On Oct. 23, 1926, Henry Stuart placed the last brick on his Round House in Montrose.

Just over 100 years later, the Round House has found a new home.

On Tuesday, Nov. 10, Fairhope's iconic structure has finally made the pilgrimage to its new permanent home, being moved from the parking lot of an office building along US-98 to Flying Creek Nature Preserve in Fairhope.

The move comes after years of efforts and a fundraising campaign from the Tolstoy Park Committee, a local grassroots organization chaired by “The Poet of Tolstoy Park” author Sonny Brewer, with Fairhope City Council approving and awarding the bid to Fairhope Building Company LLC in August.

For Brewer, who first discovered the Round House while taking real estate classes in Fairhope back in 1982, the relocation was a long time coming. For the occasion, he brought his son John Luke and his grandson Hollis with him as he watched a big part of his life reach its new home.

“It’s one of those times when you say, 'I can’t believe it really happened,'” Brewer said. “It seems such a monumental task to me. I know enough about construction, about masonry, about blocks and that to think it was sort of a fragile structure. The mover told me it weighs 60,000 pounds, and so that’s a big undertaking, but now it’s where it belongs.”

Hollis Kennedy House Movers, a company based out of Athens, helped move the Round House.

“This is very unique,” said Keith Kennedy, owner of Hollis Kennedy House Movers. “This is a one-of-a-kind structure for sure. We moved quite a few masonry historic structures over the years but nothing ever just like this.”

The structure was physically lifted from the ground, where it slowly and carefully made its way down US-98, guided by Fairhope Police Department and the Fairhope Public Works Department, before turning onto Triangle Drive, through the roundabout and on to Main Street, where it arrived at Flying Creek Nature Preserve just before noon.

Following the truck was a film crew led by Stephen Savage, who was named chair for Fairhope Film Festival’s board of directors earlier this year. He is directing a documentary about the Round House and its move to Flying Creek Nature Preserve.

Although it’s no longer in its original spot, its new home is an area that Stuart likely would have walked through during his lifetime.

“Through those woods there, it’s less than a mile as a crow flies to where the Round House was,” Brewer said. “He would leave and go to town; he would go to town either (by going) west and go down to the beach and walk along the beach, or he would go south and cross over, wade through Fly Creek right behind us and go on, so he probably walked on the ground that you and I are standing on right now."

Originally from England, Stuart emigrated to the United States as a child and was living in Nampa, Idaho, when he was diagnosed with an illness. His doctors advised him to move to a warmer climate, and in 1923, he moved to Montrose, located just outside of Fairhope, where he bought 10 acres of woodland and called it Tolstoy Park, named after Russian writer Leo Tolstoy.

On that land, he began construction on his home, the Round House, in 1925, finishing it the next year. He lived there for 20 years, growing his own food and weaving rugs. He became known as the Hermit of Montrose, but despite the moniker, he welcomed over 1,300 guests to his home, including famed attorney Clarence Darrow, who visited six times.

Stuart left Alabama in 1944 and moved to Oregon with his son, although he continued to speak highly about his time living in Montrose. He died in 1946 at the age of 88.

Stuart’s Round House continues to attracts visitors. Savan Wilson, who is part of the Tolstoy Park Committee, previously told GCM that Tolstoy Park attracted more than 3,300 visitors in 2025, with between 265 to 380 people visiting each month, coming from 23 different state and three different countries. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2006.

When asked what Stuart would think about the relocation, Brewer said he’ll be glad to see that his story will continue to be told for years to come.

“If you have a story about some figure, it’s a much more vital story if there’s an artifact to go with it,” Brewer said. “If Henry Stuart’s house had been demolished, if it had been run over by a bulldozer to make room for a gas station or something like that, then his story would probably have faded. We all, including you, you want your story to continue. You want your family wanting to talk about you at reunions 100 years from now. Maybe they will, maybe they won’t, so Henry Stuart would be pleased that his story will stay alive, continue to be told.”

Brewer also said that the Round House will continue attract visitors and tourists when they come to Fairhope and the Fly Creek Nature Preserve, which opened last year.

“It’s going to be a very popular tourist attraction,” Brewer said. All of whom will see, whether they want to or not, they can see Henry Stuart’s Round House. It’s going to be the first thing they see when they pull in that driveway over there. First thing they see out their windshield is going to be ‘What is that?’ Even if they didn’t know about it, so it’s going to keep his story alive.”