A house with history

In 1996, when Bob Kealing, a reporter with the Orlando area NBC television affiliate and a freelance writer, learned Jack Kerouac had lived in the area he began investigating. He eventually learned from John Sampas, Jack Kerouac’s brother-in-law and executor of his estate, that the circa 1920 cottage was located at 1418½ Clouser Avenue, College Park.

Kerouac and his mother had shared a two-room apartment at the back of the house from July 1957 until spring 1958. Bob Kealing soon discovered the cottage was still standing, but in a state of disrepair.

The idea developed to establish a nonprofit corporation that would buy the cottage, refurbish it, and establish it as a haven for up-and-coming writers and a unique tribute to the literary legacy of Jack Kerouac in Central Florida.

The Kerouac Project of Orlando was born.