In the year 1791 a group of seven women went all the way from East Greenwich to Charlestown, Rhode Island, to hear a man by the name of Jessie Lee preach the gospel at Governor Stanton’s Inn. When they returned to their homes, they decided to hold meetings of the Methodist Society and often gathered in the Court House in the center of town. By the end of the year the group had grown to over a hundred people.

In 1833 land was purchased by Lydia Greene and the present church was built. The parsonage was built in back of the church and remained there until the 1940's when a house on Spring Street was purchased. The present parsonage on LeBaron Drive was purchased in the 1960's. Dr. Wilber Fisk, the first president of Wesleyan University, was the first minister to preach in the new church.

The General Assembly of Rhode Island met in Newport and also at the Court House in East Greenwich . The State Constitution was to be signed at the Court House but there was neither heat nor enough room for the large gathering and so it was decided to meet at the Methodist Church. It was there that the Constitution of Rhode Island was signed.