Ernest Hemingway's Birthplace Museum is nestled just west of downtown Chicago in Oak Park, Illinois. This is the ideal place to begin exploring the roots of the author's life and work. It is here that Ernest Hemingway was born in a second floor bedroom on July 21, 1899. This Queen Anne home was built in 1890 by his maternal grandparents and was the first home in Oak Park to have electricity. The famed Pulitzer Prize winning author spent the first six years of his life at what is now 339 N. Oak Park Ave. The restoration, which began in 1992, authentically returned the house to its 1890s’ Victorian heritage; ensuring that your experience of the furnishings and stories told reflect the young man who lived there.
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Take a moment and stand in front of this beautiful Victorian residence, with its expansive porch and grand turret and be prepared to take a small step back in time. As you stroll up the wooden walkway to the front door, you begin to see what life was like at the turn of the 20th century. The home was designed by architect Wesley Arnold and built in 1890 for Ernest Hall, Hemingway's maternal grandfather, and maintains many of its original features that even Ernest would find familiar.
The foundation for Ernest Hemingway's life and work can be found in Oak Park, Ill. His first 20 years in this Chicago suburb, with prairies and woods to the west, prepared him for his life as a writer. Learn more about Hemingway & Oak Park by clicking HERE
