Kirkbride Potts, with help from his wife Pamelia Logan Potts, designed and constructed this large and stately building between 1850 and 1858, patterning it after the Classical Revival style he knew in his home state of Pennsylvania but building it with local labor and native materials. Lumber for siding and trim, bricks for chimneys, and laths and plaster for walls were designed and finished on site, while only doors, mantels, and glass window panes were factory made and shipped up the Arkansas River. The building served as a post office, a social and cultural center, an inn, an overnight Butterfield Stage stop, and a home. The Butterfield line closed at the beginning of the War in 1861, and with the stage line gone and four years of devastating war and its aftermath, the inn changed. It provided fine accommodations for early travelers and new customers, including food and lodging for surveyors and engineers working for the Little Rock and Fort Smith Railway Company. Pamelia Potts died August 5, 1878, and Kirkbride followed on November 27, 1879. Both are buried in Potts Cemetery overlooking the land of Galla Creek, and Potts' descendants occupied the home until they sold it to the Pope County Historical Foundation in 1970.