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W hen he was told that he had only a few months to live due to liver failure, Frederick Foster Zeigler IV
had only one thought: his family.
Zeigler’s family has always been the driving force be- hind everything he has always done. “Being the for- ward thinking guy that he is, he was not going to stay here and let it kill him,” said his daughter, Jordan, who runs the now-booming family business, Ohiopyle Va- cation Rentals.
Zeigler tirelessly researched his options. A new liver, transplanted at a hospital in Nashville, extended the lease on his life indefinitely. And for a man who made it his life’s work to develop real estate, this was the ac-
Chalk Hill area, surrounded by his beloved mountains in Fayette County, near U.S. Route 40. It is still where he lives to this day with his wife, Rhonda. In addition to Jordan, they have two sons and three grandchil- dren, who are never far from his sight.
Zeigler grew up in meager circumstances. One of sev- en siblings, he helped contribute to the family finances by asking neighbors if he could cut firewood. An- other early job was selling dictionaries door to door. “They didn’t have a lot of money, but they had a lot of love,” says Jordan. His wife and he briefly left the area to sell timeshares in Florida, but an ingrained love of the Farmington area, as well as a desire to raise their children near grandparents, made a return trip home inevitable.
Restaurant and Inn, an historical landmark that had been one the first bed & breakfasts on Route 40. Al- though he had never owned a restaurant before, Zei- gler’s business acumen and his devotion to the area contributed to that restaurant’s success for the past two decades.
Other properties would soon follow: Zeigler took over Braddock’s Inn in Farmington in 2015, a pop- ular restaurant known for down home cooking, as well as four properties that are now popular wedding venues and retreats: the Granary, the award-winning Fernstone Retreat, Whispering Pines, and Timber Ridge. Zeigler’s special gift for seeing beneath the sur- face enabled him to turn them these properties into the gems that they are today. These buildings are now
The Zeigler Family
Steelers Heath Miller, Brett Kiesel and Troy Polamalu enjoying a meal at Braddock’s
OVR’s Mountain Majesty
celeration clause that allowed him to walk his daugh- ter down the aisle at her wedding, only a few months after his transplant.
That was two years ago.
Today, Zeigler is recovered and going back to doing what he loves best: spending time with his family and brightening the lives of others while overseeing the family real estate and restaurant businesses.
Zeigler was born in Uniontown and grew up in the
OVR’s Spoonwood Cottage
All of the Zeiglers love the area, with its natural beau- ty and proximity to such landmarks as Fallingwater, Kentuck Knob and Laurel Caverns. “My whole family lives here. It is a close knit and welcoming community. My father always said there is nowhere else he’d want to live than here,” says Jordan.
Soon after his return from Florida, Zeigler began collecting real estate, establishing Ohiopyle Vacation Rentals, with a current cache of 35 properties for rent and four award-winning wedding venues. One of Zeigler’s first purchases was the Historic Stone House
cornerstones of both the family business and the gen- eral area, drawing in visitors and guests from around the country. The Zeiglers also own Ohiopyle Vacation Rentals, with 35 luxury properties in the Ohiopyle and Laurel Highlands area and is now the #1 provider of vacation rentals in the Laurel Highlands of PA.
This is one of the many reasons that Jordan uses the word ‘pioneer’ to refer to her father. “He’s never done anything that he hasn’t made into a success---he’s a go-getter and never gives up,” she says.
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