Ensconce yourself within the ocean-inspired design of our rooms while looking out over the harbor and pools from your private balcony.
Our Key West story starts at the seaport, the island’s old working waterfront. Wrecking once made this the wealthiest city in America, the treasure one man spent sixteen years chasing sits a short walk away, and the old turtle kraals have a museum of their own.
Key West is close to perfect, far from normal, and nowhere is that clearer than in its museums. From shipwreck salvagers and literary legends to a president’s hideaway, haunted dolls, flamingos, and even a firehouse with a Hemingway connection, these are the ones you don’t want to miss.
281 Front Street | Distance from The Marker: 0.4 miles
You can see it flying in, by land or by sea: the big red brick building at 281 Front Street. It opened in 1891 as the island’s Custom House, post office, federal courthouse, and lighthouse district offices, back when Key West needed all four under one roof.
In 1898, the courtrooms upstairs hosted proceedings on the sinking of the USS Maine, the event that pushed America into the Spanish-American War.
Today it’s home to the Key West Art & Historical Society. The museum’s permanent collection and changing exhibitions cover more than two centuries of Key West life: art, writers, railroads, maritime history, and the people who shaped the island. Current and future exhibitions change, so there’s always a reason to return.
200 Greene Street | Distance from The Marker: 0.5 miles
For 16 years, treasure hunter Mel Fisher and his crew searched the waters off the Florida Keys for the Nuestra Señora de Atocha, a Spanish galleon that sank in 1622. Fisher kept his crew going with the same mantra: “Today’s the day.” In 1985, it finally was.
Inside the museum, you’ll see silver bars and coins, gold, emeralds, jewelry, and other artifacts recovered from the Atocha and its sister ship, the Santa Margarita. You’ll also learn about Mel Fisher himself, the treasure he spent years chasing, and the personal tragedy that came with the search.
The museum goes far beyond sunken treasure. The Henrietta Marie, an English slave ship, sank about 35 miles west of Key West in 1700, shortly after selling 191 captive Africans in Jamaica. In 1995, the museum created A Slave Ship Speaks: The Wreck of the Henrietta Marie, the first major museum exhibition in the country devoted to a ship in the transatlantic slave trade, developed with the nation’s leading scholars of African-American history. It toured the U.S. and Caribbean for nearly 20 years and was seen by more than 3 million people. Today, the exhibit is back home at the Mel Fisher Maritime Museum. Ask about the behind-the-scenes Conservation Lab Tour.
Did you know? The Mel Fisher Maritime Museum is the only fully accredited museum in the Florida Keys.
200 Margaret Street (Seasonal) | Distance from The Marker: 0.2 miles
Sea turtles were once big business in Key West, and the pens that held them, called kraals, still give this stretch of the waterfront its name. The Key West Turtle Museum, operated by the Mel Fisher Maritime Museum, tells that story. For generations, turtling was an important part of the island’s economy, with turtles brought to the waterfront and kept in the kraals before being processed for meat, soup, and other products. The industry eventually helped push sea turtle populations to dangerously low levels. Today, the museum traces that turtling past and the conservation efforts that followed.
Archaeological excavations of the former turtle kraals uncovered thousands of artifacts and turtle bones, helping researchers piece together this chapter of Key West history even further.
Good to know: Admission is free, and the museum is open seasonally, so check its website before heading over.
1 Whitehead Street, Mallory Square | Distance from The Marker: 0.5 miles
While taking a stroll by Mallory Square, you may feel like you’re on the set of 1850s Key West, when shipwreck salvage was big business and news of a wreck could send crews racing for the docks. That’s the Shipwreck Treasure Museum doing its job.
Costumed storytellers, films, and artifacts bring the wrecking era to life, including treasures recovered from the Isaac Allerton, a merchant ship that sank in 1856 and remains the richest shipwreck in Key West’s history. You can try lifting a real silver bar recovered from a Spanish galleon, then climb the 65-foot lookout tower for a view over Mallory Square and the harbor.
Did you know? Key West’s wreckers weren’t pirates. They were licensed salvagers who were paid a share of the value of the ships and cargo they helped save.
1 Whitehead Street, Mallory Square | Distance from The Marker: 0.5 miles
The Key West Aquarium opened in 1935 as the first open-air aquarium in the United States, and it was the island’s first tourist attraction.
Time your visit around the feedings and talks, which are included with admission, and watch the sharks, rays, and sea turtles eat while the staff tell you about the animals living in the waters around Key West.
