| Key West has many remarkable,
interesting and downright amazing things to see and places to visit,
including museums historic sites, beaches and much more. The Key West
Info Center can plan your vacation so you dont have to waste time searching
for something to do or see.
The Hemingway House
Hemingway owned the home from 1931 until his passing in 1961. The Spanish
Colonial style home was constructed of native rock hewn from the grounds
and boasts the first pool built in Key West. The pool, built in the
late 1930's, cost $20,000. This price prompted Hemingway to take a penny
from his pocket and press it into the wet cement of the surrounding
patio and announce jokingly, "Here, take the last penny I've got!"
That penny is still there.
Many cats and kittens who are direct descendants of Hemingway's nearly
50 cats still make their home here. They are one of the most charming
living memorials to "Papa" Hemingway. Enjoy their endless
antics as they romp through the trees and grounds. Take special note
of the famed six toed cats, easy to spot as they lounge in the shade
preening their enormous feet.
Ernest Hemingway, the American author whose ideas of courage and honor
in a confusing and hostile world remain as inspiration to this day.
Experience the calming contrast that this Key West home offered this
complex man as you take a leisurely and inspiring tour of his mansion
and gardens. Browse as long as you like here where Hemingway penned
most of his greatest novels and short stories.
This Nobel Prize winner is considered by many to be the greatest, most
influential American writer of all time. The first important writer
to discover Key West and make it his home, the legacy of this man and
his work draws visitors from the world over to the Hemingway Home and
Museum.
The Audubon House
The Audubon House & Tropical Gardens offer a relaxing, educational
environment for families and visitors of all ages. Slated for demolition
in 1958, the house was saved by the Mitchell Wolfson Family Foundation.
The Foundation is a nonprofit educational institution. This was the
first restoration project in Key West, and is still considered the gem
of the island's restoration movement.
A visit to the Audubon House & Tropical Gardens is an exploration
into local history and folklore, while the gardens offer a lush one-acre
view of tropical foliage.
You will enjoy viewing the works of John James Audubon, world renown
ornithologist. There are 28 first edition Audubon works in the house.
Audubon visited the Florida Keys and Dry Tortugas in 1832. Audubon left
Key West having sighted and drawn 18 new birds for his "Birds of
America" folio. It is believed that many of those drawings were
conceived in the Audubon House garden. Audubon's painting of the white-crowned
pigeon features the Geiger tree found in the front yard of the house.
The 19th-century home was built by Captain John H. Geiger, a harbor
pilot and master wrecker, who lived in the house with his wife and nine
children. It was an era when shipwrecks occurred daily on the off-shore
reef. It was a time of pirates and yellow fever, slave ships and Indian
wars.
The Shipwreck Historium
Enter the world of 1856 Key West... the era of the wreckers. At the
Key West Shipwreck HISTOREUM Museum you will step back into time as
you discover Key West's unique maritime heritage and how it became the
richest city in the United States. The Key West Shipwreck HISTOREUM
Museum combines actors, films, laser technology and the actual artifacts
from the recently rediscovered wrecked vessel Isaac Allerton, which
sank in 1856 on the treacherous Florida Keys reef.
Join master wrecker Asa Tift and his wrecking crew
as he tells you the story of how this unusual industry provided for
the livelihoods of the early pioneers of Key West. You will be invited
to climb the 60' lookout tower and if need be, alarm Mr. Tift of any
wrecks on the reef
Mel Fisher Maritime Museum
The Mel Fisher Maritime Heritage Society and Museum brings you the essence
of the Age of Discovery. From the late fifteenth to the mid-eighteenth
centuries, Europeans explored what was to them a whole "New World".
Their exploits, their commerce and the havoc they wreaked by both accident
and design on the native inhabitants of the Americas all have their
echoes in the artifacts in our collection.
Explore the museum’s four ships, the Nuestra Señora de Atocha
and the Santa Margarita, both of which sank in a hurricane in 1622;
The St. John’s Wreck, a vessel of exploration that carried conquistadors
to the Caribbean in roughly 1560; and the Henrietta Marie, an English
merchant slaver that sank off the Florida Keys in 1700.
Ripley's Believe It or Not
This 10,000 square foot, air-conditioned odditorium containing over
1,500 exhibits is ready to provide you and your family with unbelievable
fun and amazement! For over forty years the adventurous Robert Ripley
explored the uncanny and amazing mysteries of the earth. His travels
took him around the world in search of the unbelievable and inexplicable.
First published in 1929, Robert Ripley's works were read worldwide in
over 300 newspapers, translated into 17 languages and held a readership
of over 80 million. Each of the 27 museums worldwide is 90% unique from
the others. Ripley's Believe It or Not! Museums are proud to offer you
this fantastic collection of the world's strangest oddities!
The Southernmost Scavenger Hunt
Since winning the prestigious "Venture Award" from the Key
West Chamber of Commerce, The Southernmost Scavenger Hunt has expanded
to offer a wider variety of custom designed features to their ever-popular
scavenger hunts. Participants are able to enjoy all the sights and sounds
that make the "Southernmost City" such an unforgettable destination. |
