Fairhope City Council unanimously approved a bid to relocate the famous "Round House," a 14-foot concrete structure built by Henry Stuart almost 100 years ago.

Henry Stuart was an Englishman who emigrated to the United States as a child. Originally residing in Nampa, Idaho, he contracted an illness and was advised by his doctors to move to a warmer climate. Stuart eventually made his way to Montrose, located just outside Fairhope, and constructed his famous "Round House" by hand on land he named Tolstoy Park, after Russian writer Leo Tolstoy.

Despite his residence's moniker of "Hermit Hut," Stuart welcomed over 1,300 visitors during his time living there, including famed attorney Clarence Darrow, who visited Stuart six times.

The "Round House" continues to attract visitors to this day. Savan Wilson, who is part of the local Tolstoy Park Committee, estimates that more than 3,300 visitors came to Tolstoy Park in 2025 alone. According to those estimates, between 265 and 380 people visit Stuart's home each month, coming from about 23 states and even three different countries. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2006.

With the 100th anniversary of the last brick being placed approaching this year, Fairhope City Council, during its meeting on Monday, Aug. 24, approved what is essentially the last hurdle in local efforts to relocate Henry Stuart's home to an area where it can be taken care of for years to come.

The bid approved was a $421,050 contract with Fairhope Building Company LLC, which will physically lift the structure from the parking lot of an office building along U.S. 98 and slowly move it to Flying Creek Nature Preserve, which opened in Fairhope last year. The company submitted the lowest of five bids to relocate the structure.

The project is entirely donor-funded, led by the Tolstoy Park Committee, who have raised well over $369,000 to fund the project. The Committee is a local citizens group co-chaired by Sonny Brewer, author of "The Poet of Tolstoy Park." According to a city memo, additional donations are coming in to cover the remainder of the costs.

The funds raised include several private donations like a $150,000 anonymous donation, which the council members credited as a key factor in helping move the structure.

"There were some anonymous donors who donated large sums of money for this," Councilman Jack Burrell said. "You have to love an anonymous donor who gives tens of thousands."

Council President Jimmy Conyers, who admitted he was skeptical when the price ballooned to $421,050, praised the donors who were able to move the project forward with their contributions.

"It tells me we have some incredibly generous donors out there in this community and people who really value preserving history," Conyers said.

Fairhope Mayor Sherry Sullivan said she expects the relocation to occur sometime early next year. However, Brewer hopes that it could happen as soon as this upcoming Christmas season in December, saying it would be a "Christmas miracle."

"I'm really grateful to Mayor Sherry," Brewer told GCM. Brewer was unable to attend Monday's meeting due to what Burrell described as an emergency. "From our first meeting four years ago, at the mention of a public space to relocate Henry's Round House, she was immediately on board. In fact, she named a few spots where visitors could see it and all along she's guided the project past every obstacle that came up."