During my recent trip to Key West I toured the home of Ernest Hemingway, which was built in 1851 by Asa Tift. Tift was a salvage wrecker, meaning that he made a living recovering the crew, ships, and cargo when approaching ships would encounter the reefs off of the Florida Keys. Were it not for Hemingway buying this Limestone home in 1931, it would have been known as the Asa Tift house.
Many of the original furnishings of the home during Hemingway's ownership are still with the house, including several 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th century pieces; many of them from Spain. Hemingway's wife had all the ceiling fans removed and replaced with her lamp collection and one of these is a very large Italian Murano glass chandelier.
You can view the slideshow of my photos of the home here. Make sure you make note of the the 17th century Spanish chest-on-chest, the black and white cat with six toes and the Christmas Palm; so named due to the red colored fruits.
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