This was the first church established in San Marcos. The group became a part of the Texas Conference of The Methodist Episcopal Church, South, which had been organized at Rutersville in 1840 under the presidency of Bishop Beverly Waugh. General Pitts gave the land where the church now stands, Three buildings have stood on this site. The first, a two-story frame house built in 1855 facing the Fredericksburg Road, was destroyed by fire in 1868. Various church groups had used it for services and the Masons, who had laid the corner stone, had used the second floor for meetings of the Cushney Lodge No. 128.
All records seem to have been lost in the fire.
For four years thereafter, the Methodist congregation met in the chapel of Coronal Institute. In 1872, under the pastorate of the Rev. 0. A. Fisher, a red brick church was built on the fireswept lot, facing Hutchison Street. In 1891 this building had to be wrecked because of cracking walls. Again the people worshipped in the chapel of Coronal Institute, which institution in 1875 had become the property of the local Methodist church.