In August 1924, the construction of what would be known as the Hotel Chester began. In April 1925, the hotel opened its doors to the public.
There were 35 rooms available on Hotel Chester’s opening day, which remains the same today. With rates ranging from $0.70 to $1.05, the rooms had three washroom options: no bathroom, a shared bathroom between two rooms or a private bath.
Throughout Hotel Chester’s 97-year-long history, it has seen many changes: in ownership, name and the condition of the washrooms. Despite the many modifications over the years, Hotel Chester has managed to keep its original soul alive.
In the early 1940s, Hotel Chester was renamed Stark Hotel. Stark Hotel would operate until the 70s when it ran out of business. Over the next few decades, the hotel had several different owners attempting to turn the business around. In 1999, David and Sukie Mollendor bought the hotel and reopened it with the original Hotel Chester name. They were the first steady owners to operate Hotel Chester in decades.
“When I bought the hotel in 1999, it was closed and in pretty bad shape,” David Mollendor said. “My interest was not to create something new, but to restore it rather than renovate it. So, I spent two and a half years to restore it as best I could.”
David Mollendor said he had to fix the mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems. The owner said all of the changes were necessary for the business to grow once it opened.
“It would take another 10 years to get it to a place I knew it could serve our customers reliably due to little things in maintenance that were done incorrectly in around the 80s. So, that brings us to where we are today,” David Mollendor said.
Since the Mollendors took over in 1999, Hotel Chester has blossomed into a main attraction of Starkville. With rooms for students, parents and sightseers alike, Hotel Chester puts guests in the heart of Starkville, with restaurants and activities just a short walk away.
Anne Colbert Barret worked as the head chef of Hotel Chester in the mid-2000s and said she has fond memories from the experience.
“It just had so much character because we had so many events like wedding receptions, and lots of fraternities and sororities would have their formals there,” Barret said.
The former head chef said Hotel Chester was a hot spot during football weekends.
“I especially loved the library bar because there was just an old-school vibe you got from the place because of the way it was set up. At the time, it was one of the only fine dining places in Starkville. So, it offered a lot to travelers. It was also a very public, communal place for Starkville, especially on game weekends. It would be packed with guests and reservations. It just had and still has a great atmosphere,” Barret said.
Even after all the time since Barret worked there, Hotel Chester has remained a hot spot for Starkville due to the food, hospitality and location. With the Mollendors still in ownership, the hotel has continued to thrive and be a prominent feature of Starkville, employees say.
Hotel Chester has even appeared on Gordan Ramsay’s TV show “Hotel Hell” in 2014.  In the episode titled “Hotel Chester,” Ramsay visited a struggling Hotel Chester with the mission of helping the Mollendors make key updates to attract more customers. With help from Ramsay, Hotel Chester made changes to the menu and added more Southern food options for dinner, modernized the rooms with new furniture and decor and updated the outside beer garden.
While the hotel offers a place for students to stay, it also provides jobs for students to work when not in class. Kendall Hill, a senior educational psychology minor and a manager who has worked at the Hotel Chester for the last two years, said she has liked working for the Mollendors.
“I have really enjoyed working here. A lot of our employees are college students, so we kind of work together to get a lot of things done. When you work here, you do a little bit of everything, whether it’s cleaning, laundry, checking people in or out or making reservations. My time here has been a really good experience for me,” Hill said.
Though it has gone by many names and seen many changes over the last 97 years, Hotel Chester became a success story for the Mollendor family and a historic landmark of Starkville that has continued to draw in new guests every week.