Downsville United Methodist Church was located at 4805 Louisiana Highway 151, Downsville, Louisiana.

The area (first known as Lower Pine Hills) was first visited by Methodist circuit riders in the early 1800s. Around 1812, “Father Abraham” Pipes and his family settled in the area. He became a book agent and served as a Methodist minister. By 1839, Rev. Parrish was preaching at the Methodist Mission at Lower Pine Hills. In 1850, there was a Methodist church by the Smyrna cemetery. The log church, pastored by Rev. John Honeycutt, served both blacks and whites. When a post office was established in 1851, the name of the community was changed to Downsville after Gen. Q. S. Downs.

The church was incorporated on March 14, 1855, as the Downsville Circuit. Shortly after W. B. Mattox gave land to the church on September 3, 1866, a building was constructed. This original church later burned down. On April 26, 1890, J. T. Reynolds gave some property to the church. Rev. Collier led the church in building a sanctuary that year. Most of the furnishings were made by the pastor himself. The church originally had a tall steeple, but when it was damaged by a storm it was never rebuilt to that original height. The bell from that steeple still hangs in the current steeple.

Until 1910, the pastors lived in a parsonage at Downsville. From 1910 to 1947, the pastors lived at Calhoun or Marion. In 1947, Mr. and Mrs. Frank Ballard donated their apple orchard to the church and a parsonage was built on the location that year. The pastor at that time was Rev. D. L. McGuire.

In 1953-54, the current sanctuary and education building were built. The old facilities were turned around and used as part of the new structure. The church was dedicated on March 29, 1959.

A new parsonage was built in 1982-83, with the dedication service on February 13, 1983. In 1986, donations allowed for the installation of stained-glass windows in the church. They were dedicated on June 22 of that year.

The Downsville congregation has historically been mission-minded. One project was to support one-fifth of the salary of Joe and Dot Davis, missionaries in the Belgian Congo. Work teams from the church have traveled across the globe for mission work.

Downsville United Methodist Church disaffiliated from the United Methodist Church in May 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 MO-28.