow reefs around the
island. The original Key West lighthouse
was destroyed by a terrible hurricane in 1846.
So, they decided to build the next lighthouse inland from the coast on
the highest point of land on the island – 15 feet above sea level. The lighthouse was 50 feet tall. As the island became more populated, trees
and buildings around the lighthouse obscured the light for the ships, so in
1896 they added 30 feet to the top of the lighthouse.
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| The view - the pink building is the Southernmost House on the Southernmost Point |
The climb up is 88 steps.
Unlike other lighthouses, the iron staircase is in the center of the
tower, so that you aren’t near a wall until you are quite far up the
tower. It is very disconcerting. You can walk around a narrow balcony outside around
the top. The view is fabulous of the
island and the ocean. Even though you
think you can see Cuba, signs say that you cannot. We were there on a very windy day, so walked
around the balcony with our backs against the brick tower.
The lighthouse keeper house is open as a museum with very
interesting exhibits about the lighthouse keepers. Several of the keepers were women, very
unusual for those times.
Hemingway House
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| Front of Hemingway House |
Ernest Hemingway lived in this house in Key West (across
the street from the lighthouse) for 4 years with Pauline, wife number 2, whilst
having an affair with the woman who would become wife number 3. The house has some original and period
furnishings. Most of the rooms have
posters and photographs from the movie versions of Hemingway’s novels.
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| Hemingway House from the lighthouse - see the tropical gardens around it |
That said, the house is still very cool. Hemingway planted the huge yard with a jungle
of a garden. There are paths and corners
of delight. He built the first private
swimming pool in the Keys. It is quite
large. Builders had to chisel the cavity
out of coral rock by hand. It cost
$20,000 to build in 1938. Of course,
Hemingway himself was broke at the time.
Pauline’s uncle was wealthy; he bought the house for the Hemingways and
paid for the pool. None-the-less,
Hemingway is said to have declared that it took his last penny to build the
pool. Said penny is embedded in the
cement.
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| Hemingway's expensive pool |
Hemingway’s writing studio is on the second floor of a
smaller building on the property. He
worked there every morning.
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| Hemingway's writing studio |
Probably the Hemingway House is best known for the cats that
live there. Hemingway loved cats. He learned that mariners considered
polydactyl (6-toed) cats as good luck.
Most cats have 5 front toes and 4 back toes. Hemingway’s first polydactyl cat was named
Snow While. Currently there are about 40
such cats on the grounds, many descended from that original cat. Not all have the extra toes, but they all
carry the polydactyl gene. Those who do
have extra toes can have them on their front feet or their back feet. There is a staff to care for these cats, and
a Vet visits every week. They spay
females after the first litter to keep the population between 40 and 50. A cat named Grace Kelly joined us on the
second floor of the house during the tour.
We saw a few other cats while on the tour. We saw many feeding stations. Our guide told us that the cats tend to stay
in particular areas of the grounds.
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| Polydactyl feline toes |
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