Methodist Episcopal meetings were first held in farmhouses in 1836. A church was built at 621 4th Street in 1839. The first resident pastor arrived in 1844, with a parsonage at 214 Commerce Street. A Sunday school was organized in 1845. The church became Methodist Episcopal, South, in 1845. The present building was begun in 1849 and dedicated in 1851. It was occupied by federal troops in 1864 and remodeled in 1883. The adjoining parsonage was built in 1865 and remodeled in 1945 and 1964. The church became First Methodist in 1939.