From Wikipedia:

Tolstoy Park (also known as the Henry Stuart House and the Hermit House) is a historic residence in Montrose, Alabama, United States. The house was built by Henry Stuart, an Englishman who immigrated to the United States as a child. Stuart was living in Nampa, Idaho, when he was diagnosed with tuberculosis and advised to move to a warmer climate to live out his days. In 1923, he purchased 10 acres outside Fairhope, Alabama, which he named Tolstoy Park.

Stuart began building a circular, domed hut in 1925, pouring each concrete block himself. Construction was completed in “a year and sixteen days,” although delayed by a hurricane in September 1926. When Henry Stuart didn’t die as the doctors thought he would, he sought to live a simple life, growing much of his own food and weaving rugs on a loom he brought from Idaho. He kept a guestbook for visitors to sign; notably, lawyer Clarence Darrow visited the hut six times. Stuart left Alabama in 1944, moving to Oregon to live with his son, where he died in 1946.

A novel based on Stuart's life, The Poet of Tolstoy Park, was published in 2004 by my friend Sonny Brewer. Sonny says, “I've been talking about Henry Stuart for 40 years, and he wasn't a hermit, and it wasn't a hut!” This response came after I asked him to give me an interview about the ‘Hermit Hut’. “It’s called the Round House,” he said. I stand corrected.

Henry Stuart’s Round House, which is now on the National Register of Historic Places, is located in a parking lot by a real estate office just off Highway 98 in Montrose. There is a grassroots effort to raise money to move the structure to the new Flying Creek Nature Preserve in Fairhope. Sonny is a storyteller, and the way he got involved with all of this is a good one at that. Because Sonny is a published author, he should be penning this article, but I will do my best to tell this tale.

Once upon a time, in 1982, Sonny had signed up for a real estate class and happened upon the house in the parking lot where the class was being held. He was fascinated by the structure, which was abandoned in the parking lot. The windows were boarded up, and the door was padlocked. Someone working at the real estate office showed him a framed newspaper story about Henry Stuart’s ‘Odd little round house in Montrose’. “ Reading the article, I fell in love with the idea of telling Henry's story and needed to know more. It captured me!” 

Needless to say, he didn't go to class that night. Sonny, a carpenter, at the time, gathered a hammer and a pry bar from his toolbox and pried open the door, revealing the interior of the home, which was littered with pizza boxes and leaves, and graffiti covering the concrete walls. Still, I was inspired! For 20 years, when I got the chance, I wrote newspaper and magazine articles. All the while, the Round House remained boarded up. 

In 2004, Sonny decided to write a novel about Henry Stuart.  He had written only 20 pages of a novel, based on the life of Henry Stuart, but went ahead and pitched it to an editor at Random House. The publishing company made him an offer with the contingency that he finish the novel in 7 months, and wanted 95,000 words. That was a daunting task for Sonny, who had a wife and 2 young children. He credits his former wife, Diana, for giving him the support he needed to get the work done. 

“ When I got into Henry's story, I felt like I was meeting myself in the mirror.  The writing flowed easily, and for inspiration, I did a lot of writing in the Round House. “I called Ken Neimeyer and asked him to lease the house to me for 9 years for $9 a month, and I offered to fix it up myself at my expense.” Ken, with some partners, owned the development where the round house stood.

 “Ken deserves all the credit for preserving it in the first place, as the office development was built around the historical structure,” Sonny said..  Ken agreed to lease it to Sonny, who put in new windows and doors and found a 1927 pot-bellied stove that was a good fit. “ I pressure-washed the graffiti off the interior walls, had curtains made, and furnished it.

“ Working on the book seven days a week, day and night, Henry’s voice flowed through me, and I finished the book in six months. I personally went to New York and hand-delivered the manuscript to Random House. I wasn't going to take any chances that a mail clerk might lose my pages. In 2004, when the Page and Palette bookstore kicked off Sonny’s book tour, those in attendance wanted to see and experience the Round House for themselves, so Sonny took off the padlock and opened it to the public. “Henry would have never locked his house, so we wanted visitors to come anytime.”

The Poet of Tolstoy Park had two hardcover printings, an audio version, a large print edition,  was picked by Book Club of America, and was named a Ballantine Reader's Circle Book, and the film rights were acquired.. To this day, 21 years later, the novel is still selling, and Sonny just got the news that the audiobook contract has also been extended.

Three years ago, City Councilman Kevin Boone got on board to help find a way to preserve

The Round House and Mayor Sherry Sullivan agreed that the city could provide a site for it. Ken Neimeyer made a legal conveyance subject to finding a place to move it on public property, where it would always be open to visitors. Sites such as behind the Fairhope Visitor Center and on the edge of Knoll Park were discussed. When the Flying Creek Nature Preserve was mentioned, Sonny knew this was the right place. “Henry would have walked barefoot through that area on his way to town. This location is sacred to the memory of Henry,” Sonny says, speaking with reverence of the man he knows so well.

The city will provide the site, pay for utilities, signage, and provide security, but the cost of relocating it, which is close to $369,000, must be raised by private donations. The Fairhope Single Tax Corporation provided a matching grant of $184,000, and a Tolstoy Park Fundraising Committee has been established. A website, Tolstoypark.com, has a QR code for donations, which are tax-deductible, or checks may be made out to the City of Fairhope, noting Henry Stuart relocation.

If you visit the Round House, you will see a thermometer recording how close donations are to reaching the goal. Sonny tells me that about $150,000 is still needed. 

Preserving history means holding on to the stories that shaped our community, and these stories keep Fairhope’s unique history alive. Thanks to Sonny Brewer and the efforts of the fundraising committee, Henry Stuart’s Round House will hopefully be moved to its forever home in the Flying Creek Nature Preserve. In 2025, so far, more than two thousand visitors signed the guest book, representing travelers from 25 different states and five foreign countries.

Help protect a piece of our town's soul by donating to this worthwhile endeavor. Every

 gift, large or small, keeps this 100-year-old landmark standing strong and will preserve an important piece of Fairhope’s history for all to see.