Editing Fairhope, Alabama (section)

==History==
Fairhope was founded on November 15, 1894, on the site of the former Alabama City as a [[Georgism|Georgist]] [[land value tax|"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]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.fairhopesingletax.com/fhistory2009.html |title=Fairhope Single Tax Corporation - Fairhope, Alabama 36532 |access-date=April 29, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110515141657/http://www.fairhopesingletax.com/fhistory2009.html |archive-date=May 15, 2011}}</ref> Their corporate constitution explained their purpose in founding a new colony:

{{blockquote|quote=to establish and conduct a model community or colony, free from all forms of private monopoly, and to secure to its members therein equality of opportunity, the full reward of individual efforts, and the benefits of co-operation in matters of general concern.<ref name="fairhopesingletax.com">{{cite web |url=http://www.fairhopesingletax.com/ |title=Fairhope Single Tax Corporation |website=Fairhope Single Tax Corporation |access-date=October 22, 2017 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170919231422/https://www.fairhopesingletax.com/ |archive-date=September 19, 2017 |df=mdy-all}}</ref>}}

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.{{citation needed|date=April 2011}} 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.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.fairhopesingletax.com/faq2009.html |title=Fairhope Single Tax Corporation - Fairhope, Alabama 36532 |access-date=April 29, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110515141532/http://www.fairhopesingletax.com/faq2009.html |archive-date=May 15, 2011}}</ref>

"Fairhope Avenue" was one of the properties on the 1910 version of the board game ''[[The Landlord's Game]]'', a precursor of [[Monopoly (game)|''Monopoly'']].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://landlordsgame.info/games/lg-1906/lg-1906_egc-rules.html |title=Game Rules – The Landlord's Game – Economic Game Company |website=landlordsgame.info |access-date=October 22, 2017 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170809005634/http://landlordsgame.info/games/lg-1906/lg-1906_egc-rules.html |archive-date=August 9, 2017 |df=mdy-all}}</ref>

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|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.<ref>Lauren Coodley. (2013) Upton Sinclair: California Socialist, Celebrity Intellectual. Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press. 2013</ref>

The Fairhope Single-Tax Corporation still operates, with 1,800 leaseholds covering more than {{convert|4000|acre|km2}} 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, Alabama|Mobile]].<ref name="fairhopesingletax.com" /> [[White flight]] from nearby Mobile has caused the population of Baldwin County to almost triple since the 1940s,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://lagniappemobile.com/cover-story-baldwins-population-soars-whites-flee-mobile/ |title=Baldwin's population soars as whites flee Mobile |first=Gabriel |last=Tynes |date=October 22, 2015 |website=Lagniappe Mobile |access-date=July 16, 2020}}</ref> and particularly since desegregation, contributing to the mostly-White demographics of Daphne, Fairhope, and Spanish Fort.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eqN5DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA212 |page=212 |title=The Politics of White Rights: Race, Justice, and Integrating Alabama's Schools |first=Joseph |last=Bagley|publisher=U of Georgia P |year=2018|isbn=9780820354194}}</ref>

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".<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/01/travel/fairhope-alabama-places.html |title=A Southern Town That's Been Holding On to Its Charm, for More Than a Century: Fairhope, in Alabama, thrives as a place for artists, intellectuals and people of outsize character |author=Brendan Spiegel |date=March 1, 2019 |work=New York Times}}</ref>