Diaries reveal new insight into Hermit Hut owner, Henry Stuart's, daily life in Fairhope

BY COLIN JAMES
Reporter
colin@gulfcoastmedia.com
Posted 1/31/25

FAIRHOPE — Many gathered at the Fairhope Public Library on Tuesday night to hear newly revealed information about Henry Stuart and his "Hermit Hut" located a few miles north.

Catherine …

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Diaries reveal new insight into Hermit Hut owner, Henry Stuart's, daily life in Fairhope

Posted

FAIRHOPE — Many gathered at the Fairhope Public Library on Tuesday night to hear newly revealed information about Henry Stuart and his "Hermit Hut" located a few miles north.

Catherine King, who represents the Fairhope Single Tax Corporation Archives, was there to lead the discussion and highlight new efforts to preserve Stuart's home. She, with the help of the Fairhope Museum of History, recently received new information from never-before-seen artifacts, including a series of diaries, a scrapbook of photographs with descriptions and a piece of rug weaved by Stuart himself.

Henry Stuart was an Englishman who emigrated to the United States as a child. He originally lived in Nampa, Idaho, before moving to Montrose after contracting an illness, with his doctors advising him to move to a warmer climate. It was there where he built the now famous "Round House" on a land he named Tolstoy Park. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2006.

After the structure was donated to the City of Fairhope, the Tolstoy Park Committee, a group of local citizens, is seeking to raise $369,000 in an effort to move the "Round House" to the new Flying Creek Nature Preserve, where the city will maintain and preserve it for years to come.

The significance of the diaries is that Stuart wrote in them every single day without fail, and he went into extreme detail about his daily routine, including notes of the weather, what he ate, what he did that day and the people he interacted with, giving us more of an idea of his mindset into his everyday life.

These relics were donated from the Stuart family and Sonny Brewer, author of "The Poet of Tolstoy Park." They were also able to receive material through the libraries and archives of Mount Union University and the University of Michigan.

"Our new information from Mr. Stuart has been most enlightening," King said. "It has really added to our knowledge of him, the richness of the time and what he was doing up there in the woods."

To learn more about the initiative and to donate, visit www.tolstoypark.com. All of the newly uncovered documents and photographs are also available to be viewed and downloaded for free on the Fairhope Single Tax Corporation Archives website.