Jack Kerouac’s Last Home to Be Sold

In 1964, when Jack Kerouac moved to St. Petersburg, Florida, he probably didn’t know that he was going to spend the rest of his life there. The core member of the Beat Generation had relocated with his third wife and his mother to a modest one-floor house, where, according to the Tampa Bay Times, he did some writing. And sometimes he frequented local establishments such as Haslam’s Book Store and the Wild Boar, a bar in Tampa. 

But in 1969 Kerouac’s years of heavy drinking caught up with him. He died from cirrhosis after heaving up blood at the home. Nearly 50 years later, the house is still part of his estate, though John Sampas, the author’s nephew, recently told the Times that it would be sold to caretakers with the hope that it would eventually be turned into a museum. 

The condition of the interior of the house is a bit of a mystery at the moment, but whoever buys it will inherit a few problems noticeable from the outside, such as the overgrown lawn and missing mailbox, which had apparently been stolen. No price has been named and no buyer selected, but Sampas said the goal is less profit than preservation. “The value of the property is its history,” he told the Times. “It is not about the highest bidder. I want to find a group or person with a good vision for the house who can execute the plan.”