First United Methodist Church (Leesville, La.) is located at 202 North Fifth Street, Leesville, Louisiana.

The first Methodist services in the area were probably given by Rev. S.S. Holladay. He came to the parish in the 1880s and preached in the area. Meetings were held on the first floor of the old Lottery Building; Masons met on the second floor.

When Methodist families moved to town to work for the Nona Mills Lumber Company, they asked for a church to be organized. Rev. J.M. Alford was appointed to the church in December 1899. He held services at the W.O.W. Hall for the first year. The first church was completed in December 1900. A storm destroyed that church on January 5, 1918. The Women’s Home Missionary Society donated two lots next to the church, and a brick church was constructed at a cost of $25,000. The church bell survived the storm and was installed in the new church.

In the early 1950s, an education building was constructed. Completed in 1953, it was dedicated in 1959 in a service led by Bishop Paul E. Martin.

First United Methodist Church disaffiliated from the United Methodist Church in 2023.

Source: Timothy Hebert, “The Historical Register of the Louisiana Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church,” (Louisiana: Louisiana Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church, 2004), page LC-31.