The Kilgore Methodist Society was organized in 1873 after many residents of New Danville moved to Kilgore, which had been founded in 1872 after the railroad arrived in 1871. That year, a school building was erected at Martin and North streets for the Rev. Isaac Alexander, who transferred his New Danville Masonic Female Academy to Kilgore and renamed it Alexander Institute, and he also conducted Sunday services there until 1883. In 1883, the neighboring Methodist congregations of Kilgore, Crossroads, Danville, and Pirtle formed the Kilgore Methodist Circuit, with the Rev. F. J. Browning as first pastor. In 1894, the Institute, later renamed Lon Morris College, moved to Jacksonville, and Kilgore Methodists continued to meet in the Institute chapel. In 1904, the chapel was moved one block southwest across Martin Street from this site. It was replaced there in 1915 with a frame sanctuary that was burned by arson in 1931 during the Kilgore oil boom. In 1932, a fieldstone sanctuary and annex were built, and the 109-member Kilgore congregation became St. Luke's Methodist Episcopal Church, South, with the Rev. Bob L. Pool as the first full-time pastor. The Tudor Gothic buildings were designed by Paris, Texas, architects Smith and Praeger.