In a single-tax colony, individuals do not own land. The community owns the land, and individuals lease the land from the community group. The community taxes people on the share of the land they lease, not on the property’s structure. Whether someone builds a tiny home or a mansion, the property tax is the same. Although there was a smattering of single-tax communities in the late 1800s, Fairhope, Alabama, and Arden, Delaware, are the only two that remain.

Never having heard of a single-tax colony before we visited the Fairhope Museum of History, we were intrigued.