GALENA, Ill. — As the sun rises each morning in Galena, Elaine Edgecomb and Luke Tierno are busy in the kitchen.

On any given day, they might be preparing coffee cake, quiche and potato casserole or Belgian waffles, eggs and bacon.

“We make everything from scratch, and we try to source local ingredients as much as possible,” Edgecomb said.

Whether it’s French toast or frittatas, the two-course morning meal is accompanied by fresh fruit and a variety of beverages, from hot coffee and tea to juices.

“We take our breakfasts very seriously,” Tierno said.

It’s par for the course at Farmers Guest House, the Galena bed-and-breakfast that the pair own and operate with Luke Tierno’s father, Mark Tierno.

The trio took ownership of the business just over five years ago and are the latest proprietors of the lodging property that has welcomed guests for more than 150 years.

“It’s a lifestyle, and you’re giving yourself 100% to the job,” Luke said. “We’ve really fallen in love with it.”

The family’s journey to owning Farmers Guest House began when Mark retired after a career in higher education. He sought both a retirement gig and an opportunity to invest in a business with his son. Soon thereafter, he, Luke and Edgecomb agreed to own and operate a bed-and-breakfast together.

“Because I traveled a lot in my career, I stayed in a variety of different kinds of properties, and I’ve just come to really enjoy these small inns,” Mark said. “They provide a kind of hospitality that is very American, and (they) really are old-fashioned treasures.”

The three spent nearly a year investigating various B&Bs across the country, from Maine to Massachusetts to Florida to Arkansas, before Mark visited Farmers Guest House.

The federal-style Galena property stood out to the Tiernos and Edgecomb because unlike most B&Bs, which are often former homes converted into inns, Farmers Guest House was constructed as a hotel and has nearly always served that purpose.

“This building opened in 1867 as Farmers Home Hotel, and it originally was a lodging property, with this whole ground floor as one big general store,” Mark said.

“All the people selling their things would stay upstairs if they were in town for the night,” Luke added.

The trio bought the business in August 2019 from its previous owners, Don and Susan Steffan.

Although they did not initially make many changes to the property, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit in the spring of 2020, the decline in business gave them time to spruce up some of the rooms.

It also helped spur some operational changes that continue.

For example, Farmers Guest House offered a daily “WineTime” gathering, where guests could come together for wine and snacks. However, when people didn’t want to congregate due to the pandemic, the Tiernos and Edgecomb began delivering wine and cheese directly to guests’ rooms — a service that became so popular, they never stopped.

Farmers Guest House can house up to 19 guests at a time in its nine rooms, each of which is named for one of the wives of the nine Civil War generals from Galena.

Guests can choose from among three king bedrooms, three queen bedrooms and three suites, one of which is a cottage located on the property.

As he gave a tour of the main building, Mark pushed open the door to the first-floor Charlotte Suite, which includes a king-sized bed, daybed, whirlpool and gas fireplace.

“This space was once the stable where folks who came to visit would keep their horses,” he said. “At one point, it also was a jazz bar called Twenty West.”

The second floor houses seven more rooms, from the Minnie and Aimee rooms to the Julia Suite, named for the wife of General and later U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant. It also features a massage studio, where guests can book a solo or couple’s massage.

“People know they’re being taken care of when they stay here,” Mark said. “They feel the attention, and they comment on it.”

One benefit from the building’s longtime life as a lodging property is its large gathering spaces, including a dining room spacious enough to house multiple tables. That way, guests need not eat at the same table with strangers if they’d prefer not to do so — although they can always push a table together and make friends.

The property also includes a back garden and three terraced patios, along with a first-floor common area where floor-to-ceiling windows gaze out onto U.S. 20.

The walls are adorned with maps of Civil-War-era America, copies of the Gettysburg Address and the Constitution, paintings of historic figures like Abraham Lincoln and unique artifacts like keys and clocks.

An antique stove crouches in the corner of an upstairs hallway with an old-fashioned telephone hanging on the wall just above it. Nearby, a wooden cabinet holds a variety of handbells, while another glass-fronted case contains delicate china teacups.

“We really care about the details,” Luke said. “We all have an eye for treasure … so we like to furnish the building with the things we find.”

The Tiernos and Edgecomb cherish the relationships they’ve forged with regular guests, from grandmothers and grandchildren to groups of friends.

But they also enjoy meeting first-time visitors to Galena and sharing their top tips for taking in the town, from restaurant recommendations to favorite shops.

“People may have lived in Illinois or in the tri-state area their whole lives and driven through Galena a million times and just never stopped,” Edgecomb said. “It’s such a magical little town … and it’s fun to be a part of people’s first experience here.”