Stuart, Henry, House

From 1923 to 1944, a barefoot old man lived in the small, concrete building located just off U.S. Highway 98 near the towns of Fairhope and Montrose. He was called both the hermit of Montrose" and "a modern Thoreau". As evidenced by his nicknames, his philosophy was one of individualism and of getting back to nature". When he left to return with his son to Oregon in 1944, he would leave behind an enduring legacy and one of the more unusual buildings on the Gulf Coast.

Henry James Stuart was born in 1858 in Hampshire, England. His parents came to the United States and settled in Ohio. He received a Bachelor's Degree in Divinity from Mt. Union College, located in Ohio, and later studied telegraphy at Oberline. Newspaper accounts state that Mr. Stuart’s first job was working as an assistant to his father, who was also a telegrapher (Eastern Shore Courier, 15 August 1974).

Henry Stuart married and with two small sons moved to Washington D.C., where it is reported that he worked at a hotel. The Stuart family eventually moved to Denver, Colorado. His last stop was Nampa, Idaho. He lived in Nampa for 20 years (Eastern Shore Courier, 15 August 1974), but on advice from his doctor he was advised to move to a warmer climate because of health problems. After considering southern California, Henry Stuart eventually decided on Fairhope, Alabama. By this time his wife had passed away, and his two sons were grown. This was in 1923 (Baldwin Register, 10 February 1998). He purchased 10 acres of land from P.A. Parker for $150 dollars (Birmingham News, 03 October 2004). The land was located just outside the Faihope city limits near Montrose.

It was his life in Fairhope that earned him the titles of “the hermit of Montrose” and “a modem day Thoreau”. Speculation on why he chose to live near Fairhope range from his attraction to the Single Tax Colony’s concept of individualism (Birmingham News, 03 October 2004) to the city’s connection with the great sociologist, Henry George, who proposed the theory of the Single Tax and who had ties to Leo Tolstoy. The great Russian writer was a favorite of Henry Stuart, and Tolstoy mentioned Henry George on several occasions in his writings (Brewer 2005, 261). Stuart named his ten-acre parcel, “Tolstoy Park”.

In 1925, Stuart began the construction of the concrete, circular building that would be his home for the next 20 years. He dated each hand-poured cement block with the day, date, and year. By examining the dates, it can be determined that he started construction on November 11th, 1925 and finished construction on September 27*, 1926. By all accounts, Stuart built the house by himself. It is stated in newspaper accounts that he decided on the small, concrete building because it would be hurricane proof (Eastern Shore Courier, 01 November 1979). No information survives as to why he decided to set the building into the ground, or to make it round. However, the building did survive the devastating hurricane of 1926 and has since survived many more, including Hurricane Ivan in 2004.

In a lengthy newspaper article from 1929, Stuart gave a brief account of his daily activities, which consisted mainly of tending his vegetable gardens and reading. He was a vegetarian, and maintained his small gardens in raised concrete terraces. He did this in order to prevent bending over to tend his vegetables. His library was quite extensive with Tolstoy occupying the place of honor on his bookshelves. Other favorite authors included Thoreau, Whitman, and Wilde. Of particular note are his copies of the works of the anarchist, Emma Goldman. In the same article Stuart even declared himself an anarchist but not of the violent type (Birmingham News, 03 March 1929). Henry Stuart’s other activities involved weaving, which he learned in Idaho and keeping a daily diary, its whereabouts now unknown (Eastern Shore Courier, 01 November 1979). He wrote to many people but often used bits of scrap paper. No examples survive; perhaps due to the fact that he used any bits of paper he could find, mostly from old newspapers.

Henry Stuart did keep a log of visitor’s signatures that has survived. People would visit him and speak with him on various topics. No records of the conversations exist. The only record we do have is the aforementioned signatures in his guest book and the reminiscences of those who visited him. He was not only approached by the local inhabitants, but also by people of some fame. Clarence Darrow’s signature appears six times in the record (Eastern Shore Courier, 15 August 1974).

Mr. Stuart lived in Fairhope from 1923-1944. He had originally left his home in Nampa, Idaho for health reasons. His health improved, but this would not last. In his eighties and in declining health, one of his sons convinced Henry Stuart to return with him to his home in Oregon.

He lived for another two years, dying in 1946. His philosophy of life is best summed up in a newspaper article from 1979. Stuart felt that God’s true temples were in the woods, and nature writes the laws of God before our eyes. An earlier article expressed the sentiment in his own words,

“For orthodox churches I have little use; I worship
God in His own temples; I see Him in every bush
And every shrub when I walk through the woods.”

Although Henry Stuart left no books that expressed his philosophy of life, it is recalled in the collective memory of the long time residents of Fairhope. Today, the only remaining artifacts of Stuart are a few photographs, the register of names, and the small, concrete building that he built with his own hands.