16 June 2023
COLDWATER, Kan. (KSNW) — A husband and wife who recently moved to Kansas are literally and physically transforming something old into something new.
They hope to attract more people to Coldwater, a small town with a rich history and a thriving community. The town sits two hours southwest of Wichita. It is known for its lake and is home to about 800 people.
Its 139-year history is about to embark on a new era. Lisa Souers and her husband are converting the old Coldwater Library into an inn.
“It’s called The Squirrel Inn. It’s because I’m super squirrelly. I have to be doing stuff,” Lisa said. “We wanted to move to the Midwest and have like a central location where we could just kind of travel, and we wanted to buy an unconventional building where we could restore.”
She says her husband is a serious carpenter and construction person. They call Coldwater a gem.
“We started researching online, and we stumbled onto Coldwater, Kansas,” Lisa said. “We had never been to the Midwest, so we were in Vegas to watch Gonzaga play in the tournament, and he said, ‘Let’s drive a little bit farther … a little bit farther.'”
It was a needle in a haystack find. A realtor helped secure the building. The citizens of Coldwater helped seal the deal.
“(We) pulled up. They were having a food truck with barbecue, and people are kind of like just waving at us when we came to town, and … so friendly,” Lisa said.
A place for old books now has a new unique story.
“We have restored it into very quirky, very fun but very vintage … We’ve lofted it upstairs and then downstairs, we’ve, I have my art studios,” Lisa said.
The Souers have moved beyond just being visitors to Coldwater.
“We stumbled onto an amazing building, but we really stumbled onto an amazing community,” Lisa said.
“This one young boy came up to us, and he said, ‘Hi, my name is Boyd. Are you guys good people?’ And my husband looked at me and goes, ‘Yes, we are good people.’ And he said, ‘OK, Can I help you?’ And so he helped us unload our U-Haul, and it was like we looked at each other and was like, ‘We are in the right place.'”
The Souers plan to open The Squirrel Inn by the end of August or during Labor Day weekend.