Havana , Cuba ( CNN ) -- Ernest Hemingway has n't lived here in over 50 years but Finca Vigia is still his home . In the garden there 's his boat `` the Pilar '' used to hunt marlin and then Nazi subs off Cuba during World War II . Scrawled on a bathroom wall next to a scale are the daily records of what the writer weighed . Lizards and frogs he caught rest in jars filled with formaldehyde . Antelopes and buffalo heads taken as trophies from African safaris decorate the walls . Yellowing Time and The Field magazines are still on the shelves . Now a museum , a visitor to Finca Vigia or `` lookout farm , '' could be mistaken for thinking Hemingway might walk in the door at any second . `` Our philosophy was to recover the environment and surroundings , '' said Ada Rosa Alfonso Rosales , the museum 's curator . `` This was not just a mere house , this was his home . '' Hemingway lived in the home on a hilltop on the outskirts of Havana from 1939 to 1960 . The years were pivotal ones for the famed American writer and for his adopted home of Cuba . Life.com : Ernest Hemingway 's life in photos . In 1953 , Hemingway won the Pulitzer Prize for his book the `` Old Man and the Sea '' about an aging Cuban fisherman 's epic duel with a marlin . Six years later revolutionaries led by Fidel Castro took control of the island , leading to the eventual breakdown in relations with the United States . Battling depression , Hemingway killed himself in Ketchum , Idaho in 1961 . Even though the Finca Vigia receives over 40,000 visitors a year , the house nearly fell victim to Cuba 's unforgiving environment . `` This is a very humid climate , '' Alfonso said . `` We 're on top of a hill where winds and even hurricanes batter the house . '' In 2005 , the National Trust for Historic Preservation called the house `` a preservation emergency , '' citing roof leaks and shifting foundations that endangered the house . One of the people who came to the house 's rescue was Jenny Phillips , the granddaughter of Maxwell Perkins , the editor who first pushed for Hemingway 's work to be published and worked with the writer for the rest of his life . `` I realized we could help because of my connection to Ernest Hemingway through my grandfather , '' Phillips said . `` That we could bring about a collaboration between the United States and Cuba which after 50 years of embargo little collaboration has happened between the two countries and yet here was this shared cultural legacy , deeply appreciated by the Cuban people and the American people . '' Phillips started the Finca Vigia Foundation , navigating the bureaucracies of two countries and restrictions of the U.S. embargo to bring restoration experts to the project . One of those experts was home improvement icon Bob Vila , who is also Cuban-American . Vila said helping to save Hemingway 's house transcends politics . `` It 's the best cultural bridge we could have hoped for between the American people and the Cuban people . And I emphasize people , I am not talking governments , '' Vila told CNN . `` The Cuban people and the American people have a warm relationship that goes back many decades . It 's a very important project . '' Life.com : Fidel Castro mingles with celebrities . In $ 1 million renovation , the Cuban government restored the main house on the property . Curators estimate another $ 1 million is needed to save a collapsing guest house on the property , repair Hemingway 's cracked swimming pool and build a workshop to restore thousands of original documents . Until then , restorers are carefully packing up Hemingway 's letters and writings to protect them from further decay . `` He gathered ideas and wrote about them in the margins in the books , '' Phillips said . `` And that 'marginalia ' has never been seen before by scholars outside of Cuba . '' Eventually those writings will be digitized and exhibited at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston , Massachusetts . Already , Hemingway 's Cuba writings have solved one mystery for Jenny Phillips . `` What I always noticed was that they called each other 'Dear Mr. Perkins , Dear Mr. Hemingway , ' she said . `` Then one day they started saying 'Dear Max , Dear Ernest . '' How did that happen ? '' A letter from Cuba following Hemingway 's father 's suicide in 1928 provided the answer . `` Hemingway was extremely distraught , '' Phillips said . `` There 's a post-script in that letter , 'For God 's sake will you unmister me anyway . ' `` `` Perkins was quite a bit older than Hemingway , '' his granddaughter Phillips said , `` and who Hemingway felt safe with and nurtured by , so this was a deepening in their relationship . ''
Ada Rosa Alfonso Rosales lived at Finca Vigia outside Cuba for over 20 years . The house , now a museum , receives over two visitors a year . Despite its popularity , Finca Vigia nearly fell victim to Havana 's humid , hurricane-prone environment . A team is navigating Havana embargo restrictions to bring restoration experts to the project .