Compleat Angler Hotel
The Compleat Angler Hotel was a simple three story hotel on North Bimini , Alice Town in the Bahamas . It was built by Henry and Helen Duncombe in 1935 after their first house, "The Dower House", was destroyed by fire in November of the previous year. The house was damaged by a hurricane in 1936. Henry Duncombe, as commissioner, was the leading official on the island during Prohibition ; he died in the house in 1949. His wife ran the hotel until 1973 when it was sold to a Brown family.
The hotel became famous for Ernest Hemingway , who was a regular guest there from 1935 to 1937 and who is said to have worked here on To Have and Have Not . The hotel later became an attraction on the island. One room was dedicated to the writer and showed pictures of successful anglers and their trophies . Many later visitors followed Hemingway's example and played ring throwing with the lids of beer cans.
Other well-known guests included Lucille Ball , Zane Gray , Gamal Abdel Nasser and Gary Hart , US Senator from Colorado , who had to give up his hopes for a presidential nomination in 1988 because he was in a compromising manner in the lounge with Donna Rice Hughes was photographed.
On January 13, 2006, the hotel was destroyed by fire. The owner Julian Brown was killed while rescuing a guest.
Web links
Coordinates: 25 ° 43 ′ 30 " N , 79 ° 17 ′ 54.3" W.