When Denison was formed, churches were racially segregated. The African Methodist Episcopal (or AME) Church, later called Quinn Chapel AME Church, was established in 1870, before the founding of Denison in 1872. Denison's first African American school was taught at the AME Church under a teacher named Norman, who might also have been a minister. One source says that the church was moved to Denison in 1873 and located on the northeast corner of West Woodard Street and Rusk Avenue (a site later occupied by George Carver's coal yard and then the U.S. Post Office). That parcel of land was donated to the church by a Mr. Quinn, in whose honor the church was named. The first recorded service was held in 1873 under its first minister, Rev. Joshua Van Buren Goins.

Other sources, however, say that the First Methodist Church (for whites) was dedicated on June 2, 1873, at this same location. Its white frame church occupied lots donated by the Denison Town Company. Perhaps the white and black Methodist congregations either shared the building or one succeeded the other at the site.

Quinn Chapel built a sanctuary at the northwest corner of Austin Avenue and West Walker Street before the end of the nineteenth century. That church met its end in a destructive fire in 1960, and services were held at various places for a time. In the early 1960s, the congregation purchased the St. Benedict Catholic Church building at 710 West Elm Street. A new brick sanctuary was dedicated in 1966, and the St. Benedict building then began to be used as a parsonage.

Sherman Daily Democrat
August 13, 1939

Denison Landmarks
....The city's first town hall where everything from court to square dances might be held in 1874, now stands in North Denison and is used for a Negro church, a steeple having been added to contain the church bell.  It is called Quinn Chapel Methodist Church.