This coastal Alabama town may not be utopia, but it’s pretty near perfect for me.
ROBBIE CAPONETTO
Key Takeaways
It all started with a boat ride.
I remember the vessel was a good-looking Caribiana with a wicked, rakish bow.
Credit:ROBBIE CAPONETTO
A long, narrow craft, it seemed too skinny for a big man…or a clumsy one.
It heeled when I moved to starboard and when I shifted to port.
I was a little uneasy even before we untied from the dock atBig Daddys Grill.
Ben’s Jr. Bar-B-Que: For decades, this no-frills, family-run restaurant was a popular spot for smoked meats and sandwiches, until its owners retired in 2018.Credit:JOEL KIMMEL
No bull sharks in this river that I know of, he told me.
I dont know if it was a good boat to fish from since we never even tried.
We just rode and told stories and lies.
Fairhope Hardware: Although other businesses occupied this 1920s-era building over the years, it was best known as a hardware store. The shop was a downtown fixture from the 1970s until it closed in 2017.Credit:JOEL KIMMEL
After a while, we turned in a slow arc to go back.
Youll believe things on a river you wouldnt on a sidewalk.
I guess it doesnt really matter now.
Page and Palette: Since opening its doors in 1968, this bookshop has been a community hub and has stayed in the same family for three generations.Credit:JOEL KIMMEL
Even the name of it sounded made-up, like something from an old childrens story: Fairhope.
I asked if there was a Bens Sr. somewhere or a Bens Original.
Yeah, said Brewer, Over on the causeway.
Church Mouse: This charming building has held an antiques store; the Fairhope Fly Shop at Church Mouse; and Willow + Gray Home, a decor-and-gift store.Credit:JOEL KIMMEL
Hurricane Frederic blew it away in 1979. Who required a cool climate just to buy a ball-peen hammer?
As I exited, I swear I saw an old hippie.
I wondered if he was the last one.
Fairhope Public Library: In 1900, the townâs first public library opened in the home of Marie Howland, an early resident and bibliophile. Eight years later, the books were transferred to a one-room building, and then in 1983, it moved to its current location.Credit:JOEL KIMMEL
At dusk, I drove toward the bay and its 2 miles of pristine waterfront.
Everyone in town, it seemed, was already there.
Children ran shrieking from ornery geese; someone played a violin.
Credit:EDWARD MITCHELL / THE WASH HOUSE RESTAURANT
I lingered awhile longer, till the lights of Mobile came on across the bay.
I bought a house here not long after that.
It is hard to keep something this special a secret.
Credit:Dragonfly Foodbar
But now, 20 years later, I wish that I had tried.
It has its own gritty beauty, certainly, but I would not swim in it on a bet.
But this has not stopped the influx of newcomers.
I guess you cant miss what youve never seen, Meador says.
He feels blessed by those memories, not haunted.
The bay he knew is only a faded postcard now, but he still lives here happily.
There are bars, yes, but not as many as there are churches.
You cannot swing a dead cat without hitting a poetry reading or an art show.
Aspringtime festivaldraws people from around the nation and is as close as Fairhope gets to a bacchanalia.
They have hung historical markers on everything, even ancient trees, and erected a statue to a teacher.
I told Bill Butterworth (who wrote as W.E.B.
Griffin) that we needed one that said, The Writers of Fairhope Welcome You.
He replied that it should actually say, Welcome to Fairhope, the Home of More Writers than Readers.
The names have changed, but that literary legacy endures.
People live well here and did so even before money poured in.
It also has decent biscuits and gravy, incredible coffee, and fiery seafood dishes.
you might even buy a bag of European chocolates or a cold bottle of pineapple Jarritos from thePiggly Wiggly.
Just inside the city limits are beautiful pastures dotted with healthy cows and lush fields ofSilver Queen corn.
I used to take my dog there so he could bark at the indifferent Angus cattle and feel brave.
But Fairhope is a real town.
If you walk down the street to the pharmacy, people know you.
At Publix, you run into half of St. James Episcopal Churchs congregation.
People may move away, but many come back sooner or later.
