Fairhope Single Tax Corporation
Photo Credit:
Leverage Global Partners
The archived documents of the Fairhope Single Tax Corporation tell the story of the founding of the Fairhope Single Tax Colony in 1894 on the eastern shore of Mobile Bay and the development of the community. The Populist reformers who founded Fairhope were interested in conducting an economic and social experiment based on the principles of the economist Henry George, and came to Baldwin County, Alabama to establish a cooperative colony to demonstrate the theory.
The collection includes correspondence, meeting minutes, financial reports and printed articles about the founding of Fairhope and the daily activities in the Colony (1890-1997). In addition, papers from the personal collections of important Fairhopers (including but not limited to E. B. Gaston, C. A. Gaston, James Bellangee, Lydia J. Newcomb Comings and Anne B. Call) and single-tax reformers with ties to the Colony (Joseph Fels, Daniel Kiefer, Fiske Warren among others) are included.
Collection Overview
The FSTC Archives Collection is composed of approximately 82,000 images of printed materials and numerous photographs.
The museum is located in the heart of downtown Fairhope and occupies the historic circa 1928 Spanish mission-style building which once served as City Hall. Renovated and expanded, and operated by the City of Fairhope, the museum is open Tuesday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. with free admission. (251) 929-1471
The duties of the Recording Division, as set forth by state statutes (laws), include the recording, indexing and preserving of permanent public documents, primarily real estate records. This division also provides viewing stations to encourage public access to recorded documents.
Visit the City of Fairhope for information on utilities, zoning, and other infrastructure.
Visit the Baldwin County Home Page for information on utilities, zoning, and other infrastructure.
Single Tax Property Lessees pay Rent to FSTC and FSTC pays the taxes to Baldwin County at the end of the year. Lessees do not make tax payments directly to Baldwin County. The only thing a Lessee may receive from Baldwin County is the Baldwin County Valuation Notice each Spring.
Single Tax Property has "FST" in front of the Lessee's name. When searching the Appraisal or Taxes, you must search by "FST Last Name First Name."
Clicking on the "+" opens the tabs to the left. Within the "Baldwin County Data" layer, there are many additional, helpful layers that can be selected. Selecting the "FST" layer will identify all Single Tax Property by shading FST property with blue cross-hatching.