IDAHO Residents win again: no tours of Hemingway home

The writer's widow turned the property over to the Nature Conservancy.
KETCHUM, Idaho (AP) -- Ernest Hemingway's last home is the only one of his three that isn't open to the public -- and it might never be if this resort town continues its opposition to making it more accessible.
Residents are fresh off their second victory in keeping the property's owner, The Nature Conservancy, from giving tours of the two-story house overlooking the Big Wood River.
Hemingway, a Nobel laureate, bought the house in 1959 and made it his permanent residence for two years, until he committed suicide at the age of 61. His homes in Key West, Fla., and Cuba are open to the public as is his birthplace in Oak Park, Ill.
"There's always two sides to everything," says Joan Anderson, a neighbor to Hemingway's widow, Mary, who turned the 13-acre estate over to the conservancy in 1986.
"But I recall her saying she looked hard to figure out what she was going to do with the property," Anderson said. "I really know she didn't want to make it public."
First proposal
The conservancy first proposed the tours in 1996 but was so roundly criticized that it dropped the idea almost immediately. The plan was revived last fall by the Idaho Hemingway House Foundation, which now manages the home for the conservancy.
Led by board vice chair Mariel Hemingway, the author's granddaughter, the foundation also wanted to restore the home, develop a scholarly library, conduct workshops and create a writer- or artist-in-residence program.
More objections
But objections persisted, this time coming not only from residents of the quiet neighborhood but also others concerned about commercialism and traffic.
Late last month, Geoff Pampush, the Idaho director for The Nature Conservancy, stepped in and pulled the zoning application in favor of more negotiations with neighbors.