Former IOOF Building - Sterling, OK - Odd Fellow Lodges on Waymarking.com

This is a two-story brick building with a flat roof. There are four single window units on the second floor which are covered with plywood. The ground floor has a single entrance on the right, with four narrow display windows to the left (west). The windows are covered with plastic tarp. The roofline has corbelled brick with raised white bricks reading "IOOF".

The following synopsis of the IOOF organization is found on a website more specifically addressing mysterious happenings at a particular building. IOOF It reads:

"The Odd Fellows (IOOF) is a fraternal organization that was founded in England in the 1600s. At that time people in society were class conscious and few helped their neighbors. When people got sick or their loved ones died, they were left to fend for themselves. Many didn’t have enough money to bury their own dead.

The Odd Fellows stepped up and pooled their money and resources together so that they could help people in need. Since this attitude was converse to the way society thought at the time, they considered themselves “odd” — thus the name.

Like the Masons, the Odd Fellows have their symbols, secrets and mystery. The 3 linked chain symbolizes Friendship, Love and Truth and that symbol typically appears over or near the doorway entering the meeting area.

The IOOF tended to build their lodges with retail space on the ground floor to draw rent that helped pay for the meeting space above. This is the design of both the Easton and Berlin lodges that house Clay Bakers and the yarn shop respectively. But unlike the Masons the IOOF were the first to accept women into their ranks, and the first to build homes for orphans and the elderly."