Don’t miss the 50,000-gallon Atlantic Shores exhibit, where nurse sharks swim alongside tarpon, grouper, and jacks. Kids can get their hands wet at the touch tank, home to queen conchs, sea stars, and horseshoe crabs. And four rescued sea turtles live here because they can’t survive in the wild, including Lola and Rocky, the first and second sea turtles in the world to receive biomimetic prosthetic flippers.
111 Front Street, Truman Annex | Distance from The Marker: 0.6 miles
Harry Truman came to Key West in 1946 on doctor’s orders to rest, and then he kept coming back. Eleven working vacations between 1946 and 1952, 175 days in all, running the country from a house at the edge of a naval base.
He penned the Truman Doctrine in this house. He worked on the Marshall Plan here. In 1948, the Joint Chiefs of Staff sat in this house and merged the Departments of War and the Navy. In between, he swam, he fished, he played poker most nights, and he wrote his wife Bess that he had a notion to move the capital to Key West and just stay.
When you walk in, you feel like you’re stepping back in time. The original furnishings, his personal belongings, the desk with the famous “The Buck Stops Here” sign, the custom poker table. Nothing staged, nothing behind glass.
There are guided tours, and even a VIP White Glove Tour with behind-the-scenes access and a ride in one of the limousines from his presidential fleet.
Did you know? The Harry S. Truman Little White House is Florida’s only presidential museum.
Truman Waterfront Park, Southard Street | Distance from The Marker: 1.2 miles
The museum is the ship itself.
You climb aboard the USCGC Ingham and explore the decks and preserved spaces where Coast Guard crews lived and worked. It’s one thing to read about life aboard a military ship and another to stand on the bridge, look into the crew’s quarters, and see how much had to fit inside a vessel built for long stretches at sea. Visits are self-guided.
Commissioned in 1936 and decommissioned in 1988, the Ingham served for 52 years and became the most decorated cutter in Coast Guard history. She escorted convoys across the Atlantic during World War II and was credited with sinking the German submarine U-626. She later served in Vietnam and took part in rescue operations during the Mariel Boatlift.
Today, she is a National Historic Landmark, permanently docked at Truman Waterfront, and serves as the National Memorial to Coast Guard members killed in action during World War II and Vietnam.
Did you know? The Ingham opens its decks for a sunset happy hour, one hour before sundown, with a clear view of the sunset and none of the Mallory Square crowd. It’s separate from regular museum hours, so check the ship’s calendar before you go.
35 East Quay Road, Truman Waterfront | Distance from The Marker: 1.1 miles
A red mangrove reaches out of one corner with its whole root system; press a button and guess which animal is calling. Retractable cylinders open to reveal seagrass habitat, urchins, and crabs.
An electron microscope brings coral structures into focus and shows how the tiny animals called polyps built them, alongside MOTE Marine Lab’s recreation of an in-water coral nursery.
More than 2,000 ships have wrecked in sanctuary waters, and the maritime exhibit puts you over the wreck sites, with a cannon from the 1733 Spanish fleet. There’s a replica of the Aquarius undersea research lab, and a 20-minute film runs on a loop in the 100-seat theater.
Run by the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, the center has 6,000 square feet of exhibit space. Admission is free, and so is the parking. Visits are self-paced, with staff and volunteers on site to answer questions.
205 Whitehead Street | Distance from The Marker: 0.4 miles
Visits begin with a short introduction from the staff, and then the house and tropical gardens are yours to explore at your own pace.
Inside are original hand-colored Audubon engravings and antiques from the first half of the 19th century, including pieces that belonged to the Geiger family, the home’s original owners. In the gardens stands a recreated 1850s cook house, built the way island kitchens were, outdoors, to keep the heat and the fire risk away from the home.
Upstairs, the Audubon Experience room is a walk-in tribute with hand-painted wallpaper, flowers cascading from the ceiling, and Audubon’s birds everywhere.
Here’s the part that surprises people: John James Audubon never lived in the Audubon House.
He visited Key West in 1832 and painted several birds in the area; the house came later, built between 1846 and 1849 by Captain John Huling Geiger, a harbor pilot and one of the island’s wealthiest wreckers, after a hurricane leveled much of the town.
Four generations of Geigers lived here across nearly 110 years, and the last, a recluse who spent his final decades alone in the shuttered house without electricity or running water, died in 1956. By 1958, the decaying mansion was slated for demolition to make way for a gas station, until Mitchell and Frances Wolfson stepped in. In 1960, it opened as a museum in Audubon’s honor.
Did you know? The Wolfsons’ rescue of this house sparked Key West’s historic preservation movement.
