It all started with a 1930s Shirley Temple doll for Mary Charles Robbins. Living in a home with no radio, before television, dolls provided her main entertainment. Today, the Mary Charles Doll House is one of 10 repair shops world-wide that are approved by the Madame Alexander Doll Company. People seek out the tiny historic house in Homewood—formerly the location of Carriage House on Oxmoor Road—from all over the country. Part retail, part museum, the Mary Charles Doll House is crammed with antique and vintage dolls, teddy bears, doll clothes, doll houses and doll house furnishings. Very few things are new, except for the exquisite miniatures for tea sets and doll houses designed and painted by artists specializing in working small.

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August 5, 2022
Hidden between the frosty-white beaches of the Gulf and the anchorage of the USS Alabama, there is Fairhope. A nested gem of a time since passed, Fairhope serves as a haven of leisure that calls to annual vacationers again and again. So, what is it about this majestic small city that beckons so loudly? April McCraney, a real estate agent in the area, knows first the power of ‘Fairhope Fever,’ and why it’s increasingly vital to ensure the town’s longevity.

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July 9, 2022