Help us protect the home of one of America’s greatest writers.
Dear Friends,
In early April, Executive Director Stephanie Bond and Senior Advisor Mary-Jo Adams traveled to Cuba to visit Finca Vigía, Ernest Hemingway’s beloved Cuban home. Despite ongoing nationwide power outages, we are happy to report that the onsite Restoration Center remains in remarkably excellent condition.
Because of your support in building this state-of-the-art archival storage vault and conservation laboratory, Ernest Hemingway’s most precious documents continue to be safely preserved.
We are deeply grateful for your generosity.
Though the materials housed in the archival vault are safe and secure, the historic house continues to suffer. The damaging effects of humidity, termites, hurricanes, and intense tropical sunlight have put the house and collections within at risk.
To help mitigate this problem, our Foundation will soon export six historically accurate, hurricane and termite-resistant windows to replace the most severely deteriorated units. Our team of US-based experts is ready to travel to Havana for the installation.
We need your help to complete this phase of the project. Your tax-deductible contribution will make it possible.
Thank you!
Finca Vigía Foundation Receives Grant from the Richard Hampton Jenrette Foundation
The Finca Vigía Foundation is pleased to announce the award of a $25,000 grant from the Richard Hampton Jenrette Foundation to support ongoing preservation work at Finca Vigía, Ernest Hemingway’s home in San Francisco de Paula, Cuba.
The grant will specifically support a Preservation Assessment Survey and be an educational training opportunity in historic preservation. This assessment will provide a prioritized, sustainable roadmap for the long-term stewardship of the historic house and its collections.
As part of this initiative, the Foundation is pleased to announce that Norma Jessica Cardenas-Flores has been selected as the Finca Vigía Foundation’s 2026 Graduate Fellow. Norma is from Texas and is pursuing a Master of Science in Architecture at the University of Texas at San Antonio, along with certificates in High-Performance Design and Sustainability and Historic Preservation.
Norma will work under the guidance of internationally respected preservation professionals, architect William Dupont and conservator Luisa Casella, assisting with research, documentation, and conservation planning related to Hemingway’s home and its collections.
The Richard Hampton Jenrette Foundation is nationally recognized for its commitment to advancing education in historic preservation, historic trades, curatorship, and architectural history. Through its support of internships and graduate assistantships, the Foundation helps prepare the next generation of leaders dedicated to safeguarding historic places and collections.
OUR MISSION
From the Executive Director
Foundation News
Hemingway’s Finca Vigía: Preserving American Cultural Heritage
From an essay by Dr. Sandra Spanier
Finca Vigía is the fitting home of the treasure trove of papers and books, some still in need of being restored, preserved, and scanned. But the importance of Finca Vigía extends far beyond serving as the natural repository for the Hemingway papers and books. The house itself tells the story of Hemingway’s life and work. Not only did he write IN the house, he even wrote ON its very walls: to this day, one can read on the bathroom walls Hemingway’s penciled daily records of his weight, along with some pithy notations about what he ate or drank.