322 Duval Street | Distance from The Marker: 0.4 miles
Tucked between the shops and bars of Duval Street, the Oldest House Museum is the oldest surviving residence in South Florida, and its shaded Tom Majors Garden is one of the quietest spots on Duval.
Inside, exhibits and historic furnishings tell the story of early Key West: the wrecking industry, maritime commerce, and the family that lived here through the city’s heyday.
Behind the house stands the last remaining original cookhouse in Key West, dating to about 1838, built apart from the home in part because of the ever-present danger of kitchen fires.
The house dates to 1829, built by Richard Cussans, a young immigrant from the Bahamas, and it has endured fires, hurricanes, and nearly two centuries of change.
Captain Francis Watlington and his wife Emeline, who had nine daughters, later made it their family home. And if you like a little Key West ghost lore, tour guides will tell you the Watlingtons never really left.
Since 1974, the property has been cared for by the Old Island Restoration Foundation, which works to preserve Key West’s historic architecture and heritage.
Did you know? The Oldest House is owned by the State of Florida, and for more than six decades, the foundation’s Key West Home Tours have opened the doors of private homes across Key West during the winter season.
604 Whitehead Street | Distance from The Marker: 0.7 miles
The Glass Menagerie. A Streetcar Named Desire. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.
The plays that changed American theater came from a man who chose Key West as his home for more than three decades, longer than he lived anywhere else, and he is believed to have finished a final draft of A Streetcar Named Desire right here on the island.
This museum preserves those years: his typewriter, first editions, rare photographs, and the story of his work and his personal life on the island.
Williams's story doesn't stop at the museum. Take a walk to South Beach at the foot of Duval, where you'll see a sign in the sand that reads: "Tennessee Williams, who swam at this beach every morning, said, 'I work everywhere, but I work best here.'" While you're there, take in the view and grab something to eat and drink at the Southernmost Beach Cafe before you head out to your next stop.
907 Whitehead Street | Distance from The Marker: 0.9 miles
Ernest Hemingway lived in this house from 1931 to 1939, during one of the most productive stretches of his career.
He worked in the second-floor studio of the carriage house out back, and built a wrought-iron catwalk from the main house straight to the studio door. The work from those years includes Green Hills of Africa, The Snows of Kilimanjaro, The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber, and To Have and Have Not, his novel set in the Depression-era Key West just outside his gate.
The other residents are the Hemingway cats.
Dozens of them roam the property, many six-toed, descended from Snow White, a polydactyl cat given to Hemingway by a sea captain, and each one is named after a famous person, a tradition Papa started and the museum staff keeps going today.
Your ticket covers either a guided or self-guided visit, and the guides are worth the time: ask about the penny by the pool, pressed into the wet cement when Hemingway saw what Pauline’s pool had cost, and the urinal he hauled home from Sloppy Joe’s, which she tiled over and turned into the fountain the cats still drink from.
The Marker features old-school writer's desks inspired by Ernest Hemingway, so if the studio leaves you itching to write, you'll feel right at home.
Did you know? Hemingway only wrote in the mornings, from six until noon. Afternoons were for fishing or boxing.
938 Whitehead Street | Distance from The Marker: 1.0 mile
Eighty-eight steps, and every one of them is worth it.
From the top, you get one of the best views of the island. The Keeper’s Quarters below tells the story of the people who kept the light burning through hurricanes and isolation, including Barbara Mabrity, who tended it for decades and was still climbing the tower in her eighties.
Did you know? The Key West Lighthouse Sunset Experience offers a small private group access to the tower, the Keeper’s Quarters, and the grounds at sunset, with wine included, featuring 360-degree views over the historic district and the ocean. Reservations are a must, and because it’s limited to a small group, book before you get here.
1316 Duval Street | Distance from The Marker: 1.2 miles
What makes the Key West Butterfly & Nature Conservatory special is that you’re part of it, walking through a tropical garden while hundreds of butterflies fly around you, settle on the flowers, and every so often land on you.
Birds move through the trees, turtles rest near the water, and Rhett and Scarlett, the resident flamingos, wander through like they own the place.
It’s an easy place to lose track of time. Anyone who visits can slow down for a few minutes in a space that feels calm and alive.
For an extra memorable visit, book the Flamingle experience. Just six guests a day get time near Rhett and Scarlett as they move freely around the garden. It’s quiet, up close, and far more personal than a photo from across the room. Reservations are required, and it books up well in advance.
Did you know? This is believed to be the only butterfly conservatory in the United States that also houses flamingos.
