The New Richmond Anti-Slavery Society held candlelight meetings at this location as early as 1836. In 1842, Amos Dresser, one of the Lane Seminary Rebels and an anti-slavery martyr, was appointed pastor. The church shared its pulpit with several anti-slavery speakers, including Calvin Stowe and George Beecher, husband and brother of Harriet Beecher Stowe, as well as James G. Birney and John Rankin. The church was organized in 1821, and the present chapel was built in 1856. Following the Great Flood of 1937, the Methodist and Presbyterian churches of New Richmond merged and named their congregation in memory of Methodist Bishop Earl Cranston.