If you want to experience life on the National Road as it was (with a side of great contemporary cuisine), the Stone House Restaurant and Country Inn opened its doors in 1822. Originally built as the Fayette Springs Hotel, it was intended to serve travelers taking the waters of nearby Fayette Springs. The original owner, the Honorable Andrew Stewart was a politician, statesman, and local land baron who rode the wave of prosperity from the opening of the National Road in 1818. While the road was being built the remains of the famous colonial general Edward Braddock, who had died of a fatal wound some 60 years earlier following one of the battles of the French and Indian War were unearthed. Along the road, nightly musical entertainment and traveling minstrel shows featured such performers as Jenny Lind. After a variety of owners, in 1996 local businessman Fred F. Zeigler, III embarked upon a joint venture to restore the Stone House to its origins in character and appearance. Every opportunity was taken to restore original elements of the building to modern function, while re-establishing the early 1820’s style atmosphere which existed at the time the Stone House was a distinctive wayfarer’s inn along the original National Pike. A “just by chance” conversation between Fred Zeigler and Chef Jeremy Critchfield would bring Critchfield’s skills gained from 20 years in five-star kitchens, to deliver high quality cuisine to the historic building.
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