On This Day In Alabama History: Model Community Started In Fairhope

By Graydon Rust Alabama 200

November 15, 1894

Nineteen adults and nine children moved to Fairhope to start a model community based on the ideas of Iowan populist E.B. Gaston. Believing that land should be common property, Gaston envisioned raising all government revenue from a single tax on the value of land leased to its members. The members named the community Fairhope after a remark that they had a “fair hope” of succeeding and soon became known as the Single Tax Colony. The colony grew to a population of more than 100 by 1900 but failed to secure enough land or members to sustain themselves indefinitely.

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