Older residents say that they are here for good; they have seen where U.S. 98 leads.
Where would you go to retire from Fairhope?
I asked Johnson once.
You go to heaven, she replied.
Harper Lee once called it a magical place to live.
But it was not really magic that made it.
The current-day landscape of the city was shaped, long ago, by an ideal.
When they got here, it must have seemed like heaven.
As a cooperative, they purchased land and divided it not into deeds but long-term leases.
The founders remarked, in those early days, that they had a fair hope of success.
If they had arrived in the summer, theyd have gone back home.
But the single taxers and their communal attitude are the real history of this place.
It would never be the success its founders envisioned.
More conventional investors, insisting on more traditional land ownership, would join them as the city took form.
But the colonys ideals and the corporation that exists to this day would be a kind of firewall.
Progressive ideas and creativity seemed to flourish, including a historic school focused on play-based learning.
Intellectuals were drawn here.
Upton Sinclair discussed the duality of man in a warm Southern wind.
Clarence Darrow spoke on the dangers of petrified opinion.
I guess it left that lingering vibe, says Knight, one thatas the city growscan feel strained.
But some people are curious about what Fairhope would look like now if its beginnings had been different.
Where else do you have 2 miles of uninterrupted beachfront?
Knights people have been entwined with the city for generations.
Though she has lived elsewhere, she always felt that Fairhope was a homecoming.
We used to go down to the pier every night to watch the sunset, she says.
It is a hard thing to build a fence around.
The Gulf and its tributaries are magnets for money, crowds, and traffic.
How many towns in the South would trade their empty storefronts for the problems Fairhope has?
wonders Martin Lanaux, a longtime resident.
I know a guy who made up his mind to move here in 20 minutes.
It still has that feel, but it has eroded a bit, Barrett says.
What is certainly lost, say many people, is its modesty.
Bens Jr. shut down years ago; I dont know what became of the grumbling waiter.
The downtown hardware store and other shops that were part of the old landscape closed too.
It hasnt gotten big-city crowded; its just different, not as easy as it used to be.
A new bungalow five blocks off the bay can cost a million or much more.
Recently, I drove past a threadbare house for sale in the citys picturesque bayside Fruit & Nut district.
It had all the square footage and curb appeal of a fireworks stand.
The asking price was $720,000.
An alarming number are piloted by children who have apparently learned to navigate by playing Grand Theft Auto.
Youthand good insurancewill make you fearless.
Watch out for the golf carts, warns Johnson.
Fairhope even has a dealership dedicated to them.
Many of the idyllic cottages remain, standing in the shade of the new Fairhope.
The city can preserve that architecture, that past, but it has to want to do so.
Think Lord of the Flies but with beer and trust funds.
I come home, Jones says, and I feel like its the greatest place on earth.
I will sit on a bayfront bench with that woeful pelican and growl at toddlers.
I miss those birds.
Whatever happens next, Fairhopes bohemian past and that clear water seem more like souvenirs.
The rich people do throw away some nice things.
Still, I wonder if theyll need a new waiter to growl at people.
I dont drive hundreds of miles just to bind myself in grown-up clothes in 100% humidity.
EDWARD MITCHELL / THE WASH HOUSE RESTAURANT
Julwin’s Restaurant
Fairhope has a bounty of breakfast options.
I mean, you never know.
MaryAnns Deli is great every time.
Since it can be almost impossible to find something open after 9 p.m., I sometimes take food home.
The shrimp salad and broccoli-and-cheese soup are my standbys.
If its not too sweltering, grab a table outside and count all the golf carts.
They have pineapple upside-down sheet cake.
I am not allowed to eat it, but it makes me feel good just thinking about it.
If you go to Saracenos and do not like it, you could just keep that to yourself.
Their gumbo is Louisiana good with bigGulf shrimp.
Itll make you wonder why you ever waited in line at one of those massive seafood show palaces.
But the fried chicken was delicious, and thats hard to find at night here.
facebook.com/MrSpudsFairhope, 18951 Highway 181, Fairhope, AL 36532
U.S. Census Bureau.Fairhope, Alabama.
