The moment a Healthcare facility, Historic Boutique Resort Goes Up for Sale in Ligonier

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PHOTSO BY APRIL REPPUCCI

A roaring fire, colored light dancing through stained glass windows and the twinkle of chandeliers greet you as you wander by way of the doorway at Thistledown at Seger Home — and it all could be yours. 

 The boutique hotel in Ligonier recently went on the market for $1.75 million.

Situated just two blocks from the Diamond, the eight-bed room, eight-bathroom historic estate is within just walking length of lots of of Ligonier’s points of interest, which include Fort Ligonier, Ligonier Country Market and Allegory Gallery. The home also includes a separate carriage home that serves as a spouse and children suite.

Initially created in 1915 as a relatives home for coal baron John Seger and his a few young children, Thistledown maintains its first woodwork, as nicely as the crimson Lake Excellent sandstone exterior cladding specially ordered by Seger, and a roof designed of inexperienced Ludowici terra cotta tile. 

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It has six working fireplaces with initial tile get the job done from American Encaustic Tiling Co. in Ohio. The home also features the primary dumbwaiter, an elevator, up-to-date heating and cooling devices and a restaurant house that’s accessible for lease.

Michelle and Adam Gardner, a married couple who had lived in Ligonier and were being familiar with Thistledown, have owned the residence considering the fact that 2013. 

“We would constantly generate by and see the home and consider about what a terrific put it was,” states Michelle Gardner. “We would usually joke, ‘Oh if that setting up at any time goes on sale, we’re likely to purchase that area.’ And, very well, it went up for sale.”

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The Gardners have patiently been waiting to provide the house considering the fact that it was listed previous summer time with Pennsylvania Business Actual Estate Inc. 

“We love the spot and we’re in no rush to get rid of it, but if a purchaser comes alongside, we would go forward in the sale,” suggests Adam Gardner. “The timing just feels right to pass on the torch.”

The couple bought the estate from Excela Health, which experienced made use of the residence as a surgical middle, following an eventful history.

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Pursuing John Seger’s death in 1930, his loved ones offered Thistledown to the Allegheny County Sisters of Mercy. It was then converted into a satellite hospital. Two years following the sale, Helen Newlin McGinnis purchased the residence and renamed it McGinnis Hospital.

In the late 1980s, The Westmoreland Clinic bought the facility, which turned portion of Excela Wellness when the organization rebranded in 2004. It remained a surgery heart right until 2011, when it was set on the marketplace for $600,000 and sat there for two decades.

“We bought the home for about $265,000,” recalls Adam Gardner. “But we put about six situations as a lot into doing work on the making because practically anything had to be redone.”

The Gardners did not at first plan to change the developing into an inn. Soon after the first buy, the few commenced clearing out health care supplies and moved Michelle Gardner’s organization, Bo Peep Good Yarns, into the initially ground of the creating.

Nonetheless, the pair was unsure about what to do with the rest of the house.

“After we acquired it I had a moment of worry,” suggests Michelle Gardner. “We were being just there wondering, ‘What now?’”

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Immediately after many discussions, the couple made the decision to go ahead with converting the home to a lodge.

The renovations would confirm tough due to the fact of how very long the estate was made use of in the health-related field. During the decades, as the building’s rooms ended up altered to match the desires of a surgical middle, the home had dropped some of its heat and special character. 

The Gardeners have been notably anxious with sustaining the building’s historic integrity, as perfectly as maintaining as considerably of the unique structure as possible, all through renovations. 

Then there was an additional concern.  

“No regional building organizations wanted to undertake this [project],” suggests Michelle Gardner. “We uncovered a company in Mahaffey referred to as Bloxdorf and they were craftsmen. They ended up not just builders.”

When renovations were full nine months afterwards, the Gardners say the grandchildren of John Seger, who expended a lot of many years in the residence when it was in its early many years, stopped by for a visit.

“They were being attractive individuals. They wept simply because it was so beautiful and they have been so happy to see aspect of their historical past, section of their childhood preserved,” claims Michelle Gardner.

 For additional information and facts and photographs of Thistledown at Seger Dwelling, take a look at thistledownligonier.com. The resort is continue to at this time scheduling reservations.