The congregation was organized in 1818 as the Methodist Episcopal Church at the home of Richard Barnes, a tanner, and its first meeting house was later built beside his home on South Jefferson Street. In 1845 it became the M.E. Church, South, when the national church split over slavery. It was renamed to honor Benjamin Ogden, the first minister appointed to western Kentucky and Tennessee by Bishop Asbury. The first meeting house on South Jefferson Street was also the place where several other evangelical denominations were organized. A second building was erected in 1878 on South Seminary Street between Main and Washington, and the present edifice, honoring Benjamin Ogden, was erected in 1928-29.