In 1982, Sonny Brewer was taking real estate classes at a commercial complex in Fairhope when he first came across Tolstoy Park, which sat in the parking lot.

The structure was boarded up at the time, with plywood covering the windows and door. Instead of going to class that night, Brewer decided to see what was inside.

"I pried my way in that door, took the flashlight from my toolbox and said 'Oh my,'" Brewer recalled.

The interior of the house was littered with leaves, pizza boxes, "for sale" signs, coils of Romex wire and all sorts of junk. Despite seeing it in this state, Brewer's discovery was the beginning of his dedication and work to Henry Stuart and the man's simple life living in the "Round House "three decades prior.

Brewer first learned about Henry Stuart through a newspaper article he came across in the real estate class describing a man who lived in an odd little house he built in Montrose over the course of one year and 16 days. After learning this first tidbit, Brewer wanted to know more.

"I was just so curious about that man because the house, you see, people are intrigued by it as I was," Brewer said.

Brewer would write his own articles about Stuart for publications such as Mobile Magazine and Gulf Coast Media's The Courier but received more information about Stuart and his life in Montrose over the years through people giving him letters, postcards and pictures. His research would eventually lead him to write "The Poet of Tolstoy Park," a novel about Stuart and his life at Tolstoy Park.

Brewer wrote the book shortly after finishing his previous book, having written it in his office at Over the Transom bookstore in Fairhope, which he owned at the time. His literary agent, who rejected his first book, asked Brewer if he was working on anything new. Brewer said he in fact was and gave her 20 pages he had written so far for "The Poet of Tolstoy Park."

"This I can sell," his agent told Brewer after reading what he wrote.

"Well you can't sell 20 pages," Brewer told her. "I'll have to finish it."

"No, I can sell this book now based on these 20 pages," she responded.

Within a week, the publishing group Random House offered to publish the book and gave seven months to write a 95,000-word novel. Brewer finished it in six months.

"They almost didn't change a word, and some people don't believe that I wrote a 95,000-word book in six months, but I did," Brewer said.

WHAT WOULD YOU DO WITH 1 YEAR TO LIVE?

Born in England, Henry Stuart immigrated to the United States as a child and was living in Nampa, Idaho, when he was diagnosed with an illness, with some sources identifying it as tuberculosis. His doctor gave him a year to live and suggested he move to a warmer climate to live out the rest of his days.

In 1923, Stuart moved to Montrose, located just outside of Fairhope, where he purchased 10 acres of land and called it Tolstoy Park, named after the famed Russian writer Leo Tolstoy, whose philosophy of simplicity and harmony with nature had a direct impact on Stuart. On the land he named Tolstoy Park, he would build the Round House, a circular, concrete structure that served as his home.

During Stuart's life in Montrose, he grew his own food while also reading, keeping up with correspondences, cooking and dyeing, sewing and weaving rags for rugs made on a loom set up in the Round House. He would walk to Fairhope to conduct business, visit friends and attend local events.

A series of diaries obtained by the Fairhope Museum of History, donated by Stuart's descendants, revealed that he maintained a constant log of his daily life, having never missed a day. In these diaries, dated 1928, 1929 and 1934, Stuart went into extreme detail, including notes of the weather, what he ate, what he did that day and the people he interacted with, revealing new details about his life and his Fairhope circle.

Though some refer to the structure as the "Hermit Hut," Brewer disagrees with the usage of that name, as Stuart was not known to be a hermit and his home did not fit the definition of a hut. He refers to it as the Round House, a name he said he hopes becomes more used than Hermit Hut as it sounds similar to the White House in Washington, D.C.

Over 1,300 visitors were welcomed at the Round House during Stuart's time living there, with one of his many guests including famed attorney Clarence Darrow, who visited six times. Today, there is a guest book inside the Round House where visitors can write their name and forever be etched into its history.

Stuart left Alabama in 1944 to move to Oregon with his son, though historical records show he spoke highly of his time living in Montrose. He would later pass away in 1946 at the age of 88.

NOT A HERMIT – COMMUNITY RALLIES TO SUPPORT ROUND HOUSE RELOCATION

Despite having told the story of Henry Stuart and his simple life in Montrose hundreds of times across 40 years, Brewer said he never gets tired of sharing his story and the history behind Tolstoy Park.

"I never tire of telling the story 'cause it's a good story," Brewer said. "It's a man who thought he had a year to live, and what did he do with that? He didn't go dig a hole and get in it. He did the story that we all know, which is a good story. Lived a self-sufficient, cheap lifestyle, very simple, and lived for 20 years in this place, so it's a very good story."

Brewer has also written an unproduced play about Stuart that he said he hopes to see get locally produced some day. During a table reading of his play at a friend's house, a local preist name Dick Gilchrist wondered if the Round House would still be here years from now.

"Dick Gilchrist said to me, 'What about this thing? Where is it going to be in 20 years?' That's where the notion was planted," Brewer said.

Brewer would later call Ken Neymier, who owns the property on which Tolstoy Park currently resides.

"'Ken, let's just say 20 years from now, when you and I both disappeared from view here on this planet, what do you think the odds are that the Round House would still be preserved?'" Brewer said he asked him.

"'I would say zero,'" Brewer said Neymier replied.

That set in motion a plan to try and find a forever home for the Round House where it could be preserved and visited by future generations for years to come. After meeting with city officials, the city agreed to provide a spot where the Round House can be protected and taken care of, but Brewer would have to raise the money to move it.

Eventually, the Tolstoy Park Committee was born, co-chaired by Brewer. The committee recently reached its milestone of raising $369,000 to help relocate the Round House to Flying Creek Nature Preserve, which opened in Fairhope over the summer. Most donations ranged from $1 to $1,000, though the committee recevied two large anonymous donations: one from "the Friend" amounting to $100,000 and another worth $50,000 that helped the committee break the threshold of its goal. The Fairhope Single Tax Corporation also gave the group a matching $184,500 grant to help move it.

Now that the funds have been raised, all that remains is for the City of Fairhope to approve the final details in moving the Round House. Brewer has been in discussions with city officials.

"My hope is that it will be moved in the first quarter of the new year at the latest," Fairhope Mayor Sherry Sullivan said.

Brewer underwent open heart surgery in 2022 and suffered a heart attack on July 6 of this year. He said he suffered a STEMI heart attack, which has a significantly lower chance of survival.

"I survived, and I wondered why," Brewer said. "Like, the old guy had heart trouble; he is 77, so no big surprise, but I was surprised that I'm still here, and I've come to think lately, as I said in [my letter to the city], maybe it's to see this happen," Brewer said.

Brewer noted that 2026 marks the 100th anniversary of when Henry Stuart completed construction of the Round House, with Stuart having filled the top step of the Round House entrance on Oct. 1, 1926, the date of which can be seen etched on the step. With the anniversary approaching, Brewer said he hopes Tolstoy Park will be in its new home by then.

"I'd love to see it done by October the 1st of 2026, and maybe that'd be a good time to produce the play every year in October on the anniversary of Henry having poured this top step," Brewer said. "We'd do that play every year, so maybe. I can dream."