Jack Kerouac's Home in Orlando - The Kerouac Project

The Kerouac Project began with a chance discovery by Bob Kealing, a reporter with the Orlando area NBC affiliate and free lance writer. In 1996 he learned that Jack Kerouac had been living in a c. 1920 Orlando cottage when his classic work ON THE ROAD was published to worldwide acclaim in 1957 and where he actually typed the original manuscript of his sequel, DHARMA BUMS. However, none of Kerouac’s biographers had even mentioned this historic house, and neither Orlando nor the State of Florida had taken any steps to preserve it.

The house was merely part of the lore of College Park, a cozy northwest Orlando neighborhood. But, very few people knew where it was, and nobody knew of its historical significance. Kealing called Kerouac’s brother-in-law and estate executor John Sampas, who told him the exact address; 1418 & 1/2 Clouser Avenue. It turned out that Kerouac and his mother shared this home, during the time Kerouac evolved from anonymous writer, to the foremost voice of the Beat Generation. He also wrote or worked on numerous pieces from the time he moved in (July of 1957), until he continued on his peripatetic journey in the Spring of 1958. Therein lies the home’s historical value on a local and national level.

BOB KEELING is a TV Reporter in Orlando, Florida and the author of 2002's "Kerouac in Florida: Where the Road Ends".  He was a founding member of The Kerouac Project, saving Jack's house from demolition, restoring it and creating The Writer's and Residence Program