A local couple hopes to bring new life back into their community of Mounds.
Rob and Mirandy Ford recently purchased a vintage two-story building in the heart of downtown Mounds to restore. It’s not just any old building, it’s a structure with stories and history. Greyhound Buses and trains brought hundreds of people through Stiger’s Hotel that sits on the corner of Commercial Avenue and 14th street.
In 1925, the town’s first hotel, the Commercial Hotel, burned down and to replace it, a stout thirty-two room brick building was constructed. John Jr. Stiger and his wife Elsie purchased it in the late 60s from Geneva Ishmael, Mrs. Stiger recounts. Mrs. Stiger is now ninety-years young and has bright blue eyes and a wide smile. She constantly talks about the goodness of God and retells memories from times long ago.
For example, her husband had three cents in his pocket when they purchased the hotel. Mrs. Stiger had been selling fresh milk to the owner and had earned her trust. There was “no law” in Mounds at that time and Mr. Stiger handled problems with his “two fists.” He was a truck driver which left Mrs. Stiger and her four children to run the hotel while he was on the road. Their son, Al, helped her with hotel matters, while her two daughters helped tend to the baby. Mrs. Stiger cooked for the guests who paid for the use of a small room containing one light, a bed and a window and access to a community male or female bathroom.
Mrs. Stiger was a shy, country girl and living in the city was a new way of life. She brought the skills of gardening and tending chickens with her, as evidenced by the greenhouse, garden, and chicken coop on the property that are still there and tell of times gone by. The cellar held twenty-eight people at one point during a tornado. Once, a little girl fell out of the second story window and landed on the concrete below, surviving. The plumbing from the 1940’s was “difficult.”
It’s not clear how long the hotel sat without guests after the Stiger’s closed the doors, but Mrs. Stiger and her daughter have remained to live on the property after Mr. Stiger passed away in 2011. The Ford family met the Stigers at First Baptist Church in Mounds and church members have been keeping an eye on the pair. Not long ago, the Fords felt led to purchase the hotel from her, initially so she could keep her home. Mirandy says one thing leads to another as the Lord unfolds His plans for the property. Mrs. Stiger exclaimed, “I never dreamed I’d be able to sell my home and still live in it!”
The Fords renamed the hotel the “Mounds Happiness Hotel” and it is slowly being cleaned and renovated; it needs a lot of TLC. Some of the space has already been turned into larger apartments through previous years. The Fords would love for it to be a place of ministry where a widow, a single mother, or anyone else who needs help can stay and find a community in a welcoming group home setting. The project is big and sometimes overwhelming, but the process has been good for the entire family. Mirandy said their five kids pitch in by learning life lessons along the way, such as the value of working as a family and doing good for others, even in the Oklahoma summer heat.
Mirandy’s vision for the hotel is for the town to feel like it belongs to them. She would love for the halls to be lined with pictures of people from the community from long ago. A hands-on garden will grace the backyard because it’s “good for your soul to be out in the dirt.” She sees a large kitchen and dining area where people eat together and “have a sense of community.” Rob and Mirandy both have the gift of hospitality and love bringing people together and serving.
“We pray that by people seeing us do this, they will see that this town is valuable and worth investing in…we’d love to see the community thrive,” Mirandy exclaimed. The old bridge on Commercial Avenue was completed not long ago and Rob received a letter from the Oklahoma Department of Transportation concerning a street expansion planned for 2024. These improvements to the town could be signs of good things to come.
Next door to the hotel is a large garage where the Mounds Ministerial Alliance (MMA) houses a food pantry. Free food is passed out on Thursdays from 4 to 6 p.m. The MMA is made up of seven local churches who provide food and benevolence to the community. Their two biggest events were cancelled this year due to the pandemic, one of which is their yearly Mounds Fish Fry, which celebrates the 4th of July, and where elected officials serve food to the community. hese events raise much-needed funds for their ministry. The MMA’s Facebook page urges people who would have attended the fish fry to please still donate the money they would have spent on a meal to the organization. Donations can be sent to PayPal.me/moundsalliance
Mrs. Stiger credits her long life to walking three to six miles a day when she was able; she now gets around cautiously with the use of a walker or cane. She can’t wait to get back to church once social distancing is over and she loves the new chickens the Ford’s recently purchased for her. She said the new rooster will soon figure things out and start crowing. She loves to bake cinnamon rolls for the Police Department and passes out homemade “Jesus Bears” to anyone she thinks might need one. Last year, the First Baptist Church hosted a “Pound Party” for her in which she was blessed with all things baking such as a pound of sugar, a pound of flour, cake pans, and more, because, “she’d feed the whole town!”
“The greatness of a community is most accurately measured by the compassionate action of its members.” – Coretta Scott King
Feel free to follow the progress of the Mounds Happiness Hotel on Facebook.
