Published: December 10, 2007 10:01 am      

Couple opens bed & breakfast

Historic Hoopeston home steeped in charm

HOOPESTON — Iliff Bed & Breakfast in Hoopeston is a home with a personality of its own and a beauty that welcomes family and guests with seemingly open arms.

The three-story Tudor home with its steep tiled gabled roof was built in 1917, according to Tony Freeland, by his grandparents Ellsworth and Anna Iliff.

“I am the third generation to live in this house,” he said proudly.

Freeland, his wife, Phyllis, and six children moved from Fowler, Ind., into the house in 1979. And, according to Freeland, 15 children have been raised in the 90-year-old home.

The only major change to the house during its long history was in the L-shaped kitchen. Originally there were three rooms to the kitchen, said Freeland, a small kitchen, a cold pantry and a butler’s pantry.

“The kitchen was made more serviceable,” Freeland said. “Everything else is pretty much the same (as the original).”

The main floor of the home showcases two fireplaces, one in the living room and one in the library. A third fireplace is in an upstairs bedroom on the second floor.

The six bedrooms, three of which are used for the bed and breakfast, are all on the second floor.

The original home may have had as many as eight bedrooms.

Freeland said he remembered a small bedroom on the third floor when he was younger, which is no longer there, and another small room that may have been a bedroom.

The third floor is the billiards room. A 1923 Brunswick billiards pool table stands in the middle of the game room, and the Freelands believe it has been in that room since it was made.

The pair have no idea how Grandfather Iliff got the table to the third floor. The table does come apart, said Phyllis Freeland, but it would still have taken several strong men to maneuver the table up two flights of stairs and onto the third-floor area.

In the library on the main floor, mahogany glass-encased bookshelves wrap around the entire room. Its high-beamed ceilings and comfortable chairs located in strategic places is an open invitation to sit and read a book.

Two full bathrooms are on the second and third floors, with a half bath on the main floor of the home.

The half bath was added in the mid-1940s when Freeland’s mother was ill and wasn’t able to climb stairs.

It was once the safe room, Freeland said. The recessed area where the toilet now sits held the Iliff safe until the half bath was added.

The Iliff family moved to Hoopeston about 1914, or shortly before that time, when Iliff and Milton C. Bruff formed the Iliff-Bruff Chemical Company.

The “snow white phosphate” made by the company was used in more than 1,000 food products, according to the history of the company.

One chemical made by the company was mono-calcium phosphate, Freeland said, and is one of the ingredients used in baking powder.

The company sold the baking powder and chemical rights to Monsanto, Freeland added. Manufacturing of the product was then moved to St. Louis.

The decision to open a bed and breakfast for the retired couple centered around the empty nest — the children were all gone and the house was too large for just the two of them, as well as the rising utility costs and depressed housing market.

The house had been on the market for more than a year before the idea was considered.

Once the decision was made, Freeland said, they applied for a license in early 2007.

Work required to open a bed and breakfast included providing proof of insurance, allowing inspections by the health department and local fire department, obtaining a food handler’s license, installing fire extinguishers, making sure the city had an ordinance for a bed and breakfast and installing emergency lighting on the stairwells.

The Iliff Bed & Breakfast opened its doors to its first client at the end of July and again during the annual Sweetcorn Festival.

It presently has one regular client, Don Flowers of Millstadt, a field service man for ERM, an environmental contractor for AmerenCIPS.

“It’s a lot better than staying in a motel,” Flowers said. “At first it was a little different staying in someone else’s house but once acclimated, it’s like a second home.”

Pricing for the home varies, according to Freeland. It ranges from $75 to $150 a night with a full breakfast included.

Check-in time is between 4 and 6 p.m. and check-out time is between 10 a.m. and noon, unless other arrangements are made. MasterCard, Visa and American Express are all accepted at the bed and breakfast.

FOR RESERVATIONS

For reservations or questions about Iliff Bed and Breakfast, 322 S. 4th St., Hoopeston, contact Tony or Phyllis Freeland at 283-5081 or 877-283-5092.