The Ernest Hemingway Cottage, also known as Windemere, was a boyhood summer home of author, Ernest Hemingway on Walloon Lake located South of Petoskey, Michigan.  The cottage was built in 1900 and was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1968.  The architect was Grace Hall Hemingway, Ernest Hemingway's mother.

The Hemingway family in 1905

Marcelline, Madelaine, Clarence, Grace, Ursula and Ernest

6502 Lake Grove Road

Circa 1920

The Hemingway Cottage is a single-story frame structure with a gabled roof and white clapboard siding measuring 20 feet by 40 feet.  The main section of the cottage contains the sleeping and living rooms, along with a bathroom and utility closet.  A smaller section contains the kitchen and a breezeway, orginally screened, but now enclosed connects the two sides.  The interior is covered with unpainted clapboard.  The kitchen has been modernized.  A smaller "annex" building constructed a few years after the main cottage stands a few yards away.  A modern garage is located behind the cottage. 

In 1898, Dr. Clarence Hemingway and his wife, Grace purchased four lots at this site on the shore of Walloon Lake.  In 1899, they identified a location to construct a cottage.  In 1900, the couple spent $400 to have this cottage constructed on the site which they dubbed "Windermere".  The family spent summers at the cottage.  Their son, Ernest born in 1899 spent every summer at the cottage from 1900-1920. 

In 1921, Hemingway and Hadley Richardson honeymooned at the cottage.  Hemingway returned to the cottage only once more in his lifetime in the early 1950s. After his mother passed, Hemingway was willed the cottage.  Although he did not visit, he retained ownership until his own passing in 1961.  At this request, Hemingway's widow transferred ownership of the cottage to his young sister, Madelaine who used it until her own passing.  It later was given to Hemingway's nephew, Ernie Mainland.  When the nephew passed in 2001 and was survived by his wife, Judy and their son, Ken.

Hemingway used the northern Michigan setting in a number of his works most featuring his character named Nick Adams.  The cottage appears in several of his novels.

Ernest Miller Hemingway

1899-1961