Roanoke Seminary United Methodist Church traces its beginning to a United Brethrenorganization founded by Rev. John Surran in 1844. John G. Dinius and Martin and Harry Bashwere members. Two years later, in 1846, a frame church was erected on North Main Street. (This building was later used as a Methodist church.) 

The growing church eventually moved to Roanoke Classical Seminary chapel, where it remained for several years. A parsonage was completed in 1900 for $1,700. The seminary moved to North Manchester in 1893, but the church continued in the chapel until 1903. During this period the congregation was expanding rapidly, and as Mr. Ervin Richards, a trustee, said, “We found that we paid for the new parsonage so easily that when brother Goshert (Rev. J. L. Goshert, pastor through 1903) suggested and promoted the construction of a new church building we were ready to go ahead and build.”