F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald’s Airbnb

By Doyne Phillips, Managing Editor for Southern Writers Magazine

I wrote about F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “Great Disappointment” here on SWM's Suite T.  

Although he died with fame and fortune, he had yet to receive critical acclaim. This came after The Great Gatsby, which had over 14,000 pages, was totally reworked and the title changed from Trimalchio of West Egg. Fitzgerald is a great figure in American Literature and now I understand you can experience his and his wife Zelda’s life and works firsthand at the home they spent time in writing.

In 1986 this beautiful home, built in 1909 in the Montgomery, Alabama’s Old Cloverdale neighborhood, became The Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald Museum. It was the home of the couple from 1931 to 1932 where he wrote Tender is the Night and she the semi-autobiographical Save Me the Waltz.”

The homes upstairs had been divided into 4 apartments and in April 2018 one of those was opened as an Airbnb. Anyone in the public can spend the night. It is the only stop on the Southern Literary Trail you can overnight. You can check out the museums at https://www.thefitzgeraldmuseum.org/about-the-fitz. I think is has a spot on my bucket list.

Authors homes and homes featured in their stories have long been destinations of their readers. Visiting such places may bring their works to life. I wrote about several landmarks I have visited including The Turner-Ingersoll Mansion aka House of the Seven Gables, William Faulkner’s home Rowan Oak, and Andy Andrew’s Gulf Shore community featured in The Noticer.  You may want to check these out and make them part of your bucket list. 

We are fortunate to have these homes preserved and still available to us. I do enjoy them and hope to take further advantage of visiting others. If you have a favorite author’s home or place of interest in one of their stories please let me know. I too may want to add it to my list.