Established in 1844, St. Francisville United Methodist Church, then Methodist Episcopal Church, South, initially lived in the rowdy, river-port town of Bayou Sara, where heavy flatboats, cargo barges, and steamboats traveled the Mississippi River from St. Louis, MO to New Orleans, LA. However, due to a series of fires and floods that destroyed Bayou Sara, construction for a new New Methodist church in St. Francisville began in 1896 and was completed in 1899. This new building housed the bell brought from the original church in Bayou Sara.
In late 1948, the erosion of the bluff on which the church was located once again threatened the building’s safety. Thus, the church, with its turn-of-the-century stained-glass windows and its 1844 bell, moved to its present location on Royal Street in the historic district of St. Francisville.
The church officially became a United Methodist Church in 1968 and has continued to expand since then.
Read more about the history here.