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Ernest Berry GastonWhat is now the city of Fairhope, Baldwin County, was established in 1894 as a model community based on what Ernest Berry Gaston, a young Iowa journalist and Populist Party officer, called "cooperative individualism," a term he introduced to the lexicon of American reform. To strike a balance
between the two extremes of unregulated individualism and state socialism, he advocated public ownership and operation of
so-called "natural monopolies" such as transportation, utilities, and communication while favoring free enterprise in the
areas of production and distribution. He envisioned a society that would simultaneously encourage individual initiative and
promote cooperative ventures and attitudes.
The Fairhope Plan
Fairhope Pier, 1920The centerpiece of the Fairhope plan came from the writings of Henry George, author of Progress and Poverty (1879) among other books. George argued that land should be common property, made available for use rather than speculative
profit. To achieve this end, he and his followers proposed to raise all government revenue from a single tax on land values,
akin to a rental charge for the use of commonly owned land. Fairhope thus became known as the Single Tax Colony. Its main
founding principle was that the value of land was created by the community, not the individual; the rent charged for the use
of the land thus constituted a group investment in the value of the community. The members chose the name Fairhope when one
of their number remarked that they had a "fair hope" of succeeding.
Originally called the Fairhope Industrial Association, the colony's name was changed in 1904 to the Fairhope Single Tax Corporation. In accordance with George's principle, the colony issued 99-year leases, free of charge, to its members (and later to non-members as well). In return for the annual payment of a single tax on the land value of the lease, the colony paid the lessee's local, county, and state property taxes.
Gaston was elected secretary of the yet-to-be-established colony as soon as its constitution was approved and held the position
for 41 of the next 43 years. While still in Iowa he served as editor of the Fairhope Courier, the colony-owned paper. He purchased it several years later and remained editor until his death in 1937. It continues to
be published in Fairhope. Through the Courier and other means he recruited members from various parts of the country. A search committee then visited several southern
sites. (The South was favored because land was cheaper and the weather warmer than in Iowa or other likely locations.) Gaston
then led the founding party to the chosen site on the eastern shore of Mobile Bay. The group, numbering 19 adults and nine
children, arrived on November 15, 1894. By 1900 the town included homes and stores, and the population had increased to 100.
Early History
The early history of the colony was fraught with disappointment and decisions that would eventually make fulfillment of its goals impossible. Unable to raise sufficient funds from national single taxers or other reformers, the colonists could not purchase enough contiguous land for their model community. Unable to attract enough members to live and work on the lands they did have, they were forced to open their settlement to non-members, many of whom opposed the founding principles. Their complaints about rent charges, among other things, led to the incorporation of the Town of Fairhope in 1908. The new town encompassed both colony and deeded land along with two different forms of government and revenue collection.
Fairhope Mayor and City Council, 1908The idealism, imagination, and tenacity of the colony's members, however, gave the community remarkable staying power and
a measure of fame. The policy of offering free land attracted industrious men and women of modest means who formed the backbone
of the town. The public improvements and community-owned utilities enhanced the quality of life for its residents as did especially
the communal bay-front parkland, all of which was designated as public property from the outset. Such amenities and idealistic
values brought writers, actors, artists, and craftspeople to the community, initiating an enduring commitment to creative
expression. In addition, a number of famous visitors enriched the intellectual and cultural life of the community and fostered
a cosmopolitan atmosphere.
A New Dynamism
Marietta Johnson School of Organic EducationIn 1907 Marietta Johnson, a Minnesota school teacher drawn to Fairhope by its reformist philosophy, founded the School of Organic Education in the town and opened it free of charge to local children. She also became a leader of the national progressive education
movement and turned what she called the "Fairhope Idea in Education" into a modest national force. The addition of the school
brought a new dynamism to the mission of the community. Like John Dewey, America's leading philosopher of progressive education,
Johnson argued that children reared on the competitive ethic of the American school system could not provide the necessary
foundation for the cooperative, reform-minded, justice-oriented citizens that the colonists wished to produce. With enthusiastic
colony support, her school worked to provide that foundation. Dewey himself came to visit in 1913 and liked what he saw: a
model of "how the ideal of equality of opportunity for all is to be transmuted into reality."
Dewey neglected to note that the "ideal of equality" was limited to white people. Johnson was aware that the system of racial segregation in the South violated her educational principles, and E. B. Gaston wrote that it was contrary to his commitment to equal access to land for everyone. Both also knew that their experiments in equality would be shut down by the surrounding white-supremacist culture were they to open their town and school to people of color. Both believed that the success of their demonstrations would, in time, help to break down racial prejudice. In Fairhope's case, however, that never happened.
Despite its segregated status, Fairhope's reputation as a reform-minded community continued to climb, reaching its height
in the 1920s. The population of the town when it was incorporated in 1908 was 569; by 1920 it had reached 853. During the
next 10 years it rose by more than 80 percent, reaching 1,549 in 1930, making Fairhope the largest town in the county. The
Organic School enrolled about half of the local children as well as many boarders from the North. The town appeared in numerous
articles and hosted many curious visitors to the school and the Single Tax Colony headquarters.
Watershed Years
Fairhope, 1946The Great Depression of the 1930s and the World War II era were watershed years in Fairhope's history. The Depression brought diminished funds, shrinking outside interest in both
the colony and the school, and the passing of the old leadership. E. B. Gaston died in 1937, Marietta Johnson in 1938. A new
generation of leaders kept the school and the colony functioning, but neither was ever again a dominant influence in the town.
During the war years the establishment of shipyards, an airforce base, and other war-related activities in nearby Mobile brought thousands of workers to south Alabama. Fairhope's population nearly doubled.
Fairhope City PierThis demographic revolution transformed Fairhope. The population increased steadily during the post-war years, and by the
early twenty-first century more than 12,000 people lived in the town. Fairhope gained a new reputation as both a resort community
and an enticing alternative to Florida for retirees. Few of the new residents understood or shared the sense of purpose that
had earlier defined the town. The architectural distinctiveness, marked by modest but appealing homes, began to disappear
as wealthy newcomers razed the old structures and built large, imposing homes, initiating what some critics have labeled McMansion
culture. The Single Tax Corporation no longer had the ability to control land speculation and had long-since run out of the
free land that had once been its raison d'être.
Fairhope currently advertises itself as "best known for its romantic, sweeping views of Mobile Bay and the storybook charm
of its shops and flowers." Politically the town's populace has moved to the right, but Fairhope remains home to a vibrant
and creative community of writers, artists, and free thinkers. However distant from its founding ideals, it retains its historic
magnetism.
Additional Resources
Alyea, Paul E., and Blanche R. Fairhope, 1894-1954: The Story of a Single Tax Colony. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1956.
Allums, Larry. Fairhope, 1894-1994: A Pictorial History. Virginia Beach, Va.: The Donning Company, 1994.
Dewey, John and Evelyn. Schools of Tomorrow. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1915.
Gaston, Paul M. Man and Mission: E. B. Gaston and the Origins of the Fairhope Single Tax Colony. Montgomery, Ala.: Black Belt Press, 1993.
———. Women of Fair Hope. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1984
———. "My Yellow Ribbon Town: A Meditation on My Country and My Home," in Anthony Dunbar (ed.), Where We Stand: Voices of Southern Dissent. Montgomery, Ala.: NewSouth Books, 2004, pp. 70-86.
———. Coming of Age in Utopia: The Odyssey of an Idea. Montgomery, Ala.: New South Books, 2010.
Paul M. Gaston
University of Virginia
Published May 4, 2007
Last updated December 16, 2009
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