1024 Grinnell Street | Distance from The Marker: 0.9 miles
A fire chief who vanished in 1976, the bell that tolled for Ernest Hemingway that you’re welcome to touch, a 1929 fire engine kids can climb into, and retired firefighters telling you the stories: that’s the Alex Vega Key West Firehouse Museum.
It fills Old Firehouse No. 3, home of the Sunnysouth Engine Company and Tiger Hose Company No. 3 from 1907 until it was decommissioned in 1998, with more than 4,000 square feet of Key West firefighting history.
Inside are the original bunk room, the Wall of Chiefs, antique call boxes, a 1906 cemetery fire bell, and the desk and uniform of Chief Bum Farto, who disappeared in 1976 and was never found.
A 30-minute audio tour walks you through it on your phone. Kids can climb behind the wheel of the 1929 fire engine, try on a real firefighter’s helmet, ring the bells, and hunt for Dalmatians hidden around the firehouse. It’s air-conditioned, and they’ll hand you a cold drink on your way in.
Did you know? This is one of the oldest firehouses in Florida and the southernmost fire station in the continental United States.
3501 South Roosevelt Boulevard | Distance from The Marker: 3.4 miles
Fort East Martello is the island's first museum and the home of Robert the Doll, one of the most haunted dolls in the world.
Let’s talk about the fort first, since it was here first.
Fort East Martello was built in case of a Confederate sea assault. A Civil War fortification that was never completed and never saw battle, it sat in ruin until 1950, when the Key West Art & Historical Society and an army of volunteers cleared out decades of debris and opened it as the island’s first museum, restored to its original 1860s design.
The exhibits inside run Key West’s whole fighting and working history, from the Civil War through the Spanish-American War, both World Wars, and the Cuban Missile Crisis, alongside the wrecking and cigar-making trades, Stanley Papio’s welded-metal sculptures, and Mario Sanchez’s painted carvings.
Now let’s talk about Robert the Doll.
Believe it or not, Robert the Doll even receives mail. Real letters, arriving for decades, most of them apologies from visitors who laughed at his story or photographed him without asking, then went home to bad luck they’d rather not risk twice.
He spent nearly seventy years as the companion of Key West artist Gene Otto, who blamed him by name as a boy: “I didn’t do it. Robert did it.”
Greet him, ask before you take his picture, and if you want him after dark, the society runs a nighttime Robert the Doll Experience.
Rates and hours can change throughout the year, so visit the official museum websites for current hours, special exhibits, and ticketing packages.
A Note on Ticket Savings
Which Key West museums are must-sees?
Start with the Mel Fisher Maritime Museum and the Key West Museum of Art & History at the Custom House, which are in that same area as the Audubon House and the Truman Little White House. Whitehead Street will lead you from there to the Hemingway Home and the Lighthouse, sitting right across the street from each other. And if you're into ghosts, go meet Robert the Doll at Fort East Martello.
How long should I plan for each museum?
Plan an hour to an hour and a half for the bigger ones like Hemingway, Truman, and Mel Fisher. The smaller stops take 30 minutes to an hour.
Are Key West museums walkable?
Yes, most of the museums on this list sit within about a mile of The Marker Key West Harbor Resort.
Are there any free museums in Key West?
A few don’t charge admission, though donations are always appreciated. The Florida Keys Eco-Discovery Center is free, and the seasonal Key West Turtle Museum is too.
Which museums are best with kids?
There’s sunken treasure at the Mel Fisher Maritime Museum, costumed storytellers and a lookout tower at the Key West Shipwreck Treasure Museum, a touch tank at the Key West Aquarium, a president’s Little White House, the USCGC Ingham to climb aboard, Hemingway’s famous six-toed cats, butterflies and flamingos at the Butterfly Conservatory, a lighthouse to climb, Robert the Doll at Fort East Martello, and a 1929 fire engine at the Firehouse Museum.
There are so many stories to be told in Key West, and once you're here, you'll find there's always more to discover. Step straight out of The Marker Key West Harbor Resort and into the island's rich past, then come back for a drink and maybe a dip or two in the pool. If you're staying a while or bringing the whole crew, take a look at our suites and residences. #lovethemarker
August 02, 2026
The best travel companion you'll ever have is you.
July 01, 2026
Do you know about the best kept secret by the seaport? Today we're letting you in on ours: the suites and residences at The Marker Key West Harbor Resort.
Waterfront Luxury
Ensconce yourself within the ocean-inspired design of our rooms while looking out over the harbor and pools from your private balcony.
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