Fairhope is a city in Baldwin County, Alabama, United States, located on the eastern shoreline of Mobile Bay. The population was 22,477 at the 2020 census. Fairhope is a principal city of the Daphne-Fairhope-Foley metropolitan area, which includes all of Baldwin County.
History
Fairhope was founded on November 15, 1894, on the site of the former Alabama City as a Georgist "Single-Tax" colony by the Fairhope Industrial Association, a group of 28 followers of economist Henry George who had incorporated earlier that year in Des Moines, Iowa. Their corporate constitution explained their purpose in founding a new colony:
In forming their demonstration project, they pooled their funds to purchase land at "Stapleton's pasture" on the eastern shore of Mobile Bay and then divided it into a number of long-term leaseholds. The corporation paid all governmental taxes from rents paid by the lessees, thus simulating a single-tax. The purpose of the single-tax colony was to eliminate disincentives for productive use of land and thereby retain the value of land for the community.
"Fairhope Avenue" was one of the properties on the 1910 version of the board game The Landlord's Game, a precursor of Monopoly.
In 1907, educator Marietta Johnson founded the School for Organic Education in Fairhope. The school was praised in John Dewey's influential 1915 book Schools of Tomorrow. Dewey and Johnson were founding members of the Progressive Education Association.
Fairhope became a popular wintering spot for artists and intellectuals. Sherwood Anderson, Clarence Darrow, Wharton Esherick, Carl Zigrosser, and Upton Sinclair were among its notable visitors.
The Fairhope Single-Tax Corporation still operates, with 1,800 leaseholds covering more than in and around the current city of Fairhope. Despite the ideals of the corporation, the town has transitioned from utopian experiment to artists' and intellectuals' colony to boutique resort and affluent suburb of Mobile. and particularly since desegregation, contributing to the mostly-White demographics of Daphne, Fairhope, and Spanish Fort.
In 2019 the New York Times termed Fairhope to be "A Southern Town That’s Been Holding On to Its Charm, for More Than a Century".
Geography
Fairhope is located on the shore of Mobile Bay. It is located south of Daphne and south of Spanish Fort. U.S. Route 98 (Greeno Road) runs north–south through the city. It lies on a sloping plateau.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which 0.019 square mile (0.05 km<sup>2</sup>), or 0.16%, is water. Its elevation ranges from sea level at the bay to in the city center.
Climate
Fairhope has a humid subtropical climate. It experiences hot, humid summers and generally mild winters, with average temperatures ranging from in the summer to during winter.