“Found it!” John triumphantly crowed.
We were locked inside the old Trevor and Morris Building (now Casa Antigua), where Hemingway had stayed when he first came to Key West. The building’s lower part now houses Key West Room Escape, which offers three different indoor escape games. For ours, we had been transported back in time to 1928, given exactly one hour to find and rescue the final page of Hemingway’s masterpiece A Farewell to Arms or else the book might not be published. And in just under sixty-minutes time, after solving puzzles and opening numerous locks, we had discovered the page’s hiding place. We made it!
But the game wasn’t over. We still had to escape, and time was running out. “Last puzzle, Scholars,” a disembodied voice from outside our room said over the intercom.
(photo by Sharon Hamilton / Key West Room Escape staff)
When Ernest Hemingway and his second wife, Pauline, arrived in Key West, in April 1928, they had planned to spend about six weeks there, soaking in paradise, then drive to Pauline's ancestral home in Piggott, Arkansas, in a brand new Model A Ford that her uncle Gus had bought for the couple. But Ernest, already unimpressed with the view, and uncomfortable wearing a suit and tie, was miserable from all the heat, and getting testy. Thoughts of making a quick getaway toward Arkansas were already crossing Hemingway's mind when he went looking for the Ford. But the car was nowhere to be found.
He called up the local Ford dealership, Trevor and Morris, and found out that the vehicle had yet to arrive from Miami. Built by Benjamin Trevor and George Morris in 1919, the Trevor and Morris Ford dealership had its offices located in the lower section of the building at 314 Simonton Street, while the upper sections were rental rooms, known as the Trev-Mor Hotel. The establishment's owners were extremely apologetic about the delay, and insisted the Hemingways utilize an apartment located above the garage during the duration of their stay, while they waited for the car to be delivered. Ernest, drenched in sweat and completely pissed off, grudgingly took them up on the offer. He wasn’t happy about the situation or the locale—but then he took off his tie and jacket, slipped on a pair of shorts, and surprisingly found that Key West's heat and laid-back atmosphere completely agreed with him.
Once settled into their apartment, Hemingway immediately resumed work on A Farewell to Arms. It was somewhat ironic that a book half-completed in Paris while living in an apartment above a sawmill was now being worked on while living in an apartment above a garage in Key West. But it wasn’t all work, and shortly after becoming settled, Hemingway began meeting individuals who became important to both his personal life and his writing: including one of his closest, lifelong friends Charles Thompson.
Over the six weeks the Hemingways stayed in Key West, living in their Simonton apartment, Ernest had not only written part of A Farewell to Arms but had also assembled a "Key West Mob" of cronies with whom to convene upon the town; found a favorite drinking establishment; met the inspirations for the short story After the Storm, and the books To Have and Have Not and The Old Man and the Sea; and discovered the joys of deep-sea fishing. Eventually, though, the Ford was delivered.
In late May 1928, the Hemingways left Key West. Upon leaving, Ernest asked Charles Thompson's wife, Lorine, one favor: to find the couple a house for the next winter. The Thompsons really didn't expect them to return. But much to Charles’s surprise, the Hemingways came back two more times; and then, in 1930, Ernest announced that Key West was where he had decided to hang his hat.
If it hadn't been for a simple delay in receiving a Ford, the intertwining of Key West with Hemingway's life, work, and wives most likely would have been completely different. He probably would not have met Martha and eventually Mary. He would not have encountered characters and situations that led to the novel To Have and Have Not (which also means we would not have the wonderful and absolutely-nothing-to-do-with-the-book film starring Bogart and Bacall). He probably would never have moved to Cuba; probably wouldn't have bought the Pilar, nor taken up deep-sea fishing; and he most likely would have never lived the life that eventually led him to writing The Old Man and the Sea. He might not have been the Hemingway that we know today if he had escaped Key West.
Having collected all the clues, we deciphered the final combination, opened the lock, and pressed the button labeled “Escape.” We had managed to extricate ourselves from “Papa’s Spooky Study!” with the page of A Farewell to Arms in hand, and did so in just over an hour (thanks to the gift of a little extra courtesy time from our hosts). Laughing and panting, we earned “Almost!!!” stickers and key lime-flavored candies. Posing for a photo afterward, we knew our joyful Key West Room Escape experience was an appropriate homage in Hemingway’s former apartment on this island that meant so much to him—where he made it by not getting out.
Sharon Hamilton is a member of the Hemingway Society Board. She has blogged previously for the Hemingway Society about visiting Hemingway and Hadley’s Chicago Apartment and about Hemingway’s New Orleans.
John Hargrove is a Michigan-based writer and Hemingway researcher; he is also the founder of "Ernest Hemingway: The True Gen," an online community of Hemingway researchers and aficionados hosted on social media. He has blogged previously for the Hemingway Society about Hemingway's Socket Photo and Hemingway's High Carnival Next, a very early newspaper article.
Together, Hamilton and Hargrove have blogged about Hemingway in Buffalo, Wyoming; Pamplona, Spain; and Petoskey, Michigan.