Potosi

Courthouse

The first courthouse was a 2 story frame building, constructed in 1814, a Greek-temple-like style with Doric columns across the front.. The second courthouse was started in 1849 and finished in 1850; it was a 2 story brick on stone foundation. When it burned down in 1907, a third courthouse was begun, and finished in 1908. The architect for the third courthouse was Henry H. Hohenschild, who designed many Missouri court houses in this period, and the builder W. R. Oder of Canton, Missouri. The design was similar to T. C. Link's courthouse at Fredericktown in adjacent Madison county. The building is a 2 storey red brick structure, with a tall square bracketed tower. The court house was rehabilitated in 1971-72. P.O. Mine au Burton 1811-1824, Potosi 1824-date.

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Firmin DesLoge House

This 2 story frame house has white clapboard and green shutters and a large red brick chimney. There is a porch which runs the full length of front of house and a gazebo in the yard on the south side. Firmin DesLoge was an important early business man in the lead industry, and his name is 'memorialized' in the town of Desloge as well as in buildings such as the Firmin DesLoge Hospital in St. Louis. P.O. Mine au Burton 1811-1824, Potosi 1824-date.

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Potosi Presbyterian Church

The Potosi Presbyterian Church was organized on July 21, 1832. The first church was a log church; the second church was brick, but too small, and the 3rd church, built in 1872, was also brick. The current church, built in 1907 was designed by John Anderson Lankford, perhaps the first professional black architect in Missouri. Lankford has received his early religious instruction in Potosi, and when he found out in 1906 that the church planned a new building, he designed the present structure for free. It is in the 'modified Akron plan', with a central pulpit and choir, with the interior and exterior restored in 1982.

The so-called 'Akron Plan' is named after a church built just post-Civil War in Akron, Ohio, which had movable partitions. The sanctuary area could be enlarged if needed, or small modular rooms, to be used for Sunday school instruction, could be divided from the sanctuary by use of these partitions. This was a very popular model adopted by many Methodist, Presbyterian, and Disciples of Christ congregations in the heartland in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. P.O. Mine au Burton 1811-1824, Potosi 1824-date.

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St. James

St. James began in 1821 as a Mission church of Old Mines, with priests from St. Mary's Seminary in Perryville. John Timon, C.M., was the first regular priest assigned to the parish in 1825, and in 1829, Father John Bouillier, of Old Mines, took over servicing this parish. The current brick church was begun in 1859, and finished in 1861. The church tower originally had two additional 'stages', but the soft, locally produced bricks, deteriorated, and the upper tower segments were removed in the 1930s. P.O. Mine au Burton 1811-1824, Potosi 1824-date.

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