Beginning as a Methodist mission in the 1850's, Piedmont First United Methodist Church was organized in 1867 as the Cross Plains Methodist Episcopal Church, South, by Wilson Johnson and a small band of local Methodists. In 1868 a small church was built on North Church Street, with Neill Ferguson, W. P. Harbor, and Wilson Johnson serving as trustees, and the Rev. Theophilus Moody appointed pastor. In 1898 a larger church was erected on the same site while the Rev. I. Q. Melton served as pastor. The present sanctuary was built in 1916 with the Rev. William Raines Battles as pastor. The T. Ben Kerr Memorial Building was added in 1950-51 and the J. Clifton Draper Memorial Building in 1968.