Marie Howland Arrives in Fairhope

Marie Stephens Case Howland came to Fairhope in 1898. Howland moved to Fairhope to be part of the social and economic experiment of what founder E.B. Gaston called "Cooperative Individualism." Fairhope was founded on Utopian Principles and Henry George's Single Tax Theory and movement. Being an avid reader, free thinker, and single tax proponent, she opened the doors of her home to the community and offered to loan her books (collected by her and her late husband Edward) to anyone interested in furthering their education. She gave her collection to the Fairhope Single Tax Corporation on April 18, 1900 and continued to open the doors to her home to patrons, but which now doubled as the "Fairhope Free Public Library." Howland was the town's librarian and also the resident nude bather, but she was so much more. A novelist, newspaper editor and columnist, single taxer, feminist, suffragist, and sometimes socialist Howland's home and later library were the literal and figurative center of Fairhope.