By Jere Hough Meteorologist / Feature Reporter
Published: Fri, February 22, 2008 - 4:39 pm
Last Updated: Wed, March 26, 2008 - 3:04 pm
Last Updated: Wed, March 26, 2008 - 3:04 pm
Jere Hough
A woman shopper comments, "It's a lovely community...friendly. We love the shops."
A man from up North says, "It's a very quaint city. We really enjoy it when we come down here."
A local woman smiles, "We love that we can walk for five minutes and be at the Bay."
Among its many unique aspects is the fact that the town was named before it was ever located. Fairhope artist and historian Dean Mosher tells the story from the 1890s, "Fairhope was founded in Des Moines, Iowa. In fact, they passed the constitution, they incorporated the town, and somebody in the back stood up and said, 'You know, I think this has a fair hope of success.' and the crowd said, 'Hey, that's catchy. Let's call the town "Fairhope."' The somebody said, 'Well, where is it? Where are we going to put Fairhope?'"
They knew what they wanted, and even had the name. They just needed to find the perfect spot. And that turned out to be 'way down south on the bluffs of Mobile Bay.
The group's plan was to create a utopian community: A single tax colony which basically means, the town owns all the land, and the residents lease it. That becomes the single source of revenue.
The founders made more good choices...plenty of the land was set aside for parks...especially along the waterfront.
Fairhope has become a sanctuary for the arts.
The annual Arts and Crafts Festival is known throughout the South.
Rumors...most probably true, abound that celebrities from all the arts have second homes around here.
Examples of public art are easy to find.
And it's hard not to be looking at flowers...they're everywhere downtown...even topping the waste containers! Speaking of downtown...no urban renewal here...sidewalks and parked cars front galleries, restaurants, and shops, just as they have for decades.
Meteorologist Jere Hough comments, "You know the City of Fairhope is really lucky to have these wonderful water views. But the people of Fairhope are lucky, too, because they all have access to them."
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I see what you are saying, but I do live in Fairhope and not everyone who lives there is a business owner or rich. As a matter of fact, a lot of the business owners live in Daphne because they can’t afford Fairhope. There is no point in treating people badly just because they are not in a certain income bracket. This even goes on in the schools, the high school is the worst. I never treated the people who came into the store I managed differently based on their looks. One of our best customers was a very wealthy woman, but you would never know it by looking at her. Plus, a thrift store is for the underpriveleged, why have one in town if you want to keep that sort out. My family goes back for generations in Fairhope, and it was never intended to be what it is now. What we have now is a town that caters to and cotows to the wealthy for the almighty dollar. Yet they are constantly asking for money to “help” the ones they want to keep out. Shameful.