Mark Weyermuller didn’t drive a Red Cross ambulance in Italy during World War I, hang out in Paris during the 1920s, shoot big game in Africa, or write novels in Europe, Florida, and Cuba. But Weyermuller does have one thing in common with Ernest Hemingway: he lives in the brownstone at 1239 N. Dearborn, where the writer once lived on the fourth floor with Hadley Richardson, his first wife. The apartment was so cramped and shabby looking that Hadley supposedly avoided it as much as possible. The newlyweds only lived there for about four months.
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Hemingway first moved to Chicago in 1920 when he was 21, after his mother kicked him out of the family’s summer home in northern Michigan for loafing, pleasure seeking, freeloading, and being a bad influence on the area youths. Hemingway gladly moved to the near north side, where he lived mostly with friends who were willing to give him free room and board until he found a job.
“We were the third owners of the building,” he says. “Someone by the name of Gorman was the second owner. Hemingway moved in when Gorman owned the place. And then there was the original owner, who built the place as a single-family dwelling around 1890. By the time Hemingway moved in, the building had been turned into small apartment units.”
“Can you believe it? I only got a B-minus on this. I know I deserved a better grade than that.
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): photo/Eugene Zakusilo.
